3D Design Software?

[mnboatman]

I'm been thinking about building a cabin. I've looked at lots of designs and have been mulling over various ideas. There are some vague restrictive convanants for my lot that say the minimum size is 1,500 sqare feet. It's unclear whether that means heated livable space, footprint, porches or decks. My county does not have a building code or inspectors. They do require use permits, have set back requirements and septic rules.

Anyway, what do you recommend for a tool to draw and play around with different designs and layouts?

[poppy]

I use Sketchup and it's free.

I wouldn't consider 1500 sf to be a "cabin", but to each his own.

I got rid of a piece of property that had a similar resrtiction, but you said "my lot" so I guess selling may be impractical?

The sf requirement usually means liveable space and does not include things like garage and porches.  That should be really easy to find out, though; ask the folks in control of enforcing the covenants.

[MountainDon]

Anyway, what do you recommend for a tool to draw and play around with different designs and layouts?

Nothing wrong with paper and pencil either. That's how we designed our cabin. We drew the outline on 11 x 17 paper and had scaled cutouts or urntiture and appliances. Low tech but it was very usable. Then we did a chalk on the driveway drawing at full scale so we could walk through. The final construction plans were all done with paper and pencil.

[Minicup28]

I'm using Home Designer Suite 9.0 from Chief Architect. I read reviews of most of the programs and talked to some users. I am happy with this one.