Tech: Interior Design Software
Decorating a home dwelling can be a straight forward affair: determine the function of each room, add furniture, then apply style. When planning to decorate a retail space or special event, your interiors can have a much wider variety of needs. To keep you and your team (if you got one) organized and productive when doing a floor move or decor installation, creating a map of your project space will help you better visualize the area. Architects, Contractors and Interior Designers will always start with an idea on paper before works begins. By adopting their process will allow you to understand your design challenges before the first fixture is moved. No drawing skills? Can’t make your plans as fancy as an architect? Don’t worry, your plans need only be understood by you. The goal is to define your working space by establishing it’s particular design needs. To help you visualize your tasks at hand, we recommend a couple of handy applications for your next big project.
Google Sketchup
Acquired by Google a few years ago, Sketchup is a powerful yet easy 3D application that delivers professional results for exterior or interior modeling and object creation. Adopted by many architects as a sketchpad for visualizing concepts to clients, Sketchup is the main tool for those who need quick results without the hassle of learning a dedicated 3D or CAD program. Google has released a free version that will fit most users needs and Pro version which enables more features. Google supports Sketchup with online tutorials and seriously large library of 3D objects to use (including real models from official vendors like Maytag and Kenmore). Within a few hours you’ll be building like the pros.
Sweet Home 3D
Another popular program for interior design and modeling is Sweet Home 3D, a European application that is well supported on multiple systems and comes in various languages. Similar to Sketchup, Sweet Home 3D excels at rapidly building a floorplan from a sketch or scan of an existing plan. Users can work in a 2D interface while seeing a three-dimensional representation in another window, handy when spinning around an object gets tiring. The support for Sweet Home 3D is not as robust as Google would provide, but their website does have the necessary tech support and forums.
If you’re dreading a particular renovation or need some accuracy when planning the next event, consider testing your theories in the virtual world first, your back will thank you for it, just remember to take good measurements!
