CAD software for home design?

[uberlad]

We just got the survey back on the house we're buying and it has quite the list of requirements

It rapidly looking likie we're going to have to knock down the extension and rebuild it to modern building standards (rising damp in all the walls, no cavity walls, collapsing roof ).

Doing this gives us a chance to do something better with the space at the back of the house but before we blow hundreds of pounds on an architect I thought I might as well try to design a model of the house before and after so that we can play around with ideas.

All the property programs on the TV have got lovely models of house designs, no doubt done by student architects for beer money, but there's never any indication of what the software is.

Does any one have any suggestions of software I could try? I don't care about a huge library of object models or photorealistic textures. I just want a tool that will allow me to put in all the measurement and then make changes to the structure without requiring a two year course. the ability to do realtime flythrough renders would be nice as well but I know that 3D engines are not necessarily the forte of the the kind of companies that do this kind of CAD tool.

thanks for any suggestions.

Uberlad

[Nowhere]

Don't know about any software but paper and pencil would be a good start instead of messing with PC...

IMHO, it's the same as with drawings and paintings - the PC with programs and tablets won't make your ideas better.
So, IMHO, just imagine how it would look like/draw a little perhaps...
And find some students of architecture...they will be thankfull for beers

[uberlad]

I can draw some diagrams myself but I'm really looking for a quick way to throw together ideas and make quick changes to see how they look without having to rub out lines.

Also from what I can remember of GCSE technical drawing my 3D projections weren't great and didn't offer flybys

We have some ideas, and little biro sketches but I was just looking for something to save time and easily share our 'vision' for the house with parents and builders. I could build the house in POVRAY but hopefully there are tools that are slightly more suited to building design.

Uberlad

[Nowhere]

OK, but remember three lies of students:
- I don't smoke
- I don't drink
- Thank you, I'm not houngry



(well, there's also " turn of the light, I won't do anything to you", but this one is of less usefullnes for your quest to do all this design stuff cheaply )

[Dilitante1]

There are a few proggies out there that allow design, THEN spit out a materials list...a buddy showed me one not long ago...I think it is 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe, but I'll let you know

http://www.download.com/3D-Home-Architect-Home-Design-Deluxe/3000-6677-10307819.html

[uberlad]

Not the most glowing of reviews on download.com but I'll give it a go when I get home.

Uberlad

[UtwigMU]

I'd say AutoCAD or some other similar free CAD. Drawing stuff such as CorelDraw or Visio is also OK for changing variants (how/what furniture will fit in room type of puzzles).

That said, being to an extend trained in architecture: The computer/CAD is a mere tool and cannot suplant thought process, also usually more variations are not neccessarily leading to a better design.

So this is usually my approach:
- start with pen and paper, write down requirements, develop some ideas. If you can borrow Neufert from the library, it will help you with some general home design guidelines (room placement, data on furniture measurement)
- think in terms of processes: clothes go to dirty clothes bin, then washed, dried, ironed, collated, back to personal store, food ( store, prepare, eat, clean up), visitors/residents, day/night part. Also think of any installations you need to run such as air conditioning, electricity, LAN, TV...
- measure the place up, draw a simple sketch
- then draw it up in CAD and add stuff, you will get abstract plans, no flythroughs, etc.. (for that ArchiCAD might be helpful). Overall flythrouhgs and 3D renders are usually only useful for selling ideas to clients, as you can draw perspective drawing of how a room within hour or two by hand. Make sure you approximately know what you want do to and have that down on paper in sketches or written text before you start drawing things in CAD.

Draw a plan, establish cost estimate, time to do it....


As per students of architecture, they usually don't work for beers - except for friends, but they charge way less than architects do.

[uberlad]

Good advice.

We'll get some rough sketches down this evening and put some numbers into it. Then draw up some plans to scale and try sticking it into autoCAD (or something) with textures + colours so we can show it to parents.

Uberlad

[TnT]

For basic CAD work - doesn't do 3d - check out QCAD. You can download the source files under GPL, so easy to get and compile on Linux or OS X with Fink; otherwise the binaries are limited time use shareware.