DIY home design software

[dmccarty]

Hmm, I wondered about that: While building my fence recently, most of the treated, rough sawn 1x6 pine fence boards from Home Depot seemed very, very light weight ... just did not seem like they could be as strong as ones I've gotten in the past that are dense & heavy. I wonder if they're being harvested too early now. Or maybe they're being grown in inferior soil. Or no fertilizer (if pine trees are even fertilized).

My two cents, is that pine is grown fast and harvested young. But it is just a guess. They are doing more testing so it will be interesting to see what happens. OTH, they have not tested in a very long time but this could have been a problem for years but nobody has noticed.

Who knows. I was shocked when I first read this a few weeks/months ago.

Later,
Dan

 

[beppington]

When we built my parents' pine 4-rail fence with 4x4 pine posts back in the mid-late 80's, the pine was heavy & was so dense it was hard to get nails in without bending, & took prob 8-12 whacks to get the nail in. With the pine rails & 4x4's I just used, I used mostly screws (but I pre-drilled the hole), but the few I did nail I could usually hammer the nail in all the way with just 2-4 whacks. Not far from being like balsa wood.

Yet another disappointing "they don't make 'em like they used to" situation.

Wonder if these tests will result in requiring a 2x6 where a 2x4 used to suffice, 2x8 instead 2x6, etc.

 

[ch47dpilot]

I used the Punch program. Took some time to figure it out but I was able to do some good planning with it. Going to use this to have an architect make some official working drawings. Many things don't work like I'd like but have found work a rounds. I don't like the estimator for big projects like this but for a small garage it would probably get you a pretty good idea of how much wood you need. Really wish they used engineered trusses to since they add the rafters to your estimate. It also won't figure out if your plan is even feasible, it will let you span how ever far you want without any support. Like I said its a great program to do your initial planning but you'd need to bring it to an architect to get something the city and contractors could use

 

[beppington]

I use TurboCAD v8 all the time & am designing our upcoming house with it. Got it on clearance at Office Depot for $5 :thumbsup:

It has lots of functions/ capabilities, including 3D rendering, but that's pretty complicated to me & never interested me enough to learn how to do it, so I just use it for drawing lines, curves & dimensioning.

 

[CharlieR]

gocards1177 - We used H&G Home Designer Suite also - very happy with it.
I'd suggest getting the latest version you can buy (usually $99 or so) as each new home owner version is more capable that the last.
I used version 7 then 9 to get features that 7 didn't have that we needed to convey our ideas to contractors for quotes.
We went with a specific modular company which also used the Chief Architect software and that allowed us to exchange files for editing and quoting purposes.
I didn't have to be "perfect" because they could easily tweak my files to adjust dimensions that were suitable for the modular construction techniques used by the factory for production software!
The files e-mail easily so you can expect to get a lot of work done and exchange information very quickly.
Good luck with your project.

 

[gocards1177]

We're out in the county, so our property isn't subject to any building codes/inspections that I'm aware of (at least that's what everyone I've talked to who should know tells me). My banker had suggested hiring a building inspector to check on the progress periodically, take pictures, make recommendations, etc. This makes sense and I'll probably end up doing that. We did have to get a permit from the Corps of Engineers for our creek crossing and driveway. That project is nearing completion. I'm pretty proud of it and keep thinking I need to post pictures.
As for structure, my plan was for my wife and I to piddle around on some sort of design program until we were happy with it, then meet back with our architect and have him hammer out structure, HVAC routing, rooflines, builders sets, elevation, etc. I feel like when we met with him before we were just going back and forth with design changes. This got expensive, so we cut to the chase and just stopped. Between my parents and my uncles, I grew up around construction, so I'm pretty knowledgeable, but it would be nice to have someone else "bless" the plan. There's a big engineering university here in Rolla, but no architecture.
I'm torn between the Chief architect and Punch programs. I played with the demo of the chief architect last night and it seemed do-able. I can't find a demo of the Punch one. However, I can use the punch one on our Mac without booting it into Windows (which is more annoying than it sounds)

 

[beppington]

As a start you could determine the minimum room sizes you desire for bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, breakfast room, garage, etc. all of them, draw those as squares (or rectangles not too long & skinny) on a sheet of paper at a scale of say 1" = 10' (aka 1/10 inch = 1 foot), cut them all out & start placing them on a table or sheet of paper until you make them into a form that you like & makes sense. Do you want the garage on the left or right? Do you want the master BR on the same end as the garage, or opposite end? Make sure the foot traffic/ hallways flow well. Make sure to set the rooms near each other the way you want (dining room usually near kitchen; guest bath usually near 2nd-3rd-4th bedrooms, etc). Set it up as a split bedroom plan if that's what you want. Good for starters anyway.

 

[gocards1177]

As a start you could determine the minimum room sizes you desire for bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, breakfast room, garage, etc. all of them, draw those as squares (or rectangles not too long & skinny) on a sheet of paper at a scale of say 1" = 10' (aka 1/10 inch = 1 foot), cut them all out & start placing them on a table or sheet of paper until you make them into a form that you like & makes sense. Do you want the garage on the left or right? Do you want the master BR on the same end as the garage, or opposite end? Make sure the foot traffic/ hallways flow well. Make sure to set the rooms near each other the way you want (dining room usually near kitchen; guest bath usually near 2nd-3rd-4th bedrooms, etc). Set it up as a split bedroom plan if that's what you want. Good for starters anyway.

Beppington, Yep that's exactly what we've done for the past month (only with 1/8" scale). Now I'm at the point where I want to see what it looks like and how the roof will come out.

 

[gocards1177]

gocards1177 - We used H&G Home Designer Suite also - very happy with it.
I'd suggest getting the latest version you can buy (usually $99 or so) as each new home owner version is more capable that the last.
I used version 7 then 9 to get features that 7 didn't have that we needed to convey our ideas to contractors for quotes.
We went with a specific modular company which also used the Chief Architect software and that allowed us to exchange files for editing and quoting purposes.
I didn't have to be "perfect" because they could easily tweak my files to adjust dimensions that were suitable for the modular construction techniques used by the factory for production software!
The files e-mail easily so you can expect to get a lot of work done and exchange information very quickly.
Good luck with your project.

CharlieR - When you say modular are you talking about prefabricated panels/boxes that were then pieced together on site? I've hear about the merits of speed and "green" building with that, but I don't know anyone around here who does anything other than traditional stick framing.

 

[beppington]

Beppington, Yep that's exactly what we've done for the past month (only with 1/8" scale). Now I'm at the point where I want to see what it looks like and how the roof will come out.

In 3D or just a top view? All hip, gables, or hips & gables? What roof pitch? All the same roof pitch?

Scan or make a pic & I'll draw a quickie version with TubroCAD if you want.