home design + construction + landscape design software? (CAD, remodelling)

[Michael ODonnell]

I'd forgotten that I, too, have a friend (in an NYC architectural
firm) who recommends Google's Sketchup.  I've not used it.

I daydream about being able to walk around the house snapping
photos and feeding them to some app where I click on key points
while specifying dimensions and such, from which the app then
deduces the entire layout and generates a manipulable wire-frame,
3d renderings, a materials list, etc, etc.

 [ IIRC, I may have seen a gizmo on This Old House that will scan a
   room with a laser and do many of the things in my wish list, but
   it's probably expensive and almost certainly not Linux-related.   ]