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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!
Maxis produce exactly what you're looking for.
Try http://thesims.ea.com/.
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.
I've looked high and low for a good home modeling program, and just haven't found it.
.psh extension) that's not too bad. But problems I've run into (with this, and with other demos I've played with):
I've got something (at home, though, so I can't tell you right offhand what it is -- it uses a
* Very difficult to draw the floor plan -- snaps when I don't want it to, doesn't when I do; sometimes walls get totally screwed up; difficult to draw angled walls
* Limitations to the built-in objects -- doors, windows, etc, are "take it or leave it" -- use the ones they've got, and if it's the wrong size, you *might* be able to stretch it to fit.
* SLOW
* difficult to switch between floors
* 3-D walkthrough is a "through walls" flythrough that's difficult to use -- you choose FOV, and direction, and then sort of move your pointer around and you kinda walk through
All in all, good enough to play with, but I gave up trying to put in my new house after two weeks of frustration.
Why we can't have a simple floor-plan editor that's as easy as Visio (or easier, since Visio suffers some problems, too), with a game-engine walkthrough so you can actually, well, WALK through (and go up stairs, etc), is beyond me.
I'm going to try out some of the other packages suggested in this thread, but I'm not holding my breath....
I've run into the same problem with "home CAD" stuff. The home design program I described above also does landscaping and simple furniture design, but it (like other "home cad" software I've tried) is extremely difficult to use. CAD software all seems to be based on volumes, simple shapes, and kinda-sorta managing to manipulate those items in a 3-D space.
I'd like to find a "Wood CAD" program that lets me grab a 6' 2x4 from a pallette, chop a foot off the end, nail it to another, etc., etc. -- so that I'm not only 'building' something that starts with standard dimensional lumber components, but it'd be within the realm of possibility for the software to produce, based on what I started with and what I ended up with, a step-by-step set of assembly instructions.
I've got a lot of woodworking I have to do for the new house (finishing a basement, shelves and desks for a server room, closet organizers, etc.), and I'm going to be doing all the design the way my father did -- on quadrille paper with a sharp pencil. At least it'll look professional, even if I can't do a realtime 3-D rotation on the paper.
Well, there's the 6 or so programs you can buy for Windows in the $25-$50 price range at any CompUSA or major mailorder vendor, like "3D Home Architect" and "Home Builder 3D" and "3D Home Designer", from companies like Broderbund and IMSI. Places liike Circuit City and Best Buy also carry a few of them, as should your local big-box discount chain like Wal-Mart.
Or were you looking for a (free) Linux alternative? There's really nothing at all like that in the free-Unix space yet. There's okay 2D and 3D CAD software out there, but nothing with an interface for easy, amateur floorplan design, rendering geared toward easy, quick views of room interiors and walkthroughs, or the huge texture and object libraries the commercial Windows packages have.
Cliff, do you even read these Ask Slashdot submissions? Have you ever been in a store that sells consumer software? What's next from Ask Slashdot? "Word Processors that Can Use Multiple Fonts?" "Does anyone make color printers?" "Anyone have instructions for rotary telephones?"