ᐅ Software for designing residential buildings, both exterior and interior

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a program that allows me to be creative and design my own house individually – both inside and outside (including the house style, such as a Frisian house, town villa, etc.).

I don’t need a professional-level software, but it should allow for some individuality. The budget for the start is a maximum of 50 euros (about 50 US dollars), preferably less. If that is unrealistic, I would also like to know!

Thank you very much!

Hello,

are you familiar with Sweet Home 3D? I use it for our planning. It’s free and quite comprehensive. You can also import custom or online 3D models of furniture and other items.

Drawbacks:
- It’s not possible to design and display roofs. Gable ends can be created, but require considerable effort.
- Uneven terrain heights cannot be modeled.
- The overall user interface is somewhat fiddly – I’m not sure how it could be improved, but sometimes it can be frustrating [emoji2]

Yes, I have experienced that as well. I was looking for something more practical 😉 As I said, I’m willing to spend a few euros if it’s something reliable. But it has to be able to meet the goals mentioned.

For me, it’s mainly about the exterior design at first, less about the interior...

Very few programs focus on the exterior design.
There is another tool, but I can’t recall the name right now.

Roofs can also be created in Sweet Home 3D, but it is a bit more complicated since the software does not really support this feature by default. However, you can find many downloadable elements for interior and exterior use on various websites, and with some practice, you can design the exterior of your house. I have also seen examples online with different terrain heights, but I am still not quite familiar with that myself. To be honest, exterior visualization is partly only possible with some fiddling, I must admit 😉.

Even if this program might not be the right choice for you, @TE, I just wanted to mention it briefly here. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recommendation for a more suitable program.

I am attaching a screenshot from Sweet Home that I created.

I can only agree with the previous speakers; we also designed everything using Sweet Home 3D. It worked very well for the exterior, interior, roof slopes, garden design, as well as furnishing. The trick is to download and integrate as many object extensions (e.g., furniture) as possible.