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I am looking to remodel my kitchen. I want to start with floorplans and inside elevations of the 4 walls, cabinets, and major appliances. I've been using LibreCAD because it supports Autocad 2000 format (dxf) and is free and open source.

I've been struggling with LibreCAD, so I want to know what is the best Open source or web based app out there for a non-architect to make 2D floorplans and elevations, and save them in dfx format.

Vebjorn Ljosa
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Justin Dearing
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    possible duplicate of [Affordable 2D drafting software for amateurs?](http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/820/affordable-2d-drafting-software-for-amateurs) – Niall C. May 14 '11 at 20:02
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    Google sketchup. Free and easy. – electricsauce May 15 '11 at 03:34
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    Sketchup is fantastic. Watch a few video tutorials and make plenty of use of your middle mouse button/scrolly. It makes using the tool 3x faster. – jlpp May 15 '11 at 13:57
  • @user2492: Last I checked the free version of sketchup does not export to dxf. If you know enough about the format, you can easily write a plug-in that would allow dxf export. – Tester101 May 16 '11 at 12:19
  • Do you mean 'DXF'? Personally, I think OSS is great, but I don't blame the OS world for not caring much about DXF...it has a history and AutoDesk hasn't been completely open about the file format. – DA01 May 16 '11 at 14:53
  • Why do you need DXF? What are you doing with the DXF files? – Alex Feinman May 16 '11 at 15:02
  • Alex, I want to be able to export to DXF so I can feel confidant that the files could be opened 20 years later. DA01, LibreCad and FreeCad support DFX, and I don't know of a better interchange format for CAD. I mean if there was a SVG extension that allowed you to specify dimension lines, and absolute sizes that most CAD apps supported I'd use that. – Justin Dearing May 16 '11 at 17:32
  • Future-proofing is a laudable (and challenging!) goal. See below. – Alex Feinman May 16 '11 at 17:51
  • I'm not sure Autodesk, themselves, have plans to allow you to open their own files 20 years form now in AutoCad. ;) – DA01 May 16 '11 at 19:47

4 Answers4

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I personally use Google SketchUp to model both the interior and exterior of our house. It may not have the depth of features you're looking for but if you're going for open source freeware that's pretty usable out of the gate you can't go wrong.

As a side note, I have seen some people use Blender to do modeling, though more for in-home manufacturing.

richardboydii
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  • SketchUp is a truly great program, but FYI, it's not Open Source. It's freeware, but the source code is wholly owned by Google. – DA01 May 16 '11 at 14:54
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    @DA01 Nor is it web based, but it's not clear why the original poster specified either of those things. Perhaps he meant "freely usable"? – Alex Feinman May 16 '11 at 15:02
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SketchUp Pro allows direct export to DXF.

Sketchup (free) allows you to export DAE, which can be converted via FBX to DXF. See, e.g.: http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/qaID.asp?tip=6416

Alex Feinman
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I have tried CatStd http://www.cadstd.com/ some. It works OK, but I'm not well versed in it. It does save in dxf format. When I did my basement, I used an older version of 3D Home Architect. It was extremely easy to use, but I don't remember if it saved in dxf format.

BrianK
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I would like to second recommendations for Google Sketchup, with this additional note for those who point out that some features are limited to the paid "pro" version.

If you are a student or faculty, you can obtain the pro version for free until the following July. They seem to be quite liberal in their interpretation of "student or faculty;" it apparently doesn't have to be an accredited university.

Our small farm cooperative teaches two-week intensive Permaculture Design Certificate courses, and submitting the syllabus was enough for them to grant us an educational license.

But you have to renew the ed license every July.

In addition to the lack of .DXF support, the other "biggie" is that you cannot create dynamic components. That should not be a big issue for most people, but it is fun to make doors that open when you click on them, etc. which you can only do in the pro version. But literally 95% of the functionality of Pro is in the free version, including the ability to use dynamic components created in the Pro version.

Jan Steinman
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