I was hoping some can help me.
I need to draw some simple floorplans for a house. My main requirements is for them to look good - coloured and textures flooring and maybe furniture. I am not so interested in detailed architects type drawings.
The min reason is to display the floorplan of a house on a web site for a rental home.
Has anyone any advise as to what software to use for this.
Thanks
Consider 3D Home Architect by Broderbund. 30-ish quid. Don't know if you can export images, but maybe screen snapshots pasted into something would suffice.
Richard
I've just received the latest issue of PCPlus Magazine (Issue 213 - March '04!) - and it just so happens that its cover CD contains a program called "FloorPlan3D 6"- which looks as if it could be just what you are looking for.
This is a full, unrestricted, program which not only does floor plans but also does 3-D rendered pictures, with walk-throughs etc. If you don't already buy the mag, it may be worth investing a fiver or so in this issue. Have a look in your local newsagents.
"TS" wrote | I need to draw some simple floorplans for a house. My main | requirements is for them to look good - coloured and textures | flooring and maybe furniture. | I am not so interested in detailed architects type drawings. | The min reason is to display the floorplan of a house on a web | site for a rental home. | Has anyone any advise as to what software to use for this.
GSP 3D Home Designer - a version is on the 'PC software furra tenna' rotary display in the computer games shops. It's quite fun and will do plans and
3-d representations.American, of course, so don't be surprised if all the furniture seems too big.
I've found a couple of samples and they'll be at
Owain
That looks not bad. I played with a similar program a few years ago and dumped it rapidly; far too slow, unwieldy and user-unfriendly. How does the GSP one stack up?
David
"Lobster" wrote | > I've found a couple of samples and they'll be at | >
Ditto me with AutoSketch
| How does the GSP one stack up?
It's a good idea to sketch out a rough layout on paper first, and accept that the first few tries will be crap. However, once the basic walls are in it's fairly straightforward plonking in doors etc. The programme 'understands' the concepts of a building structure so when you have put 4 walls up it puts a floor and ceiling in for you. Furniture can drop to floor or rise to ceiling. If you put a staircase on the ground floor it makes the first floor cutout for you.
The main limitations are (on the version I have) 4 storeys which includes the roof, and not being able to create 3d objects such as furniture (the supplied furniture can be stretched/squeezed into desired dimensions and in some cases have new textures dropped on them - carpeted tables anyone?) or save the 3-d walkthroughs as AVIs. It also does not do elevation /drawings/, just pictures.
It looks quite good for modelling sunshine once one gets the hang of drawing the outsides, so could be useful for showing where shadow would be cast on neighbouring buildings for planning applications.
It's a cut-down version of Arcon which is advertised in the self-build mags.
Owain
Does it model lighting systems, e.g. so you can see just how awful your kitchen lighting scheme will be before wrecking your ceiling?
"Michael Brewer" wrote | "Owain" wrote | > | > I've found a couple of samples and they'll be at | > | >
Yes, but the range of lamps isn't that wide - I don't think it includes halogen downlighters! If you have more than a few lamps the raytracing gets s-l-o-w.
You would also have to set the reflectance of the wall surfaces etc properly.
I'll add a couple of lighting/interior samples to the above web page, but they're not intended as examples of good practice. (CAD really isn't my forte.!)
Owain
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