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Do a little search online and you’ll find a plethora of 3D home design software. BeLight Software’s Live Home 3D aims to provide a solution no matter which platform you’re on: the company has apps for your Mac or Windows computer, iOS or Android phones and tablets, and even the Apple Vision Pro.
For the purposes of this review, we’ll be looking at the desktop versions to see how this popular tool measures up to the best interior design software we’ve tested.
Live Home 3D: Pricing & plans
- A limited free version, a 30-day money back guarantee for the other tiers, with clear information about what’s included in each, and no need to hand over your payment details or email address to check the software out
Live Home 3D comes in three versions. One is free and two must be paid for. The free one has severe limitations: you can only design building with up to two stories, for instance, you can’t create custom materials, nor can you edit the terrain outside of your building; your renders and video walkthrough will be watermarked, and limited to 720p for videos, and 2048×1536 for stills.
The Standard version removes many of these limitations: you can now work with an unlimited number of levels, and your renders are no longer watermarked, for instance. This will currently cost you $50 for a lifetime licence.
Pro is worth $100, also for a lifetime licence, and introduces the ability to work on the terrain, alter lighting, change camera settings, edit materials, and increase the resolution of both videos and images.
You’ll also find discounts for students, and members of non-profit organisations.
BeLight also offers a 30-day money back guarantee. One thing worth noting, Unlike Macs who have a dedicated free version, Windows users can download the Standard version for free, and have an in-app purchase to unlock features beyond those available in the free version.
Downloading the software is easy. You’re not asked for any payment information, and you’re not even required to hand over your email address. Can’t really get less obtrusive than that.
Live Home 3D: Interface
- A single interface, with icons at the top and sidebars on each side, Live Home 3D also comes with a wealth of templates and canvases of different sizes should you prefer to start working from scratch
Live Home 3D sports a very simple and elegant interface. You have a row of tools at the top, a sidebar on the left, where you get to choose items and materials, as well as seeing a list of objects you’ve added to each floor, and an Inspector to the right, allowing you to access all of a selected object’s parameters.
In many ways, the software looks deceptively simple. You can easily start designing a building in seconds, adding walls, doors, windows, and furniture with ease, but the number of values you can alter is huge, all located in the Inspector section, giving you full control over the look of your creation, should you wish to be meticulously precise.
When creating a new document, you’re given a few options in terms of scale: do you wish to build a single room, an apartment, or a house? Either would work to start with, but this just sets the basic size of the canvas you’ll be working on. You’ll also find a wealth of sample designs for you to explore and get inspired by, be they single rooms, houses, apartments or cottages. All these templates are free, save for the ‘Additional Houses’ which offer more ‘exotic’ designs (who lives in a pineapple house, I ask you), and are available via a separate purchase.
Live Home 3D: Tools
- The tools are excellent and extremely easy to use, along with a wealth of parameters you’re free to use or ignore
We’ve explored many 3D home design packages, from simple free ones, to the best architecture software for professionals. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, but it really feels to us that Live Home 3D has combined the best of most of these.
Erecting walls is incredibly easy. Not only is it a simple click and drag to add one, you can also just click on a wall and then drag it to alter its position. Any adjoining wall will be altered as you do this, saving you a lot of time. Even better, if you add a new wall close enough to an existing one, Live Home 3D is clever enough to understand you want those two walls to join, and does this for you automatically.
Doors and windows snap to walls automatically as you drag them near one, and this also works with angled walls. It’s like you’ve got an intelligent assistant just waiting to help make your design work so effortless. Of course, just like walls, you can resize doors and windows by selecting them and dragging their edges inwards or outwards. More precise alterations can be done via the Inspector panel on the right.
Just above the Inspector are the view modes. By default you’ll be working on a top-down 2D view, but you can opt for a 3D view instead, or split your workspace into two to see both at the same time. We really liked that you can alter and manipulate your design in any view, although 2D is where you will be doing most of your work, as that’s where all options are available.
Live Home 3D: Objects
- Live Home 3D has hundreds of materials you can use to decorate your home and customize its furnishings
Live home 3D offers a wealth of objects you can add to your projects, all located in the left sidebar, and broken down by categories – although there’s also a handy search function, to make finding what you’re after so much easier.
When you’ve found what you’re looking for, just drag it onto your project. You have resize and rotate handles around the item, so you can position it exactly where you need it. You’ll find a ‘Glue by’ option in the Inspector, which is preset for each item (although you can change that should you wish).
This tells the software where to drop the object. A sofa, for instance, needs to be on the floor, whereas a ceiling light will automatically attach to the ceiling.
If you can’t find the object you’re looking for you have the ability of importing your own files, or get additional ones from the Trimble 3D Warehouse (you’ll have to create a free account there in order to do so).
Adding objects is one thing, but you need the ability to customize them as well, and Live Home 3D definitely has your back there. The left sidebar stores hundreds of different materials, also organised by category, which you can add to any object, wall, or floor, or anything that’s selectable, really. And you’re not limited to using these materials in ‘traditional’ ways. Want a sofa made of grass on a leather floor? Go for it.
Live Home 3D: Renders
- Two render engines to create an unlimited number of images for you at various resolutions. Works well, as long as the ‘Radeon ProRender’ doesn’t crash on you like it did us
One thing we quite liked is, although your renders are watermarked for the Free version, and the size is limited to 2048×1536 for Free and Standard, you can create as many images as you please.
That watermark, it’s fair to mention, is massive and right in the middle of the image – there’s no getting away from the fact this was generated by the free version of Live Home 3D. You also have two render engines to choose from, ‘Radeon ProRender’ and ‘Cycles’.
However, the Radeon option crashed on us every time we tried using the former through our computer’s Radeon GPU. Bypassing the GPU and working solely with the CPU worked without a hitch. We found ‘Radeon ProRender’ took longer to render, but produced finer detail.
Should I buy Live Home 3D?
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Buy it if…
You need a simple to use 3D home design software with a myriad of options at your fingertips, should you need them, and a wealth of customisable objects you can add to your projects.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re not into home design, don’t like having so many optional options, and would rather have an interface you can wrestle with.
For more pro-grade design tools, we reviewed the best landscape design software.
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