Sweet Home 3D

[atk406]

Just wanted to pass along a tip for anyone looking for home/garage design and layout software. Sweet Home 3D is a really good program, and it's free open source software. It's probably more geared towards general home layout and experimenting with remodeling and stuff than a CAD program or true design software, but works great and is a lot of fun to use. There are quite a few extra libraries of objects you can add to the program too. It's a Java application so it will run on any operating system that has Java installed, which is nice for folks like me that use Linux. You can even try it directly from your Browser if you don't want to install it, and can store your projects on-line. It's also pretty easy to learn and use compared to some others I've tried. Give it a shot, I think it's pretty cool. Be forewarned however, you can spend LOTS of hours tinkering with this thing and wonder where the night went

www.sweethome3d.com

 

[AussieDan]

Looks very handy, thanks for sharing!

 

[atk406]

Here is our current dining room from the 'virtual visit' view.

 

[fromnwmt]

Just wanted to pass along a tip for anyone looking for home/garage design and layout software. Sweet Home 3D is a really good program, and it's free open source software. It's probably more geared towards general home layout and experimenting with remodeling and stuff than a CAD program or true design software, but works great and is a lot of fun to use. There are quite a few extra libraries of objects you can add to the program too. It's a Java application so it will run on any operating system that has Java installed, which is nice for folks like me that use Linux. You can even try it directly from your Browser if you don't want to install it, and can store your projects on-line. It's also pretty easy to learn and use compared to some others I've tried. Give it a shot, I think it's pretty cool. Be forewarned however, you can spend LOTS of hours tinkering with this thing and wonder where the night went

www.sweethome3d.com

Can you add differnt colors of paint to the walls? I am looking for a free program to help me decide what size/color stripe to add to my garage along with what colors to use..

 

[atk406]

You can change the colors of the walls or any object, but I don't think you can add a stripe to a wall. You could probably build the wall as 3 walls stacked on top of each other, then color each one. Doable but kind of a pain.

 

[philwire]

DAMN YOU atk406!!! You've showed me the program I wanted for so much time and I can already see how much time I'm going to throw at it!!!! I got young kids that need me to get dressed and get meals ready for, you know? Even the girlfriend's getting obsessed with it already!!

Thanks, honestly
btw for the walls with different colors I would try doing textures for it... just need a "section", then apply the texture.. I'll try a few things myself

 

[atk406]

I know, I know, I'm sorry! Hopefully your kids won't hold it against me if they don't get dinner

I haven't tried dong 'sections' yet, thanks for that! I did a striped wall by inserting 2 plain old boxes, then flattening the depth to .25", making them the width of the wall, elevating them to the proper height, then making the height correct to fill the wall. Then stuck them to the wall like wallpaper. Not an ideal solution because they are 3d objects, but it 'kind of' works just to get an idea of colors. See attached.

 

[philwire]

ok well I did a single stripe, and heres a preview and a rendered example...

oh and having 8 cores really helps making the render fast

 

[fromnwmt]

Thanks guys I did play with the online version and now that i know you can add stripes will download it i have been searching for a simple program i can try different colors and widths of stripes until i find a combo i want to apply to my new walls.....

 

[philwire]

it would be fun if people would model their garages this way... could permit members to suggest additions by modifying directly to the model Could also serve as some nice gallery

 

[atk406]

I was thinking the same thing, could be used to share plans and do some galleries. I have since realized I 'updated' my once authentic garage plan too many times that I have to revert now. I have versions of 'slightly updated', 'way updated', 'expanded garage with bedrooms above it', and 'ridiculous must have been liquored up at 4:00 a.m.', but not one version of 'this is how my garage actually looks now'. If updating my real garage was as easy as doing it virtually, it would be taking up most of my neighbor's back yard by now and have at least one Ferrari in it.

Another thing I've realized, my manual tape measure specs don't correlate with my SH3D specs. I must have inadvertently installed the 'wishful thinking' plug-in somewhere along the way.

 

[philwire]

Another thing I've realized, my manual tape measure specs don't correlate with my SH3D specs. I must have inadvertently installed the 'wishful thinking' plug-in somewhere along the way.

Yea, I realized that too.. I was modeling the house from the front and the kitchen in the rear end of the house ended up being pretty much more wishful than in reality There are some measures I just guessed like the ceiling heights but I think I'll have to be more serious about it and measure every thing.

btw the modeled garage is coming along nicely (dont have one yet)... I modeled it with the maximum dimensions allowed by the townhall, and at 25x31 it's wider that the house itself

 

[atk406]

Ok I didn't realize on my original design I was using a 6" grid instead of 1'....that kind of throws things off a bit