I have and old copy of Broderbunds 3D Home Architect and it’s ok. In fact it would do what I need it to if I could get it to print. The app is 17 years old and does not play well with xp pro. :D. I’m surprised it runs at all.
I’m about to undertake the gutting and remodel of our kitchen and main bathroom. And really just need something that allows me to draw some quick walls and basic appliances move them around and get some ideas.
When it comes down to the actual nuts and bolts building of it, I’ll just do it. I don’t need something to tell me how many nails to buy.
Any ideas? The new version of this software is not getting great reviews. I’m looking for something around $50-100 or so. I really don’t need AutoCAD for this.
The Sims 2. No really, I’m serious. You wouldn’t be able to print out the results with measurements (though you can take photos in the game and print them, which would give you something like a mock up from a home design show rather than a blueprint) which shouldn’t be a problem if you keep in mind that each section of wall is equivalent to 2’, but you could add in furniture after you create a replica of the room and see how it would look. Lots and lots of people - including me - use real life floorplans to create homes for their sims, so it stands to reason that you could use the game to help “edit” your real life home too because the floorplans scale very easily.
I like home design software better than any computer game I’ve ever had. Having said that, I haven’t found a satisfactory program since Total 3D Home’s original version in the late 90s (which did still run on XP, but not on my 64-bit Vista alas). Everything I’ve tried is buggy and limiting. We hates it.
If all you want to do is remodel a kitchen, then give the IKEA kitchen planner a try. It’s free and stable, I believe the appliances can be freely scaled, and though the cabinets are all IKEA cabinets, they’re pretty standard sizes.
Wanted to again say thanks for the suggestions. I ended up buy Home Designer V9 Chief Architect. It was about $40 at Amazon.
Just what I needed. Very easy to place/move walls and objects to get an idea of the space that you have to work with. The different view options like doll house and glass house are great to get a feel of what the room really is.
I just started playing with it. Took about an hour to learn most of the basic features. This is a first pass at the bathroom
Have fun, and let us know if you have weird problems with staircases, should you build any multi-floor models. I have Home Designer 7, and it basically can’t do stairs.
I was going to mention it as well. As a user of many parametric and industrial design modeling codes over the years, I have to say that Sketchup has one of the most accessible and intuitive interfaces I’ve ever seen. I haven’t really stressed its capabilities (having only used the free version) but it seems to have a complete suite of basic functionality that is certainly adequate for interior design and layout work, and probably general architectural design. (I have my reservations about how much it can substitute for a true mechanical design CAD code, but it does appear to have all of the necessary dimensioning and annotation tools.)
