Live Interior 3D Review
July 20th, 2008
While I don’t own a house myself, I certainly know that renovating or refurbishing is complex task for those who don’t specialise in interior design. This is where an application such as Live Interior 3D comes in. Not only is it handy for those that find it hard to picture a design in their mind, but it is also handy for people who can picture a design but have trouble explaining it to those that are there to put it into practice.
Live Interior 3D is a product of BeLight Software, a Ukrainian company that is also known for its popular Disc Cover and Business Card Composer software. Essentially, Live Interior 3D allows you to design the layout of a room and then walk through it. Before continuing further, it is fair to say that this is the first piece of software of this nature that I have spent more than five minutes with, so I won’t try and compare it with other products. Rather I will briefly evaluate it from the perspective of a beginner.
Upon opening Live Interior, users are presented with a selection of predesigned rooms that can be modified. This helps new users get right into their design. However, users can also start with a fresh canvas. I decided to go with a completely new design and see what I could create. Live Interior provides a wide array of options, allowing you to fine tune elements of walls and windows, such as the thickness and elevation. While there is a wide range of built in objects, Google 3D Warehouse is supported for additional models. Live Interior also allows you to customise the materials of each element and select the time of the day at which you wish to view the room.
It didn’t take long to get my head around the layout of the program. The controls are relatively logical and simple to grasp. I’m hardly a designer (as you are about to see), but after spending about an hour learning how the program worked I came up with a very basic design in about fifteen minutes:
My design may be simple enough to get the idea across, but more elaborate designs are certainly possible with a bit more practice:
While the application is generally very responsive, I did find that my MacBook Air’s integrated graphics card had a bit of trouble when moving around a room with full lighting and shadows. Whether Live Interior is right for you really depends on your specific needs, though clearly a certain level of skill is required to create a visually stunning design (as with any design software).
Priced at US$79.95 for a direct download, a boxed copy is also available with an additional fee for postage and handling. More information can be found here.
Comments are closed.
