ᐅ Looking for good planning software for designing a private home

Hello everyone,

I have been searching for days—does anyone know of any planning software up to about 200€ (approximately $215) that could help me with my self-build project? I’m not looking for professional CAD drawings.

I bought software for 20€ (about $22) at a general retail store, but I threw it straight in the trash.

I would appreciate any tips—maybe some of you are using software and could share some advice.

Best regards,
Daniel

Clear answer: hire an architect. Use their knowledge to implement your personal requirements, because you will lose a lot if you don’t.
Building a house is a one-time event, and you save in the wrong place if you design it yourself. Take your requirements seriously and have them executed, and you will be pleasantly surprised at what is possible.
When I think about how my floor plan looked when I tried to design it myself and what the result was… wow…

Designing with CAD

Please do not,...

Best regards

That’s exactly the problem... how are you supposed to design if you don’t know the rules and possibilities?
Besides, this limits your perspective because eventually you find something you like and then focus everything on that.
It’s better to look at floor plans available online through Google. They work well and can provide inspiration if you really want to create something yourself.

What I can highly recommend is Google SketchUp, which is free and offers almost limitless possibilities after a short learning phase. The online database is especially helpful for furnishing, as it provides many furniture pieces to download. If you can't find what you need, you can also create items yourself within the program. As a beginner, I took about 3 hours to design our TV cabinet, and every piece of furniture after that takes a little less time.

What SketchUp cannot do (at least as far as I know) is dimensioning, which is quite important sometimes. So far, this is just about a potential floor plan, and I don’t find the program particularly great for that. Afterwards, I also created a 3D model of our house. It was fun to do, but it’s difficult to add interior walls properly—you can basically look straight through from the window on one side all the way through to the garage on the other side.