HOme Design Program....

Ivanp

I'm looking for something that will let me design a log home. Well I want to be able to visualize what it would look like. I can draw my ideas on paper, but I'd rather be able to look at and design the house in 3D. Is there anything like this?

send_it_all

Im not sure it will do a log home, but I have a program called 3D Home Architect. If you can figure out how to use it, it will design an entire home. The instruction book is about 1" thick.

RobertCDF

Google sketchup is free and can draw just about anything in the world... Now it will take more time than a couple of clicks.

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Ivanp

Does sketchup offer 3D views? I'm looking for something that has a lot of detail functionality. I'll check 3D Home Architect out.

A.W.Davis

Skechup has 3D views and many more neat "options". The learning curve is a bit time consuming but worth it in the end. I do some designs for my remodels on Skechup but not too many due to my inexperience with it still.

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KentWhitten

Well, I guess an important question is to ask if you are in need of drawing blueprints or are you trying some visualization?

SketchUp is an easy simple program that I would recommend.

If you are looking for a modeling program, there are a few free ones out there, but it's not easy just picking it up. It takes months to get remotely any grasp on things.

If you say modeling, I can point you into many programs out there, some very inexpensive and some free.

Rhino is a good low cost modeling/drafting program. It has more features and better quality than SketchUp, but all anything really matters is what fits your needs.

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woodmagman

I found this one and it has a log home abilities, fairly simple....
http://www.turbofloorplan.com/ Turbo Floor Plan and Landscape.

MattCoops

Sketchup will have no problem designing your log home. And pretty much anything else you can imagine.
It does take a little time to learn, but follow the tutorials and the online forums for help in learning the program.
Everything is 3D there and you can rotate and scroll any view you wish.
Also, look into getting Kerkythea, another free program, that let's you render your sketchup project to look like a real image.

here's a log home from sketchup:

Attached Images

 

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L. B. Condulet

I use Smartdraw. It's great for producing wiring diagrams.

Ivanp

Thanks guys I was looking for something that I could use to just get my idea from my head to a plan, to see what it would look like. I have more than one design, I just want to get it down onto something where I can take a look at it and make an opinion etc.