Autodesk Homestyler vs Sektchup for interior design

[dominoman]

I want to plan out a few rooms of my house that need total redecoration, new fireplace, furniture etc.

To make sure everything fits I have been trying the two main free design tools, Sketchup and Autodesk Homestyler.

Has anyone used either of these?

First impressions are that they are both very powerful, and both have loads of online help and libraries of components. My feeling is that Homestyler seems to give slightly nicer images of internal design, whereas Sketchup may be better if doing remodelling or whole house design.

Any thoughts? I want to choose which one before I spend too long learning to use it.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I don't know the Autodesk Homestyler product so I cannot comment on whether or not it produces a "prettier" image, but I am familiar with Sketch-Up, which has a large user community and loads of people able to give support on the net. I agree that either will have a (steep) learning curve, but it helps to learn software and figure out work-arounds (and there are always work-arounds) if there are other users who's knowledge/assistance you can call upon. Other than paid support, what sort of user community does the Autodesk product have?

 

[dominoman]

Autodesk Homestyler's support and user community seems to be just as active as Sketchup.

I really like both of them. Just need to decide which is more suited for what I need (interior design) before I invest my evenings in mapping out the house

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Autodesk Homestyler's support and user community seems to be just as active as Sketchup.

Certainly amongst woodworkers forums there's absolutely no sign of the Autodesk product, yet on at least half a dozen woodworking forums there's a section on SketchUp. Similarly there are far more books on the market for SketchUp than there are for Autodesk's product. Support isn't just a matter of the OEM's web site, you know.

From taking a quick look at the Autodesk product it is more of a room layout product which seems to require CAD elements (such as furniture designs) to be built on another product outside of the application whereas SketchUp allows you to build 3D models of furniture pieces within the application as well separately and then to import them into room layouts you've created. In SketchUp you can resize elements (furniture pieces), whereas in the HomeStyler site states that, "at the moment, you are not able to resize products........... Only products that can be altered in real life will be able to be resized. This means that the products will only come in the shapes, sizes and colors in which they are sold.". This seems to confirm my view that the application is a room layout program which requires external libraries of plug-in CAD elements. Good luck finding them for a lot of things. I've worked with kitchen design products like that in the past - they were fast and easy for doing basic outlines for the client, but when it came to dealing with detail they were less than useful. So, the products are chalk and cheese.

TBH SketchUp seems to be the more versatile product but with a steeper learning curve (depending on what depth you want to go to). It has the plus that it is available for free (non-professional version) or around £300 or so for the Pro version and does not an Internet connection to run. The fact that it's been around 7 or so years and is now a mature and relatively bug free, stable product is another plus (the early versions of any software are generally cr@p) All of this makes SketchUp an attractive product for many people, myself included, especially as it is also a useful means of producing explanatory drawings for woodworkers, builders, or anyone doing bespoke work.