capokay so the program i'm using is called Live Home 3D. it has a standard and a pro version. standard is $20 and honestly it's worth the money. it's super user friendly and has a TON of options for customization, which is good since tiny homes are all about unconventional architecture and clever use of space. iâve been using this program for a few days now and i love it <3 my favorite part is that you can manually adjust the dimensions of every object, which means custom furniture for days!!! and on top of that it ALSO gives you access to Sketchupâs 3D warehouse, which is a gallery of 3D models made by both users and commercial manufacturers and itâs great for finding cool furniture (and other stuff!).
if your friend doesnât want to pay that much, then they can still download the app from their website for free and use it as much as they want! the only catch is that you canât save projects until you pay for a license. but itâs great for trying out the program bc all of the features of the standard version are accessible!
another app i tried out was Planner5D, which is more geared toward interior design than full on architecture. itâs pretty nifty, but its free version is a little too flimsy to make anything very complex. the interface is also kinda weird. their paid subscription plan starts at $5, which does cover use on both desktop and mobile devices and opens up their full catalog of of 3D models, but that still wasnât gonna give me as much control as i wanted over certain things so i ended up passing on it. but hey, itâs still not a bad deal if you donât need anything too complex!
the last program i used (which was actually the first program i tried) was Sketchupâs free browser-based app. Sketchup is the most professional brand of all the apps i tried, but the free version is, uh...............bad. or, well, bad isnât the right word. infuriating, maybe? yeah letâs go with that. the interface is too minimal for its own good and you canât use keyboard shortcuts, so everything is buried under menus and i wanted to die. i canât use Sketchup. on the upside, if you have the patience and the tolerance for tedium, you can create literally anything with it, bc itâs basically just a light 3D modeler! itâs not for me, but some people have been able to create some p cool stuff with it.
so yeah this answer was probably a little longer than you were expecting, but iâm super passionate about tiny homes and wanted to pass on as much info as i could lol. i hope friend is able to go tiny one day!!!