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I wanna try a different approach for my user interface before i continue creating all the screens with buttons etc.etc.
I would like to try out using a floor plan and decorate it with icons to mark the devices you can control.

Now i'm looking for an easy tool to create a floor plan. Does anyone have a good tip for me what tool i could use best? The floor plan will be rather basic: walls, doors, windows, some furniture, textures but not to fancy, just enough to recognize your own home in the picture

I used Easy Computing's Super Architect 3D Platinum to create my houseboat the buildingplans that should finalize around april next year.
Otherwise Visio does a decent job as well.

Regards, Maarten.
Never let a computer know you're in a hurry.
Sorry had to remove the link.

Digit, this is freeware and works 3D too.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sweethome3d/

http://sketchup.google.com/ is free too..

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Thanks for your suggestions!
I looked at them, some are quite pricy (Easy Computing around 100 euro for 2 basic floor plans) so i looked a little further and found www.floorplanner.com.
Very easy to work with, it's free and it does exactly what i want.
Disadvantage is that you lose the plans when the company goes out of business. But what you see below was made in less than an hour, so i can live with that.



It can also do 3D:

still need to do that too, but i assume your house does not change each years, so your still good to go..

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Robert,
Looks cool.
Your Asus Top is missing ..

Haha, you're right
But it was a little hard to show the floor plan with the Asus top on it, that was showing a floor plan with an Asus top on it, that was showing a floor plan with an Asus top on it, etc.etc.

Robert,

Look's very good. I'll try it also.
Where's the swimmingpool in the backyard?

DMB

Nice tool and is on the Internet thats nice to save

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by DMB</i>
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Where's the swimmingpool in the backyard?
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Here's the latest version of the floor plan, including a button for the pump

Robert,

Very nice.

DMB

p.s. found this one too http://www.gliffy.com/

nice if you want to make a data drawing too

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Funny, while searching for this topic yesterday, i found this easy and free to use program online.

http://www.sweethome3d.eu/

It also easy to make your walls transparant wich might give you more freedom in the 3d point of view

If you have a look online can find all kind of 3d objects for importing. like .obj .lws and .3ds free for personal use.

That might also be a sugestion for those hard to find button icons.

I have used visio to create my floor plan.
Then exported to SVG format (can be displayed in a web browser).
Then manually added interactive elements (lamps, motion detectors, heating radiators etc. change colour and lamps can be clicked to switch on/off)

These are all vector graphics, so the same SVG file will work fine on any screen resolution...