FEBRUARY 2020 MACWORLD 65FINISHING TOUCHES
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of
Live Home 3D is how fluidly it all works. At
the tap of a button, switch from a flat, 2D
view to a detailed 3D model of your virtual
home in real time, allowing you
to pan, zoom, and explore the
property from almost any angle.
Views can be exported and
shared as JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP,
or 360-degree panorama files.
There’s a rich, built-in library
with thousands of materials,
furniture, and other objects to
decorate virtual homes, or import
existing images and 3D objects
to see how stuff you already own
will look there. Others can be
acquired via in-app purchase,
but if that’s still not enough, Live
mmmmh
Live Home 3D (iOS/
iPadOS)
PROS- Comprehensive home
design for mobile devices. - Built-in library contains
thousands of 3D objects,
textures.
CONS - Augmented reality limited
to recent iOS hardware. - Limited landscaping
options, tools.
PRICE
Free (in-app purchases)
COMPANY
BeLight Software
Once the rooms have been built, adding 3D objects
and textures is a snap with Live Home 3D Pro.
Home 3D integrates with Trimble
3D Warehouse, a popular online
portal chock full of preexisting
content.
The free version is limited to a
single project; a Standard
upgrade ($10) unlocks unlimited
projects, but the Pro upgrade
($20, available standalone or
in-app) is well worth the money.
For starters, you’ll be able to
construct buildings higher than
two stories, add custom light
sources to objects, save images
or videos in much higher quality (up to 4K
resolution), and export 3D models for use
in other software.
There are a few small improvements
that the app could use. The app doesn’t
prompt for a custom name when
creating new projects and
renaming can only be done from
the Project Gallery. Landscaping
options remain limited without
purchasing a $5 extras pack,
and although tons of tutorial
videos are available, support is
limited to online only.BOTTOM LINE
The same great home design
app you know and love on Mac
is even better on iOS, thanks to
support for augmented reality. ■