Does anybody have any recommendations? Haver tried googling and come up
with a number of possibilities, but would like to hear if anyone has any
particularly favourable experience.

I'm looking for something like estate agents might use, or those
Beeny-esque TV programmes. Strong preference for something free, or at
least shareware.

Thanks
David

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:23:49 +0100, Lobster wrote:

Does anybody have any recommendations? Haver tried googling and come up
with a number of possibilities, but would like to hear if anyone has any
particularly favourable experience.

Urgh - keep us posted. I went through this a while ago and the 'solutions'
all seemed to be either too complicated, too much work (no libraries of
'useful' bits available), too crap, or saved in some utterly random
format rather than anything remotely standard. I gave up and just drew
everything on good ol' dead trees.

Seems like there's an opening for simple software to do this, because it's
not exactly rocket science. If only Inkscape had a usable tape measure
feature it'd probably be the best bet - but I think that's been a work in
progress for several years now.

cheers

Jules

In article , Lobster
writes
Does anybody have any recommendations? Haver tried googling and come up
with a number of possibilities, but would like to hear if anyone has any
particularly favourable experience.

I'm looking for something like estate agents might use, or those
Beeny-esque TV programmes. Strong preference for something free, or at
least shareware.

Take a look at Room Arranger http://www.roomarranger.com/ , $20
shareware for the latest version.

I've used it for quite a few room and office layouts. It has its quirks
but I'd say it's worth the $20. I've not use the 3D viewing.

There's still an old freeware version available (v3.26) which may be
enough for your needs but it's not as polished as the current version:
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page31.html
--
fred
BBC3, ITV2/3/4, channels going to the DOGs

Possibly more complicated than you want (though simple to use
nonetheless) - SketchUp - http://sketchup.google.com/

It's capable of doing those 3D fly-throughs that Grand Designs so
loves.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Lobster wrote:

Does anybody have any recommendations? Haver tried googling and come
up with a number of possibilities, but would like to hear if anyone
has any particularly favourable experience.

I'm looking for something like estate agents might use, or those
Beeny-esque TV programmes. Strong preference for something free, or
at least shareware.

Thanks
David


I use a package called - would you believe - FloorPlan 3D, from IMSI. I got
mine free on the Coverdisc of PCPlus Magazine a few years ago, but you can
buy the current version from the likes of Amazon for about £20. It enables
you to create a 2-D plan view, and then place 3-D walls, doors windows,
roofs, etc. on it - and then render the image to look (more or less!) like a
photo of the finished building. You can hide layers so as, for example, to
see inside with the roof removed and you can do walk-throughs etc. You can
furnish the rooms with tables, chairs, fire-places, bathroom suites, etc. -
except that the standard fixtures are somewhat Americanised (although they
can be customised).

As with any CAD-type package, you have to invest some time in learning how
to get the best out of it - but you can produce some fairly impressive
results without *too* much effort. There's a reasonable amount of on-line
help available (contributed by third parties IIRC) with tips on how to do
end gables, etc.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:23:49 +0100, Lobster wrote:

Does anybody have any recommendations? Haver tried googling and come up
with a number of possibilities, but would like to hear if anyone has any
particularly favourable experience.

I'm looking for something like estate agents might use, or those
Beeny-esque TV programmes. Strong preference for something free, or at
least shareware.

Thanks
David

ISTR that Ikea had something like that; don't know if it's any good.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

RubberBiker wrote:
Possibly more complicated than you want (though simple to use
nonetheless) - SketchUp - http://sketchup.google.com/

It's capable of doing those 3D fly-throughs that Grand Designs so
loves.

And, loads of library components downloadable from the Google website.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
PeterC wrote:


ISTR that Ikea had something like that; don't know if it's any good.


I've a feeling that that just does internal stuff, based - of course - on
Ikea products.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!