Videos

This short video explains what makes SoftPlan the best choice for home design software.

An overview of SoftPlan home design software.

The SoftPlan demonstration provides a guided tour through SoftPlan's industry-leading residential design software. This in-depth demonstration video is designed to show you the process of creating a completed house design using SoftPlan's powerful automation and editing tools.

1. Sketching a Layout
2. Sketching Interior Walls
3. Sketching the Windows and Doors
4. Editing the Openings
5. Dimensions
6. Stairs
7. Bathroom Layout
8. Kitchen Cabinets
9. Basement
10. Floor Joist Layout
11. Automatic Roof Design
12. Adding Beams and Posts
13. Complex Roof Design
14. Roof Framing: Trusses
15. Roof Framing: Stick
16. Rooms
17. Electrical
18. Decks
19. Elevations
20. Cross Sections
21. Cross Sections: adding detail
22. Schedules
23. Interiors
24. SoftList Materials List
25. 3D Interiors
26. 3D Exteriors

Our free webinar series, Friday Fundamentals, offer a wide variety of lessons provided by our highly trained support staff to help you imporve your drawing experience. 

Click HERE for a full list of our past entries.

Export a SoftPlan 3D model into SketchUp. 

With the ability to export models into SketchUp, SoftPlan 2016 offers even more room to realize the 3D presentations you envision while designing.

SoftPlan AutoCAD® SoftPlan Round-trip.

When a .DWG file is created by SoftPlan the drawing data is embedded into the file. When the same file is brought back into SoftPlan the SoftPlan data remains intact. The SoftPlan data and the AutoCAD® data co-exist in the same file. This allows a drawing to be sent to an engineer, modified, and then only the new information be brought back into SoftPlan.

The AutoCAD to SoftPlan Conversion Wizard offers an unprecedented level of convenience for importing DWG and DXF file formats into SoftPlan.
Import a single drawing, multiple drawings, or an entire project by following a series of easy steps to convert simple lines into walls and other SoftPlan items.
Once you have selected a file to convert, SoftPlan creates a preview tab that automatically updates as you work. You can then choose which AutoCAD layers to import and how to import them, change wall lines into the wall types you want to use, cleanup wall generation issues, and convert imported symbols into SoftPlan symbols and openings.
In minutes, take a “flat” two-dimensional AutoCAD drawing and convert it into a SoftPlan three-dimensional “BIM” drawing complete with walls, doors, windows and symbols.

SoftPlan now lets you integrate your projects into REScheck™ — The Department of Energy’s Building Energy Codes Program. REScheck™ reports are quickly becoming standard in permit requirements and can cost between $200 and $700. Let SoftPlan streamline the permit process by creating the REScheck™ report based on the plans you have already created.

Just a couple clicks of the mouse will give you a full report. It’s quick, and easy. And SoftPlan’s direct integration with REScheck™ will not only save you money but the feedback that you receive from the REScheck™ report will help you achieve a more energy efficient product.

SoftPlan allows you to export a project’s site information, such as latitude, longitude, and direction of North, to create a Google Earth file. You can then open this file in Google Earth to display a satellite image of the property, create tours and save specified views as jpeg images.
* Google Earth Export is only available to SoftPlan+ subscribers.

SoftList allows you to automatically generate materials lists, cost estimate reports, and more using information stored in your SoftPlan floor plans.

SoftList eliminates the errors associated with manual calculations and is completely customizable, giving you the flexibility to count materials based on the way you work.

SoftPlan allows you to create custom walkthrough animations by capturing camera movements you make in the 3D model or in one of SoftPlan’s various 3D views.

These walkthroughs are easy to create, easy to modify and easy to distribute.

Create compelling videos for your clients or prospective clients.

SoftPlan automatically adjusts the views so you walk up or down stairs.

Each recorded movement becomes a frame on the timeline, building an animation that can be played back and saved. Add, remove, or modify frames using the timeline’s editing tools and output settings to create detailed walkthrough presentations.

SoftPlan+ is a subscription-based facility that enriches the design process by providing the user with a suite of cloud services and up-to-date knowledge of everything SoftPlan has to offer.

Take advantage of enhanced technical support, access to exclusive content, the complete training library, and the SoftPlan+ online cloud drive that makes sharing your projects across multiple locations easier.

Sketching Walls

Kitchen Layout

This chapter will show how to author a 3D walkthrough with SoftPlan home design software.

SoftPlan+ subscribers have the option to post these videos directly to YouTube.

Elevations can be automatically painted with textures used on the 3D mode.

This one-click process gives your drawings the finished, professional look of colored construction documents and prevents you from taking time to paint individual sections.

Texture opacity can be edited to show more or less of the paint pattern. Changes made to the 3D model can be easily updated on elevation drawings and vice versa.

SoftPlan’s model paint will put your color printer to use producing better looking, easier-to-understand drawings in less time.

The elevation tools can be used to isolate the shadows from the 3D model and add them to an otherwise vector drawing.

This feature will be particularly useful for those of you that are required to supply sun study drawings as part of the drawing set.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to add and manage reflections in a master bath room. 

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to define a wall for screen porch.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to quick and easy it is to draw a pergola.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to quickly add lighting to a Kitchen remodel.

This video shows the roof framing being added to a pole barn design.  The model displays all of the components of the pole barn in 3D.

ProHOME is energy-smart, connected, healthy and durable. It's small and sensible. Most of all, it’s the industry's most powerful home for educating designers and builders who aspire to create high-performance houses that are exceptional in their quality, comfort and style.

This video show how to use SoftPlan home design software to place a prow (ship, chalet) roof.