[HELP] Help me find a free and user-friendly software to design a dog house Please.

[Deleted]

Hello there family/community!

My girlfriend and I have a Pug (Paquito!) and a French Bulldog (Sebastião! Portuguese for Sebastian) and we want to build them a wooden house.
We could buy one of those premade ones, but we want to make it ourselves, so it can be our project and so we can put all the bells and whistles we want to lol.

Now, we are looking for a free and easy to use software to help us design said house.

Something along the lines of:

*Being able to select individual parts of the dog house (for example: once we build the house on the software, we can click in one of the walls and it will say: This piece is Xcm x Ycm).
*3d...ish, so we can for example put 6 pieces of wood together (forming a block) and when we cut the door out, it will be hollow inside.
*Able to paint/select different textures/colours to paint said house.


These are the "fundamental" features we're looking for. I've found the software "Sketch Up", but the full program costs 590$ and the trial only lasts for 8 hours.


I know this is a different request than usual, but i only want the very best for my babies ^_^


Thank you so much in advance for your time, patience and kindness.


Kind Regards,

Holyfanny/Flicky

Ps: English is not my main language, therefore forgive any mistakes i might have commited.

[Deleted]

Why would anyone want to put two of the best lap dogs outside in a dog house?

the house is for inside the house. NEVER outside poor things :S

Just so they can have their own little corner in our bedroom.

[Rob D]

There is also Sketchup Make, which is the free version of Sketchup. The one you tried is Sketchup Pro.

[Deleted]

There is also Sketchup Make, which is the free version of Sketchup. The one you tried is Sketchup Pro.

:O oh i completely missed it lol. Thank you so much. i'll give it a try.

thanks.

[Deleted]

I'd start with googling dog house plans or designs and go from there, especially if you have no clue about what the proper size should be or what sort of insulation is needed etc.

Once you have a bunch of designs you like, get a piece of paper and go nuts combining them. Once you have a general idea of what you want, take it to somebody you know who has DIY or woodworking experience to see what they think.

[poser765]

Yeah I know it's not software, but i think you maybe be seriously over complicating things. The above should get you by just fine.

[Deleted]

Yay, that sounds nice. Update with pics when you get it done (with the woofs)

I'll update the post with pictures of them once i get home from work. We'll also keep this thread update with the hosue progress. ^_^

Paquito (pug) despite being an adult (1 year...ish) is rather small. Averaging around 7.3 kg. He isn't thin tho, he is about the perfect weight. He's also extremely fast and athletic!

Sebastião is a strong (as in Muscular) french bulldog! He has 14,7Kg! But the thing is...he is NOT fat! He is just well built! like a miniature pitbull XD. Black with bronze lines (or is it called stripes...). Anyway, once i leave work and get home, i'll post the pictures.


Thanks once again all.

Kind Regards,

holyfanny.

- - - Updated - - -

I'd start with googling dog house plans or designs and go from there, especially if you have no clue about what the proper size should be or what sort of insulation is needed etc.

Once you have a bunch of designs you like, get a piece of paper and go nuts combining them. Once you have a general idea of what you want, take it to somebody you know who has DIY or woodworking experience to see what they think.

Yeah Vanessa found a cool, functional house that seems great for them. It didn't have any plans tho. It's easy to figure out how it was built, that's for sure, but we would like the software because it sounds easier or at least cleaner, to mix and match different parts/sizes.

Thanks for the tips.

[nguyenthanhson9899]

good ideal

[Kathandira]

Paper and Pencil sir. Cheap and very effective.

[Gheld]

A lot of lumber stores have project advisors that can probably hook you up with a simple blueprint and some building advise at no additional cost.

[Deleted]

Hello all! Back from work finally!

YEah pen/pencil and paper will for sure be a part of the proccess, but we want to have it in digital format as well, so we can easily "assemble" it and see how it will look fully built, before actually building.

Once we know the wood/boards measures, then we will go to a lumber store and buy the pieces we need and assemble it ourselves at home. Like i said, it will be our "little" project, otherwise we would just buy an already built one, or go to a specialist and say "Build us a good dog house please!" ^_^

Now, as promised here are the photos of our babies:

Paquito the pug at the beach: (CLICK for bigger size)




Sebastião the French Bulldog (CLICK for bigger size)





The house we're thinking of building is a bunk-bed type of house. Cool and functional at the same time.

I'll keep this thread updated with progress if intereset arrises from the community.

Thanks once again for your time and patience!

Kind Regards,

Holyfannt

[Dendrek]

Yay, that sounds nice. Update with pics when you get it done (with the woofs)

I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten forum rule that mention of cute animals must be accompanied by pics.

[I see Flickyz has obliged. Calling off the lynch mob.]

[Independent voter]

Blender from blender.org. Pretty steep learning curve though.

[Deleted]

Blender from blender.org. Pretty steep learning curve though.

I just tried the "Sketch Up" free edition and despite being rather easy and actually fun to use, it's missing (on porpuse ofc) lots of feature from the PRO version. But it's better than nothing.

I'll go take a look at the one you suggested! Thanks mate ^_^