Live data from Hacker News

Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

sweethome3d.com

51–60 of 129 posts

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#51
post #47
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

Parametric modelling - OpenSCAD (which you mention) is commonly used for that style of handwritten arithmetic and has a few python-based alternatives like CadQuery. In GUIs, FreeCAD has an architecture module that aims to be fully featured (never used it), but for just parametric drawings, SolveSpace is lightweight and probably more pleasant to use.

OpenSCAD is completely the wrong tool for the job. You want a graphical parametric modeller. The only vaguely decent FOSS one is SolveSpace. It's a bit lacking for actual CAD (no fillets!) but it works fine for 2D layout.

I have actually used it for that (actually I did full 3D modelling of part of my house) and it worked ok, however I would say that measuring things with a laser and copying them into CAD is not a very accurate way to do things.

You will end up with large accumulated errors, and most houses are not as square as you think they are.

I haven't ever used one but I suspect those phone based AR measurement apps have a good chance of being more accurate.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#52
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?

I work on an app called Polycam, and we have an automated Room / floorplan capture mode. We actually announced some updates to it earlier this week: https://twitter.com/Polycam3D/status/1623730477637959680

thanks, this is super cool. Does it have decent geometry export options?

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#53
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely the eventual answer. I can't imagine in ten years we will be hand measuring walls.

Oh, yes we will. Unless you want to move all the furniture out of place (even in-built one), all the heavy stuff blocking edges and corners from view etc. Good luck with that bathroom sink or kitchen counter-top. And angles and inequalities (eg. top edge vs bottom edge), that gets funny fast.

isn't that all of the more reason to use a high-resolution 3d LIDAR point cloud - to get the exactly geometry? I hear your point about moving furniture, but you kind of need to do that anyway to get a measuring tape into corners.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#54
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, yes we will. Unless you want to move all the furniture out of place (even in-built one), all the heavy stuff blocking edges and corners from view etc. Good luck with that bathroom sink or kitchen counter-top. And angles and inequalities (eg. top edge vs bottom edge), that gets funny fast.

isn't that all of the more reason to use a high-resolution 3d LIDAR point cloud - to get the exactly geometry? I hear your point about moving furniture, but you kind of need to do that anyway to get a measuring tape into corners.

Couldn't ML be utilised to recognise furniture and remove it from the model?

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#55
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

I shared the same frustration, but I finally gave up, and guess what, I was able to fulfill my projects and have a good insight about what my layout will be even with ~5cm difference. I learned to relax about absolute measures and think more about feeling and subjective dimensions.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#56
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

I modelled my whole house including very piece of furniture. It is very “finicky” as you describe. It’s good enough for my amateur use with manual clicking. (There’s probably a programmatic option that I don’t know). However if I was a pro contractor it would probably not be the best.

I did plan custom designs that my contractor used. It’s also great when I want to get a new desk or sofa or whatever so that I can visualise everything first. Possible to make pretty realistic 3d walk-through videos that would be fine on any design tv show.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#57

I had a need for this kind of tool a while ago, and this was the ONLY decent option I found. I'm just wondering what alternatives are even available. I figured there must be some professional software for this, but if so, I don't know what it is. I was pretty happy with this for whatever project I was doing at the time. I recently started using inkscape, for a general purpose drawing of my house. I can also include l…

This is pretty neat https://home.by.me/en/

Agreed, I use it a lot for personal projects and it's quite straightforward to use while still pretty powerful. I'd just like to export the data somehow though

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work on an app called Polycam, and we have an automated Room / floorplan capture mode. We actually announced some updates to it earlier this week: https://twitter.com/Polycam3D/status/1623730477637959680

thanks, this is super cool. Does it have decent geometry export options?

Yep! For meshes we've got GLTF, OBJ, FBX, STL, and DAE. And then you can also export the 2D floorplan as SVG and DXF.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#60
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely the eventual answer. I can't imagine in ten years we will be hand measuring walls.

Oh, yes we will. Unless you want to move all the furniture out of place (even in-built one), all the heavy stuff blocking edges and corners from view etc. Good luck with that bathroom sink or kitchen counter-top. And angles and inequalities (eg. top edge vs bottom edge), that gets funny fast.

There are companies today like Matterport: https://matterport.com/ which leverage LiDAR to do high detail measurements and mapping for various applications.

My company uses them to measure prior to use creating build plans for remodels and I used them at my previous company to do high detail measurements in the context of real estate to make 3D tours of homes.

If the iPhone can eventually get to the point where Matterport is today with their tech then that's good enough for a huge number of use cases.

Pretty much everyone in the construction and remodeling industry right now is prepping for that as the future. We all know it's 3 to 5 years away and want to be the first one to get it right.

Post reply on HN