Best program to draw house plans.

[Ed of all trades]

My wife and I are in the planning stages of building a log cabin. Can't find plans we like and am thinking of drawing our own. Anyone out their used a computer program they like? Something not to expensive in case it ends up a waste of time. Thanks

 

[oosik]

Do a web search - "house plan software". I saw at least six that indicated free. When I built our log cabin, I just did it free-hand. Then again, we were 65 miles from the nearest road, in Alaska. Fell, hauled, de-barked and two-sided big Sitka spruce- right on the property. Sure didn't need any kind of permits either. Couldn't find any insurance company to issue a policy on it either - too far from civilization. Good luck - building your own log cabin is a fantastic experience.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Looking at a 3 bed 3 bath log home. Trying to keep the square feet down. Need help sorting it all out. Also have some special needs to deal with. Thanks.

 

[Fi-Q]

I am old school. I learned the basic of Autocad 2D in college in the 90's so I am still using it on a old version..... But my wife is using the free version of Google Sketch up and she is getting pretty good at it and making awesome 3D drawing of our house and how she wants her kitchen and the bathroom.... And there is a lot of you tube tutorial for sketch up

 

[OZisKTB]

It depends upon your budget. I used Punch, but it always fell short for me. I then tried Chief Architect Home Designer. While expensive, it met my needs. Only issue (Version 8) was complex roofs were hard for me to finalize. I bought plans for a 2700 sqft home and redrew in in CAHD to make my modifications, and plan things like electronic placement. When the foundation came up 9" wrong in width and depth, I was able to redraw in a weekend and keep the project moving. Since then I've started using SketchUp. I've used the free version and many of the add-ins. I've not tried a large project, but many seem able to achieve great complexity with it. Best versions are not free, but I think you get what you pay for with this.

 

[EddieWalker]

I use Chief Architect for drawing floor plans for clients and myself. It's pretty simple to figure out and once you create the walls, it's simple to add furniture and get a feel for how much room you have. For an entire house I like to go to Eplans.com and search for something that's already there. My thought is that every combination of rooms has already been figured out and it's just a matter of looking through everyone else's ideas to see what I like the best. Then I modify it to make it what I want.

If you have never built a house before and you don't have any experience designing one, do not get too attached to what you come up with. In every case when I see a beginners attempts at drawing up their dream house, it's a disaster. As a builder, I see things that clients don't think of. I'm thinking flow, storage, utilities, spans, curb appeal and framing. Most people will have one or two of these things covered, but never all of them. It's a starting point, but rarely does it remain the same after just a short conversation of what they came up with.

Eddie

 

[boggen]

the various software you might find at bestbuy or like for building homes, is fairly weak, compared to a good 3D application. but ya get what ya pay for. the cheap stuff is point and click and not much to it. but the bigger 3D applications can be rather difficult to learn.

best suggestion is getting some grid paper, some markers, and start drawing lines, maybe even a straight edge or like.

say each square is 6" inches or the like.

i simply use "paint" comes with every microsoft windows. you can draw yourself some lines up, and then rotate copy/paste ((make sure transparent is checked under edit menu)) and away you go.

goal is not to get every single detail down to the very 1/16 of an inch. but rather rough things out, ya redo things, and rough it out again, keep on roughing things out till ya get something ya like, then ya go from there if need be to a architect or someone with better skills to draw things up, and double check to see if you are within code's / regulations, etc...

other words do not get lost in the micro scopic little details. focus on the bigger picture, and then once that figured out (room placement, sizes, etc...) then focus on were electrical is ran, plumbing is ran, vents for stove top, furnace, etc...

if you have a "tac board" draw something up on grid paper, and then cut yourself out some shapes for say a bed, dressor, furance, fridge, etc.. and then pin/tac them to the paper on the tac board. tac boards are fairly cheap at most hobby stores, heck walmart may have some.

having things done on computer is not always the best, use what is easier for you to understand and use. vs trying to force yourself to learn.

 

[tkappeler]

Not sure about drawing plans, but VU360 is awesome at estimating. It will work with PDFs, blueprints, CAD drawings, etc. All you need to do is calibrate the scale based on some known dimension such as a wall length. I used it to estimate stone for french drains, concrete for footings, roof materials, etc. You can estimate roofing based on plan views and identify pitch.

Best of all, it's free.

 

[Garandman]

Draftsight is a free AutoCAD 2D clone.

 

[blackdog2086]

Sketchup is an excellent program, and best of all, it's free. You can pay for upgraded editions, but the free basic version does everything I would ever need. There are a lot of youtube videos that walk you through using the program, which really helps a lot. I designed a barn and did both a kitchen and bath remodel with the program, and it allows very detailed 3D rendering of just about anything you'd need in a log home design.

 

[Tollster]

Here are a couple of free ones I got off here a while back, some seemed to like the software.

PTC Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express 6.0 | PTC

Free 2D: Siemens PLM Software

 

[boggen]

one last push for the extreme basic, of works for ya.... don't get all fustrated with various computer programs. just break out some paper and penicels/markers/pens. and go at it. rough things out your plans will change multi times. cut out some pieces of cardboard or paper, mark what it is, bed, couch, chair, etc.... to near size. and move stuff around.

figure approx 30" to 36" for walk ways. (measure width of doors, when doors are open ya walk through them. not overall size but just the area you walk through), measure distance from around bed, and dressers, around the kitchen for an island, etc..

the cardboard cut outs work out nicely, if you have something drawn up on graph paper say 6" per square, and trying to move a bed, couch, dresser or like to a bed room through a hallway and trying to get it to fit around corners. ya just put the cut out on the graph paper and push it around. same goes for washer/dryer, bathtub, etc...

 

[rtimgray]

Paper or computer, either one is fine, whatever you're comfortable with. My only comment on this is a common mistake I see folks made (and I'm not assuming anybody on here would do it, but just in case...): When drawing your plans, don't forget the thickness of the walls. I've converted many, many one-line sketches to house plans (I use AutoCAD, because that's what I have at work), and almost all of them, people just draw a line and forget that walls are anywhere from 4" to 12" thick (depending on interior/exterior/brick veneer/etc) and all of a sudden their 16' wide room is only 14'. Wall thickness can eat up a lot of space, as can door jambs. I've run into the problem of making sure that I have room for a 36" door going into every room in my house, and by the time you have a 36" door, plus casing, plus framing on each side, you're getting into a pretty wide framed opening.

Whatever you choose, good luck and take care.

 

[newbury]

one last push for the extreme basic, of works for ya.... don't get all fustrated with various computer programs. just break out some paper and penicels/markers/pens. and go at it. rough things out your plans will change multi times. cut out some pieces of cardboard or paper, mark what it is, bed, couch, chair, etc.... to near size. and move stuff around.

figure approx 30" to 36" for walk ways. (measure width of doors, when doors are open ya walk through them. not overall size but just the area you walk through), measure distance from around bed, and dressers, around the kitchen for an island, etc..

the cardboard cut outs work out nicely, if you have something drawn up on graph paper say 6" per square, and trying to move a bed, couch, dresser or like to a bed room through a hallway and trying to get it to fit around corners. ya just put the cut out on the graph paper and push it around. same goes for washer/dryer, bathtub, etc...

IF you do not have any experience with a software CAD package this is the best way. Measure and cut carefully, use plenty of tape. It may look crude but learning and buying a "package" strong enough to do good scale and 3D can be frustrating. I recently retired from almost 40 years using software GIS and CAD packages. Unless you are doing it routinely the learning curve is steep and they often make changes in the software which are frustrating when you see the fast quality changes like they do on the house flipping TV shows.

PLUS if you take the time to make several good 3D model pieces to scale (say a sofa, bookcase, frig) you can always EASILY use them later without learning new software.

OR buy some Lego

 

[Wood_Butcher_Dav]

Have you looked at Microsoft's Visio, which should be part of their Office Suite. This program uses templates and stencils which are drag and drop. A lot of templates such as Floor Plans and be downloaded off the net for free. This has a quicker learning curve than something like AutoCAD. I have and use both programs.

Dave

 

[dodge man]

I am also a user of AutoCAD for my job, them and Microstation are the big players in the industry. I have also been using it for 20 or more years and it has a very steep learning curve. I think you are better off just drawing it up on paper. I also agree with others that this is a job best left for experts. Maybe get something on paper as a rough working idea and then take it to a builder or architect that you trust.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have:
Microstation (old Dos version)
Autocad 2010 LT
Chief Architect
sketchup



I used microstation to design my house. It's by far my favorite, and easiest to use of the 3. I have used autocad since V2.5 and now use Autocad 2010. I would not use chief architect to design a house, but I suppose you could. It's more for modeling finishes.

 

[JRobyn]

Have you looked at Microsoft's Visio, which should be part of their Office Suite. This program uses templates and stencils which are drag and drop. A lot of templates such as Floor Plans and be downloaded off the net for free. This has a quicker learning curve than something like AutoCAD. I have and use both programs.

Dave

I sure miss Visio from my days "in the office", but it is no longer included in most MS-Office packages and is ridiculously expensive as a stand-alone item.

- Jay

 

[Ed of all trades]

I got Sketch up and like it so far. Used it a little and it does a good job of drawing to scal. Still have a lot of work to do just to figure out what we want. Thanks for the help. Sketch Up is what I was looking for. Thanks for your tips on walls, flow etc.