house/room design software

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

I'm working on the "attic", upstairs in my "expansion" house. The goal is to make maximum use of this space, which is not really small, but not real large either. The biggest problem is that the house is narrow, and the roof pitch steep.

I've been looking around for some sort of free or affordable software that I can use to take the dimensions of the area and try to maximize the available space. Not having much luck, either.


Anyone have any experience or suggestions?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I'm working on the "attic", upstairs in my "expansion" house. The goal is to make maximum use of this space, which is not really small, but not real large either. The biggest problem is that the house is narrow, and the roof pitch steep.

I've been looking around for some sort of free or affordable software that I can use to take the dimensions of the area and try to maximize the available space. Not having much luck, either.


Anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Sweet home 3D. Super easy to use and gives you 3D images of the ready room.

You just draw the layout in 2D, then adjust the furniture heights etc.

[Shuffler]

Hmm was familiar with Home 3D, but not Sweet Home 3D. Sweet is free.

[68ZooM]

Have you tried google's SketchUp program?  its free and easy to use and might be what your looking for, i tried it out to see how it compared to my other programs ( professional Cad programs) and it would be great for the homeowner who wants to do a remodel or additions, check it out

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Thanks guys. Google SketchUp was suggested on another forum, I'm downloading it now, but Sweet Home 3D is one I hadn't seen, I'll try that as well.

[Reschke]

Well I was going to suggest TurboCad...we used to use that in our shop for some drawings of pipelines and the buildings they were working on and it worked out well. HOWEVER I just checked the price of the package that we had and I know we didn't spend $1700 USD on it. Hell I was the buyer and chief user so I know we didn't spend over $150 and thought we got robbed then.

Anyway TurboCad Deluxe 17 runs about $130 from their website. It worked great in the earlier versions for interior design and rebuild for some stuff I used it for at home. Also it had a job cost calculator that you could plug in materials costs and it would give you a total and was a pretty good way to plan for changes of all types...especially the types that the main contractor; ie...wife; wanted to make. She could see them on screen before giving the go ahead.