house extension/renovation software?

webtalk

Hi there.

Does anyone have experience of any relatively inexpensive software that one can use to play about with?

Easy to draw house plans with measurements. Easy to edit to move walls and change shapes etc?

Ability to put on extensions and possibly add units/furniture/windows/etc.

2 dimensional essential, 3D a luxury - but essential to be able to draw in 2D.

Google's 3D has defeated me. :rolleyes:

Thanks.:beer:

MX5huggy

Have a look a progeCAD there are some free versions called smart! or LT not used it myself as I have AutoCAD student edition which is also free if you can prove you is a student.

But realisticly SketchUp is by far the easist app I have come across for this sort of stuff just do some of the online tutorials.

webtalk

Thanks. Sadly can't do the 'student' thing.

Sketchup has defeated me. I can't even manage to draw a floor plan. It defo ain't idiot proof.

But I haven't attended 'class' so maybe that's the way to go.

MX5huggy

SketchUp is not great for drawing 2d but 3d its in its element try 3d first.

webtalk

okay, will have a look-see. Clearly I must go to school to master it.

The biggie is the 2D as we're wanting to move walls and things. But will see what it can do.

pewe

You can draw in 2D with Sketchup.

You can draw a 2D floorplan, then you can use this to 'extrude' your floor plan walls into 3D, and you can very easily separate all the parts of your plan into different 'layers' which can be turned on and off at will.

So, for example you can create your 2D floor plan on one layer, then have your 3D walls on a second layer, then have things like furniture in a 3rd layer etc, etc, and only turn on the layers for the things you want to see at any given time.

As an alternative, you can also draw completely in 3D and view it in '2D' with the simple click of the mouse.

SU is definitely worth studying. With all the videos available on Youtube as well as the SU site, you can learn it in less than a day -

webtalk

this sounds perfect.

Thanks. Just what I want.

Am defo going to have to go back to school and listen in class. Will do the tutorials and stop being lazy.