Used to be Sketchup, not sure if that's still around for free. Used for a lot of architectural stuff and somewhat beginner friendly.
Me personally I'd use Blender, but that seemingly requires you to learn how to model donuts with sprinkles first...
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Yours is actually the second suggestion for SetchUp. Thanks!
I used to do sketchup a lot but I am trying to learn freecad to replace it, as the former doesnt have a Linux port, and is proprietary software
You could try sweethome3d (open source). Although I haven't tried to design a whole house, I've used it for designing my deck layout. Take a look at the gallery to see if it fits your need - Sweet Home 3D gallery You can try it online through browser or download the installer ( Windows/Linux/MacOS)
Iβve designed the interior of our house with SweetHome3D about 10 years ago - so yes, it should definitely be possible, but at that time it had a bit of a learning curve. Still not as bad as using a full fledged CAD package for that jobβ¦
Thanks, will check it out. Is your deck done?
Yes, built it 2yrs ago. I can share the design and pic of the final product if you like.
I don't think we will have a deck but I would definitely love to see pics.
Few pics of the deck and couple of exported images of the design.
That is gorgeous. Congrats on such a beautiful design and solid execution of it. Originally I had thought we would just have a stone back patio but your pics are making me reconsider a deck.
I try not to even think about my dream home since I almost certainly will never achieve it. Just ends with me being sad.
I'm sorry. :(
If you're still young, may I suggest opening up a 401K account, especially if your employer offers to match your contributions. I know everybody's situation is different, but I can tell you that 401Ks, an IRA, and being frugal are what has made building a home a possibility for me and my husband.
By being frugal, I don't mean starving yourself and never enjoying anything, but cut out non-essential spending. You don't need to upgrade your phone, your computer, or your car every time. Pay that shit off. You also don't need to subscribe to every single streaming service. Pick one and watch the shit out of their content, then cancel and switch to another. Usually you even get a free trial to start.
Again, I'm not saying this will work for everyone, and I know life is never that simple, but these things really helped me and my husband save up over the decades.
Iβm sorry. :(
If youβre still young ...
I'm actually in my 30s, but thanks for the concern. I do appreciate it.
... may I suggest opening up a 401K account, especially if your employer offers to match your contributions. I know everybodyβs situation is different, but I can tell you that 401Ks, an IRA, and being frugal are what has made building a home a possibility for me and my husband.
I actually do have a IRA, and I don't get a 401K through my workplace, and also I'm extremely frugal.
You donβt need to upgrade your phone, your computer or your car every time. Pay that shit off.
I had my last phone for 5β6 years; I only replace my phone when it finally refuses to work. I don't have the money to buy new ones even if I wanted to. I also have a $1000 car because I couldn't afford anything else.
You also donβt need to subscribe to every single streaming service. Pick one and watch the shit out of their content, then cancel and switch to another. Usually you even get a free trial to start.
Oh, I don't bother with those. I sail the high seas instead. ;)
Again, Iβm not saying this will work for everyone, and I know life is never that simple, but these things really helped me and my husband save up over the decades.
I appreciate your thoughts, but honestly, my problem isn't so much that I'm not frugal, but rather I just don't get paid a living wage. I'm lucky if I make $350 a week. That coupled with the fact that things are just so damned expensive now means I barely have enough to buy food, let alone other necessities like new clothes when current ones wear down.
Trust me, I know how to manage money. I'm just fucked, as is most people my age.
I knew I would get hate even for just trying to help. Not saying it was from you, but clearly from the downvotes I've upset some people. But I felt it was better to throw it out there, in case it does help someone.
I'm sorry the world you're inheriting sucks. It's still better IMO today than in the past, and better in the US than other places. But I'm an immigrant from a developing country, became a citizen 5 years ago, so that definitely colors my perspective.
Thank you again for the suggestion.
I knew I would get hate even for just trying to help. Not saying it was from you, but clearly from the downvotes I've upset some people. But I felt it was better to throw it out there, in case it does help someone.
It was not from me, I assure you. The advice may not have been entirely relevant to me, but I did appreciate it. :)
I'm sorry the world you're inheriting sucks.
I am grateful to you for saying that.
It's still better IMO today than in the past,
That really depends in what way one is referring to, as well as in what country/region.
and better in the US than other places.
That actually depends on the country: better than a lot of developing countries? Most certainly. But there are a lot of developed countries with far higher indexes for freedom, (lack of) child mortality, civil rights, education & literacy, and economic prosperity. America actually ranks pretty damn low for all of those values.
But I'm an immigrant from a developing country, became a citizen 5 years ago, so that definitely colors my perspective.
I can certainly see how that would affect one's perspective. If your life is better, I'm happy for you!
lol - now do the not still young version!? π
Have luck on your side. Lucky is what my husband and I both feel a lot of times. We are both pretty cautious when it comes to spending, but we also recognize that we've dodged some financial bullets just by sheer luck.
Hehe congratulations. Iβm privileged to be in a similar position with my wife π
But not many days go by I donβt think about how lucky/fortunate we are.
Yesterday I found Sweet Home 3D which seems nice. It's FOSS.
But I haven't used it yet.
Cool, thanks. Are you also playing with your own dream home ideas then?
Nope.
Honestly thatβs too depressing for me. I canβt even afford to buy a normal home
I just put a cardboard box over my head and imagine being grateful that I actually own a property.
Sometimes as a treat, I cover the inside with left-over gift wrapping and pretend I have wallpaper.
Sims 4? I'm going to assume it's slightly more realistic than 3!
I kept trying to design my dream hermit cabin in sweethome 3d. Was getting nowhere. Started playing Sims 4, found designing homes using sims build mode is so much easier.
Home.by.me is pretty decent in my experience. I have tried a few free ones out and that one has been the easiest to use but that ease of use does come at the cost of versitility. So if you are trying to make some avant garde concept, not really possible. Like I don't think it can do a curved wall IIRC.
It can be useful to use to think about things and mess around. It might have some value if you designed a home in it and then brought it as an example to help your builder and architect understand your vision so they can actualize your housing dreams envisioned under lithium and drawn on a napkin with a crayon in a closed fist via JavaScript.
Designing and building from scratch is considerably more expensive and a longer process than modifying an existing blueprint, but we are talking about dreaming here.
Thanks so much. I'm not trying to do anything weird, just a small, simple, Craftsman style home.
It will be considerably cheaper to alter an existing blueprint. So take your design to your builder/architect and work with them to alter an existing plan.
Look at plans online, there are sites you can buy plans from, and you will probably find something you don't even need to modify that suits your needs.
I made a 3d model in Blender and showed it to an architect, with the huge caveat that I only work in vfx and games and have absolutely no idea how to build real things, so please just consider it a "napkin sketch". This model was just flat colors, I didn't bother with texture maps.
I also used QGIS to show him a map of the site, along with some LIDAR elevation data I downloaded from a government website. He just took elevation/plan images and did a great job translating it into a real set of drawings with some major improvements.
After that I took his drawings and did a 3d model in FreeCAD, to help determine where our existing furniture will fit before I broke my back moving it around.
That's awesome. It seems like you did to the architect what architects normally do to engineers: design something cool and pass it off for someone else to do the math on how to make it work.
Ooh, does that mean you had a house built?
Kinda as a joke I designed a house for astrophotography in sweethome 3D. You can also export the whole 3D house model into unity and upload it to VRChat to actually walk around inside it
I watched the whole thing and meant to come back here with all my questions, then I realized there was a voiceover that explained everything, like why there were "audience chairs" around the hot tub. XD
That's really cool. We often wish we had a little roof deck for stargazing.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/Gco_OVsT3Wo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Free CAD packages almost never include active volcanoes and anti-air guns in their assets.
Well that's a deal-breaker. Guess I'll have to shell out for a real app or pay an architect from the start.
i used sweethome3d at first and then imported it into blender. it works pretty well although isn't exactly accurate to scale. i started by recreating my current apartment and used it to plan rearranging my furniture but now i have two files, one for planning my apartment and one to buildout my dream home by expanding on what i currently have.
That's exciting! Sweethome3D seems to be a favorite. I wish rearranging furniture were as simple as clicking and dragging.
Almost nobody designs new houses from scratch. Seems a lil like setting yourself up for failure
I enjoy designing houseplans for fun, I'll never be able to afford to build my own, so I just have fun making up house plan ideas. It's my weird little bit of fun at home.