Homestyler 3D Floor Planner by Autodesk (makers of the industry-standard AutoCAD) is a free Web app intended for those residential and light-commercial interior-design projects that fall just short of "professional." While this program wasn't the easiest to get the hang of, it could be a valuable tool for a homeowner considering a home remodel. At first glance, I wasn't sure who was the target market for AutoDesk's app. It seems to be geared toward the homeowner considering a remodeling project and looking for a tool to help visualize the outcome. Or possibly it's built for the designer who doesn't really need a full-blown CAD program but still wants to present something visual to clients. Or maybe the goal is to be a marketing tool for brands that manufacture products such as furniture, countertops, flooring, fixtures, and cabinetry. After all, once you've created your floor plan, you can drag and drop items such as Marvin doors, Crate & Barrel chairs, and Kohler fixtures straight into the layout. Homestyler does all of these tasks, but my first impression was that it didn't do any of them well. However, we all know that first impressions of any powerful software typically fall along the lines of "I hate this program." (I still remember the first time I tried Photoshop and thought it stunk. I was wrong. It happens.) For example, my initial hang-up with Homestyler was that you start by dragging rooms into place to create the layout. That goes against my ingrained tendency to want to draw the exterior walls accurately before doing anything else. This program has no option for exterior walls—the only way to start is by dragging either a square, rectangle, or L-shaped room onto the drawing board. After fiddling with Homestyle for a while, however, I realized there's an option for interior walls. That meant I could just build a great big room that represented the outside perimeter of the house and then add the inside details. That workaround worked for me, but it's not ideal. It's better to learning the Homestyler user interface from the outset rather than trying to work from your preconceived notions or habits. I'd suggest watching a few of the videos available under the Help menu at the top of the screen, or watching YouTube help videos like the one below, which encouraged me to try again after my initial skepticism.