Your search for the best interior design software for beginners has begun. You’re on the trail of a tool that’ll let you design gorgeous interiors like a professional, and do it easily. You want to get creative quickly thanks to a neat learning curve that’ll take you to the fun bits faster. If that’s you, it sounds a lot like you need SketchUp for interior design. Interior design with SketchUp is intuitive, which means you’ll learn fast without the frustrations you can get with less user-friendly tools. It’s enjoyable. The results are off-the-scale good to look at, seriously impressive. It deserves a spot at the top of your best interior design software list. Let’s take a look at why it’s such a star, the essential features you’ll love, and the amazing things you’ll be able to do with it.
Best Interior Design Software
First, a look at the wider interior design software landscape. It is crowded. Very crowded. There’s a bewildering choice of good interior design software including Autodesk AutoCad, TurboCad, Infurnia and many more. Some of them are targeted firmly at professionals like architects. Others are better for ordinary mortals who want to experiment and explore the magic of 2D and 3D interior design. Whether you’ll be using it for work, for fun, or to make the most of the space at home, SketchUp for interior design is a wise choice, and it happens to be exceptionally good for beginners.
What is ‘best’ as far as the best interior design software is concerned? As a beginner you want an affordable set of tools with a really good range of functions and features. SketchUp ticks the box. It’s also easily installed and configured, and just as simple to use. Get a few basic actions together and you’ll soon see how the whole thing works. It’s nicely intuitive and stays easy to use even when your designs get complicated. Interior design with SketchUp is really well supported with an abundance of excellent resources, including tutorials and video. And we’re not the only ones to rate it highly for interior design beginners . Beginners love it, and they’re happy to tell us how much. Check out our testimonials here to see interior design novices say about the software.
Essential Features of Interior Design Software for Beginners
Now for the fine details about how SketchUp will make your interior design life easier, more fun, more productive, and faster. Here are the main features to look for in interior design software for beginners.
Affordable pricing options
Beginners are often strapped for cash. As a student you’re probably being very careful with your money, which makes affordable options essential. SketchUp is available in a choice of pricing plans – including free and student options. SketchUp Pro FREE gives you exceptional functionality as well as access to excellent SketchUp tutorials, and SketchUp Studio for Students comes with a considerable discount. Compared to the free version, paid versions include more tools, functions, and features.
Easy to learn
You’re a designer. You want to spend as little time learning the software as possible, and as much time actually designing with it as you can. Using SketchUp for interior design is your ideal solution. It is widely recognised as the easiest 3D design software to both learn and use. There’s an abundance of excellent beginner tuition and beginners courses online. And the learning curve is a lot less steep than it is for most of the others, which tend to be a lot more complex, even though they don’t offer more or better features.
Optimal for interior design
With AutoCad, for example, the clue is in the name. It’s primarily an auto design tool with features you can use for interior design and other purposes. But it isn’t focused on interiors. Many 3D design software packages are geared to complex architectural interior design and construction. SketchUp is different, loved as an optimal solution for interior design and recommended as a great tool created with beginners in mind.
Should run from multiple platforms
So you design on a desktop or laptop, but you present your ideas and designs to clients on your iPad or tablet. That’s the way things usually happen, so it’s good to know SketchUp supports all these devices. Share with ease, work cross-gadget with confidence, know everything will look just as good whatever the operating system or screen size. SketchUp for interior design works beautifully on both Mac and Windows.
Photo realistic rendering and lighting effects
Drawings are great. They can inspire and convince. But take things a step further, add photo realistic rendering of your interior designs, and the kitchens and bathrooms you create are brought to vivid life. Your clients can see exactly what it’ll look like while getting a ‘feel’ for things as well, accurately and to scale. Add realistic lighting effects from every kind of source you can imagine, natural to artificial, and the results are genuinely breathtaking. As such SketchUp gives you excellent rendering capabilities that optimise every design presentation.
Professional design capabilities
This article is about interior design software for beginners, but you’ll probably love it so much you might be inspired to move on to a professional level. You’re in luck there, too. SketchUp fully supports the needs of professional interior designers, and is widely used by them. You’re never alone, there’s always help and support on tap.
Pre Designed 3D models
Interior design involves many elements including furnishings, surfaces and more. There’s an enormous collection of 3D models of these components, created to support great work and save you loads of time designing your own. The SketchUp 3D warehouse is a wonderful resource for beginners, the source of masses of 3D models from well known manufacturers and others, perfect for incorporating into your designs.
Design communication
The integral interior design process built into the software involves interaction with stakeholders to present proposed design ideas and develop their needs. It’s such a good way to organise your workflow. Intuitive and professional, created to keep everyone and everything on track. SketchUp makes it easy for you to share design variations via images, video, even animations. And the software’s incredible Viewers, with their AR/VR capability, brings ideas sizzling to life in the most extraordinary way. They’re totally compelling.
Interior Design Idea Visualisation
You probably won’t create the perfect design the first time. The design process is much more iterative and involved than that. The ongoing creative process is supported beautifully in SketchUp, making it really easy to try things out and experiment. This makes it faster and more fun to quickly visualise design ideas, share them with stakeholders, and develop the ideas people like best.
Now you know what’s involved in interior design with SketchUp. You can see why it’s the best interior design software in town for beginners. What will you create first?
