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Cabinet Design Software

6 years ago

Can someone recommend a free easy to use cabinet design or other software that will allow me to visually experiment with a few different design options for a set of cabinets in my kitchen? I am in the process of obtaining cabinet quotes and have requested a "buffet" style design in one area. I have shared a few Houzz photos with the designers but none really reflect the space I have available and none of the designs that have come back are particularly appealing to me. I need to decide if I want full length cabs, open counter space, glass fronts, drawers or doors. If I could experiment a bit and think through how I would use the storage space, I could confirm and communicate my ideas. I know the specific width and depth of the space from the KDs layouts, it is the front elevation I want to experiment with so I can better visualize the alternatives.

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Comments (4)

User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
2020 is the industry standard. It accepts the cabinet company catalogs as plug ins so that you build an orderable design from the drag and drop design. It’s far from free. As is any software that will actually do something.

Your KD should be working with you on this. Have you paid her the retainer to secure her actual design services? Or are you still shopping around? Shoppers get prices. They don’t get a lot of creativity. That comes at a price.
nehome
Original Author
6 years ago
I don't need anything as robust as 2020 or really even a cabinet design software...just trying to get the ideas I have swirling in my head into a visual. I could use graph paper but I'm guessing there is a simple software that is way easier. And yes I will be paying a retainer to finalize the plan with a KD but at this point wanted to sketch out a rough idea.
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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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kabir, I re-did my kitchen five years ago. I tried a half dozen Kitchen Design software offerings and found them either expensive, difficult to master with a steep learning curve, or more typically both issues! I ended up using ikea's FREE kitchen design tool. In that generally I used standard size cabinets, it allowed me to quickly move islands, peninsulas, sinks, etc. My cabinets looked nothing like the ikea cabinets, but it allowed me the ability to quickly make concept changes and run them past my wife. Also, she could look over my shoulder and explain why certain things would or wouldn't work. In the final analysis, I came up with the design using the free Ikea software and then turned over that result to my cabinet supplier for detailed design. I'm sure some will laugh, but give it a try. It's free and you'll know in less that a half hour whether it is any help to you! Here is a link that might be useful: Free Ikea Kitchen Design Tool This post was edited by saltidawg on Sun, May 4, 14 at 15:24
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Hi Guys, I'm using sweethome3d to generate floorplans and 3D visualizations of our space. It's free and it's java based so it will run on windows/mac and linux (which sketchup doesn't support, so this was key for me). It's not perfect and you have to go through a lot of hoops to do complicated things (slanted roofs with skylights specifically!), but if you screw with it enough you can do some pretty powerful things. Their lighting model isn't ideal (really? No diffuse and specular surfaces at the same time!?), but it's fairly easy to use. here's some shots of the layout I did with it (arrows and text were added after in another program) And the current work in progress rendering of the new space: Here is a link that might be useful: SweetHome3D
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I've just started to use the IKEA planner which I think is easy to use. It doesn't have the most number of sizes but could be a good starting point.
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Nicole
6 years ago
You can play around on Ikea.com using their cabinets. You'll get overhead and elevation views and 3D elevation views. 6+ years ago I got a copy of Chief Architect 9.0 and used that and it was very good for my purposes.
mshutterbug
6 years ago
I second the vote for ikea online. It has limitations in that you can only put in their cabinet sizes. But you can still get a pretty good visualization of what you want to do.

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