Plan3D Home Design

This is a new generation of home design software, not only more advanced that any currently available, but easier to use too.

Use it to design an entire home from basement to roof - or just design one room. Attics, bathrooms, living rooms and other room interiors can be designed quickly and viewed from any angle in realistic 3-D.

You can switch to blueprint view to create walls, doors, windows, cabinets, and see dimensions. For example, use the room wizard to make kitchen walls in seconds - then drop in real applicances, cabinets, flooring, countertops and sinks to see how they look.

Or use the building wizard to create the basic structure of your house in a few seconds - then drop in sidewalks, fences, bushes, trees and lawns.

Review Summary - Plan3D is one of the most fantastic home software products that we've ever seen. We can't say enough about it. It seems to solve all of the problems that plague other home design products.

It's easy to use, has tons of features, and is uniquely priced as a subscription so that you can try it out and use it for only as long as you need it. In this way, it is actually less expensive than most other products.

Make no mistake, this is not a play-toy program, even though it is so easy and so much fun to use.

It produces detailed and dimensionally accurate plan drawings good enough for construction. One feature that sets this product apart from all the rest is its library of over 5000 drag-and-drop furniture, appliance, and fixture objects. They are lifelike and in 3-D.

You also get several thousand JPG textures you can apply to to the surface of any 3D object, wall, floor, etc. Textures are images like fabrics, bricks, siding, cement, lawns, wood finishes, tiles, and so on. You can even open and close doors, windows, cabinets, and refrigerators to see how they fit with their surroundings.

Did I say that we love this product?

Better Homes and Gardens - Home Designer Series
Creates accurately scaled floor plans. Insert windows, doors, and other objects with one click. Design cabinets, apply materials, create a variety of roof designs. This is a product of Chief Architect, a supplier of professional software for the home design industry. Prices range from $59 for the basic Home Designer, $99 for the Home Design Suite, $149 for the new Home Designer Deluxe, to $495 for the Home Designer Professional package.

Review Summary (Home Design Suite 6.0) - Relatively easy to learn and use, especially with the built-in tutorials, templates, and Help tool. Some log home features may have to be improvised. Creates professional 2D floorplans. 3D tools are somewhat more difficult to use (as they are in all such packages) but we especially like the walk-through capability, the transparent "glass house" views, and the "dollhouse" views (looking down inside without the roof). It has a very large object library that is well designed. As with most of the packages we've seen, there are some annoying programming design characteristics and some tasks are not very intuitive. Overall, it's a very good package. We recommend looking at the new Home Design Deluxe which contains features not available with the Suite 6.0 package.

SmartDraw - Floor Plan Edition
Technically, this is not so much a home design software program as it is a general computer drawing and diagramming program that just happens to do a good job of creating 2D home floorplans and elevation drawings. The company provides templates, examples, and tutorials to help get you started. Produces beautiful color printed drawings. The company offers a 30-free trial on the web site. Price is $148.

Review Summary - Very easy to use. Contains a huge library of home symbols (objects): cabinets, furniture, appliances, decorative items, and fixtures. Drag-and-drop placement of symbols. This package is most useful when colorful 2D illustrations are more important than 3D renderings or detailed architectural drawings.

Punch Software - Architectural Series
This is one of a number of home design packages from Punch. Each package includes different combinations of features that can include 2D floorplans, 3D photo realistic rendering, landscaping, cabinet design, deck design, cost estimator (doesn't work well for log homes), and even a feature that let's you create a cardboard scale model of your home design. Prices range from $29.99 to $249.99, depending on features.

Review Summary (Professional Home Design Suite - Platinum) - Lots and lots of features, many of which are built as separate programs that sometimes don't work well together. Produces outstanding 2D floorplans relatively easily. 3D models and functions are considerably more difficult. Has a large "objects' library of cabinets, furniture, fixtures, and appliances, although the small images of the items are not labeled, making it difficult to select just the one you want without a lot of trial and error. Although the program has a number of quirky habits, design deficiencies, and is somewhat difficult to learn (because it has so many features), it is nevertheless one of the better packages.

Broderbund - 3-D Home Architect Series
This product is in the same league as Punch and Better Homes and Garden software also reviewed here. The emphasis of this product is 3D modeling and visualization, but it handles 2D floorplan design as well. A number of "wizards" are included to make it easy to get started. Price is $109.99 and there is no free trial download available. Discounted prices are available on a number of Internet web sites.

Review summary - Although we have not yet reviewed this product ourselves, it has not enjoyed great reviews from other sources in the past. The latest version (Version 6) has received somewhat better reviews. Frankly, buying such specialized software from a company that sells a lot of different kinds of software is not, in our opinion, as likely to get you the same quality product as buying from a company such as Punch or Chief Architect (produces Better Homes and Garden's product) who's only business is home design software.

FloorPlan 3D Design Suite
This mid-level product is by the same company that produces TuboCAD, the professional engineering drawing software (see below). It's focus is more on realistic 3D interior visualization and less on exterior design, landscaping, and 2D floorplan design. It includes customizable plans, styles, and a library of objects (cabinets, appliances, fixtures). Price is $39.95. A free-trial download version is available on the company web site. There are also additional symbol libraries available ($19.95).

Review Summary - Review not yet completed.

TurboCAD Deluxe
Technically, this is an engineering drawing program, or Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) program. However, it can be a very powerful 2D floorplan designer if enough time is invested in learning it. It can also produce rough 3D views, although not directly from your 2D floorplans. Although the company offers a variety of floorplan symbol packs ($19.95 each), most of your effort will be in creating from scratch.

Review Summary - This product is intended for professional or semi-professional use, and requires considerable time to learn. Other packages that are designed specifically for home design purposes will better fit the needs of most people.

Artifice - DesignWorkshop Series
We haven't reviewed this product but it looks very interesting. This is 3D modeling software whose focus is on creating very realistic 3D views of buildings, interiors, and landscaping; it does not do 2D floorplans. As such, it is likely to require some considerable time to learn to use proficiently. A range of products and add-ons are available at various prices from the company web site. DesignWorkshop Lite can be downloaded for free, but other versions are priced at $9.95, $99.95, and $499.

Review Summary - Not yet reviewed.

DesignSoft - MyHouse 3-D Home Design
Although we have not reviewed this product, it may be of interest as a low-end simple home design product. It's strength is in its 3D rendering. It includes a QuickHome wizard that allows a quick start without having to invest much time to create your first plan. It can be downloaded for $24.95 ($29.95 with a library of additional objects). A free demo version can be downloaded from the company web site.

Review Summary - Not yet reviewed

Sierra - Custom 3D Home
This is a low-end ($9.99) home design software package that contains four different (and rather disjointed) products: Home Architect, Home Improvement Encyclopedia, 3D Deck, and Electrical Wiring. The Home Architect component focuses on creating basic 3D designs and walk-throughs. It allows changes to furnishings, appliances, colors, and materials. No free trial download is available.

Review Summary - This product should be considered more of a toy than a serious design tool. It has none of the special features required for log home design. It's a ton of fun and may be useful for getting a taste of what more functional programs are like, but you'll likely move up to another program pretty quickly. And the price is right.