- Nowadays it is much easier to be an architect if you have the right software helping you.
- There are plenty to choose from on the market, so we decided to rank the top 25 that we considered to be the best at this job.
- If you like these types of articles, check out our dedicated Design Software Hub for even more lists.
- For more information on the matter, check out our dedicated Graphics and Design page as well.
Designing your dream house is relatively simple, as long as you have the proper 3D home architect software. There are many applications that can help you design your home, and today we’re going to show you the best 3D home architect apps.
What is the best 3D home architect software?
1. Adobe Illustrator (recommended)
A great application that you can use to design your 3D home is Adobe Illustrator. The application has an interactive interface and it can be used by intermediate level specialists, as it provides a lot of training materials.
Designing your home is simple and you can do it by dragging and dropping the desired elements. The application allows you to set the foundation, walls, doors, windows, and roof for your new home.
Speaking of which, you can easily import your floor plan to this application, trace it, and see how it looks like in 3D. The application supports both 2D and 3D view, so you can easily switch between the two.
Another useful feature is the ability to simulate lighting allowing you to see how your home will look like at different lighting conditions.
Adobe Illustrator supports files from Adobe Photoshop, so you can easily convert your design to Photoshop and continue with creating layouts and mockups with smart tools.
Adobe Illustrator has a lot of features that you can use to quickly create your rooms. Speaking of size and dimensions, they will update in real-time as soon as you resize your room.
The application allows you to set your foundation, but you can also set electrical, plumbing, and HVAC elements as well. It offers solid customization and you can choose between a wide array of doors and windows.
There are also some branded models available which are perfect if you want to use real objects. As for walls, you can customize their finish, change their color, or add wallpapers to them.
We also have to mention that you can easily create stairs with this tool and customize them by adding different landings, railings, and balusters.
The application is perfect if you want to redecorate or remodel your home by adding various furniture or objects. In addition, you can also change tiles or add carpets to your home.
Adobe Illustrator offers a large selection of cabinets, but you can also customize and change their look with ease. Even though this application has a large library of products, you can also download new objects online and add them to your projects.
Using this tool you can also design your landscape, fence, or deck. As for landscape design, you can add various plants, rocks, and bricks.
The application offers a wide array of plants and thanks to the tools you can see how your plants will look like in a few years. As for additional features, the application has a material editor so you can easily customize your textures.
Thanks to this feature, you can change their RGB values, hue, saturation, brightness, shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful 3D home architect and it offers an abundance of features to its users. The application is available for a free trial, but if you want to continue using it, you need to purchase a license.
2. Adobe Dimension (suggested)
Adobe Dimensions can be regarded by many as the Photoshop or Illustrator of 3D design, or at least that is what it is in the Adobe family.
While admittedly the aforementioned software do support 3D design themselves, those particular toolsets are rudimentary by comparison, so Adobe Dimension is your go-to program for these endeavors.
Everything you may ever need to design a house is well within dimension’s toolset, allowing you to create the house itself, the furniture, add textures to simulate various construction materials, and more.
More so, these can be easily imported from the other Adobe products, such as Illustrator or Photoshop.
All in all, Adobe Dimension can be considered the CAD of the Adobe family, and for good reason.
More so, while this program is indeed subscription-based under normal circumstances, you can now test it out for free for a period of 7 days by applying for a free trial on your Adobe account.
3. DreamPlan Home Design
If you want to design your home in 3D, you should consider DreamPlan Home Design. The application allows you to create the floor plan of your house with ease, and you can set custom colors, textures, and add furniture.
In addition to interior design, the application also allows you to create your own landscape and garden.
The application allows you to switch easily between 2D, 3D, and blueprint view. In addition, you can easily design floor plans for your home even if you’re not familiar with 3D modeling.
DreamPlan Home Design uses a tabbed interface and all available elements are sorted into different tabs. After you select the desired object, you can easily customize it before adding it to your home.
For example, you can change the size of a specific object, it’s color, and certain elements such as floors and ceilings that allow you to change their texture.
In addition, you can add various furniture and modify your landscape. Speaking of landscape, you can plant trees and gardens or create your own swimming pool. If needed, you can also download additional models and textures right from the application.
It’s worth mentioning that this application supports tracing so you can easily add your own floor plan and convert it to a 3D model.
DreamPlan Home Design is simple to use, and thanks to the friendly user interface even the basic users will be able to design their home. You can download this application for free and use it for home and non-commercial use.
If you plan to use this app for commercial projects, you’ll need to obtain a license.
4. Live Home 3D Pro
Live Home 3D Pro is an excellent home design app that will help you design and build the house of your dreams. Whether you’re a homeowner who wants to completely revamp his/her home or a professional designer, this app is for both of you.
Live Home 3D Pro offers advanced design tools so that you can view absolutely all the details of your project. The app features a rich Object Library with thousands of 3D objects, including many pieces of furniture.
In-app purchases are also available. For example, you can purchase over 150 additional plans and more than 600 additional materials to make sure that the end results look exactly like the digital design.
Here are some key features of the app:
- 2D floor plans and real-time 3D rendering are supported
- There is no limit as to the number of stories that you can design
- You can use photos to create custom materials so that you can fully personalize the design
- You can automatically adjust natural light by setting the time and geographic location
- You can export the design of your house to 3DS, FBX, OBJ, Collada, VRML, and X3D formats.
Live Home 3D Pro receives regular updates that add new features to the table and improve the app’s stability and performance.
⇒ Download now Live Home 3D Pro from the Microsoft Store
5. 3D Architect Home Designer Pro
3D Architect Home Designer Pro is a home architect software made for professionals and construction companies.
The application is optimized for first-time users, so even if you don’t have much experience with this kind of software you should be able to handle 3D Architect Home Designer Pro.
The tool allows you to create 2D floor plans, but you can easily convert them to 3D models for a better view. The application also offers landscaping tools so you can also add various paths, ponds, or change height levels.
Speaking of ground editing, the application also has a terrain brush that allows you to edit landscape easily.
In order to help you create your designs faster, the application has a library that offers thousands of furnishing objects and textures. Speaking of which, the application also supports realistic 3D textures.
It’s also worth mentioning that you can import objects right from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse app.
The application also has a 3D walkthrough function so you can view your newly designed home from the first person. There’s also support for in-line measurements so you can directly modify the desired elements.
The application works with Google Maps, and there’s also an advanced component editor.
3D Architect Home Designer Pro also allows you to choose between night and day in order to simulate lighting effects. If needed, you can also choose between various 3D rendering options such as 3D texture overlay.
The application also has a plan mode assistant that can produce detailed drawings. Speaking of drawing, you can choose between multiple wall thickness levels and there’s also an ability to scan and import existing drawings to your plan.
The application also supports layering so you can easily add wall hatchings.
You can choose between a wide range of windows and doors, and there’s even support for bi-folding models. It’s worth mentioning that there are advanced wall junction options and you can also easily join multiple roof constructions if needed.
Using this tool you can easily see the room height line as well as advanced wall outline. If needed, you can also modify wall levels at different height and add different textures to different parts of the wall.
The application also supports real-time rendering and it also has a large database of construction elements. Of course, the application supports both metric and imperial measurements and you can easily import and export DXF and DWG files.
3D Architect Home Designer Pro is a great application that can help you design your home. The application offers a wide array of features, so it’s perfect for professionals.
Unfortunately, this tool isn’t available for a free trial, but you can purchase it for £300.00.
⇒ Get 3D Architect Home Designer Pro
6. Architect 3D Ultimate
If you’re looking for a powerful architect software, you might want to consider Architect 3D Ultimate. This application supports photorealistic rendering and it also allows you to view your home in 3D.
Using this tool you can create your own 3D objects and add them to your projects. It’s worth mentioning that this application supports up to 20 floors, so you can easily create large-scale projects.
Using this tool you can design your own home and garden, and with simple to use interface the application will be perfect for beginners.
The application is compatible with all modern versions of Windows, and it even works with 3D design tools such as AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max.
The application has a 3D furniture database and you can easily choose between 3500 different objects. If needed, you can also insert your own images for more realistic rendering.
There’s also a Global Sun Positioning tool that you can use to see how your home will look in different lighting conditions. In addition, there’s a graphic editor for doors, windows, ceilings, trims, and mantels.
The application also has home automation tools, security systems, and fireplace wizards. In addition to all these features, there’s also a swimming pool tool available.
Using this application you can view the structure of your home which is perfect if you want to see plans for plumbing, heating, ventilation, or electricity. You can also have a tour of your home and view your project in both 3D and 2D views.
The application also has a built-in estimation tool that will calculate the cost of your project. Using this application you can also import DXF, DWG, Sketch Up, or 3DS files. If needed, you can also convert 2D objects to 3D and edit them the way you want.
Architect 3D Ultimate is a great application, and it’s perfect if you want to design your home in 3D. There are several versions of this tool available, and if the Ultimate version is too expensive for you, you might want to consider purchasing a different version.
Keep in mind that other versions lack certain features, so be sure to check the list of available features before the purchase.
7. Chief Architect Premier
Another professional application that allows you to design your home in 3D is Chief Architect. Using this tool you can easily create building plans and view them in 3D.
The application offers both automatic and manual building tools and you can create variety of roof styles.
This application has a wide range of smart design objects, and you can easily create various styles, shapes, and sizes. Chief Architect software partners with real manufacturers so most objects are a realistically rendered after real models.
We also have to mention that this tool is optimized for kitchen, bath, and interior design, so you can design your rooms with a high amount of detail.
Of course, you can create walls using this application and see a 3D model that you can easily edit. As for designing, you can design your home in both 2D and 3D.
We also have to mention that this tool supports several rendering styles including realistic and artistic. The application also has a 3D Library so you can easily add objects to your projects.
Chief Architect also supports 3D rendering and there’s 360 renderings as well as support for virtual tours. If needed, you can also create construction drawings right from this tool.
The application has a powerful CAD software engine so you can easily draw lines, polylines, splines, arcs, and solids and create various objects.
There’s also a CAD-to-Walls tool available that allows you to import AutoCAD files. In addition, you can also import DWG, DXF, and PDF files.
Using this application you can easily create construction drawings and all your drawings will update automatically as your design changes. The application also has terrain modeling tools so you can easily add roads, sidewalks, hills, and valleys. There are also about 4000 plants available that you can add to your projects.
Chief Architect is a professional tool and it offers a wide array of features. The Premier version is available for a trial, but you can also rent it on a monthly basis or make a one-time purchase.
As we already mentioned, this is a professional application and due to its high price, it’s suitable only for professional users or construction companies.