<font color="blue"> </font color> I've been thinking bout building/buying a new(er) home for a while & have collected a lot of construction ideals & drew a plan! I'm retired/60ish so only thing I'm building for is comfort & then resale by the kids! Enough of intent...What I'm looking for is a software that is a house building plans software! Anybody used a good one! Thanks in advance for name of one that's makes a good drawing!<font color="blue"> </font color>
I tried three different ones when I was building my house. My opinion they are all junk. They simply will not let you draw the things you want to draw, unless it is just a box. If you are really serious i would recommend that you just pay the bucks and buy a true CAD program.
Thanks for info! roho
I used 3-4 different applications in the design phase of my house project. All had their pluses and minuses. Some had more capability, typically with a steeper learning curve, or were easier to use but didn't do as much. Some had a separate designer tool that let you customize any object in their relatively extensive library.
Library objects were such things as fireplaces, appliances, and such. There were also libraries of landscaping objects such as trees, shrubs etc. You could "age" the plantings and see how they would probably look in the future. What might look good when planted might be out of place, cover a window, or just be totally wrong in scale after 10 years.
I liked the 3d walk throughs with user selectable height of eye and direction of view (inside the house) and helicopter type point of view outside the structure. YO can look in through windows and see the detail inside as well as view the bld with landscaping from any height, distance, and direction.
A few years have past since I used these applications and I don't recall the names of all of them. One was by Bruderbund and it was neither the very best nor anywhere near the bottom of the heap. I am no stranger to CAD type software and it is my opinion that if you are not already familiar with a good CAD application there is just way too much to learn to go with a gen purpose CAD program with its steep learning curve. Yeah, it will do nifty dimensioned drawings and drive a 3D printer to make a model of the house but... I could learn 4-5 new house designing programs faster than someone not an Autocad or equivalent guru could become productive with the Autocad or equivalent application.
Autocad and many of its clones are very fully featured and can do an amazing number of neat things, most of which you don't need to design a house. If you aren't already a fairly competent CAD user, give yourself a break and don't take that side excursion as the direct route from where you are to where you want to be doesn't pass through or very near Autocad country.
If I can find any of the programs I bought I would be happy to mail them out.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Thanks for reply PAT, Yeah I sorta felt same way about full blown Cad program...I've tried a few of the on line cad program & was gonna be a full time job "JUST LEARNING THEM!" Anyway a few years ago I saw a program that even had a stud wall feature & made a material list but can't remember the name! Haven't found property yet but after Charley Gibson on World News in HouTex last nite, land will probably sky rocket($$$) out of site, & will be a rush to Houston for jobs!
Some of the inexpensive (< $25) programs a few years ago would build a wall using your specs for stud size/length/on center spacing and do it for you on screen in an animation. You spec a window size and location and it puts in the headers, cripples, etc. A materials list was provided. I just don't remember for sure but it may have been the Broderbund one.
Editing your model was pretty simple. You could save versions of your plan to try different ideas and compare them. I tried different roof styles, pitches, and orientations. Ended up with a gable roof style with ridge running on major axis of house and turning 45 degrees toward one end to avoid "LONG HOUSE" look.
You could print out multiple sheets of paper representing the external view of the house, glue them to cardboard or thin foam sheets and assemble a scale model of the house to compare with competing designs or just to see what it would really look like. I took some courses in energy efficient architecture from the AIA (like AMA for doctors but for architects) and we built and instrumented scale models of buildings for daylighting and such. Boy howdy would I have been KING if I could have had these programs in the early 80's!!! (I was energy conservation officer at SUBASE San Diego.)
No, I'm not an architect or professional home designer. I did the floorplan of an 1820 sq ft house for my mom (with a house design program and a plagiaristic eye on published plans) as a warm up exercise for building my house (Oklahoma farm house thread) and then jumped in with both feet.
Given that the central section of my house is 3 stories (basement, main floor, and upstairs) I was considering an elevator and was happy to have a program that could handle multiple floors. It sure complicated floor plan layout to align a space for the elevator shaft on all three floors. Then I was overcome by a gust of reality when I saw how the price of an elevator SKYROCKETS when you go from 2 to 3 floors. Instead I substituted straight wide stairways suitable for the retrofit installation of chair lifts should mobility be a problem sometime down the road and use of the upstairs and basement be threatened.
The programs I tried were so cheap (all way under $100) that you could buy 2-3 and try them to find one you like. If I still have and can find any of the original media I would be happy to mail it to you if you like. I have long since changed computers and did not migrate any of the programs to the new one.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
The better of the three I tried to use was 3D home design by Broderbund. However they totally redesigned it and changed cad engines when they switched from version 4 to 5. i did use the version 4 to draw up my ideas and then give to a real draftsman to draw up real plans. I got the so called upgrade to version 5 free but it was (to me) all most unusable. I don't know how the newer ones are. The biggest problem I had was wall heights, placing windows and doors, and roof designs. My house is a santa fe with a near flat roof. They just did not want to draw that at all. Also porches with beams or post were/are difficult to do. In some cases they would force you to draw a wall where you did not want it and then to make in invisible in the view mode. The ceiling vegas that I have were just not drawable.
Thanks for replys & thoughts guys...Am sharing a puter w/granddaughter So my time has been limited! When I get a chance I'll head into town(HouTex) & look at some software at Frys! Well I got 1 minute till I got to give up computer! Got to go! roho
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