Hello everybody, need advice on a really easy to use home design software to design a house from the ground up. Structure side is going to the engineering firm but basic flow and layout is what I'd like to do myself. Any thoughts or experience with any particular software you've used in the past would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Btw, running an older OS operating system on a Mac.

I am using Home Architect Pro for my own home. This is the only one I have ever used so it's the only one I can comment on.

It is very easy to learn. If you can navigate a Windows program you can learn this in a few hours. They have a few different versions moving up in options and pricing. Lots of how to videos on you Tube should you get stuck as well.

I use Chief Architect Home Designer Pro.They have a 30 day free trial.

I designed our home with both AutoCad, and Google sketchup. Sketchup is a free download, pretty easy to learn and is 3D. It is very powerful, can do shadow studies to design roof overhangs and window openings. There are a ton of components free online and utube videos to help learn it. Most pick it up quickly. The files though are huge! Not sure if it is Mac compatible.

That's the main issue I'm dealing with now, compatability with Mac OS. I'm going to break down and get an all in one system like we use at work. Thanks for the input.

Home Designer series is Mac compatible.

I use chief architect x5, it's pretty intuitive, easy to use. I believe they have a lower cost consumer edition. My version has space planning tools if you are literally designing from nothing which are handy to rough out flow.

When you say designing from nothing, do you mean no ideas? I have narrowed my ideas down to 5 based on flow and layout. Just room sizes are smaller than ideal.

Kind of, still need an idea to create a house from scratch instead of copying a plan and adjusting it to fit your needs, sounds like your doing that so the space planning tools wouldnt be of much use unless you were doing major modifications.

The Home Designer series is from Chief Architect and has space planning tools.

Can you produce full enough drawing files from Home Designer to build the entire structure, or is this more for conceptual and you still need to hire an architect?

Thanks.

I use autocad, but You know over the years, I think I have done some of my best work with MS Paint, untill they screwed it all up post windows7. I used graph paper before that. Not sure what the mac equivelent is though. I simply set a pixel to length ratio and you can draw anything to scale. I quite often would draw up an idea then print it. Then I would sketch changes or additions on that paper and go back in and alter the drawing. I would save each of these changes so if I didn't like a direction I changed to, I could back up as many revisions as I wanted to go a different way(still do that with autocad). The design afterall is in your head, you just need some way to visualize that design in various fashions(to scale) to get something you are happy enough with to turn over to the engineer to run the numbers on if needed. My current project went thru 12+ versions untill we settled on a floorplan both I and the wife could agree upon

There are of course all kinds of drawing programs out there to choose from, and they can make a few things easier, like drawing directly in units such as feet and inches and putting those dimensions on the drawing.

Predgw, as for producing a full enough drawing to build an entire structure from, do you have all the info in your head to build a complete structure? Drawing programs simplify some of the more tedious parts, but if it isn't in your head, a home design program probably won't provide it to the drawing for you...

Good Luck

I have most of it in my head, but I want it out!! LOL I asked because I don't want to buy software, learn to use it, produce drawings, and then learn I still need to hire an architect.

I hired a drafts person they are much cheaper then architects

Posted By predgw on 05 Jan 2017 08:28 AM
I have most of it in my head, but I want it out!! LOL I asked because I don't want to buy software, learn to use it, produce drawings, and then learn I still need to hire an architect.

I guess that would depend on what your building department wants to complete their approval process.  My sister and her husband just finished their new home. It was conceived, drawn, submitted, approved and built from hand drawn scale dawings on graph paper. She has a draftsman/engineering background and her husband has a lifetime of construction/building experience. Again, it is what you got between your ears, not what is in the computer...  

As long as you can express the details in an acceptable format to the building official to show that your plan either meets the prescriptive requirements or can show the engineering(alternate method) and fall within their guidlines for prescriptive planning, it could probably be drawn on a napkin as long as it is to their minimum scale:)  My local building department wants no smaller than 1/4" per foot which was great as I was able to get all 4 elevation drawings onto a single size D sheet...  From a hardware perspective, the printer capable of outputting an acceptable size might be as important as the software used to draw the plan, unless you have somewhere to get large drawings printed at a reasonable cost...

I roughed out our floorplan iterations in paint and sketchup because they are fast. I used those drawings to get floor and roof truss engineering specced out.  Once I had truss specs nailed down, I drew the layers/drawing sheets in autocad with proposed details. With the internet, details and construction drawing examples are a short internet search away in most cases.  Many of the details I used were directly from the ICF manufacturer with rebar specced from the prescriptive tables in PCA-100(prescriptive tables acceptable in my seismic zone per building code),  and from the proposed truss drawings.  I needed an engineer anyway as I wanted to do the floor a l ittle differently than all the PCA-100 prescriptive examples. I had most of the numbers hashed out using the alternate calculations in PCA-100 for wall restraint(simpson strongtie catalog is a great resource for this).  I took my drawings to an engineer who took them, added some canned specifics to the details along with his spin on the wall restraint and his structural analysis. His spec on the rebar just about saved me his fee in reduced rebar costs, so it worked out very well.  A known PE stamp also helps the plan cruise thru building department review. We were approved in just over a week...        

Thanks for the reply Ronmar. I appreciate it. I'm not as worried about the building department as much as I am the bank and the contractors. For example, I want to get ICF quotes from multiple manufactures. I would guess my output files from say Chief Architect will suffice, but wanted to be sure.

I have already started a rough storyline or written document starting at the foundation of what I plan to use. I'm a licensed PE (civil) in VT so I hope the story line combined with details, output from design software ( truss calculations- heating/cooling) and the output from Chief Architect will all come together. Thanks again for the help.

If you have Chief Architect, you are in very good hands. Yes, ICF companies like to have floor plans with dimensions, so you can just export PDF files from Chief Architect. Ultimately, ICF companies really only need total wall length and height, number of corners, and door/window opening sizes in order to quote material cost and shipping. Most use spreadsheets that solicit this specific information and then forecast the required style/quantity of blocks, rebar and concrete. It helps if your dimensions are ICF friendly to minimize cutting and waste.

Sailawayb

Good to know. On another note, I was researching the forums for heat load calculators and various similar analysis tools and found a link to the BORST calculator. Amazing reference material. I can't believe this is free, however I plan to donate to the page.

I have not read through the instructions yet, but I assume they address what value of air leakage to use on an ICF home that has yet to be built. Are there some standard values used for ICF homes?

For permits usually you need a plot plan for setback information, floorplan of each level, elevations and a generic wall section at a minimum. Sometimes a cross section. The floorplans may need to contain a lot of notes for wall bracing, headers, beams, and other connections.

The pages of zoomed in trim details, flashing details, cab elevations, ect are usually just for the builder and are usually canned details and useless anyways. Truss and floor information layout prints comes from my supplier but is not required by permit because the plan will note "designed by others" however size and spacing of all components is required for permit. I would need to note that information if I was designing myself.

Here in WI we need heatload calcs which we get from our old version of ResCheck and a compliance copy of our new version of rescheck, anybody could download the old WI version and get a basic heatload calculator thats simple to use.

You could provide all of this with scaled hand drawings, so any design program will work. If you miss something once you print the big sheets you just write it in by hand.

Thanks Predgw...always appreciated!

Air infiltration is the hardest parameter to estimate and it is often the largest heat loss component. An ICF home should have something less than 0.35 ACH, especially if you are using a HRV to reduce the heat loss of the controlled air exchange. And an ICF home can be much tighter than that. I would recommend using 0.35 ACH for the initial heat loss analysis.