Floorplan 3D Professional 11 is a combination of two programs: Floorplan 11 and TurboCAD 10.2.

The star of the show is Floorplan, which is why it comes with a superbly detailed printed user guide, complete with two extended tutorials. The manual for TurboCAD is an electronic book on the program CD.

Professional architects wouldn’t use a program like Floorplan, but creative interior and exterior designers might, because it's a quick way of generating 3D designs to show clients.

It’s even possible to 'walk' through a virtual building and get a good idea of how it might look from different angles, with different types of décor and furnishings, under a range of natural and artificial lighting conditions.

Although the accent is on 3D, houses are designed as two-dimensional plans with walls, doors, windows and other architectural features being dragged onto the screen from an extensive set of libraries. Most library objects can be resized as required, and they can be assigned colours, materials and textures to match other items.

Appliances, furniture, doors and windows are very much in the American style, so it can be tricky to model an actual home. It's also hard to duplicate the irregular features of older buildings, so if planning an interior makeover it might be better to create just one or two rooms.

Floorplan isn't able to create detailed front and side elevations, but its files can be opened in TurboCAD for this purpose, or you can export designs in DXF format, which can be loaded into the sorts of programs professionals use.

It's also possible to generate so-called photorealistic images, in which every nuance of light, shadow and texture is recreated: not exactly like an actual photograph but very similar to the incredibly detailed interiors you see in modern animated movies like Toy Story.

Another use for TurboCAD is to create custom objects on those occasions when you can’t find what you need in Floorplan’s libraries, but the effort involved is disproportionate to the results, because while most people will pick up the basics of Floorplan after spending a few hours working through the tutorials, learning TurboCAD takes time and commitment.

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Also Consider
IMSI TurboCAD Deluxe 12
Overall: TurboCAD 12 Deluxe is a powerful 2D/3D design package with a low entry cost, but be prepared to pay extra for the help you will almost certainly need to get started.
Rating: 3
Price: £80