What is included in Ashampoo Home Design?

2D/3D Planning – Draw floor plans and inspect them in 3D
Furnishing Catalog – Furniture, plants and decor for room layouts
Photovoltaic Assistant – Plans roof-mounted solar systems with guided input
Automatic Calculations – Lengths, angles, areas and volumes computed automatically
Core Capacity – SketchUp and Collada import opens millions of objects
Important – Windows only; no macOS version is available

What are the main benefits of Ashampoo Home Design?

Ashampoo Home Design is a 2D/3D home planning program for designing, remodeling and furnishing residential buildings on a Windows PC. You draw walls, doors, windows and roofs in 2D, then walk through the result in a realistic 3D view before any real construction or purchase decision is made.

Realistic 3D Walkthrough – Spot tight hallways and spacing problems early
Plan Import – Trace scanned floor plans of existing buildings
Solar Pre-Planning – Test panel placement on your actual roof shape
No Manual Math – The program measures rooms and surfaces automatically
Object Import – Add manufacturer-specific 3D models to your catalog
Ribbon Interface – Functions grouped logically for faster everyday work

What does Ashampoo Home Design do?

Ashampoo Home Design lets you build a complete digital model of a house or apartment, including walls, ceilings, windows, doors, balconies, roofs, and sanitary and electrical installations. Three coordinated views – 2D plan, 3D view and cross-section – keep every planning step visible, and a light and shadow simulation helps you judge how furnished rooms will feel at different times of day. It is built for concrete decisions: testing whether a sofa fits a wall, whether a planned extension blocks light, or how many solar modules a roof side can hold. The photovoltaic assistant detects the roof side you point at and configures module layout automatically, which saves manual roof measurement during early solar planning.

Who is Ashampoo Home Design best suited for?

It is aimed at homeowners, renovators and DIY planners who need accurate plans without learning a full architectural CAD package. A typical use case is a renovation where you import a scanned floor plan of the existing building, trace it, and then test new room divisions or furniture layouts against real measurements instead of redrawing everything from scratch. Because the program calculates lengths, angles, areas and volumes itself, you also get usable figures for flooring, paint or material estimates as a by-product of drawing. Users who need permit-ready construction documents or custom 2D drawing tools should look at the Pro edition or the 3D CAD line instead.

How does Home Design 11 differ from Home Design Pro 11?

The standard edition covers floor plans, furnishing, 3D walkthroughs and photovoltaic planning, while Pro 11 adds the toolset for technical plan documents. Pro includes extended 2D drawing tools with custom line types, fill properties and hatching, plus the option to save your own 2D symbols to the catalog. It also adds hidden line optimization for cleaner facade and elevation views, advanced roof construction tools for complex multi-angle roofs, and an expanded object library with more than 280 additional scalable models including current photovoltaic modules and balcony power systems. If your project ends with a furnished 3D model, the standard edition is sufficient; if it ends with presentation-grade plan output, Pro is the better match.

Can I import existing floor plans and external 3D objects?

Yes, both import paths are supported. Scanned floor plans can be loaded as templates and traced, which keeps the dimensions of an existing building accurate while you plan changes on top of it. For furnishing, the program reads SketchUp and Collada model formats, so you are not limited to the built-in catalog and can pull in generic or manufacturer-specific models from public 3D libraries. Imported objects can be edited, saved to your own catalog and reused across projects, which matters when you plan several rooms with the same product lines.

What technical limitations should users know before buying?

The most important constraint is the platform: Ashampoo Home Design runs on Windows 10 and 11 only, and there is no macOS edition. The standard edition does not include the extended 2D drawing tools, custom 2D symbols, hidden line optimization or advanced roof construction features, which are reserved for Home Design Pro and the higher 3D CAD Architecture and 3D CAD Professional tiers. Optional catalog extensions for kitchens, offices and additional interiors are sold as separate add-on products and are not part of the base package. Buyers preparing official construction documentation should plan for one of the higher tiers rather than the standard edition.

What makes Ashampoo Home Design useful in daily planning work?

The practical value is that errors are caught on screen instead of on site. Because the program automatically computes lengths, angles, areas and volumes while you draw, a redesigned bathroom or a moved partition wall immediately produces correct figures you can hand to a contractor or use for material shopping. The 3D walkthrough with light and shadow simulation exposes problems flat drawings hide, such as a wardrobe blocking a window or a hallway that is too narrow once furniture is placed. For solar projects, the roof-detecting photovoltaic assistant lets you compare module layouts on your real roof geometry before requesting installer quotes.

Frequently asked questions about Ashampoo Home Design

Is there a way to test Ashampoo Home Design before buying?

Yes, Ashampoo offers a fully functional 30-day trial version for download. This is enough time to import a floor plan of your own home and check whether the workflow and 3D performance fit your project before purchasing.

Can the object catalog be expanded later?

Yes, in two ways. Ashampoo sells separate catalog extensions, such as the Kitchen, Office and Interior catalogs, and you can also import SketchUp and Collada models from external 3D libraries at no extra cost and save them to your personal catalog.

Which products sit above Home Design in the same family?

The family consists of Home Design, Home Design Pro, 3D CAD Architecture and 3D CAD Professional, in ascending order of capability. The 3D CAD tiers add professional construction-plan features such as extended area analysis and exports of facade calculations to PDF, RTF or Excel, which are aimed at technically demanding building projects rather than home furnishing.