I'm constantly looking for new and better ways to design something. Lately I have had an interest in Tiny Homes by Tumbleweed Houses, and have thought about building a camping and traveling trailer as a tiny home. But the thing is, I would need to design it to fit up to 8 people (four adults, four kids). That's problematic with the existing plans at Tumbleweed Houses (most cater to up to 2 people), so I am down to designing my own. Usually this means pulling out the graph paper to draw it to scale. But I thought, shouldn't I be able to do this on my iPad?
Apparently someone else thought that too, as I found several apps for iPhone and iPad that will let you create, edit, and view floor plans and blue prints right from your iOS device. The one that interested me the most is iPlanit ($19.99) and it's free version, iPlanit Lite, which lets you build in each element you are planning on.
The interface is pretty clear, as it's just drag and drop for each element. Once placed, you can rotate the item with some difficulty, resize easily with a pinch, and place items quickly. Within a few minutes I was running through some designs that I thought would work on paper, but clearly didn't work in practice. It's a great little app, and one well worth it. The free version has all the functionality of the paid version, but when you export your plans, it includes a watermark over the image.
Of course, you can use it for more than just planning out trailers! It's ideal for any kind of building or layout planning within rooms, porches, or even some landscaping. I would recommend it highly for your iPad.
