I would like to do design a house plus a 3,000 sq. ft shop. This would be so I could design to completion, or provide an accurate presentation to an architect. Any suggestions on software that is not excessively hard to learn? I plan to build using ICF construction.

One requirement is the the file be a common type. This is so that the design can be exported into other architectural programs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: c1steve,

I too, am interested in this. We are planning a master bathroom remodel, including moving a wall. We’d like to model it first, just to see.

Searching online, Home Designer from Chief Architect looks easy and very capable. Hopefully someone with experience can chime in.

It does take some learning and I am still trying to figure it out completely but I use Chief Architect's Home Designer Architectural version but they are all very capable.
It just depends on how detailed you want to get.
It is a great product but does require some learning.

We use floor planner.com to layout stores/workshops etc. It generates scaled drawings we can give to our engineer/architect, and you can pull in blue prints etc into it

I used Better Homes and Gardens Chief Architect to design several rooms and found it to be quite capable especially considering the cost. The ability to preview the room was eerily accurate, and it even allowed importing surface textures not already in the program drop down menus by taking photos of, for example, granite patterns or custom paint colors.

Okay, I bought the Home Designer Architectural. There is a learning curve, but overall the program is straightforward. Numerous how to videos on the website plus on youtube.

It is amazing what the program can do, truly amazing.