14 DAY TRIAL // Moving to a new place and you have no idea how you will find room for all your belongings or you just want to give a new look to your apartment without spending days moving your furniture from one place to another? Then, MyFourWalls is the perfect application that will make all your headaches go away. Although MyFourWalls is still in beta stage, it gives you the possibility to do all the rearranging comfortably on your computer and only when you are completely satisfied with the result actually move your stuff.
The entire process might take a while, especially if you have a lot of furniture because you must create a 2D/3D representation of your space and find the default items that resemble your own, but even so, it is better than actually moving them all around.
The Looks
MyFourWalls is very well organized and tries to make the most out of the available space. On the top and on the bottom, you will be able to see two different toolbars where you will find some of the available tools, while in the middle, you can preview the results in 3D or 2D mode. By default, the furniture library will be on the right side and you can easily switch between the Furniture, Inspector and Materials by selecting the respective tab, but you may also choose to put the furniture on the left side of the main window from the Preferences window.
The Works
The first thing you must do is build the available space. MyFourWalls offers support for only one floor, so if you have a two-level house, for example, you will have to make different representations for each floor. You must start by building your walls using the button available on the top toolbar. The same area provides the Drag, Door, Window and Zoom Out and In buttons (you may also change the representation size using the Zoom drop down menu). You can view the result in three different modes: 2D/3D (meaning that on top, you will see the 2D representation and on the bottom, the 3D one), 2D (mostly resembling a blueprint) and 3D (allows you to actually make an idea about how things will look).
The walls can only be created by working in 2D mode and once you set a starting point, you must drag your mouse until it displays the correct size. When doing so, you must have two things in mind: the size represents the interior wall size and the measurement units can be easily changed from the Preferences menu so do not waste time trying to do your own conversions. Also, the doors and windows can solely be applied on a wall, so do not leave open spaces for them. Whenever the walls are connected completely, MyFourWalls will generate a room by adding a ceiling, a floor and default illuminating items that will be removed when you add your own.
On the top toolbar, you will also be able to see the building settings button that allows you to set the floor height but also the default wall thickness and the exterior wall material.
When it comes to moving around your items whether you are in 2D or 3D mode, drag and drop will mostly do the work but you should check the Inspector to make sure the dimensions are exact.
Whenever you select an item in 2D or 3D mode, you will automatically activate the inspector tab on the right where you can find most of the customization options on the bottom of the panel and the 3D representation on top. For example, when you select a wall, you will be able to see and eventually modify its thickness and height but also the orientation. The options become more complex when you select a furniture item or a lightning item because you will be able to modify the name, geometry (width, depth, height, rotation), vertical position (under ceiling, on floor, stack on other objects or manual offset if you want to move it yourself) and attributes.
The customization options depend very much on the object type and style. MyFourWalls provides a very comprehensive furniture database organized on several categories: bathroom, bedroom, bookcases, carpets, chairs and armchairs, couches and benches, decoration, electronics, kitchen, nursery, office, plants, table, desks and sideboards, wardrobe and wall units, lamps, windows, doors and also displays the imported items although the feature does not work properly now.
MyFourWalls provides the possibility to use different predefined materials that try to cover all categories (bricks, carpets, glass, leather, marble and stone floors, metal, mirrors, plastic, textile, tiles, wallpapers and woods) but you may create your own. Firstly, each of the predefined materials can be customized by entering the edit mode.
If you want to start fresh, though, you must choose the category you want to add an item to and press the add button situated on the bottom of the panel, right beside the search field. This way, you will create a brand new entry and once you have entered the edit mode, you will be able to import a new image to use as the texture and also specify the tint color, scale, rotation, horizontal translation, vertical translation, reflection, diffusion, opacity and specular reflection.
To make your work easier, the 2D view provides three modes (Standard, CAD and Detail) and you can customize each by specifying when you want to see the room names, the door and window opening areas, shadows, wall and furniture dimensions. Even though you cannot see the room furniture in this mode, you can choose to see the objects highlighted on mouse over so you will be able to move them and change their size with drag and drop.
Of course, the final result depends on the way in which you will be able to explore the 3D representation in order to make an idea about what works and what does not in a certain location. The surrounding environment can be modified by choosing one of the available features from the bottom toolbar. This way, you will be able to see the apartment in simple or complex lightning, in daylight or at night time, with opaque or semitransparent outside walls. On the right side of the toolbar, you can see the three 3D viewing styles: walk, fly and focus.
Usually, the controls are hidden but whenever you drag your mouse over the 3D window, the panel will become active. The controls allow you to move the camera around the apartment, tilt the camera up and down or automatically revert to horizontal position, move it to the center of the wall, focus or circle on the currently selected item. In fly mode, you will also be able to move the camera up to 27 ft to have an eagle eye view or easily revert to the human eye level. The focus mode enables you to circle around the currently selected item manually or by using the right-hand button to automatically rotate until you press it again.
The Good
The Bad
The Truth
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
