Sweet Home 3D is an open source utility that enables you to create your own design plans for your house or rooms. This program comes as a free alternative to using professional CAD tools that are feature-rich but cost a great deal of money.
You have access to several sample projects, a comprehensive help manual, and a straightforward interface. So, you won't need much computer and architectural design experience in order to work with this tool.
Once you finish delimiting the rooms of your house, simply drag-and-drop the elements you need over your home plan. You can include elements such as furniture pieces, electronics, kitchen items, and many others. The program enables you to adjust the size of the included elements and rearrange them whenever you see fit.
Another great advantage is the fact that the utility provides you with 2D and 3D view modes. Plus, once you finish altering your project, you can print your home design directly from the program's interface.
A couple of things bother me about this tool: its Mac App Store provides you with more features (but with a cost), it supports a few file formats when exporting your designs, and the fact that you need to install an additional program in order to work with Sweet Home 3D (Java).
Still, Sweet Home 3D is a free utility that might come in handy to both beginner and professional architects or home designers. It's feature-rich, works OK, and is intuitive.
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