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Software for Room Planning and Design?
anandsr asks: "Hi everybody, I am looking for a software that allows creating 3D models of house and furniture etc, to see how a house would look before building it, and populate it. What would you all recommend, are there any that amateurs can use." I've seen these in use in stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, but is there anything out there geared and priced for the home user?
and I can tell you that I wouldn't do it again. The programs are hard to use effectively as a casual user. I think I know what you're looking for. You're probably looking for a program that will help you assemble the house in an interactive fashion and then do a walkthrough of the plan in 3D including things like carpet colors, tile patterns, lighting, etc. Believe me, it's a huge pain in the ass! I actually wound up taking advantage of the vendor's money back guarantee. They were good for it too, though it's too bad! You will find your imagination to be a much better tool.
To be more specific, I was hoping the package would have more of a wizard type of approach that would walk me through the house room by room. Allow me to move things around a lot, etc. As it was, the program had me placing walls one section at a time, doors one by one, etc. I never even got around to finding out how to texture the floors, etc. It was just too painful for the amount of time I was willing to put into it (which, admittedly, wasn't much). Additionally, the 3D walkthrough was a beast to use, and slow to boot! I never even found out how to do a walkthrough of the interior of the house. I could only ever get the exterior view working, and it was nothing to write home about.
If you do decide to go with a package, make sure it fills your specific needs. What I mean here is that some of the packages were more oriented towards a builder. So they would help you with things like materials estimation, etc. That's great if you're doing your own general contracting. However, if you're like me, you just wanted to get a feel for the house before it was built. I didn't find a package that really helped with that (without a lot of pain that is).
If you're still curious, one of the better vendors is at http://www.punchsoftware.com/
Good luck!
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
Baring a Quake engine based app, I'd recommend the newest version of 3D Home Architect. It may not do exactly what he wants, though, as the user has to select couches, chairs, etc, from the program's own database. Also, you have to build your house/floorplan from the ground up before you can start virtually touring it.
Note that these are Windows-only solutions, but the poster didn't specify Linux only:
Broderbund's 3D Programs
I've toyed around with a couple of these programs on a friend's PC, and they're not too bad. I'm impressed the company that brought us PrintShop for the VIC-20/C64 is still around and making money!
My Daily photo website.
Yes, Broderbund, the people who brought us Carmen Sandiego. :-) I've used their 3D Home Architect program for exactly what you're talking about here, and I thought it was pretty good. It's time consuming entering a design, because there are just SO MANY details about a room, but the UI is solid and the furniture/appliances/other crap you might want to put in your house library is pretty thorough. I used it a couple years ago so I don't know how their latest version is, but for only forty bucks it's hard to go wrong.
http://qeradiant.com
I've modelled an entire 20,000 sf office building with it with realistic reasults.
The interface is nice and quick to learn.
Plus, you can chase your freinds around in it.
A teenager modelled his school and also did a Quake mod without weapons for it.
Sigs are for propeller heads.