House design software, 2020
July 23, 2020 10:49 PM Subscribe
I am unlikely to ever build a house, but like fiddling around with floor plans and imagining the process. I'd like some software to do help me fiddle, but I'm looking for a particular type of program. If you have direct experience of software to accomplish this, I'd like to hear how you got along with it.
I am on Windows 10. Here is what I'm hoping to find:
I used to use Sketchup for this sort of thing, but they killed the free product and I'm not going to subscribe. (If I could buy Sketchup once for $50 or whatever, I would probably do that...though terrain is not something it does easily.)
Again, I'm looking to explore, not print out finished plans to order concrete and 2x4s, though I'm not against that, per se. But being able to draw a timber frame house and then a shipping container house and then a poured-concrete brutalist tiny home is what I'm after. I don't mind drawing every timber in a timber frame--I just want to be able to do it.
(I do have a CC subscription, but illustrator is not the tool I want for this, nor photoshop, but if there is a CC product you'd recommend, I can do that.)
I am on Windows 10. Here is what I'm hoping to find:
- I am willing to pay ONCE for this, say $50 or $60. I do not want to subscribe to anything
- I am more interested in "masses" than I am in final surfaces, so a program which lets me quickly put up walls, window openings, etc is better than one where that's a pain but you can make everything pretty. I'm not against the pretty, but it's not a huge concern
- I don't want to be constrained too much. For example, I might want to explore a building partially dug into a hillside; I don't necessarily need to see the hillside, but don't want to fight a program which only understands 8' ceilings and gable roofs
- That said, being able to model the terrain would be a plus--this can be rough, I don't need to create a planting list
- While I do want to dimension things, I do not need this to be parametric
- Nothing that REQUIRES being online, nor anything web-based
- 3-D rendering is necessary, but I don't mind sketching in 2-D if necessary
I used to use Sketchup for this sort of thing, but they killed the free product and I'm not going to subscribe. (If I could buy Sketchup once for $50 or whatever, I would probably do that...though terrain is not something it does easily.)
Again, I'm looking to explore, not print out finished plans to order concrete and 2x4s, though I'm not against that, per se. But being able to draw a timber frame house and then a shipping container house and then a poured-concrete brutalist tiny home is what I'm after. I don't mind drawing every timber in a timber frame--I just want to be able to do it.
(I do have a CC subscription, but illustrator is not the tool I want for this, nor photoshop, but if there is a CC product you'd recommend, I can do that.)
I'm not sure it will meet all your requirements, but SweetHome3D might be worth looking into.
posted by Poldo at 6:43 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by Poldo at 6:43 AM on July 24, 2020
The basic SketchUp web app is still free.
posted by nickggully at 6:45 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by nickggully at 6:45 AM on July 24, 2020
Unfortunately it's $99 (pay once), but Home Designer Suite is great. It does everything you asked for, I think. I found it easy to use after I learned the keyboard shortcuts and made a few of my own (with keyboard maestro).
posted by thatone at 9:56 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by thatone at 9:56 AM on July 24, 2020
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Sketchup Make (formerly SketchUp for Home and Personal Use), introduced in May 2013, is a free-of-charge version for home, personal and educational use. It begins with a 30-day trial of SketchUp Pro. After that time, users can agree to the Terms of Service and continue to use SketchUp Make for free. There will be no further releases of Make after November 2017; users are expected to migrate to SketchUp Free, though the installer remains available for download.
Download here.
posted by Kiwi at 5:36 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]