Paid and free software for architecture

Well, who among the townspeople does not dream of having a cozy place, where it would be possible even for a few days to hide from the megacity of the cities?

Today it is not so difficult to make dreams come true. You can find a ready-made cottage or simply buy a piece of land in a picturesque place and arrange it according to your own vision, buying a standard project of its development from the architect or developing one yourself. Split the garden, landscaped yard and build the original architecture and layout of housing will help programs for the design of houses.

What is convenient for individual design

First of all, by the fact that it allows you to put the house on the site of any geodetic complexity. In addition, it will be possible to make any number of storeys and put in it as many multi-functional rooms as the soul desires. Independent 3d modeling of houses is an opportunity not only to save a lot of money, but also to spend them effectively, and to begin to do it literally from the first stages.

In this respect, technical progress has opened up a lot of possibilities. Now, the design of houses does not require specific education and drawing skills. Anyone who owns a personal computer can start creating a model of the future masterpiece. The work is allowed to conduct both in the online mode, and without connecting to the Internet. In the latter case, you will need to download one of the variants of the program on the PC.

Computer design of houses: advantages

Programs for designing houses are not just architectural programs that help to kick out a box of a house and choose a facade design. They make it possible to visually plan the entire site, that is:

• place economic and additional buildings;
• to register the adjacent territory;
• to develop an interior situation.

The main advantages of design programs are:

1. The possibility of planning houses in minute detail.

2. Adequate time costs.

3. Financial and intellectual accessibility.

4. The ability to timely correct deficiencies.

5. The presence of 3D options, allowing you to view the draft as a full-fledged constructed object.

Programs for architecture are presented in a wide variety, and they really facilitate the design of houses, however, one must understand that even being computerized, this process can drag on for several months, so do not wait for lightning results. On average, 3d modeling of the house takes about three months.

The program for designing Autodesk Homestyler

The developer of the service is Autodesk. It is available on: iOS, Android and as a web-application. It is distributed free of charge. Has a Russian interface.

The company-developer is famous for professional programs on 3D-graphics, but only those who have mastered 3ds max can use them. Agree, to delve into all the vicissitudes of science, only in order to see how the room will look after cosmetic finishing or when rearrangement of furniture there is no sense, therefore, interested in architectural programs, ordinary people were offered a simplified version of the 3D editor working in the browser – Autodesk Homestyler.

This house design program helps quickly visualize the layout of the object and immediately beautify it, filling up with furniture items and other items available in the attached library.

Work on the box can be done manually, trying on different interpretations of walls and partitions. For the convenience of work, users are encouraged not to fight over 3d modeling of houses from scratch, but use 2D plans that will become an excellent substrate.

Finding interesting elements in the design program is easy, because the library is distinguished by an excellent organization. All that is needed for decoration, construction, decoration and landscape organization, it is separated into separate categories of the same name. Each of them, in turn, is divided into subcategories.

What does it look like? If you go to the “Finishing” section, you can find the subsections: “Kitchen”, “Bedroom”, “Entrance hall”, etc., in each of which everything necessary for the improvement of premises is concentrated. So for the kitchen there you can pick up a sink, and a table top, and a set, and other interior elements.

Multilevel Design

Although this design program is available for free, it supports the development of multi-level objects, so the creation of two or even a three-story cottage is not a problem. But one-time viewing of several tiers will be immediately unavailable, since the web application window opens only one of the floors at a time.

What is still good about this program for designing houses is the ability to calculate the amount of material required to implement a created object. All elements added to the plan are immediately displayed in the “Purchase List”. And it is typical not only for objects representing the situation. The service will calculate everything: both the skirting footage, the square of the flooring, and the amount of paint. The finished list will only be printed, and you can start pricenitsya.

Creating a snapshot

Another useful option of the program. The graphic file is available for saving at any design stage. A saved snapshot of the page can be shared, sending it to friends or posting on social networks. The finished project is available for export in DWG format. You can create a circular panorama.

Specificity of work with the service

Although the proposed program for designing houses and is available for use without registration, nevertheless, an account is worth creating. This provides access to additional benefits. Registered users will be able to store catalog objects in the favorites, which will speed up access to them in the future. In addition, the architectural program will give the go-ahead for the preservation of projects in the gallery, with the possibility of continuing to work on them as desired.

Not so long ago 3d modeling of houses became possible not only on the web-service, but also on mobile devices, however for these platforms several other functional tasks are provided. Here the emphasis is not on the design of the building itself, but on the interior design of the already prepared premises.

The bottom line is this. The user photographs a room on any of the gadgets and fills the resulting space with furniture, lamps, furnishings. You can experiment with options for decoration, color solutions, etc. Completed developments can be shared in the stream of their news on Facebook, sent to friends for approval by email.

Available to the review, there will be a program available for the program, where the work of other users of the service is posted. They can be commented on, saved in favorites. On the most liked designers it will be possible to subscribe.

Planning Program Planner 5D

One of the most popular architectural online programs, specialized in planning urban and suburban housing. It does not require registration. You can work with ready-made templates or design from scratch.

Planner 5D does not limit the user in the number of rooms created and the form of their layout. Here you can work on multi-storey buildings. Furniture and plants are offered in a wide variety.

However, not all objects in the design program are used for free. For obtaining a one-time access to a full database of layouts, you will have to pay about $ 5, so many users prefer to immediately get permanent access to the catalog, which costs $ 20.

Software Sections

They, as well as in the previous version, are four:

1. Rooms. Section of the program, where the type of rooms is selected, their number and the yardage is determined. It is possible to change the color and structural parameters of objects.

2. Constructions. This part is responsible for designing windows, stairwells, doorways in the houses.

3. Interior. Assistant in arrangement of interior items, including equipment.

4. Exterior. Contains a set of additional courtyard extensions and buildings.

5. The program for designing houses Planner 5D allows you to view ready-made solutions in 3D and save the received layouts in the memory of your PC.

Of the positive points, it should be noted the speed of work. The minus of the resource is still low realism and insufficient level of professionalism.

House Design in HouseCreator Online

It is also a representative of free software for house design, which allows not only to develop a layout of construction, but also to calculate the approximate price of the issue of its implementation. Despite the intuitive user interface, the site has a video tutorial demonstrating how to work in the application.

How does the design program work?

In order to start creating a house, you need to choose:

• type of foundation;
• width of the foundation;
• number of floors;
• wall parameters.

You can find all this in the pop-up windows that appear when you access the main page of the program.

The rest is easy to understand:

1. The section “Wall” is the choice of dimensions and arrangement of rooms.

2. Section “The opening” represents windows and doors, helps with their arrangement, selection of shapes, definition with dimensions.

3. Section “Roof” – the choice of the type and shape of the roof.

This program for architecture lacks the option of 3d house modeling and decorating services, so it’s impossible to decorate the housing and immediately evaluate the final result. This does not prevent HouseCreator Online from enjoying popularity, as it is very good from a practical point of view. The program allows you to choose building materials, adjust the thickness of walls and ceilings, calculate the cost of consumables and works.

House 3D

“The program has convenient functions that allow you to deal with the design of walls and the laying of flooring”

The design program will work for free on 3d modeling of houses, apartment layout, interior filling. This is the easiest to learn resource, ideally suited for those who only try their hand at the role of the architect.

Soft is not too demanding on the PC’s system capabilities, so it works great even on low-power machines, which in turn does not bother users with a forced hardware upgrade.

From operating systems, the house design software recognizes new editions of Windows. With the rest, at this stage, unfortunately, it is not compatible.

To make the web resource competitive, and the program’s features even more attractive, it expanded the catalog of models of furniture items. Moreover, they were allowed to diversify with additional accessories that the user can seamlessly build into the created interior.

Another interesting addition to the design program is the availability of an integrated architectural module. It is used for full-scale visualization of the object during the construction of walls, the formation of the roof, drawing the openings of doors and windows, and the removal of stairs. In a ready-made layout of the house, the user will be able to design the situation.

The program has convenient functions that allow you to deal with the design of walls and the laying of flooring. Easy movement with the mouse and objects appearing in 3D space will be built in stylish interiors.

Archicad

Bright representative of professional programs for architecture. Utility is difficult to master, so self-delicacy is rarely used. And many architects prefer to avoid it because of the lack of flexibility. 3d modeling of houses here occurs from a place in a quarry and begins at once with work with volumetric images. If you want to create a wall, then you take the “wall” tool, the doorway is the “door”. The program will decide where and what to install.

The most valuable in the design of houses in Archicad is that, correctly drawing a three-dimensional model, you can immediately see the layout of all the layers, facades and sections of the structure, without resorting to additional manual drawing. Extremely convenient, so the best program for the design of apartment buildings and look for is not worth it.

3 ds Max

Serious service designed for professionals. To coordinate with the customer, the architect usually has to draw several sections of the object to determine the height of the ceilings, the location of rooms, windows and other nuances. If everything has satisfied the requirements, then you can move to the program 3 ds Max, where you dive into the creation of a three-dimensional layout. The design of houses in this utility is attractive in that you can import already existing working drawings into the program, rather than create them first. This eliminates the generation of errors. At the end of the 3d modeling of the house, the object is visualized, that is, its photo image is obtained in different angles.

Working with the design program for houses of this level is difficult even for specialists, since it requires certain skills and abilities, so it is not even worthwhile to try to get accustomed to its open spaces.

Envisioneer Express

Not too elaborate design program distributed free of charge. The utility was created to develop voluminous models of buildings, but you can start creating future houses from two-dimensional planning. Drawing of walls, doors, roofs, stairs and windows will subsequently be transformed into a full three-dimensional model. Upon completion of the 3D rendering, the resulting creation can be viewed from different angles and heights, changing the viewing mode from the photorealistic view to the transparency of the frame.

In addition to the “forcing out” of the box, there is an interior design mode in the house design program. Correction of the facade and architecture of the building is also available due to a change in the choice of building materials. The project is saved in a software format, but can be opened by a number of other applications from the category of 3D design.

Google SketchUp

Unique software offers simple solutions for 3d modeling of houses and their interior. Has a lot of advantages that make using it as comfortable as possible.

For greater ease of use, preset windows have been removed from the program. Now all geometric parameters are set exclusively by the keyboard.

Another achievement was the Push / Pull option. The original tool allows you to push any of the planes to the side so that additional side walls can be installed along the trajectory of its movement. Foilow Me moves the plane along a previously traced curve.

What else can you do in this house design program?

1. Prepare macros on Ruby and then display it from the menu. They are needed to automate repetitive actions. In the software you can find a lot of other developments, created by the user audience of the program.

2. Support a variety of plug-ins that help you create, visualize and export objects, moving, rotating and causing interacting created layouts.

3. View the layouts in a section and add callouts to them in the form of drawings.

4. Maintain the production of elements of the house, which can be further used in the design program for an uncountable number of times, including editing.

5. Work with layers.

6. To prepare various sections of objects.

7. Use the library of models, materials, styles, uploading interesting solutions to the Internet or replenishing its resources with its own know-how.

8. Animate the transitions from the site to the site, adjust the position of the demonstration chamber.

9. Create dynamic effects, for example, simulate the opening of the sideboard door by clicking the pointer.

10. Engage in the design and planning of existing buildings and create real objects.

11. Specify the dimensions of the object in meter or inch equivalent.

12. To allocate at designing of houses graphically correct shadows completely corresponding to the set time of day, year, corresponding to parameters of latitude and longitude of an object location.

13. Integrate into Google Earth.

14. Correct the shape of the surface of the plot under construction.

The layouts of houses created in the design program are saved in the * .skp file format. There is a possibility to export and import images of two-dimensional and three-dimensional raster graphics. Imported images can become the basis for the reproduction of a three-dimensional layout, textural insertion and so on. The project is exported as a snapshot, which is sent from the working area of ​​the application window. Additionally, architectural programs of this class can be equipped with a number of plug-ins that help to transfer information in a variety of formats, for example, * .atl, * .mxs, after which the exported files can be edited on the resources without any restrictions.

Home plan PRO

Service can be called a real godsend for designing houses of unusual architecture. In the bins of the program laid a whole arsenal of versatile door and window designs, as well as other accessories. It is possible to print out the developed projects and send them by e-mail or in the form of a fax.

Calculations are available in several metric systems. Multilayer support is supported. Pleases a set of standard figures. The created project can be saved in any convenient format.

CyberMotion 3D Designer 13.0

A tool for professionals working on 3d modeling of houses and creating animated layouts. The beauty of working with the service lies in the abundance of hints and the mass of templates, according to which the design of the house will seem like a game even for a beginner.

To obtain three-dimensional layouts, drawing drawings in a straight line, a lateral projection and with a plan view are required. The user interface, despite the abundance of all kinds of tools and techniques, is understandable on an intuitive level.

Ashampoo Home Designer Pro 2.0

This package can be called the golden mean between professional programs for architecture and purely consumer services. Working with the designer is not much more difficult than with the basic interior “designer”, but the result here looks much better than in the entry-level applications. The visualization of objects is more precise and detailed. There is a choice of design method. You can stay on the building plan or go ahead and perform 3d modeling at home. Between modes is not just permissible switching, they can generally be displayed on the screen at one time.

The library is full of all kinds of architectural objects, which makes it possible to deviate from the standards and equip the future building with windows and doors of atypical forms. Before adding each element to the project, it can be closely monitored, turning in all directions. The design program of the house itself will calculate the area of ​​each room and not only. In order not to miss one of the important stages, it adds a step-by-step wizard. The ability to take into account the geographical location will help understand where the house will cast a shadow, which will contribute to the proper organization of the adjacent territory.

Maximally close the virtual object to the real will allow the vesting of the drawing in materials and textures, which in the design program collected a magnificent collection. The walls of the house can be represented in stone, brick, paneling, etc. The finishing touch of implementation will be the imitation of global lighting. You can use other settings available for this purpose.

Free programs for designing houses: what to choose?

“The analysis of user reviews has clearly shown that free software for designing houses have the top three problems”

The abundance of free software often puzzles beginners. They really can not decide which of the architectural programs they need, because after going to the search engine, on request you can get hundreds of all sorts of software interpreted as PRO, Gold, Ultimate and so on. In which of them you can quickly start designing houses, without losing a week to familiarize yourself with the interface? The task is not simple.

The analysis of user reviews clearly showed that free software for designing houses have the main three problems, the first of which is the absence of the Russian version and as a result of the understandable usage guide. The second error was the inconvenient, and sometimes frankly complex interface of services. And a control shot can be called a narrow specialization, driving the designer into the framework of the plan, without the possibility of outputting the layout in 3D.

Thus, if the user is not at odds with technical English, then you need to look for a program for designing houses in an accessible language. Choosing the appropriate option, you should read reviews about it from those who have already worked with this web resource. This will save you from time-consuming downloads and testing of the page. A great help in the selection will be videos attached to the text description of the service. Viewing them will allow you to quickly navigate as a specific program and avoid common mistakes in working with it. If the program for designing too much “weighs”, you need to realistically assess the technical capabilities of your PC. Some video cards may not be able to cope with the projection of three-dimensional images. They will slow down, hang, in general, in every possible way to complicate the work of the program. With massive applications it’s worth working on powerful machines that have large volumes of RAM and equipped with good graphics cards.

Conclusion

With the problem of visualization of ideas for repair or construction of housing have to face everyone, but if you have the desire and at least insignificant computer skills, the question can be solved. Programs for the design of houses, the lion’s share of which is free, will help you see the final result and correct laps in a timely manner, most importantly, choose a web resource convenient for you.

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Author: Mikhail Bond

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