THE ELECTRONIC TOOLBOX : Do-It-Yourselfware : Fix-it and build-it programs for personal computers are making repair and remodeling projects easier, cheaper and more fun.
It was only a matter of time before the do-it-yourself home improvement market merged with the consumer software market.
Check the shelves of a local computer software store or the pages of a discount mail-order software catalogue and you’ll find programs that can set up any ambitious homeowner with projects for many months of Sundays.
Happily, home fix-it or build-it programs for personal computers are generally easy to learn and user-friendly. Below are five Windows-based software packages that can keep you busy through the rest of winter and spring and leave you with something to show for your not-so-leisure time.
Computer-aided drawing programs are great visualization and planning tools that can help consumers get a foothold on home improvement designs before calling in professionals, thereby saving time on preliminary designs and saving on costs.
One of the best computer-aided design (CAD) programs is FloorPlan Plus 3D by ComputerEasy International ($149; 800-522- 3279), a powerful feature-rich, home-design package that facilitates drawing floor-plans and features virtual reality walk-throughs.
The software can give a preview of what your remodeling or add-on ideas will look like for any room in your house before you start to build and can save you hundreds of dollars in architect or interior designer fees.
As this design tool has evolved over the years from a DOS program to a Windows program to its latest incarnation, it has gotten even easier for laymen with no previous drafting experience to learn. The current version is colorful and intuitive, with a lively, icon-based interface.
You draw in two dimensions, but with a click of a button FloorPlan Plus 3D has the capability to automatically transform a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional illustration. The 3-D drawing initially appears as a wire-frame outline but you can add selected styles of shading. Home designers can change the view height or the vantage point in the room and even have the software take into account user-positioned light sources. The plan is viewable and printable in 3-D or in 2-D in any combination of up to 13 layers.
The program offers welcome help when designing stairs and roofs. A nifty stair tool feature creates precision straight and spiral staircases. The Roof Library offers several existing styles from which you can start, while the Roof Editor facilitates easy addition of chimneys, dormers and skylights.
Should you go off on a flight of design fancy that leads you astray from what you had envisioned a couple of minutes before, you can automatically reverse or undo the commands up to 20 levels back.
(That’s a lot less time-consuming and less costly than calling back the architect or--even worse--ripping out the framing.)
There are no templated floor plans; you start drawings from scratch. However, with clear screen instructions; a library of more than 100 insertable objects, including furniture and appliances; a well-written, copiously illustrated manual, and lots of on-screen context-sensitive help, it is easy to wend your way.
If you have daydreamed about relaxing on the deck you don’t yet have, here’s a program that offers you a head start in turning your pie-in-the-sky creation into reality. Design and Build Your Deck by Books That Work ($59.95; 800-242-4546), is an easy-to-manipulate program that practically walks users through every phase of customized deck design and construction. Homeowners can pick a basic plan from a database of pre-drawn models or can start designing from scratch.
The program, with just seven screen icons and convenient pull-down menus, integrates two components--an electronic design workshop with CAD capabilities in three views (top, 3-D and side) and a comprehensive electronic “book” with complete step-by-step instructions on how to build your deck. It does practically everything but wield the hammer.
The Before You Build section offers abundant graphics and 40 full-color instructional animated sequences, with sound, along with helpful hints on tool use and installation techniques.
After you have determined the size, shape and wood type of the deck on which you wish to lounge, Design and Build Your Deck will even produce a master shopping list, a cut list showing components, descriptions and usage and a budget sheet.
If you want to learn how to add or change a wall switch or a ceiling light or, perhaps, add low-voltage wiring for phones or outdoor lighting, Get Wired, also by Books That Work ($19.95; 800-242-4546), shows and tells how an electrician would do it so that you can then do it. The software features color-coded graphic blow-ups of common household electrical devices and various wiring connections and clear instructions on how to approach them.
Lively, if sometimes overly quick, animations (with sound effects) enhance the presentation of information. You get to see and test the wiring and/or flow of electricity through such items as exteriors and interiors of junction boxes, switches and receptacles and the appropriate wiring configurations for placement of a device in different positions along the lengths of the circuits. In essence, the electronic book teaches and talks you through the basics of efficient home-wiring.
There are also pop-up windows with more specialized information in several areas, including guidance on National Electrical Code compliance, money-saving tips, general guidelines and rules of thumb and cautionary safety notes. (A caveat--when working with electricity, always first turn off the source, be it a fuse or a circuit breaker.)
A broader scope of repairs is covered in Simply House, a CD-ROM by 4Home Productions, the lifestyle software division of Computer Associates, ($59.99, list; (516) DIAL-HOME). The program offers expert multimedia home improvement advice for anyone who would like to perform numerous odd jobs of all sorts around the house, from installing a sprinkler system or pantry shelves to changing lock-sets or wall tiles.
You can scan any area of the house by “blueprint” (layout shots of rooms minus the roof) or by library. Dozens of video clips and more than 1,400 full-color illustrations help you visualize how to proceed with each project.
As you move the cursor over photo details, names pop up that you can click on for additional information. In essence, the visuals are a photographic index to more than 500 pages of text from the “Stanley Complete Step-by-Step Book of Home Repair and Improvement.” There is also an alphabetized index of all topics and subtopics and itemized listings of all parts in the schematics. However, the program does not give probable costs of any of the materials or estimates of time or cost of labor involved.
If you would like to gauge costs of proposed projects before you undertake them or sign any contracts for others to do the work, you might want to pick up a copy of the 1995 National Construction Estimator by Craftsman Book Co. ($31.95; 800-829-8123), a combination book/disk package rarely used by the general public but a mainstay in the architectural/construction industry. This year’s edition, just released in its 43rd annual update, comes with a companion easy-to-learn Windows software estimating program, National Estimator, duplicating the more than 500 pages of indexed cost items.
The pricing tables in the book and on the disk are organized in logical categories following standard industry practices. When preparing an estimate--whether for a renovation or addition you plan to do yourself or to check on prices quoted by contractors--you work with a split screen. One-half shows your estimate while the other holds information pulled up from the database.
It is very simple and quick to pick up any line item from the database, either by page number or by keyword search. Using Windows Copy and Paste commands, you copy a line from the database and paste it into your estimate.
Homeowners can use the listed cost adjustment factors to reflect the labor and material costs for their locality. In California alone, there are 37 cost regions. You can also add markups (the contractors’ profit) and even transfer the estimate to your word processing or spreadsheet program.
