Free Floor Plan Software – Free House Plan Software

(Image created with Sweethome3D by Anhmax)

Sweet Home 3D is an open source interior design application that allows people to draw a layout of their home, test new furniture arrangements before actually trying them out, and finally visit the virtual home in 3D view.

It is quite powerful and extensible, but it remains relatively simple to use even for people who know very little or nothing about home design.

The application is available online and can be downloaded.  You need to have your java installation bang up to date to use it online but it takes you through this installation if online is the way you want to go.

I decided to download it. (http://sweethome3d.com/)

Getting Started

The application is available online and can be downloaded.  You need to have your java installation bang up to date to use it online but it takes you through this installation if online is the way you want to go.

I decided to download it.

There’s no tablet version available, but hey, we won’t hold it against Sweethome3D.  I’m sure Emmanuel would be delighted if someone out there with coding skills came to the party with an app version.

Drawing a Floor Plan

Sweethome3D is perhaps not quite so intuitive to use as the other free floor plan software applications I’ve reviewed, but it’s by no means hard to use either.

To make walls you need to click on the create walls button (on the top, tiny little button), or use the plan –> create walls menu sequence.  Then you click at the start of the wall and double click at the end of the wall, or click and drag.

The dimensions increment 5cm at a time.  To enter dimensions, use the plan –> modify walls menu option then there’s quite a few options for placing the wall on the page and entering an exact length.  Angles are also shown while making tilted walls.

You can change the unit using the File –> Preferences menu option.

Next to the ‘create wall icon’, there is an option to include dimensions next to each wall; a useful feature. Another option is to draw rooms with the area space calculated. You can label your rooms as well!

To clone a floor all you have to do is go to plan, and ‘add new level’. A new tab indicating the levels pops up. For example Level 0 means your ground floor. And level 1 means the first floor.

What’s even better is that you can place your levels on top of each other and create a multistory house that can be seen in 3d view as well.

To help you learn how to get the best out of Sweethome3D you’ll be presented with a useful pop-up box every now and again with a helpful tip.

You can make curved walls with Sweethome3D but it’s not obvious how.

1. Select the walls button.
2. Hold down the CTRL key.
3. Imagine the flat wall from where your curved wall extends from.
4. Make a left click and another left click along the flat wall (still holding CTRL)
5. Move the mouse around to create the arc you want (still holding CTRL)
6. Another left click when you’ve got the arc you want to lock it in.
7. Now you can let go of CTRL

It took me a few gos at this to get used to it.  If you want to create a circular room do two semi circles.

To add doors, windows and stairs, you simply have to go to each respective folder, click and drag, and then drop the item onto the floor plan. The company that made each furniture item can be seen if you hover your mouse over each individual item.

I found the availability of types of doors and windows sort of limited. Good news though: you can import any furniture piece from the net if it is compatible with the application.

It’s easy to adjust the height of the doors and windows.

Putting in the Furniture, Fixtures and Fittings

Adding furniture and changing the size is easy.  You can change the size of things using that panel in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

The choice of furniture is pretty limited, but you will probably find what you need in the libraries.

Taking a Look in 3D

This is the most interesting feature of this software. While creating your 2d plans, you can see your 3d floor plan being developed as well underneath in a new window. This really helped to get doors and windows right in place.

An option to take a snapshot of the 3d view is also available and so is creating a video of a walk through! You need to set up and pick up the points on the plan through which you want to create a video.

There is also an option to take a virtual tour around the house and take snapshots as you move around.

There’s also a sunlight function to show you how the home will look at any particular type of day.  First of all, make sure the compass is set correctly. You can rotate it round.

Then open the 3D View –> Create Photo option.  Move the slider to one of the right most quality settings (best, or the one just below) and the fields to enter details about what time of day you want to take a look at appear.  Enter the details and click on Create.

Other Features

Saving

Saving is easy.  With the downloaded version files are saved in Sweethome3D format.

Sharing

The downloaded version doesn’t have any built in features for sharing, but I managed it with the video – I just sent it myself on email and then posted on Facebook.

Importing

You can import a background image to trace (or for any other purpose you fancy) by using the Plan –> Import Background Image menu option.  Formats supported are BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG.

Formats / Exporting

Apart from saving in Sweethome3D format that we’ve covered another choice for exporting is to print to a pdf file, or save as an svg or obj file.

The other thing you could do is to take a screen shot, then paste it into a basic graphics program and save as a jpg or png, video or whatever.

Printing

To print it’s good old File –> Print.

To print to scale use File –> Page Set Up.

Help Available

I hope this review will help you get started.  When you get more into it, a proper guide on how to use this software is written on the website. If that doesn’t cover it you can use the forums or you can contact the help team directly through email.

Summary

Let’s finish with a bit of a recap of this Sweethome3D review.

Feature	Yes / No	Notes
Completely Free	Yes	Totally – it’s freeware.
Online Application	Yes	Available online or to download
Tablet Version	No	It’s freeware so go ahead and program your own!
Easy to Use	Yes	I’m going to give it a yes here.  It’s slightly less intuitive than other applications but with the tips and knowledge of programs like PowerPoint it’s pretty easy to get to grips with.
Enter Dimensions	Yes	Read through the review to find out how to enter dimensions in Sweethome3D
3D View	Yes	Not only a 3D view but a 3D room photos and 3D walk through as well!
Import Floor Plan	Yes	Yes – bmp, jpg, gif, png supported.
Print	Yes	Print both 2D and 3D views.
Print to Scale	Yes	Use Page Set Up
Save in Common Format	No	Not really. It’s Sweethome3D format, or export to a pdf.
Share	No	No easy peasy sharing available.
Help Available	Yes	Good manual supported by forums and help email.