Create a floor-by-floor house plan, decorate it with a furniture from a wide variety of catalogs then view the results both in two and in three-dimensional images.
Sweet Home 3D can help you draw a sketch of your home, arrange its interiors and visualize the results in 3D views. The program has a simple interface, which is divided into four main panels. One of them is the floor plan, the second holds the 3D preview, the third contains an object library, and the last one shows a list of the active objects and their properties. The tool is quite easy to use, provided you have some knowledge of technical drawing and a good spatial perception.
It is a good idea to start by drawing the walls on the floor plan. This way, you will have the limits you need for each of the house’s spaces. After that, you can drag and drop objects from the library, including pieces of furniture, equipment, lights and others, such as staircases, workbenches and curtain rods. These objects can be modified to match the exact measures. Similarly, their properties can be changed, including color, texture and shininess. Moreover, they can be positioned with accuracy even on the Z axis.
All the changes you make on the floor plan are automatically reflected on the 3D preview. However, the tool does not allow making changes directly on the 3D model. Good news is that two types of views are allowed: aerial and virtual visit. And, if you want to make a presentation of your work, you can even create a video.
The program´s features can luckily be expanded with plugins. It is great that you are allowed to import texture collections. Likewise, as it supports 3D models created with other tools, it is possible to download and import complete libraries using the furniture import wizard.
All in all, Sweet Home 3D is a free design application that may come in handy when you are remodeling your home or planning where to put the furniture. It has the limitation of not allowing to design exteriors or gardens. You should also know that it requires a large quota of system resources and may not work unless your system is using the latest 3D rendering software. Fortunately, there is also an online version of this program that you can use from your browser.
v5.1 [Oct 6, 2015]
Fixed a regression that prevented to easily select an object placed in a selected room.
Fixed a bug that generated wrong SVG files for plans containing texts with the default font.
Fixed a bug that could prevent to reopen a SH3D file saved with its furniture list sorted on Color or Texture columns.
Removed unexpected surfaces displayed at the ground in 3D and matching objects at n-2 levels under the ground.
Fixed wrongly computed cutout of staircases in the upper floor for some layouts.
Fixed some 3D rendering issues on rooms at ground level under Mac OS X with Java 6.
Fixed the management of icons and models referenced more than once in a SH3F or SH3T file edited with the Furniture Library Editor or the Textures Library Editor.
Updated German, Japanese and Swedish help pages.
Upgraded Java 3D to version 1.6.0-pre12 / JOGL 2.3.2 beta for the Mac OS X version run with Java 7 / 8.
Replaced JRE 8u51 by JRE 8u60 in Sweet Home 3D installers bundled with Java under Windows.
Other minor bugs fixes and enhancements.
Create a floor plan for your home and start adding walls and textures
Review 2D and 3D designs without using the application they were created in
