Kitchen/Home Design Software Recommendations

17 years ago

I'm just starting to plan my kitchen renovation and I'm trying to decide what kitchen design software to purchase. I'm a mechanical engineer and I work in 3D CAD all day long, but I've never designed a kitchen. I could just build the kitchen in my CAD package at work, but then I'd have to build all the components from scratch which would be very time consuming and possibly inaccurate. It would be nice to just be able to drop in cabinets and start playing rather than spending several weekends building cabinet models!

I would like to use the software now for working on my kitchen, but I may end up "building" my house in it and playing with other things, so I don't want to eliminate the home design software packages. My primary focus is on the kitchen though, so I don't want to sacrifice quality there to get the home design capability.

I could always go with pencil and paper, but I'm a hopeless sucker for a 3D rendering. I would also like decent representations of the kitchen with materials as I am not very good at choosing finishes and would like to see it before I buy it. I've tried a few of the free programs (Ikea's most recently) and have been frustrated with all the bugs and crashes. I'm willing to spend a little bit of money for this, but I don't want to go nuts!

So what design software do you all use? What are the pros/cons? Also if you have examples of things you've created in it that would be very helpful. Thank you all very much for your help. I'm sure I'll be asking for more help once I get started on layout. TIA!

Bri

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Comments (4)

bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
17 years ago
Bri - I found a previous thread discussing this topic (linked below). Also found another thread which is really focused on software but in which includes a number of mockups that were done using BetterHomes& Gardens software. related to this topic. In fact the first image is a BHG mockup and then, further down the post are several others.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0316084311514.html

Hope these help

Here is a link that might be useful: previous thread re software
lnhardin
17 years ago
I used the BH&G Home Designer Pro. Originally started with just the Home Designer, but got a LOT more functionality with the Pro. It has all types of furniture, cabinets, etc you can essentially drag and drop. You can do design and then switch to elevations or 3D. Lots more functions I can't even begin to list here. We even did detail stuff like put in the Latitude, longitude and time of year to figure out sun angles and how deep our overhangs needed to be. It was pricey, but SO worth it.

No access to architects here, so we essentially did our own design. It still shocks me when we visit the build site that the finished product actually looks like the design! Learning curve is a bit much for a non-designer, but if you are used to CAD programs, I suspect you won't have any problems.

House should be finished in June.
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rhome410
17 years ago
I use Chief Architect, which is the parent version of the less expensive Better Homes and Gardens softwares. I designed our house in CA, then my son, with help from his drafting instructor, who is an architect, did the construction drawings in AutoCAD. I have used AutoCAD, but I, too, am a sucker for, and somewhat dependent on 3D renderings and the Chief Architect products are great and very user friendly.

Mine does 2 types of 3Ds

Here is my kitchen in both:

And a photo of the real thing to compare:
bri29
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you all for your help! I'd read through the previous threads, but I'd already decided that the free programs weren't going to be enough for me. I just wanted to figure out where I'd get the best bang for my buck. Of course, now after seeing rhome's renderings, I want the expensive software! :)

Now I think I have to decide between the BH&G Suite and the Punch software packages. Either one of the ~$100 software packages seem to be pretty well reviewed, so it's going to be a tough call.

Thanks again,
Bri