Invisible furniture isn't drawn in the home plan and 3D view, but it will still appear in the furniture list to let you make it visible again later.

Importing 3D models

If a piece of furniture or an object is missing in the catalog of Sweet Home 3D, you may import a 3D model file, and use it in your home. More than 800 free models designed by contributors may be downloaded at http://www.sweethome3d.com/freeModels.jsp, but you can also download models from other web sites, or create your own models with software like Blender or Art of Illusion. Sweet Home 3D supports 3D model files at OBJ, DAE, 3DS format, ZIP files containing a file of this type, and KMZ files.
Select Furniture > Import furniture... menu item to launch the wizard that will help you to choose and size the 3D model file, as shown in figure 11. Under Windows and Mac OS X, you may also drag and drop a 3D model file in a Sweet Home 3D window to launch this wizard.
figure 11. Furniture import wizard
1
Click on Choose model and choose the 3D model file in the file dialog box. If you dragged and dropped in a window the 3D model file you want to import, it's automatically selected. Once the model is loaded, click on Continue.
2
Orientate the model with arrow buttons in such a way the front view displays the front face of the 3D model, and click on Continue.
3
Change if necessary the name, the size, the elevation, the color of the imported model and whether this model is movable, is a door, a window or a staircase. Then click on Continue.
4
Turn the 3D model with the mouse to get the best point of view on the model for the model icon displayed in the furniture catalog, furniture list and home plan. Then click on Finish.
Once the furniture import wizard is closed, the imported model will appear in the furniture catalog and/or home plan and furniture list, depending on the options you chose. You may use it as any 3D model of the default catalog.
The models proposed at the free 3D models page may also be imported by group of models stored in a SH3F file, available in the SweetHome3D-models section at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sweethome3d/.
To install a SH3F file, simply double-click on it or select it after choosing the Furniture > Import furniture library item from the menu.
To uninstall a SH3F file, remove it from the furniture plugin folder of Sweet Home 3D, and restart the application. This folder is shown when you click on any SH3F file listed in the Furniture libraries section of the Libraries in use pane. The latter pane is displayed by clicking on the Libraries... button shown at the bottom of Sweet Home 3D About dialog box.
If needed, you may create your own SH3F files with the Furniture Library Editor, available for download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sweethome3d/files/FurnitureLibraryEditor/FurnitureLibraryEditor-1.26.jar/download (10.8 MB).

Drawing rooms

To draw rooms, click first on the Create rooms button.
Create a new room or a new surface in home plan using either way:
  • click at each corner of the room, then double-click at its last point or press the Escape key after you added the last point,
  • double-click anywhere inside an existing closed surface (i.e. surrounded by walls), as shown in figure 12.


figure 12. Creating with a double-click
a room that includes an half doorstep

First draw walls and add doors, before drawing rooms. Using this method, you'll be able to create rooms much faster by double-clicking in each surface that matches a room of your home. Note also that a room created with a double click will include the half doorstep of each door placed on its walls. This feature ensures rooms join each other correctly in the 3D view when the doors between rooms are opened.
Once you a room is created, you may modify its name, the color or the texture of its floor and its ceiling, by choosing Plan > Modify rooms... out of the menu, as shown on figure 13.


figure 13. Editing room attributes

When one room is selected, you may also move each one of its points with the mouse in Select mode, and change the location of its area and of its name with the indicators drawn under texts.

Adding levels

If your home has more than one level or story, you can create the additional levels by choosing Plan > Add level from the menu or by clicking on the + tab that appears when a home has more than one level. Each level is represented by a tab displayed at the top of the plan view and used to select the level into which new walls, furniture and other objects will be added.


figure 14. New level showing in light color walls and ceilings of the lower level

As shown in figure 14, walls and ceilings of the lower level are displayed with a light color in the plan view to help you use wall or room drawing tools more easily. If needed you may also copy / paste some objects from an other level to the selected level.
The default elevation, height and floor thickness of each level can be modified by double-clicking on its tab or by choosing Plan > Modify level... out of the menu.


figure 15. Editing level attributes

As shown on figure 15, the level modification pane shows also a table describing all the levels of a home to help you choose the right values compared to other levels. To create underground levels, enter a negative elevation. The level height is used to compute the elevation of the ceilings of the edited level.

Editing 3D view

At any time during the drawing of your home, you can change the point of view used in the 3D view. Two different way of viewing the home are available, the default selected mode set with 3D view > Aerial view menu and the other mode set with 3D view > Virtual visit. In both modes, you can use the mouse or keyboard arrows to change the current point of view, as shown as in figures 16 and 17.
figure 16. Mouse and keyboard actions in aerial view mode
figure 17. Mouse and keyboard actions in virtual visit mode
When Virtual visit mode is selected, a virtual visitor seen from top is also drawn in the home plan. Its location and its angle is updated simultaneously in the plan and 3D view with each move of the visitor. This virtual visitor is surrounded by four indicators, as shown in figure 18.


figure 18. Indicators of the virtual visitor

1
The head angle indicator shows the angle you can change to move the visitor's head up or down.
2
The field of view indicator shows the angle that is currently viewed in the 3D view.
3
The body angle indicator shows the angle you can change to move the visitor's body to the left or to the right.
4
The eyes elevation indicator shows the point you can drag to move up or down the visitor's point of view.
You can also choose the 3D view > Modify 3D view... from the menu to change the color or texture of the ground and the sky, the light brightness and wall transparency, as shown in figure 19.


figure 19. Editing 3D view attributes

After changing ground and sky colors, figure 20 shows two 3D view screen shots of the home designed in this tutorial.
figure 20. Aerial view and virtual visit

Other features

Drawing dimensions

To draw dimensions, click first on the Create dimensions button.
You can create a new dimension in the plan using either way:
In both cases, the new dimension won't have any extension line if you don't move the mouse between the second and the third click.


figure 21. Drawing dimensions

Adding texts

To add free texts in plan, click first on the Add texts button.
Click at the location where you want to add a text in the home plan, and enter its text in the dialog box that will appear.


figure 22. A free text with bold style

At any time, you may change the size and the style of the selected texts with the text style buttons.

Print

Once you designed your home, you can print it with File > Print... or File > Print to PDF... menus, and preview the result with File > Print preview... menu. By default, Sweet Home 3D prints the furniture list, the plan and the current 3D view of home, using default paper size, margins and orientation.
Choose File > Page setup... from the menu to modify this default choice, as well as the scale of the printed plan, the header and the footer, as shown in figure 23.


figure 23. Page setup

Creating photos of the 3D view

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Click on the Create photo... tool to create an image of the 3D view with the size and the proportions of your choice, and save it in a file at PNG format.
As shown in figure 24, the pane used to create photos lets you choose also the quality level of the created image. With a fast quality level, the created image will look as in the 3D view, whereas with the best quality level, the image will be more photorealistic. At the two best quality levels, you may manage the illumination of the image by adding lights at a different power level or by changing the hour.


figure 24. Creating photo

Computing an image at the best quality level may take a very long time depending of your home and the power of your computer. Nevertheless, note that you can still modify your home during this calculus. For technical reasons, only one Create photo pane may be opened at the same time.

Creating 3D videos

Click on the Create video... tool to display the pane used to create a video from a virtual path in the 3D view. As figure 25 shows, this pane lets you choose the format of the video and its quality in a similar way as in the photo creation pane.


figure 25. Creating video

To create a video, choose in the 3D view the initial location of the video camera and click on the red button in the video creation pane. Then move in the 3D view to the next location of the video camera and click again on the red button. Repeat these steps for each location where the camera should pass by during the video.
Each time you click on the red button, a new point is added in the video creation pane to show you the path of the camera. As Sweet Home 3D takes also into account the vertical elevation of the camera, its 2 rotation angles and its field of view, you may create all kind of animations.
Once the path you created is satisfying, click on the Create button to start the computing of the video frames, then once this computing is finished, click on the Save... button to save the video in a Quicktime file. You may view this video with differents tools like VLC or transcode it in an other format. Figures 26 and 27 show two videos computed from the path shown in figure 25 and transcoded to MPEG-4 format:
figure 26. Video with the same quality as 3D view
figure 27. Video at the best quality
Use playback buttons to check roughly the path of the camera in the 3D view, because computing a video may take minutes to hours depending on your home, the quality you chose and the power of your computer.

Export to OBJ format

If you want to reuse your home in 3D software like Blender or Art of Illusion to improve its rendering for example, choose 3D view > Export to OBJ format... from the menu and import the generated OBJ file in these software. This menu item will write in the selected OBJ file the description of all the objects displayed in the 3D view, it will create a MTL file describing their color and finally, it will save the images of the textures, you may have used. The figure 28 shows a rendering done in Blender once a few lights were added in the scene.


figure 28. Rendering of an exported home in Blender

Adding plug-ins

The features of Sweet Home 3D may be extended thanks to plug-ins, that you may even develop yourself if you're able to program in Java.
A plug-in is a SH3P file stored in the plug-ins folder of Sweet Home 3D. To install a SH3P file in this folder, simply double-click on this file under Windows and Mac OS X. Under Linux, you'll have to copy the SH3P file in the subfolder .eteks/sweethome3d/plugins of your user folder if the double-click doesn't work.
Once the plug-in is installed, relaunch Sweet Home 3D to let the new menu items and/or the new buttons matching the plug-in features appear. For example, the Home rotator plug-in adds two items to the Plan menu able to rotate all the items in the home plan clock wise or counter clock wise.
To uninstall a plug-in, remove its SH3P file from the plug-ins folder of Sweet Home 3D, and restart the application. This folder is shown when you click on any SH3P file listed in the Plug-ins section of the Libraries in use pane. The latter pane is displayed by clicking on the Libraries... button shown at the bottom of Sweet Home 3D About dialog box.

Thanksto Pencilart for her contribution to the translation of this page.

Last update : August 24, 2020

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Item Details

Superb snap pea reportedly grown in the Amish community long before present snap pea types. Vines grow 5-6' tall and are covered in 2' translucent green pods. Yields over a 6-week period if kept picked. Delicate and sweet even when the seeds develop. Snap, 60-70 days.

Learn to Grow Amish Snap Pea

Seed Depth: 1/2-1'
Rows Apart: 24'
Instructions - Peas thrive in cool weather. Sow seeds outdoors as soon as soil can be worked in spring. Seeds will germinate in 7-14 days. Double rows of peas can be planted on each side of a trellis.

Ratings & Reviews

3 reviews

4.7
3/4/2020 7:26 am

Good Peas

by Erika

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Per the instructions, I sowed these outdoors directly. All the seeds sprouted, grew fast and were very productive. 2019 was my first year growing peas, and they were easy and tasted good. I intend to plant them again this year (2020).
Zone: 6b
Garden Type: Raised Beds
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6/9/2020 9:57 am

Not sweet, but I’d grow again

Sweet
by ASHLEY
Located in zone 6b. Planted as soon as the soil was workable. Sprouted on time and have grown fantastically. Even now, in 100 degree weather they are still producing well. In our experience, pods aren’t sweet as per the description, but my family likes them still. I’d grow again.
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6/30/2020 12:08 pm

My Favorite in the Garden This Year

by Scott
This is my first year growing the Amish Snap Pea. They do not disappoint! I have three types of peas in my garden (also Oregon Sugar Pod and Swenson Swedish), and I'd say these are my favorite. They are sweet and crisp and vigorous growers reaching about 5 feet on my trellis. My only issue, keeping them picked so they'll keep producing as they are prolific!
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