Hi,
I had not heard of Sweethome 3D previously, so had a look at the tutorial. I can see, as you found that it is very limited, although looks easy to use. In fact, going by the tutorial I watched, it is very similar to TurboFloorPlan for drawing walls and inserting objects. TFP can certainly be used to build the house in their demo just as quick but with greater detail, including up to 99 floors (I think that is the limit), roof of course and extensive landscaping. It will also create photorealistic images of the home, stereo views and sound movies. The plans it draws are also very precise, with precision down to tenths of a millimetre.
The precision and detailed models that it can create does mean there is a level of complexity but once you know where the tools are and how they work it is VERY simple.
Quote from: musicandstamps on October 18, 2010, 08:38:33 AM
Simply placeing a window in a gable end wall is a complicated matter sizeing that wall is another complicated shinanegan.
I don't understand why either of these is complicated. Just right click the window and select Elevate and you can type in the height you want the window to be. If the wall is set to Gable then it will move up into the gable. See your other post for details on this http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1352.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1352.0.html).
Setting the wall thickness is just as simple - just doubleclick the wall (or right click, select Propeties) and type in the thickness (Core). While you are there check out all the other possible settings on the other tabs. The potential customisation is almost endless (if you need it). Double click things in the dialog box too - you will be surprised what opens up. You can also Edit these properties in the Catalogue itself, so you can design your own wall (or any other element for that matter) to use on future occasions.
Quote from: musicandstamps on October 18, 2010, 08:38:33 AM
The problem seems to be all the automatic things that TFP3D does. Is there any way of turning these off?
Which automatic things do you want to turn off? The only one that I have turned off is the floor. It can be turned off in Settings/ Programme Settings / Building Aids. The other automatic things are just logical positioning and sizing as set up in Settings / Building Locations. There you would pre-set the height of your walls and (hence the height the roof sits), height of the ceiling, thickness of floors and height of doors and windows (Head Height). Without these pre-set it would take ages setting everything individually. Normally all walls are the same height, as are ceilings and windows and doors in a house sit a one level, so this happens automatically by following the setting you enter in Building Locations. If you want to change the vertical setting for any individual object, just right click and Elevate. If you want the change the size, thickness, colour, type etc etc, just double click it (or right click and select Properties). Nothing could be easier really. The default settings are typical average settings and the customisations, if you want to make them, are endless!
Maybe in your initial tests you had not checked out the right click and double click as a lot of additional functionality is here, although they are accessible in the menus also. It would be good to go to Settings/ Programme Settings and read through all the tabs so you know what the defaults are and hence what you may want to change to suit the way you work. Most of the fdefaults are fine and you may change nothing, but worth a look so you know where they are if you want to change them.
You may find the Video Tutorial mentioned in Reply 5 in this post useful to learn how to use it quickly. http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1352.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1352.0.html)
Stay with it - you will find it is very easy to use when you get used to it and it can produce some excellent results. Have a look at some of the examples in the Gallery.
If you get stuck just ask - there is always someone here to help.
Allan