Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application(sweethome3d.com)
sweethome3d.com
Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application
https://www.sweethome3d.com
128 comments
That sounds fantastic, and it mirrors my (brief & shallow) experience with such tools. It quickly becomes too much of a drawing project, and too little of a data-capture/tabulating one.
But please please please show the resulting picture somewhere, it was incredibly frustrating to read through your page's wonderful build-up towards the goal, and then not get to see the rendered result? Poor me.
But please please please show the resulting picture somewhere, it was incredibly frustrating to read through your page's wonderful build-up towards the goal, and then not get to see the rendered result? Poor me.
What I ended up doing when I was in a similar situation is manually edit the XML(sh3d files are XML) with proper measurements and coordinates after first doing a rough sketch on the GUI.
I haven't used that tool for a while, but I think that it includes a table with all the items (walls, etc.) where you can enter the measurements.
Ultimately I think of sweethome3d as a sweet spot between paint and a full-blown CAD program. Nowhere as powerful as the latter but so much better than the former. Also my daughter had a moment when she preferred sweethome3d over Minecraft et al. as a building game.
I haven't used that tool for a while, but I think that it includes a table with all the items (walls, etc.) where you can enter the measurements.
Ultimately I think of sweethome3d as a sweet spot between paint and a full-blown CAD program. Nowhere as powerful as the latter but so much better than the former. Also my daughter had a moment when she preferred sweethome3d over Minecraft et al. as a building game.
+1 on the sweetspot.
I never mastered a proper CAD tool. Sweet home 3D was amazing at helping plan the furniture build and layout of an empty 40m2 living space.
I have been living in that space and benefiting from the simplicity SH3D for ten years now with no need for a change.
This has been a source of frustration for me too, as I've occasionally tried out these kinds of packages. Particularly having used model-oriented dimensionless CAD tools like Solidworks, it feels like stepping back in time four decades to suddenly have to manually dimension and align everything upfront.
I modelled my whole house including very piece of furniture. It is very “finicky” as you describe. It’s good enough for my amateur use with manual clicking. (There’s probably a programmatic option that I don’t know). However if I was a pro contractor it would probably not be the best.
I did plan custom designs that my contractor used. It’s also great when I want to get a new desk or sofa or whatever so that I can visualise everything first. Possible to make pretty realistic 3d walk-through videos that would be fine on any design tv show.
I did plan custom designs that my contractor used. It’s also great when I want to get a new desk or sofa or whatever so that I can visualise everything first. Possible to make pretty realistic 3d walk-through videos that would be fine on any design tv show.
I shared the same frustration, but I finally gave up, and guess what, I was able to fulfill my projects and have a good insight about what my layout will be even with ~5cm difference. I learned to relax about absolute measures and think more about feeling and subjective dimensions.
Described in programming terms: You try to type the weird dynamic object you have to deal with in Typescript but after spending too much time, you learn to relax about types and just write it in JS and it feels like it's working most of the time.
Don't forget the power of `as const` and type guards for tricky dynamic types! Especially for function params that accept multiple complex object types.
Parametric modelling - OpenSCAD (which you mention) is commonly used for that style of handwritten arithmetic and has a few python-based alternatives like CadQuery. In GUIs, FreeCAD has an architecture module that aims to be fully featured (never used it), but for just parametric drawings, SolveSpace is lightweight and probably more pleasant to use.
OpenSCAD is completely the wrong tool for the job. You want a graphical parametric modeller. The only vaguely decent FOSS one is SolveSpace. It's a bit lacking for actual CAD (no fillets!) but it works fine for 2D layout.
I have actually used it for that (actually I did full 3D modelling of part of my house) and it worked ok, however I would say that measuring things with a laser and copying them into CAD is not a very accurate way to do things.
You will end up with large accumulated errors, and most houses are not as square as you think they are.
I haven't ever used one but I suspect those phone based AR measurement apps have a good chance of being more accurate.
I have actually used it for that (actually I did full 3D modelling of part of my house) and it worked ok, however I would say that measuring things with a laser and copying them into CAD is not a very accurate way to do things.
You will end up with large accumulated errors, and most houses are not as square as you think they are.
I haven't ever used one but I suspect those phone based AR measurement apps have a good chance of being more accurate.
> and most houses are not as square as you think they are
I'd say most houses don't even have straight walls, so you should be very happy if what you got is vaguely a trapezoid.
I'd say most houses don't even have straight walls, so you should be very happy if what you got is vaguely a trapezoid.
Have you tried LibreCAD? It seems specifically designed for 2D, but I don't know how "parametric" it is.
I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?
I work on an app called Polycam, and we have an automated Room / floorplan capture mode. We actually announced some updates to it earlier this week:
https://twitter.com/Polycam3D/status/1623730477637959680
https://twitter.com/Polycam3D/status/1623730477637959680
Love Polycam! My wife just got the newest iPhone this fall before our remodel started and I was stoked to capture our house before the remodel and cannot wait to get the after all scanned in for comparison. https://poly.cam/capture/11B48FCD-E6A5-4ED7-9C9D-BF5DFE60579...
I love the app! The interior designer and property agent who saw me using it were pretty blown away.
One thing I struggle with though is making sure that the capture is robust enough before I move on. I usually only really know that something is off when the capture is done already. Can I “touch up” an existing capture by doing another local scan of a problematic area?
One thing I struggle with though is making sure that the capture is robust enough before I move on. I usually only really know that something is off when the capture is done already. Can I “touch up” an existing capture by doing another local scan of a problematic area?
You can - there's an 'Extend' button for LiDAR captures, but it can be a little touch-and-go sometimes. Definitely an area for us to work on more!
thanks, this is super cool. Does it have decent geometry export options?
Yep! For meshes we've got GLTF, OBJ, FBX, STL, and DAE. And then you can also export the 2D floorplan as SVG and DXF.
This is definitely the eventual answer. I can't imagine in ten years we will be hand measuring walls.
Oh, yes we will.
Unless you want to move all the furniture out of place (even in-built one), all the heavy stuff blocking edges and corners from view etc. Good luck with that bathroom sink or kitchen counter-top.
And angles and inequalities (eg. top edge vs bottom edge), that gets funny fast.
Unless you want to move all the furniture out of place (even in-built one), all the heavy stuff blocking edges and corners from view etc. Good luck with that bathroom sink or kitchen counter-top.
And angles and inequalities (eg. top edge vs bottom edge), that gets funny fast.
There are companies today like Matterport: https://matterport.com/ which leverage LiDAR to do high detail measurements and mapping for various applications.
My company uses them to measure prior to use creating build plans for remodels and I used them at my previous company to do high detail measurements in the context of real estate to make 3D tours of homes.
If the iPhone can eventually get to the point where Matterport is today with their tech then that's good enough for a huge number of use cases.
Pretty much everyone in the construction and remodeling industry right now is prepping for that as the future. We all know it's 3 to 5 years away and want to be the first one to get it right.
My company uses them to measure prior to use creating build plans for remodels and I used them at my previous company to do high detail measurements in the context of real estate to make 3D tours of homes.
If the iPhone can eventually get to the point where Matterport is today with their tech then that's good enough for a huge number of use cases.
Pretty much everyone in the construction and remodeling industry right now is prepping for that as the future. We all know it's 3 to 5 years away and want to be the first one to get it right.
Everyone is prepping for those self driving cars for the last 10 years, yet we are still swinging those steering wheels ourselves :)
There are certainly cases where LiDAR approach can work wonders. But as long as you need to do a couple of corrections manually, you'll need to have both set of tools at your disposal.
It will definitely augment current measuring approach (or rather, existing tools will be used to augment results coming from 3D scanning), but as soon as you have to pull out a laser or tape for one edge, your workflow is significantly more complex.
Not to mention that for cases where one might use SH3D, it'd be hard to tell an automated tool to ignore that 2"x2" "tooth" in one corner for just wanting to look at different furniture arrangement.
There are certainly cases where LiDAR approach can work wonders. But as long as you need to do a couple of corrections manually, you'll need to have both set of tools at your disposal.
It will definitely augment current measuring approach (or rather, existing tools will be used to augment results coming from 3D scanning), but as soon as you have to pull out a laser or tape for one edge, your workflow is significantly more complex.
Not to mention that for cases where one might use SH3D, it'd be hard to tell an automated tool to ignore that 2"x2" "tooth" in one corner for just wanting to look at different furniture arrangement.
isn't that all of the more reason to use a high-resolution 3d LIDAR point cloud - to get the exactly geometry? I hear your point about moving furniture, but you kind of need to do that anyway to get a measuring tape into corners.
Measuring tape is pretty thin and can get behind or just under a bunch of things: or a laser can when tape can't.
Basically, my point is that we'll need all three, and workflow won't be trivial to combine them.
Basically, my point is that we'll need all three, and workflow won't be trivial to combine them.
Couldn't ML be utilised to recognise furniture and remove it from the model?
Laser measuring tools avoid the need for a physical tape these days.
Mostly!
But then you need to measure "free standing" wall (when measuring the opening is not an option), and without someone to hold something flat at the other end for the laser to bounce off, measuring tape still wins.
Which is not to say that laser is not extremely useful: I generally use both.
But then you need to measure "free standing" wall (when measuring the opening is not an option), and without someone to hold something flat at the other end for the laser to bounce off, measuring tape still wins.
Which is not to say that laser is not extremely useful: I generally use both.
TBF that would be a good application of AI to infer what is clutter and what is not from the visual light image of the same space, the wall behind an object can simply be inferred from the sections of that wall that aren't occluded by the clutter. It might not catch some obscure cases where clutter obscures some anomalous part of the wall, but it'll be good enough in the other 99% of cases. Multiple viewpoints would probably deal with a large number of oddities too - much how photometry can get more accurate with more viewpoints already.
I found this youtube channel[0] has some pretty good walkthroughs (quite literally) of using various iOS apps to scan architectural spaces. The short answer is that the LIDAR and iOS APIs are remarkably powerful, but not 100% accurate. There are techniques to improve accuracy (e.g. using a gimbal), but ultimately you'll need to do tape or laser measurements and modify the models that these tools can build, or just model it yourself with the scan as a reference.
MagicPlan[1] and PolyCam[2] seem to be the most focused on building a schematic level building model which could be imported into other tools if needed. They both now take advantage of the Roomplan API[3] which Apple introduced in iOS and iPadOS 16[4]. MagicPlan has been out for ages[4] and originally just worked off the camera and the accelerometer to help build a floor plan. Polycam also supports photogrammetry[5] where you just take a bunch of photos and it builds a 3D model by interpreting what shape the object could be (I don't know if this is also used in architecture scale things, but it could be interesting for ID projects). Both MagicPlan and PolyCam allow you to tweak dimensions of rooms, doors, windows, furniture, etc. in a somewhat parametric way. This is where you likely want a laser measuring device to quickly update the dimensions. These can be used through Bluetooth to enter the measurements directly into the floorplans in MagicPlan[6]. I didn't try this, but if I was doing this all the time, it seems like it would be essential.
Matterport is starting to get into mobile[7] (phone, tablet) capture, but they've built their business up on their branded hardware and cloud platform. They provide floorplans as a service[8] and everything adds up, but from what I see in the real estate market, they are ubiquitous.
And if you want to spend a bunch more for very pro level app for documenting things like crime scenes, shipbuilding, infrastructure, etc. there's Dot3D.[9]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/@LiDAR3D
[1] https://www.magicplan.app
[2] https://poly.cam
[3] https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/roomplan/
[4] https://9to5mac.com/2022/06/15/ios-16-roomplan-api-3d-floor-...
[5] https://www.magicplan.app/about
[6] https://help.magicplan.app/laser-distance-meters#laser-tutor...
[7] https://matterport.com/3d-camera-app
[8] https://buy.matterport.com/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZxCDKTizs
MagicPlan[1] and PolyCam[2] seem to be the most focused on building a schematic level building model which could be imported into other tools if needed. They both now take advantage of the Roomplan API[3] which Apple introduced in iOS and iPadOS 16[4]. MagicPlan has been out for ages[4] and originally just worked off the camera and the accelerometer to help build a floor plan. Polycam also supports photogrammetry[5] where you just take a bunch of photos and it builds a 3D model by interpreting what shape the object could be (I don't know if this is also used in architecture scale things, but it could be interesting for ID projects). Both MagicPlan and PolyCam allow you to tweak dimensions of rooms, doors, windows, furniture, etc. in a somewhat parametric way. This is where you likely want a laser measuring device to quickly update the dimensions. These can be used through Bluetooth to enter the measurements directly into the floorplans in MagicPlan[6]. I didn't try this, but if I was doing this all the time, it seems like it would be essential.
Matterport is starting to get into mobile[7] (phone, tablet) capture, but they've built their business up on their branded hardware and cloud platform. They provide floorplans as a service[8] and everything adds up, but from what I see in the real estate market, they are ubiquitous.
And if you want to spend a bunch more for very pro level app for documenting things like crime scenes, shipbuilding, infrastructure, etc. there's Dot3D.[9]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/@LiDAR3D
[1] https://www.magicplan.app
[2] https://poly.cam
[3] https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/roomplan/
[4] https://9to5mac.com/2022/06/15/ios-16-roomplan-api-3d-floor-...
[5] https://www.magicplan.app/about
[6] https://help.magicplan.app/laser-distance-meters#laser-tutor...
[7] https://matterport.com/3d-camera-app
[8] https://buy.matterport.com/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZxCDKTizs
I have been playing with RTAB-Map and a Kinect, and exporting to various formats and it works reasonably well, but is still far from user-friendly. They also have a iOS version if you want to play around with it.
Ooh, I just found my old Kinect yesterday. I'll have to play around with this.
Download RTABMap and the OpenNI drivers and export as ply and use CloudCompare and MeshLab to play with the pointclouds. I am not a fan of the mesh function in RTAB-Map and there are some buggy options which insta-crash it on export. Meshlab is also super-buggy and has a terrible GUI. Have fun!
EDIT - PLY not PCL
EDIT - PLY not PCL
I have an app for creating large scale, drift free scans using iPhone: https://imagespace.app
There are several products out there that can create 2d, 3d renderings of a living space using the iphone lidar scanner. Not sure it they keep dimensions.
You (like me) are looking for a parametric modeler. SolveSpace is pretty good for that
>You (like me) are looking for a parametric modeler. SolveSpace is pretty good for that
OpenSCAD is my go-to since you just write code.
OpenSCAD is my go-to since you just write code.
I never figured out how to relate primitives to each other in OpenSCAD so my models were an endless soup of absolute position math. I used SolveSpace for a while and it was brilliant because what took hours in OpenSCAD took just a fraction of the time. And then I picked up the Maker license for Solidworks ($100/yr) and haven't looked back.
I rendered my whole house in Solidworks to plan for a remodel and it was extremely well suited for the job.
I rendered my whole house in Solidworks to plan for a remodel and it was extremely well suited for the job.
I'm going to try SolveSpace, but I'll look into that Maker license. Didn't know of that, and I can absolutely afford a grande-latte/month for a tool like that.
The nice thing about FOSS though is that it's worry free. I can keep OpenSCAD and Cura, and my projects will build years later without me having to think about it.
The stuff I built with 3DS Max educational license, though, is not accessible. So I am hesitant to jump ship for Solidworks (even though it's the industry standard).
The nice thing about FOSS though is that it's worry free. I can keep OpenSCAD and Cura, and my projects will build years later without me having to think about it.
The stuff I built with 3DS Max educational license, though, is not accessible. So I am hesitant to jump ship for Solidworks (even though it's the industry standard).
I come to HN for comments like this.
It’s been awhile since I’ve used this, but IIRC you need this plugin to be able to easily update dimensions without manually moving everything around: https://www.sweethome3d.com/support/forum/viewthread_thread,...
Ugh, thanks. I was hoping it'd be more parametric based, like Fusion 360, but alas seems not.
This was one of the unexpected extra benefits of having a robot vacuum with LIDAR, free accurate floorplan after one sweep.
Obviously you just get an image, but for what I needed (map in home assistant with sensors overlaid) it was enough.
Obviously you just get an image, but for what I needed (map in home assistant with sensors overlaid) it was enough.
The vacuum navigates and route plans based on the geometry, though, so chances are the actual map is on the device. Robot vacuums are competitive and plentiful enough to where there has to be one with a way to download the map from some endpoint on the device, or at least a way to pop it open and pull out some SD card. Of course, it’d probably be in a proprietary format, so transforming it into a usable mesh might be tougher than getting the data.
Those scanners are IIUC typically line scanners, though.
There was a startup in SF that tried to do that using iPhone video feeds as one walked around the room, but they went belly up recently and whatever tech they created was siphoned to another platform startup.
So few people use Metapost, it's undervalued! Feature request: add the output to the github repo so we can see the result?
> org-mode
Of course you did....
Gods above I love org-mode.
Of course you did....
Gods above I love org-mode.
Sweet Home 3D is pretty popular among users of the ha-floorplan add-on[0] for the Home Assistant home automation platform. It takes some work, but you can do some really cool things like show which lights are on, who is in what room of the house, etc.
[0] https://github.com/ExperienceLovelace/ha-floorplan
[0] https://github.com/ExperienceLovelace/ha-floorplan
I had a need for this kind of tool a while ago, and this was the ONLY decent option I found. I'm just wondering what alternatives are even available. I figured there must be some professional software for this, but if so, I don't know what it is.
I was pretty happy with this for whatever project I was doing at the time. I recently started using inkscape, for a general purpose drawing of my house. I can also include layers with other kinds of information like a circuit map. I can also include exterior information, like landscape design, buried utility lines, or assorted raster maps.
It just seems like a "whole-house visual diagram" software tool should exist.
I was pretty happy with this for whatever project I was doing at the time. I recently started using inkscape, for a general purpose drawing of my house. I can also include layers with other kinds of information like a circuit map. I can also include exterior information, like landscape design, buried utility lines, or assorted raster maps.
It just seems like a "whole-house visual diagram" software tool should exist.
This is pretty neat
https://home.by.me/en/
Agreed, I use it a lot for personal projects and it's quite straightforward to use while still pretty powerful. I'd just like to export the data somehow though
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I like magicplan[0]. It's not perfect, but I like that I can just point my phone around the room and tap on points to create a rough layout. You can add in precise measurements later if you choose to.
[0] https://www.magicplan.app/
[0] https://www.magicplan.app/
I‘ve been working with sweet home 3d a bit but then gave up on it after running into rendering issues.
Found https://pcon-planner.com/en/?privat=530&page=126 instead which is windows only and bon-open source but effectively free.
Pretty impressive stuff. Been very happy so far.
Found https://pcon-planner.com/en/?privat=530&page=126 instead which is windows only and bon-open source but effectively free.
Pretty impressive stuff. Been very happy so far.
> I figured there must be some professional software for this, but if so, I don't know what it is.
As an architect I can confirm that there's indeed a lot of professional software for this. The ones I usually work in are Revit and ArchiCAD, which are tailored for architects. Our interior architects also use Sketchup a lot. There's also more general-purpose CAD software like AutoCAD and Vectorworks available.
As an architect I can confirm that there's indeed a lot of professional software for this. The ones I usually work in are Revit and ArchiCAD, which are tailored for architects. Our interior architects also use Sketchup a lot. There's also more general-purpose CAD software like AutoCAD and Vectorworks available.
I think "floor plan app" is the keyword you want to use, there are a bunch of these. You draw a floor plan and then most of them can give you a 3d render based on that. I used floorplanner.com, but there are several options.
I figured there must be some professional software for this, but if so, I don't know what it is.
There's a whole category of such software, it's called CAD. The professional products are notoriously expensive.
There's a whole category of such software, it's called CAD. The professional products are notoriously expensive.
I'm quite familiar with CAD for the purpose of designing things from scratch. What I want to do is, essentially, create blueprints for an old, poorly designed and built house. The tools I have tried for this are not really well-suited to this task.
> this was the ONLY decent option I found
Can SketchUp do any of this?
Can SketchUp do any of this?
It can, but when I last looked, you needed the paid version to have similar features.
I recommend modeling in Blender and importing to Unreal, which has a library of furnishings and real time rendering.
But only if you budget the time for learning those. Blender might take several hours of tutorials just to be able to create an empty room in the shape of a regular, rectangular box.
Also Blender lacks support for exact measurements AFAIK.
I tried this approach but gave up after barely achieving a rough floor plan after a day's of work.
Also Blender lacks support for exact measurements AFAIK.
I tried this approach but gave up after barely achieving a rough floor plan after a day's of work.
It definitely takes some doing, and you're right about the measurements.
I often draft the floorplan in AutoCAD first, bring that into Blender...
But the results are amazing. I wonder if a powerful but easy interface could be built as a bridge /plugin for these tools.
I often draft the floorplan in AutoCAD first, bring that into Blender...
But the results are amazing. I wonder if a powerful but easy interface could be built as a bridge /plugin for these tools.
I kept the installer for the last free version of SketchUp around for exactly this reason.
Floorplanner is pretty good imo but it’s an alternative with roughly the same features and functionality
I used Sweet Home 3D to plan a major home renovation in our new (to us) house and it worked great.
I used Magic Plan on my iPhone to map the floor plan with LiDAR, converted the result to a 2D PDF, and imported that into SH3D. I then drew walls and doors and windows on top of that, effectively recreating the existing home. Then we started experimenting.
SH3D proved to be invaluable at understanding how to utilize existing walls and unproductive space to minimize renovation costs. Being able to “walk through” the various plans we considered was invaluable. And I couldn’t be happier with how my plans worked out.
SH3D has some rough edges and took some time to master. But the learning curve was worth it.
I used Magic Plan on my iPhone to map the floor plan with LiDAR, converted the result to a 2D PDF, and imported that into SH3D. I then drew walls and doors and windows on top of that, effectively recreating the existing home. Then we started experimenting.
SH3D proved to be invaluable at understanding how to utilize existing walls and unproductive space to minimize renovation costs. Being able to “walk through” the various plans we considered was invaluable. And I couldn’t be happier with how my plans worked out.
SH3D has some rough edges and took some time to master. But the learning curve was worth it.
I used this when planning out my apartment. I grabbed a floorplan from the listing ad, recreated it to scale in Sweet Home 3D, resized and recolored the bundled furniture models to match the dimensions and colors of furniture I was considering ordering online, found a layout I was happy with, and had everything ordered before I even moved in.
Sweet Home 3D was honestly really useful for giving me confidence that everything I was buying would work well together, and I’m very happy with the result.
Sweet Home 3D was honestly really useful for giving me confidence that everything I was buying would work well together, and I’m very happy with the result.
I did this with various different apartments trying to figure out which layout worked best with the furniture I already had (and the use cases I wanted to meet).
Used it for a full house renovation of a 125 year old house (merging a duplex to a single family and moving stairwalls). Was super valuable and used the drawings to get my plan approved by the city. The 3d view really helped in visualizing what the new spaces would feel like.
A bit of a learning curve but the flexible ability to import 3d models really helped. Now that i have every room in my house I can quickly test new furniture layouts.
Highly recommend it.
A bit of a learning curve but the flexible ability to import 3d models really helped. Now that i have every room in my house I can quickly test new furniture layouts.
Highly recommend it.
I'm moving to a new house in the next few weeks, so I'll be firing this up again soon. It was fun to model our current house, and it was very useful for figuring out interior design. I also used it to set up some floorplans in Home Assistant using https://github.com/adizanni/floor3d-card
And a 2D version with https://github.com/ExperienceLovelace/ha-floorplan
The home automation floorplan stuff was a fun project, but I don't really use it. I found that it's not as useful as a simple dashboard page with plain buttons and cards. But it was fun to work on just as a hobby, like painting models or setting up a model train set.
The home automation floorplan stuff was a fun project, but I don't really use it. I found that it's not as useful as a simple dashboard page with plain buttons and cards. But it was fun to work on just as a hobby, like painting models or setting up a model train set.
I use https://floorplanner.com for similar purposes (I pay $5/month). It is great at getting the floorplan nailed, but leaves a bit to be desired when trying to fill the space with accurate furniture, patterns etc. You can have multiple variations floor plans per level.
My gf uses https://foyr.com once we have the floor plan nailed to get an idea about what colors, textures & furniture to use in a space. It supports higher def renderings. It's kind of expensive though iirc.
My gf uses https://foyr.com once we have the floor plan nailed to get an idea about what colors, textures & furniture to use in a space. It supports higher def renderings. It's kind of expensive though iirc.
Sweet home 3-D is free. Does everything that you’re paying for and will still be around in 10 years.
I used floorplanner for my last remodel. It was great. The contracting company was really impressed by what I gave them.
I'd say it will take a few hours to get used to it and after that you can probably do most of what you want to do.
I'd say it will take a few hours to get used to it and after that you can probably do most of what you want to do.
Related:
Sweet Home 3D - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32325485 - Aug 2022 (2 comments)
Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21652888 - Nov 2019 (115 comments)
Sweet Home 3D - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32325485 - Aug 2022 (2 comments)
Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21652888 - Nov 2019 (115 comments)
I used this software to design my tiny house that I built with great success. It really helped me visualize the space. I didn't create an engineering ready floor plan with this so to speak. In other words, I intentionally left the measurements slightly relative which wouldn't work for most construction projects. In other words, if my bedroom ended up being 14ft by 10ft and 2 and 1/2 inches instead of 14x10' I was fine with that, it just meant other rooms slightly smaller. But give or take the width of dry wall and other factors it was worked fine. I found getting super precise measurements with this app difficult and so I didn't even try. I just let the guy building walls have a tad bit of freedom. Like I said, for most projects that would not work. Having said that, this app was a huge life savor and allowed me to really visualize the space and make key design decisions.
I used Sweet Home 3D to design my current house. I passed the desgin off to my contractor, who had it turned into blueprints. That was over 10 years ago, so I'm sure it has impoved.
It's free and open source, yet it's relatively user friendly. When I need to design another building, I definitely will use it again.
It's free and open source, yet it's relatively user friendly. When I need to design another building, I definitely will use it again.
The term "interior design" should, but does not, encompass what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do an ergonomic study of some workbench and shelf layouts, with instruments and displays and tools located on a shelf above the bench.
I'm tall, and when I lay out the shelves so they fit me, shorter people can't reach the knobs on the instruments. But if I just move everything down, I feel like I'm wasting space. And I don't want to just chain a short person to the chair for several hours while I build and rebuild shelves.
I feel like there should be ergonomic models for reach and view, for like the 5% and 95%ile of human sizes, but I can't figure out what this is even called.
I'm tall, and when I lay out the shelves so they fit me, shorter people can't reach the knobs on the instruments. But if I just move everything down, I feel like I'm wasting space. And I don't want to just chain a short person to the chair for several hours while I build and rebuild shelves.
I feel like there should be ergonomic models for reach and view, for like the 5% and 95%ile of human sizes, but I can't figure out what this is even called.
I used this when modeling a shed-to-house I built. Like most open source software, it's not SUPER polished but it's useful. Making basic walls, doors, windows, and placing furniture is fairly easy. It gets very complicated using their workaround for things like ceilings, roofs, and such but it's doable.
One great feature is being able to export a 1:12 scale reference for my shed builder. It took some very careful toying with background layers, but I was eventually able to get a large-scale Kinko's printout from a PDF where 1 inch on the printout = 1 foot in the real world.
One great feature is being able to export a 1:12 scale reference for my shed builder. It took some very careful toying with background layers, but I was eventually able to get a large-scale Kinko's printout from a PDF where 1 inch on the printout = 1 foot in the real world.
Not same, a bit harder but this is also free: https://pcon-planner.com/ and also has catalogs for actual furniture firms with actual items (where you need to register but most approve)
I've learnt this because the furniture firm designed a wardrobe for us with wrong dimensions and the designer lady was surprised that I showed them why they made wrong - they put the dimensions for outside of the wall, without taking in the account for wall thickness.
I've learnt this because the furniture firm designed a wardrobe for us with wrong dimensions and the designer lady was surprised that I showed them why they made wrong - they put the dimensions for outside of the wall, without taking in the account for wall thickness.
I didn't find a better solution for planning the layout of a house. It's basically like playing Sims; way easier to handle than e.g. SketchUp.
It can also export layers (or the whole building) as OBJ which is awesome for 3D printing or working with Twinmotion. I decorated my rooms in Twinmotion and did awesome high fidelity renders. You can even experience your building in VR!
Maybe one day there's an AI that helps you with planning a home.
It can also export layers (or the whole building) as OBJ which is awesome for 3D printing or working with Twinmotion. I decorated my rooms in Twinmotion and did awesome high fidelity renders. You can even experience your building in VR!
Maybe one day there's an AI that helps you with planning a home.
How is the workflow for going to vr? Do you need som fancy headset or would a quest 2 with a link cable work?
I must say it looks pretty good, wish I had tried it when I renovated my apartment.
But all the other similar software I tried ultimately were a big disappointment. In my experience, once the design is complicated enough they tend to fail: some objects start to glitch if you move them by a certain amount, I could never get the right angle between walls, etc. It seems to be difficult to implement a way to put robust set of constraints on geometry yet keep the software easy to use by everyone. Perhaps it works well with more rectangular designs where the walls all have the same thickness though, my place has some weird shapes.
Ultimately I gave up on specialized software and ended up re-drawing everything at scale in Affinity Designer. Of course, it's only 2D and it's basically free-form vector drawing but at least you control everything and it's not too complicated to create your own library of object like windows, doors etc et re-use that. I was very happy with the result.
But all the other similar software I tried ultimately were a big disappointment. In my experience, once the design is complicated enough they tend to fail: some objects start to glitch if you move them by a certain amount, I could never get the right angle between walls, etc. It seems to be difficult to implement a way to put robust set of constraints on geometry yet keep the software easy to use by everyone. Perhaps it works well with more rectangular designs where the walls all have the same thickness though, my place has some weird shapes.
Ultimately I gave up on specialized software and ended up re-drawing everything at scale in Affinity Designer. Of course, it's only 2D and it's basically free-form vector drawing but at least you control everything and it's not too complicated to create your own library of object like windows, doors etc et re-use that. I was very happy with the result.
>> It seems to be difficult to implement a way to put robust set of constraints on geometry yet keep the software easy to use by everyone
Maybe they could integrate the Solvespace constraint solver. It seems to be gaining popularity outside its original CAD program.
Maybe they could integrate the Solvespace constraint solver. It seems to be gaining popularity outside its original CAD program.
I tried to use Solvespace for a number of projects, but it seemed like it had essentially ~zero support for parametric repetition (e.g. putting one hole every 15mm), which made it basically useless for any semi-complex project. A home might be easier, as long as you don't have any design features like "put a light socket every 3 feet".
I’ve modelled my entire home with this in the past when planning major renovations etc.
As others have said it’s not slick but it has a good set of features and does the job well.
Interesting aside: it’s able to export to a fully interactive 3D model that you can embed in a browser! We used this feature to build an interactive trade stand during Covid at my company.
As others have said it’s not slick but it has a good set of features and does the job well.
Interesting aside: it’s able to export to a fully interactive 3D model that you can embed in a browser! We used this feature to build an interactive trade stand during Covid at my company.
I would love to get a copy of whatever the software was they used at the home improvement store when my parents bought cabinets back in 1990? I remember it running on an IBM PS/2 style machine (the all in one) and it had very slow wireframe graphics.
I find all of these packages cause a level of frustration which endangers my laptop. Fortunately my daughter is enrolled in the technical drawing curriculum at her high school. Last summer I had her create plans for our house in Autocad.
As someone with a moderate amount of CAD experience, and working with graphics applications in general such as Photoshop, I'm surprised by the mandatory modifier keys for all the keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl+Shift+anything is a horrible combination to hit with one hand while the other hand is on the mouse, which is the usual way one of these applications is operated.
That said, the compatibility is impressive --- which is not too surprising, given that it's Java:
Sweet Home 3D may be run under Windows 98 to Windows 11, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to macOS 13 (Ventura), various Linux systems and Solaris.
That said, the compatibility is impressive --- which is not too surprising, given that it's Java:
Sweet Home 3D may be run under Windows 98 to Windows 11, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to macOS 13 (Ventura), various Linux systems and Solaris.
Hah, I wish I knew about it before drawing part of my soon to be new house using Room Arranger (https://www.roomarranger.com/). Although from a quick run it seems that RA is easier to use but less powerful, which for someone who knows absolutely nothing about either graphics or house design like me isn't much of a problem. It would be nice if RA data could be imported into Sweet Home 3D; does anyone know of some external tool to do that?
I've successfully used SH3D to create plans for a 14'x24' workshop that a contractor then used to build it. A year later I used it to remodel 2 bedrooms with some funky closet arrangement and again gave the plans to a contractor to do the work.
It's got its quirks, but it's good enough to get a good idea of what things would look like. Most irritating is when its 3D viewer fails because of some random error as a separate window and has to be closed and reopened. Then again this was an older version. Maybe things got better since.
It's got its quirks, but it's good enough to get a good idea of what things would look like. Most irritating is when its 3D viewer fails because of some random error as a separate window and has to be closed and reopened. Then again this was an older version. Maybe things got better since.
Love SH3D. As others said, it takes some time to learn, but becomes pretty intuitive.
The ability to import and scale a background image is my favorite feature. I recently used it with a satellite image from my County's property line tool and planned a shed location. It was easy to measure setbacks and other obstacles. I even had fun translating the surveyor jargon on the deed to retrace the property lines.
The ability to import and scale a background image is my favorite feature. I recently used it with a satellite image from my County's property line tool and planned a shed location. It was easy to measure setbacks and other obstacles. I even had fun translating the surveyor jargon on the deed to retrace the property lines.
I live in a geodesic dome and sweet home isn't really suited to buildings that aren't comprised of 90 degree angles.
Other than that it;s a great little program.
Other than that it;s a great little program.
A few years ago I recall trying to use Sweet Home 3D and being dissatisfied, but I don't honestly recall why. Maybe it was taking me too long to figure it out.
I found Live Home 3D which is cross platform and purchased a license for it. I think it's free on Windows.
https://www.livehome3d.com/
I found Live Home 3D which is cross platform and purchased a license for it. I think it's free on Windows.
https://www.livehome3d.com/
Is there a place to find good 3d models to use in this software? I want to plan out a "computer lab" room in my home, so of course I wanted to map out where computers would go, which desks, at which heights, etc.. ... but I found that the models available on the software's site are relatively few...
I've been using Sweet Home 3d for a bit now and it has grown on me. When I first started it wasn't very intuitive at all, but after a bit it got better. Currently, I just use it to do floor planning and get a rough idea, and then I use Fusion 360 to actually layout the technical parts of the project.
We completely renovated our apartment about 3 years ago. We used Sweet Home 3D to help visualize our kitchen as we took out a wall and rearranged things.
Being able to model it and then “explore” it in 3D was really helpful to settle on our final layout. And especially since the designer we hired gave us one option that stunk.
Being able to model it and then “explore” it in 3D was really helpful to settle on our final layout. And especially since the designer we hired gave us one option that stunk.
Cool stuff! Will give it a try next time I need something like this.
I found https://floorplanner.com/ to be quite useful as well. The renders are good enough for me to feel like I am looking at the space rather than a sketch.
I found https://floorplanner.com/ to be quite useful as well. The renders are good enough for me to feel like I am looking at the space rather than a sketch.
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I used this for a recent home renovation project, highly recommended. It has everything I needed to layout a house and get a basic 3d rendering, it worked great. You can make a donation to help out the author on the homepage.
I used SH3D eight years ago to model my soon-to-be-remodelled kitchen. It worked great, as long as I was only going for appearance and sightlines; I wouldn't use it for planning anything precise.
I was looking for something like this, but for flexibility, stubbornness, and quick-and-dirty-ness reasons, I ended up just building the floor plan in blender. It's adequate I guess
A bit hidden (in the FAQ and in the SourceForge repository) but not only free: open source under the GPL :-)
I'm shocked SourceForge is still around. How are they making any money, and how can they employ half a dozen people?
I'm also surprised that Slashdot still owns SourceForge. Haven't both of these companies split ways and been through several different hands? ThinkGeek, etc.
I'm also surprised that Slashdot still owns SourceForge. Haven't both of these companies split ways and been through several different hands? ThinkGeek, etc.
Is it possible to set parametric constraints? After using CAD, paint-like tools seems like stone age.
I’ll see how well it handles my 1930s timber cottage that is well out of square!
So slow right now... looks like the server is getting a HN hug...
Archicad is amazing, but unfortunately, technically not free.
this thing is low key awesome. planned my renovations with it and my contractor was blown away. he offered (jokingly) to hire me to make models for other clients
This website has been around for quite some time.
sweet home is also an famicom game.
I came here to say the same thing. It's sort of survival horror by capcom, so same lineage as resident evil in a way. Only seven years before it, the jump in technology is mind boggling to me.
Why not ask ChatGPT to design your interior for you? ;)
I actually just had this thought as I was playing with it and manually adjusting lots of different dimensions. Seems like a great fit.
2004 called. They wanted their web2.0 design back.
I ended up throwing together something quick and dirty with Org Mode tables and Metapost: https://github.com/guidoism/wildwood/blob/main/house.org
It works pretty well and the output is pretty.