Top 12 Free & Paid Furniture Design Software for Beginners & Pros in 2024
Summary: Several furniture design options can help you create appealing furniture prototypes for your home, office, and other spaces. Look at some of these examples in detail.
The best furniture design software provides designers with tools necessary to conceptualize and design professional-quality furniture. While big businesses generally go for paid software, it is not always a viable option for a small to medium business.
So, going for a software can be a great option for you. But, because it’s free, you don’t need to compromise on any feature. Making furniture sketches on paper and creating real woodworks are completely two different things that have a lot of gaps.
However, this gap can be bridged by using furniture drawing software where you can design models in 2D and visualize them in 3D. This helps you create innovative designs with complete precision.
In fact, the furniture design software also comes with pre-built templates and objects that help designers create cabinets, drawers, kitchen spaces, and other items faster than ever. Let’s look at the top furniture design software that you can consider for your business.
List of 12 Best Free Furniture Design Software Online
| Furniture Software | Best for | Top Features | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SolidWorks | Custom Furniture Design | 3D modeling, rendering, simulation | Powerful features, easy to use, high-quality results | Expensive, complex for beginners, Windows only |
| Google SketchUp | 3D Furniture Design | 3D modeling, rendering | Easy to use, affordable, cross-platform | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| Polyboard | Cabinet & Cupboard Designs | 3D cabinet design | Powerful features for cabinet design, easy to use | Can be expensive |
| CADPro | Drafting Software to Design Wood Furniture | 2D and 3D drafting | Affordable, cross-platform | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| PRO100 | Custom Cabinetry & Furniture Designs | 3D furniture design | Powerful features for furniture design, easy to use | Can be expensive |
| Woodwork for Inventor | Residential Kitchens Designers, Commercial Shopfront Fitters, etc. | 3D furniture design for woodworkers | Powerful features for woodworking, easy to use | Can be expensive |
| SketchList | Complete Home Design 3D Software for 3D Sketching | 3D furniture design | Easy to use, affordable, cross-platform | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| SweetHome 3D | Free Architectural Design Software | 3D home design | Free, open-source, cross-platform | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| SmartDraw | Popular Floor Plan Designer & Floor Chart Software | 2D diagramming and flowcharting | Easy to use, affordable | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite | Kitchen & Bathroom | 2D furniture design | Free, easy to use | Less powerful than SOLIDWORKS |
| Rhinoceros 3D | Popular Furniture Design Software | Mesh & SubD Modeling, Parametric Design, 2D Drafting & Annotation | Easy to use | Not suitable for technical documentation |
| HomeByMe | To create 360° virtual tours of designs | Material & Texture Options, 2D & 3D Design, Extensive Furniture Library | Designated mobile application | Frequent glitches |
We have got some best furniture design software that will keep you away from the hassle of buying monthly or annual subscriptions. Let’s check out the top free furniture design software.
SOLIDWORKS
Use Cases: Mechanical Engineers, Product Designers, Industrial Designers, etc.
SOLIDWORKS Pricing
| SOLIDWORKS offers a free trial of all its products. You can request a quote for Commercial, Academia, Research, and other paid plans. |
SOLIDWORKS is a powerful 3D CAD software program that is popular with both professional and amateur furniture designers. It offers a wide range of features, including 3D modeling, rendering, and simulation. This furniture drafting software is also known for its ease of use and its ability to produce high-quality results.
Solidworks 3D CAD
Starting Price
Price on Request
Features of SolidWorks
- Create bill of materials with balloon note callouts
- Eliminates collisions and interferences
- Advanced creation of solid and surface geometry
- Converts 3D parts to sheet metal
- Supports 3D solid modelling
- Designs welded structures quickly
SOLIDWORKS Pros & Cons
Pros
- SOLIDWORKS provides multiple 3D textures that you can use in your geometry designing.
- You can also build assembly parts with its assembly modeling feature.
Cons
- It takes a quite longer to get familiar with all its features.
Platform Supported: Windows
Google SketchUp
Use Cases: Architects, interior designers, product designers
Pricing of SketchUp
| Go Plan | INR 9,913.78/Year |
| Pro Plan | INR 29,074.86 /Year |
| Studio Plan | INR 62,398.48/Year |
SketchUp is a free, easy-to-use 3D modeling software that is popular with both beginners and professionals. You can use this furniture drafting software to create a variety of furniture designs, including cabinets, bookshelves, and coffee tables.
SketchUp allows you to create accurate and detailed models right from the beginning to all stages of the project. For faster designing, you can also access SketchUp’s objects and work smartly. In addition to this, the interoperability feature integrates SketchUp with other tools in the design toolbox.
SketchUp Pro
Starting Price
$ 299.00
Features of SketchUp
- Generates photorealistic visuals quickly
- Creates both 2D and 3D models
- Provides multiple textures for modeling
- Converts designs into presentation boards
- Supports advanced 3D rendering
SketchUp Pros and Cons
Pros
- SketchUp also provides a 3D modeling toolkit to streamline work.
- With it, you can sculpt organic shapes by adding or removing material with brush-like tools.
Cons
- Its workflow is slightly difficult to work on compared to other furniture design tools.
Platforms Supported: Windows & Mac OS
PolyBoard
Use Cases: Kitchen and bath designers, interior designers and architects
PolyBoard Pricing
| PolyBoard PP | Details on request |
| PolyBoard Pro | Details on request |
PolyBoard is another popular 3D cabinet design software that allows you to create error-free and faster parametric designs. It has a user-friendly interface and provides a huge collection of handles, door textures, and glasses library which makes it easier to design cabinets.
In fact, you can also automate their drawings by simply typing in the project size and this furniture designing software will draw and automatically update the project. With the help of its 3D modeling interface, designers can add and modify even the smallest of details.
Features of PolyBoard:
- Automate complex designing calculations
- Choose from multiple pre-configured models and hardware
- Set preferences for materials, drawers, doors, assembly details, etc.
- Precisely create quotations with material, hardware, and costing reports
- Integrations available with OptiNest and OptiCut optimization solutions
PolyBoard Pros and Cons
Pros
- This furniture design software helps minimize waste materials by generating accurate cut lists based on your designs.
- It can generate HD 2D drawings and realistic 3D renderings of your design projects.
Cons
- PolyBoard is not an ideal choice to create complex organic shapes.
Supported Platforms: Mac & Windows
CAD Pro
Use Cases: Floor planning layouts, commercial designing, permit designing, etc.
CAD Pro Pricing
| CAD Pro Free | Available |
| CAD Pro Platinum | INR 8,333.73 for one time license |
CAD Pro is a versatile 2D and 3D drafting software that is used by architects, contractors, homeowners, and other professionals to create and visualize home design plans. It comes with a variety of features that streamline the workflow, such as the ability to export and share designs via email as it provides the option of sending your design or saving your blueprint in the PDF format.
Additionally, this free furniture design can also be integrated in such a manner where one can sketch, scan and upload designs and continue their work on CAD Pro. Not just that, you can share your home design plans externally using Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, OneDrive, and more.
CAD Pro
Starting Price
$ 99.95
Features of CAD Pro Furniture Design Software
- Offers advanced drafting tools
- Creates detailed and HD designing documents
- Supports gradients colors for designing
- Provides a vast CAD symbols library
- Offers architecture tools for designing architectural components
Pros and Cons of CAD Pro
Pros
- You can create virtual tours of the property you are designing.
- It lets you create your own design templates that you can reuse in the future.
Cons
- CAD Pro hangs a lot when you work on big data files.
Supported Platforms: Mac & Windows
Pro100
Use Cases: Cabinet designing, layout planning, material optimizing, etc.
Pro100 Pricing
| One-Time Cost | INR 2,12,621.10 |
| One-Time with Kray | INR 2,37,632.11 |
Pro100 is a powerful 3D furniture design software that lets you create flexible and realistic renderings of designs. It also features the ability to import 3D objects and textures from external sources, making it easy to create custom designs.
One of the biggest advantages of Pro100 furniture maker software is its GUI which produces superior quality images and renders while keeping minutest of details intact.
Features of Pro100 Furniture Design Software
- Creates custom closets and cabinets
- Supports 3D design rendering
- Edits different shapes for your designing projects
- Supports crown moldings and custom trims
- Generates sharable panoramic view of your designs
- Supports creation of custom objects, cabinets, moulding, etc.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Pro100
Pros
- This furniture design software lets you add drawers, shelves, fittings, handles, etc., as per your need while designing cabinets.
- Pro100 also generates photo realistic images of your cabinet designs.
Cons
- It does not support various formats of 3D images.
Supported Platforms: Windows 10
Woodwork for Inventor
Use Cases: Joints and panel creation, material management, parametric designs, etc.
Woodwork for Inventor Pricing
| Pricing details are available on its official website |
Woodwork is a furniture design software designed to address the needs of woodworkers. In fact, the software has been created around the approach of skeletal modeling design, making it ideal for panel design and its rapid prototyping nature.
In addition to this, furniture building software also comes with the next level iBox technology that offers pre-defined assemblies along with woodworking functionalities. Moreover, using this technology designers can also shrink, stretch, or make other modifications to their standard products.
Woodwork for Inventor helps create rapid prototype designs for different panels. Further, it generates industry specific BOMs, automatic sculpt and ensures automated component placement.
Furniture designers prefer this software for creating amazing residential kitchen designs, boutique furniture designs and shopfront designs. The software provides templates so that you don’t have to create furniture designs from scratch. Thus, reduces the total order lead time significantly.
Features of Woodwork for Inventor
- Offers Bill of Material (BoM) generator
- Mortises and tenons are generated automatically
- Offers a size calculator for parts and blank
- Generates sketches and designs automatically
- Visually assigns furniture materials in your designs
- Generates edge bodies depending on the assigned edge banding material
Woodwork Pros and Cons
Pros
- Woodwork for Inventor supports multiple components to design cabinets and buildings.
- This software can handle all the processes starting from product design till manufacturing.
Cons
- It is complex software to use.
Supported Platforms: Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 8.1 & Windows 10
SketchList
Use Cases: Conceptualizing and designing furniture, detailed shop drawings, custom furniture creation
SketchList Pricing
| SketchList 3D V5 Hobby | INR 16,674.32/One time purchase |
| SketchList 3D V5 Pro | INR 70,865.65/One time purchase |
Woodworking professionals use SketchList furniture software to create 3D plans for kitchen, cabinet and all other furniture designs. This furniture design software enables you to create furniture pieces within half the time, offering you more time to learn new techniques.
Moreover, you can also access different templates and 3D models and tweak them according to your style preferences and requirements.
SketchList 3D
Starting Price
$ 39.00
Features of SketchList Software
- Helps insert photorealistic backgrounds
- Supports one-click contours & joints
- Offers unlimited options for colors and grains
- Optimizes material design layouts
- Renders photo realistic images
SketchList Pros and Cons
Pros
- SketchList can create detailed tree designs with 10+ grain types.
- It provides an unlimited design components library including drawers, shelves, etc.
Cons
- Its design rendering is not as realistic as advertised by it.
Platforms Supported: Windows & Mac
Sweet Home 3D
Use Cases: Space planning, furniture layout creating, design ideas visualizing, etc.
Sweet Home 3D Pricing
| It’s a free and open-source 3D furniture design software |
Sweet Home 3D a free 3D furniture design software that can be used for planning the placement of furniture as well as residential designs. It also allows you to view your 2D drawing in 3D, allowing you get an aerial perspective on how your furniture will be placed.
In addition to this, you can simply drag windows and doors to their floor plan and the software will automatically compute the required holes in the walls for fittings.
Sweet Home 3D
Starting Price
Price on Request
Features of Sweet Home 3D Furniture Design Software
- Allows changing colors, size, thickness, texture and orientation
- You can also insert windows and doors
- Allows adding furniture from an extensive catalogue
- You can also annotate the plan using a compass rose
- Helps create photorealistic videos and images
Sweet Home 3D Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easily imports your design blueprints from other design software.
- You also get an extensive furniture catalogue to design spaces like your kitchen, home, living room, etc.
Cons
- You do not get any other views than the 3D perspective view.
Platforms Supported: Windows 98 to Windows 10, Linux, Solaris, MacOS X 10.4 to 10.15
SmartDraw
Use Cases: Create flowcharts and process maps, develop electrical schematics, and generate piping and instrumentation diagrams.
SmartDraw Pricing
| Individual | INR 829.47/month |
| Team | INR 687.76/User/ Month |
| Site | INR 2,49,676.08/Year |
SmartDraw is a powerful drawing furniture design program that comes with quick-to-start templates. These templates can help you create 70 different diagram types starting from floor plans to flowcharts. Moreover, you can also create custom shapes and designs for drawers, shelves, racks, etc.
This 3D furniture design software’s intelligent formatting further helps in moving, adding, stacking or deleting multiple units conveniently to diagrams. With the help of SmartDraw, your team can work together on a cabinet design.
SmartDraw
Starting Price
$ 9.95
Features of SmartDraw Cabinet Designer
- Breadth of content with thousands of diagram types and symbols
- Helps draw engineering designs with precision
- You can import and export diagrams in Vision format
- Helps create designs via CAD tools
- Integrates with tools like MS Word, Outlook, PowerPoint & Excel.
SmartDraw Pros and Cons
Pros
- You get multiple templates and library objects to create technical drawings.
- SmartDraw also offers a digital whiteboard where you can work with your team members in real time.
Cons
- The design loading time is higher
SmartDraw Supported Platforms: Windows & MacOS
Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite
Use Cases: Kitchen and bathroom designing, 2D design & layout planning, etc.
Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite Pricing
| It’s a free furniture design software solution that provides support on Skype. |
Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite furniture design software is specially designed for craftsmen. It helps you to easily design the kitchen, cabinet, bathroom and office space with functionalities like virtual reality, room plan with furniture, rendering, and more.
In addition, this furniture design software also provides more than 3000 articles as supportive materials to help you better understand the functionalities.
Features of Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite:
- It provides 3D glasses, showrooms and virtual 3D viewer.
- Advanced functionalities for plotter printing
- Helps create 2D/3D designs with ease
- Assists with modifying database articles and changing textures
- There is no pixel limit and it allows applying different graphic filters.
Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite Pros and Cons
Pros
- It provides pre-defined room templates or components to quickly create layouts.
- With its Dimensioning tools, you can measure distance and add dimensions to your 2D plans for accuracy.
Cons
- Its 3D visualization is basic and lacks advanced editing options.
Platforms Supported: Windows
Rhinoceros 3D
Use Cases: Detailed drawing, design documentation, product design and prototype, etc.
Rhinoceros 3D Pricing
| EVALUATION | Free to use |
| STUDENT | INR 16,248.40/ One-time purchase |
| COMMERCIAL | INR 82,908.52/ One-time purchase |
Rhinoceros 3D is another 3D design software that you can use for multiple purposes such as architecture and product designing. This software is useful if you want to create highly accurate and detailed models.
Rhino offers a wide range of tools and the ability to expand its functionalities through plugins. This versatility allows professionals across various disciplines to use Rhino for tasks like designing buildings, modeling furniture, or creating unique jewelry pieces.
Overall, Rhino’s blend of precision, flexibility, and affordability makes it a valuable asset for designers who need to create complex and accurate 3D models.
Features of Rhinoceros 3D
- Uses NURBS (Non-uniform rational B-splines) for precise and mathematically defined surfaces
- Provides various meshing tools to work on polygon meshes
- Supports parametric modelling
- Generate precise 2D drawings with dimensions, annotations, etc.
- Offers rendering plugins for photorealistic rendering
- Handles and manages complex design models
Rhinoceros 3D Pros and Cons
Pros
- With it, you can track and edit the history of your modeling steps.
- You can organize annotations on different layers for better workflow, especially when collaborating with others.
Cons
- It is not useful for creating technical construction documents.
Platforms Supported: Windows, macOS
HomeByMe
Use Cases: Space optimization, 3D renderings, mood boards creation, etc.
HomeByMe Pricing
| Free | Available |
| Premium | INR 2,416.44/month |
| Unlimited | INR 5,249.50/month |
HomeByMe is one of the leading furniture design software that can help you with tasks like designing, planning, configuring, and selling your home designing projects in 3D.
This software offers direct links to stores with 20,000+ branded products that you can use in designing your floor plans. Furthermore, you can consider this designing tool for its endless choices of materials, equipment, and coverings to custom your interior project to the fullest.
Features of HomeByMe
- Provides a catalog of furniture items
- Creates customizable furniture with precise measurements
- Imports the existing 3D models into your projects
- Generates realistic 4K images
- Shares designs and drawings with others in real-time
Pros and Cons of HomeByMe
Pros
- It also offers a designated mobile application to work on your projects on the go.
- You can use real brand furniture to design the interior of your project.
Cons
- Frequent glitches occur when you use the software.
Supported Platform: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
How Did We Choose the Best Furniture Design Software?
Furniture design software that we have enumerated in this article has been selected on certain metrics such as their pricing, usability, functionalities, etc.
Here are some metrics that we have considered while listing software in the article:
- We have considered their pricing and whether they provide a free trial.
- We tried to include that furniture design software that are easy to use
- Most products listed are suitable for both beginners and professionals
- The software provided within the list are feature rich
- We also included software that lets you export your designs and drawing
- Most software listed offer design templates to streamline workflows
Wrap Up
In this article, we have reviewed the top free furniture design software for beginners and pros in 2024. We have provided detailed descriptions of each software program, including its features, strengths, weaknesses, and pricing.
As you can see, there is a wide range of free furniture design software available, with different features and capabilities. It is important to choose the right software program for your needs, depending on your experience level, budget, and the type of furniture you want to design.
If you are a beginner, I recommend starting with a free software program such as Google SketchUp or SweetHome 3D.
FAQs Related to Furniture Design Softwares
What is the best woodworking software?
Woodworking software that is best for you varies according to your budget and purpose. Some of the best options you can go for include CADPro Furniture Design Software, SketchList, SweetHome 3D, and Google SketchUp.
Is Sketchup for woodworking a good option?
Yes, Sketchup enables woodworkers to plan and visualize a project on the system before working in the shop, thereby decreasing the chances of error. It is easy to use and ideally suited for 3D modeling and rendering of objects.
What is the easiest kitchen design software?
Woodwork for Inventor (Windows) allows woodworking professionals to create kitchen designs from scratch easily. The easiest kitchen design software supported on both Windows and Mac are SketchList and Polyboard Cabinet Design.
Which is the best free kitchen design software with cutting list?
Google SketchUp helps with the creation of a cut list in 3D. Some of the other paid options for kitchen software with cutting list include Polyboard, PRO100 Furniture Design Software and SketchList.
You get a list of all the parts required for a woodworking project along with their quantity, thickness, width, and length before shopping for supplies.Which is the best cabinet design software?
Choosing the best cabinet design software depends on your budget, operating system, and requirements. SketchUp is ideal if you want to try a free version of cabinet design software. SmartDraw Cabinet Designer is great for beginners. PRO100 Furniture Design Software is best for custom designs.
Is there any woodworking design software for free download?
Yes, Google SketchUp, Master Design ART-SHOP X-Lite, and SweetHome 3D offer free download. Software like SolidWorks and Woodwork for Inventor offer free trial.
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Written by
Anurag Vats
Anurag Vats is an in-house technical content writer at Techjockey who is fond of exploring the latest avenues in the field of technology and gadgets. An avid reader of fiction and poetry, he also likes to dabble with brushes and poetry and loves to cook in borrowed kitchens.... Read more
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