Tell me about your 3D design software

14 years ago

I am in need of buying a good 3D design software for my kitchen remodel. I really want to put in colors and realistic wood grain to see how it will look. I am looking at modern look to the house, so a software that has glass, stainless steel, grain matched veneer in different species of wood in the palette would be most helpful.

I see many of you with great looking 3D pictures that you have posted. Any reviews? Any suggestions? Price?

If you have software you like, I would very much appreciate it if put up a sample of 3D of your design. If not, a web site to help me evaluate the product would be much appreciated.

I am playing with Google Sketch Up, but I have not found an easy way to put things like handles/pulls and wood grains on cabinets.

Thank you for your help.

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Comments (5)

rhome410
14 years ago
Check out the link for software I like. You can get it for lower prices than the MSRP they list.

Here is a link that might be useful: BH&G software by Chief Architect
hgluckman
14 years ago
I've been using Google SketchUp for 2-3 months now. I think it's great, but you need to remember that it's a very generic modeling tool as opposed to being a kitchen design tool specifically.

In order to get wood grain on the cabinets, you need to find a good tileable (no light variation) picture of the wood you're looking for. There's a lot of resources on line that you can find with some searching. There are threads on this at Sketchucation.com.

You might find some handles in the 3d Warehouse, or you can make your own as a component, and "attach" them to your cabinets. That's a fiddley process, but looks great when it's done.
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Ok, two votes for one and two for the other? This is just about where I started :) But somehow it helps anyway to get the different opinions. rhome, thanks for your offer, if you can do it in any nearest future it would be great (and I promise, no big expectations). If you can't, not a problem. I am already amazed at the input you are able to provide here while raising such a big family. as far as malhgold's idea, I love open shelving in kitchens in magazine photos. But in our case I think we'd give up too much practical storage if we changed that cabinet to open shelves and the adjacent cabinets to glass. It would limit us to dishes in all three. With wood doors, i could have my everyday dishes in the cabinet to the right of the sink and any other kitchen items in the cabinet to the left. Another concern is dust since we wouldn't have items we use and clean daily on the upper shelf above the sink. So whatever goes there would have to be dusted regularly. Also we have those other glass cabs on the other side, so it could end up being too much glass all together. So as you cal tell I sort of talked myself out of that idea. And I did check the 12" cabinets, they are 10.5 deep inside and i've taken my plates and pots down there for a "trial fit". Also, we may be able to move the lower cabs out by 0.75" and make the uppers 13" and 10" deep which would be great. I just have to confirm with the KD after the final measurement they did this week that we have enough room by the basement door.
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lucretzia
14 years ago
My DH uses Architectural Home Designer 9 from Chief Architect and marketed by BH&G. It's not particularly cheap but has been great for experimenting with ideas - especially for renovation.

DH is happy not to have to draw everything up with pencil and paper! :-)

You can check out some images DH created for me on the GW thread...
Custom refrigerator panels - opions on best design
and our own site
Layouts
rhome410
14 years ago
I think the nice thing about the Chief Arch/BH&G software is that it's user friendly. You might not know all the tricks for perfecting details without using it awhile, but you can create a 3D in no time. The other thing is that there are so many versions, so you don't have to get an expensive one, and there may be some older versions out there for less, too...But, of course, the newer ones have more material and appliance options, so are more fun. :-)

Here are 2 kinds of renderings of my kitchen design and how the kitchen is turning out so far:

And here is a rendering I did for Malhgold and the link below is a thread in which you can see her kitchen and how it compares to the drawing (there were some design changes next to the fridge and in the island after this rendering was made, but this is the latest one I had loaded on photobucket):

Here is a link that might be useful: Malhgold's thread with photos
kaismom
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks a bunch. I will check it out!

Tell me about your 3D design software

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Tell me about your 3D design software

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