SoftPlan Reviews

Softplan easily and quickly allows me to put together a 3d model to show clients what direction we can go in. The renderings really help with customer satisfaction. Not everyone can visualize how something will look based off a 2D drawing. The modeling and rendering capabilities really make the project jump out.

I have to trick the program on a few occasions to get the exact roof profile I am looking for. Other than that, this does most everything I need it to do.

Being able to draw details on certain projects to help the builder create what the customer is looking for. It also allows me to help the customer visualize what their project will look like.

easy to create 3D drawings and quickly. Actually drawing a wall instead of just drawing "lines"

I do not recall anything that I did not like - program is logical and intuitive

Learning curve is quick, make construction and detail drawings quickly

Helps you draw like you would actually build.

The tools are very user friendly and it makes creating floorplans a breeze, much easier than autocad. I love the 3D feature and how easy and quick it is to create floorplan shells.

No complaints here yet. I have used several programs and this seems to be the most user friendly to me. Programs like Sketchup I have found force close a lot and Autocad can get very complicated

Just do it! Other competitors just dont have the ease of use that this program does. Your clients will be delighted at the finished product!

There are many benefits. I feel I can use this program in front of a client and give them a 3D feel quickly whereas that would take me a while in AutoCad.

After you have drawn all of the floor plans , you can stack them and create all of the building elevations.

Not very much. All of the commands are easy to find.

Once you have drawn all of the different level floor plans, you can ensure that the stair openings line up.

Drawings tools, great libraries, 3D on split screens.

I will it integrated tools to allow more creation of shapes with the ability to rotate solids on a 3D plane. It is rather limited, leaving us to create them in Sketchup and import. It seemed like a natural ability to include this capability within the program.

Roof and stair tools can use an upgrade. The roof has a ton of tools but it still makes you trick it more than we would like.

Softplan has come so far in the 20 years I’ve been using it. Can do 3D drawings so much easier, showing clients different views. The design process is quicker with all of the different tools that have been added along the way. The support on the Softplan site is very helpful as well when looking for help/resources. Tech is also amazing if having any issues. Symbols & several other things can be added into softplan to customize.

The biggest downside, which is probably on my end, is how often the program crashes - possibly bc I’m trying to do too much too fast & too many files open at once.

The benefits far exceed the problems of softplan. Roofs are easier than ever before, 3D renderings are quicker & easier to do. Walk-throughs are nice to show clients how the hone is forming up.

The best thing is probably the file size, as in I can fit over a year's worth of work on a thumb drive!

The conversion to auto-cad files back and forth is not always reliable.

I can produce accurate 3D views to help clients visualize the project.

I like the fact that every symbol and wall its integrated to one another and can be named, modified and adjusted to fit the design criteria you need without necessarily having to create a new block for a custom symbol every time. I also like the manual drafting tools. I find this is a good Solid 3D and 2D CAD Program.

Sometimes there are minor glitches in the system - typically in my experience this was due to a hardware issue on my end - most things are minor and most likely arise because of a lack of knowledge on how to design something a certain way. I do wish however, that there would be more integration of Canadian companies - But this also could be a package they offer that I am not aware of. Most of everything is U.S. Pricing in material lists. This can be manually inputted. So I guess its more of a convenience thing.

I Highly Recommend giving Softplan a try if conventional 2D Based CAD is what you currently are using. It takes time to get comfortable with the commands, but there is enough resources in their manual and online to figure out it in a relatively easy way.

I am solving issues of assemblies of multiple floors. I have the resources available to design a building exactly in 3D as seen in the Plan view. This ensures everything is accounted for in the design before it is built to reduce the amount of unforeseen issues when building onsite.

after you complete your house design, the software computes all materials needed and cost

there are no dislikes, its a wonderful tool!

I highly recommend Softplan to anyone who needs a easy and friendly home building software

By having Softplan at my finger tip, i can have a complete and detail of the materials needed to build and an estimated cost

There is a lot of automation that you can setup to make your common materials and details assemble with ease. And the program creates a 3D image automatically that looks realistic enought for customers to visualize the end product easily.

It took a bit for me to get comfortable with the software (nowhere near as long as AutoCAD though) and at first was frustrated since the library didn't have "exactly" what I wanted from the get go. There are lots of components that I won't eve need in the library which I have to shuffle through to find what I need.

Spend the time learning it step by step

I needed more than the 2D capabilities of AutoCAD and got really frustrated with learning Revit. Softplan lets me generate 3D images that customers can understand easier.