#Vestaware floorplan plus 3d software#
I've used the programs to rearrange all the shelves and displays in my store a number of times - in `virtual reality.' It's fun."Īlthough marketed to general consumers, many of the buyers are professionals such as interior designers, landscapers and remodelers, says Tom Sibbio at ComputerEasy, a software company. Now just about anyone, after a bit, can actually design a kitchen or a deck, at least on the screen. "Everyone wants to design a dream house, it's the American Dream. They're easy enough finally that people can sit down and get drawing," says Bruno Santos, owner of Bruno's Computer Superstore in Tukwila.
"People are really excited about the new programs. Other programs, especially the older DOS-based ones, can be confusing and have more difficult commands to master.
#Vestaware floorplan plus 3d windows#
Most have scaled-to-size "libraries" of furniture, cabinets and appliances to drop into a floor plan many offer color palettes to help users visualize how their dream space will look.īroderbund's 3D Home Architect and ComputerEasy's FloorPlan Plus/3D for Windows, for example, are sophisticated but friendly programs that make it relatively easy to use on-screen "toolbars" to put together rooms with walls, doors, windows and furniture and three-dimensional views. These programs look and work much like those used at home-improvement stores, although some of the newer ones are faster and have more realistic graphics. In the past two years at least a dozen home-design programs have been produced in the $15-to-$150 range. "Many of us with classical training still design first on paper, but then we put it on the computer for easier revisions."Īs faster computers and better, more affordable software have become available the number of design programs for nonprofessionals has grown. "I was trained on paper, it's so much faster for me to sketch out a design than think on a computer," explains architect David Balas. But until recently those programs have been complex and expensive even many professionals have resisted moving from pencil to machine.
If only it was as easy as playing computer games!Ĭomputer-assisted design (CAD) programs such as AutoCAD have been used in architecture and other professions for more than a decade. The promotional material of companies making home-design software would lead even a computer novice to believe that anyone can turn on a computer, slip in a disk and quickly rearrange the living room furniture or design a new house or garden.
It looks so easy: crisp, colorful, computer-designed floor plans, three-dimensional interiors, bathrooms, kitchens, decks and yards.