I’m no architect or anything like that. I have a space that my family bought and we would like to use some of what is already built. That’s why I’m looking for a floor plan app to design something and give us some idea of what we may be able to do.
With that in mind, which one would you suggest? I have an iPad, MacBook and iPhone.
Check out Magic Plan. Especially if you don’t already have a CAD drawing or blueprints with accurate measurements.
Magic Plan has had an AR mode even before Apple added AR/VR to iOS. Really easy to map out a room and get reasonably accurate measurements.
Also has a built-in floorplan/CAD-ish editor, but I prefer to use it mainly for the measuring/mapping and then exporting a floorplan into other design software.
Affinity Designer is indeed a pro-level app, but I find it way easier to work with than Adobe Illustrator. It might be overkill if you won’t need Designer for other tasks later.
Designer, Illustrator, are all great design apps, but they are generic tools and require a fair amount of learning to use.
I would definitely recommend a floorplan-specific app instead. They have built-in templates for common floorplan elements (windows, doors, etc.) and understand specific needs such as adding a door to a wall, breaking a wall into corners, etc.
Using a general purpose app instead of one purpose-built would be like using a spreadsheet for a double-entry account system. Sure, you can do it, but you are re-inventing the wheel and starting without any pre-built help from those that have already analyzed the application domain (floorplan) and created all the common functions and templates most people need.
I used this iOS app for free 3 years ago when I was planning a house: Room Planner. It was really easy to use and also has a linked library of IKEA and other store furniture.
I think I hit a paywall a couple of times and I did consider just taking out a subscription for a couple of months to cover me, but in the end I was able to do all I needed without paying (my needs weren’t complicated, I just wanted to try different layouts and plan a garage conversion).