Home Designer Professional 8
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You can also set up plans like this by opening a template file plan that is already on the software and changing any styles you like and saving the blank plan so you always start with the same defaults for any drawings. It will take awhile of playing around with the program to figure out all the styles and other things you are going to be using so it would be a good idea to find out all you can before starting your project well ahead of time.
This software suite has included a great set of templates for various styles with eight main choices when you start a new plan. The styles are things like Colonial, Urban Chic or American Casual and basically mean the main color scheme of wood and paints used. You can choose one of these, especially when you first start to use the program, and later change the default settings when you get to know more.
All the settings from the wall siding and color, trim color and type, molding, type of materials and just about anything you can think that could be changed is in the default settings. This way when you start out your design you can set up defaults with things you know are available to you for building and with what you want to build.
Building a home from the designs you create is the ultimate goal and the Home Designer 8 Pro is a great tool to use that adds so many features above the other versions. This version has a host of tutorial videos to help you as well as the fully featured automated tools like framing, roofing and advanced cabinet tools.
You can do things like designing cabinet fronts or create countertops that are unique and particular to your situation and take these designs as a blueprint to a company and show them what you want. The program has some great features like roof designs and being able to change the roof planes so you have realistic designs that a construction company can use.
If you are worried about taking your final blueprints to a contractor you should not, there is even a checklist that helps you with the permits and what you need to worry about for building codes called the IRC Residential Design Checklist. This list will guide you through all the various items that need to be covered on your designs and ensure you have at least the minimum things on it.
Some people might say that this is all too much work and time to put into a home design but you can stand out as an individual among all those cookie cutter home owners. You can proudly design your home and add the things you want as well as change things later if you find some things are just too costly without having to go back to the drawing board and pay that designer again to redo your plans.
There are several sites that have lists of helpful guides for what you will need for drawings and this program has no problem creating all of them. Of course you may need to leave some of it up to the contractors due to laws or zoning or just things like actual wall construction because you don’t want to bother with it but the Home Designer 8 Pro can do all of it if you want to.
I took a home design I have been playing with and worked on all the new features in this version without any problems; foundation plan, floor plan, elevations, details, sections and interior elevations are all here. I had no problem getting the hang of what these types of drawings were and how to accomplish them. Of course I would have to put more work in on them if I was to print them out and take them to a city for permits or a construction company.
That is what this whole program is all about though, taking an idea of what you want your home to be, realizing it on the screen and taking those plans to reality. You can easily do that with the Home Designer 8 Pro and then some, automatic and custom roofing, framing, lighting, camera views and much more.
You can do so much with Home Designer 8 and the Pro version has the top of the line features like custom roofing and cabinet tools so you can create the design you want and not go with the one the program only has. You can customize the roof planes, the foundation planes and other main things so you can have the main structure you want to start with.
The camera is another feature that has been let loose in this version with not only being able to move the camera around on the plan but total control. You can open up your design in full 3D view and pan, tilt or move that camera in all dimensions as well as rotate and move the plan around to get any view you would like. You can also change the time of day and landscaping to see what your final work will look like at different times of the day or year.