Cad/Cam for garage design

[parb]

Hi all,

I just bought a new home. It has a detached 3 car garage. I haven't moved yet but coming from a much smaller garage i have all kinds of ideas for decking out this garage. I found a cad/cam tool that really helped me visualize a few things i wanted to try out.

I used a completely free open source tool called sweethome3d. I did the following layout of racedeck floors, my cars and motorcycles, newage pro cabinets, a safe, winefridge and freezer, my old craftsman tool cabinet in almost no time. And i'm no expert at cad/cam.

Truly impressive and completely free tool. I highly recommend it for trying out layouts and getting a feel for flow and dimensions of your garage.

(i haven't ordered anything from racedeck nor new age, i just wanted to get a feeling for how the garage would look like if i would make that kind of investments).

Attached are a couple of printouts from the tool. Hopefully someone else can benefit from it! On screen the pictures are much higher resolution. I downsized them for uploading to the web.

 

[Moosefire]

Looks cool. Keep is updated on your changes !

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[CraigStu]

That is great for a free tool. I used one (not free) from HGTV to redesign one of the standard homes our builder offered. It's really nice to be able to make a change in the 2d floor plan and then go to 3d to see what it will look like.

 

[parb]

It would be nice if we could collaborate on 3D models for objects. I'd be happy to contribute mine.

Hot tip:
if you decide to download the software. First download Java SE. Whatever the latest version is (and set it to auto-update). This software is written in java and so much faster with the latest version.

I have java on a computer i use for programming where java is required. I first downloaded the software on this computer. It was fast and snappy.
Later i downloaded the software on another computer at home. It did not have java and while the software was okay, the 3D rendering was awfully slow. Once i put a modern version of java things where great (also had to reboot but that was all).

 

[mannydantyla]

thanks for the tip! I'm going to try it out right now. I'm purchasing a house (under contract) with a shed that needs torn down and a new garage built. I have lots of ideas I need to try out, and a little visualization will help.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

I did mine in SolidWorks because it's what I use all day but having to make common objects or search for them on a download site can be a pain.

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[esvee]

Any reason you didn't use sketchup? Free, web-based or desktop app, loads of models already available.

 

[HPRifleman]

I did mine in SolidWorks because it's what I use all day but having to make common objects or search for them on a download site can be a pain.

I use SolidWorks at work as well but I find it easier to just do a 2D garage layout in AutoCAD. My concern is more what is taking up floor space rather than anything above it.