I am looking to add an addition to my house and trying to find a good Home Design and or Architectural software that allows you to create house plans. I ahev heard of Home Design Deluxe and will look at this but ws wondering what others may be using.
For the specific use of homeowner house plans a dedicated home design package is probably better than a conventional CAD package, because it will be tailored to the specifics of a house design -- e.g., window shapes, exterior finishes, landscaping, utility runs and location, etc.
I tried Turbocad -- couldn't load it because the packaging had an error in the password, couldn't return it to the retail store (Office Depot won't allow returns of software that have been opened, for any reason) and couldn't get any help from their customer service (couldn't even get a response from e-mails to customer service for assistance). I wouldn't buy another Turbocad product but YEMV. -- Regards --
Google has come out with a free home design program called SketchUp. I've down loaded it, but haven't tried it out yet. Can't beat the price! (at least for the free version!)
- tried the more professional design programs and they were impossible, you'd need a years training before doing anything. Also tried sketchup and it was too 'sketchy' not good enough for getting dimensions etc.
My only experience was with FloorPlan 3D Design Suite and yes, it also had a high leaning curve associated with it. I think that if I had given it up for lent and brought my old drafting equipment out of storage and sketched my needs out by hand I could have reached the same results in a fraction of the time it took to learn the program.
I used to 3D Home Architect in the past, which was pretty good. I have now upgraded to Chief Architect, which is the big brother to 3D Home Architect. It is very good, but kind of expensive for a hobbyist.
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