Planner 5D would be a good fit forSTEAMclasses, maker labs, or classes focused on drafting and design. It could also fit well into science and math classes that are looking for ways to practically translate and apply learning on measurement, geometry, and the environment (if designs are meant to be eco-conscious). Teachers will want to test out the free version to get a sense of the tool. If it'll work,upgrade to the paid version, which is best suited to classroom use. Since there's almost no help or tutorial, teachers will want to prepare themselves to present the tool (or create a tutorial)and answer questions. Once students are set up,have them plan out the layout of a house, community space, or business under a set of constraints (e.g., a more modern school library). They can draft a floor plan on grid paper and then translate it to Planner 5D and create an interior. This allows students to combine math, art,and technical skills together. Note that students will have an easier time designing in the 2D view than in the 3D view: In 2D, items snap to walls better, and elements are rotatable. 3D mode is bestfor tweaking and object edits. Designs can be done individually, or groups can work together to come to decisions collectivelyor by dividing responsibilities and roles. Once students have initial designs, they can present them and get critiques, which they must incorporate into a final design. These final designs can even be converted into physical scale models.
Planner 5D is an architecture, interior, and landscape design app and website that allows users to create architectural models. Designs can be created, edited, and manipulated in 2D and 3D, easily switching between the two modes. The app's interface makes it easy to zoom, move around, and change the viewing angle, and designs can be shared. The app contains no help or tutorial, however, which results in a very steep learning curve and a lack of knowledge about what's even possible within the app. There are both free and paid versions. The free version has limited functionality (only a couple of elements are available for each type, and most of them aren't editable, including roof size), but users will seeenough to determine whether they want to pay or not.
To get started, users can either customize one of the included example templates or start from scratch, creating buildings ofup to three stories. They can lay out a home or other structure, including outdoor landscaping. Spaces can befurnished using a library of several thousand (in the paid version) pieces of furniture, objects, plants, people, textures, and design and architectural elements.If desired, designs can be renderedin an HD photo that looks more life-like than the usual interface. Free accounts have a very limited number of HD photos included. Enabled devices can create floor plans from users' real-life surroundings using Apple's ARKit features. This can be useful for testing out classroom or home arrangements without moving any furniture, but it's less useful for precise designsor oddly shaped spaces.
Students can use Planner 5Dto learn architectural andinterior design skills alongside spatial reasoning, mathematics, and a little bit of engineering.Working in the tool will getstudents thinking more deeply aboutspaces they inhabit and what makes them useful or functional. It can also help students experiment with color combinations, lighting effects, or landscape design, or with architectural or engineering problem-solving using basic measurements to calculate areas, design floor plans, or assign tasks to members of a team.
The limited functionality of this app can help those new to designing get up to speed, but users will quickly run into the limitations of the app and want to do things that wouldrequire a more sophisticated tool, such as easily lining up exterior walls of a top floor and bottom floor. There's a surprisinglack ofinstructions or tutorials, and there'snowhere to go with questions (other than a contact form) --these kinds of resources would be helpful for classroom use. The tool itself is a bit buggy. The app version has some issues with responsiveness: Sometimes when you tap an item to change its texture or some other feature, it doesn't actually change the element. It's also difficult to line up the rooms or walls of different stories, or do any real-life home design with precise measurements, making this app much better for theoretical design than any kind of real-life use. It can be used for a light introduction to design, like arranging and designing interior or exterior spaces, but precise, functional home designs would be better done in a more sophisticated tool.
