Which software do you use/can you recommend for planning?

Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask you which software you use for floor plan design and maybe also for property planning? Maybe you have tested several and can comment on the advantages and disadvantages?

I myself have tried Sweet Home 3D and Avanquest Architect 3D Gold 2018.

Sweet Home 3D advantages:
- Free
- Super intuitive (I created a complete house within an hour with it (without interior furnishing). It can be operated very, very quickly.
- Great operation including 3D view.

Sweet Home 3D disadvantages:
- You cannot simply scroll right and left without drawing a wall or similar. The drawing area is basically limited to 2 m around the house (disadvantage if you want to place garages, but it can be circumvented with little effort)
- You cannot rotate buildings/objects (e.g., if you want to move a garage from one property boundary to the other). But you can rotate the entire thing with a plugin and thus indirectly also individual objects.
- No measurements possible. In my opinion the biggest problem is that Sweet Home 3D does not show you any dimensions. You have to click on every wall, every window individually to determine their dimensions and then write them into the plan by hand.

Avanquest Architect 3D Gold 2018 advantages:
- Measurements are entered automatically
- Whole rooms can be created and adjusted super quickly and easily via Quickstart

Avanquest Architect 3D Gold 2018 disadvantages:
- I have not yet found a way to return to Quickstart after finishing it to easily adjust a room or add rooms
- The program is not intuitive at all. Everything seems very complicated. Even adjusting a staircase.
- 3D view is very cumbersome and is not fun to use.
- In the first hour I could not figure out how to remove the ceiling of a room so that it is open upwards to the upper floor.
- Creating floors, ceilings and the like without creating a whole room seems somehow cumbersome.

As you can imagine, I discarded Avanquest Architect after about 60-90 minutes. It was no fun. I suspect you can do everything with it. But if everything is very cumbersome and counter-intuitive, you don’t want to work with it.

Maybe newer versions of Avanquest are better. Maybe you have good experiences with it. Maybe you know a program that combines the operation of Sweet Home 3D with the measurement capability of Avanquest.

I am curious what you use or can recommend. Whether free or paid.

Hi, I also use Sweethome3D,

As a disadvantage, I would add that sh3d cannot really build stairs. They are always 3D objects that get distorted when you change the dimensions. You can only change them as a whole, not distribute steps differently on the riser and tread.
Roof slopes get really complicated, automatic room height dimensioning does not work.

As an advantage, I would emphasize again that SH3D can not only generate 3D views but even allows a virtual walkthrough of the created rooms.
That has often helped me to better estimate room sizes and effects.
You just have to be careful not to take "impossible" positions, meaning standing in walls or something like that, because in reality you obviously can’t take such a perspective and you would be fooling yourself.

- You cannot rotate buildings/objects (for example, if you want to move a garage from one property boundary to the other). However, with a plugin, you can rotate the whole thing and thereby indirectly also individual objects.

Well, you can move if you select all building parts (hold Shift and click). Rotating is not possible, that’s true. But you can flip vertically and horizontally (which is called "flip" in the context menu).
Can you tell me the name of the plugin? I’m interested in that.

- No dimensions possible. In my opinion, the biggest problem is that Sweet Home 3D does not show you any measurements. You have to click each wall, every window individually to determine their dimensions and then write them down manually on the plan.

No automatic dimensions, that’s true, but there is the dimensioning tool.


I think SH3D is awesome for a free tool. I haven’t seen any other tool that’s nearly as powerful. Sure, some things require workarounds and are annoying. But hey, it’s free. I also believe that the entry barrier for semi-professional paid tools is significantly higher.

I use MagicPlan

Advantages: - free of charge - easy to use - the first 3D floor plans free - shows all dimensions when exporting - room names can be adjusted - rooms can be completely moved - furniture can be resized and much more

Disadvantages: - you cannot create exterior views

I'll find the link for you tonight. If I can't find it anymore, I'll post the plugin

Manual dimensions are possible, yes. But I find that super cumbersome. Especially since you have to recreate all of them if you change a single wall or adjust a layout somewhere.

Disadvantage of MagiPlan: unfortunately it's not available for Windows, but only as a mobile app. Or did I miss something?

Disadvantage of MagiPlan: unfortunately it is not available for Windows, but only as a mobile app. Or did I miss something?

ah yes true, I use it as an app on the iPad.

The disadvantage with SweetHome3D would then also be that it costs money for the Mac, 14.99 to be exact. I just tried to download it.

I will look up the link for you tonight. If I can't find it anymore, I will post the plugin

Links are not allowed here anyway. Simply posting the name of the plugin here is surely also interesting for others.

Manual dimensioning is possible, yes. But I find it super cumbersome. Especially since you have to create them all anew if you change a single wall or adjust a layout somewhere.

Yes, I thought that at the beginning too. Actually, it makes sense to first "draw" the dimensions and then the corresponding wall, if you want to apply the target measurements. Because SH3D always takes the center of a wall as the "anchor". It doesn't know whether you want an inside or outside distance. For the automatic area creations, you need overlapping walls. So yes, it seems annoying at first, but you actually get used to it very quickly and then even use it for the drawing process. There is also a quite active community. Maybe you can ask for tips there or someone programs, inspired by the questions and suggestions, a corresponding plugin (unfortunately I can't do something like that). I still find it really great for a free tool.