: Hey all,

: I've been using good ol' pencil and paper to sketch up possible
: deck designs, but I would like a better idea of how my ideas and
: actual wood colours would work. Other than switching to pencil
: crayons LOL, any ideas for good software to use for deck design
: ideas? Preferably something that I could import actual photos of
: wood texture and colour and also get into fairly quickly, I
: would rather not face a 3D modelling program learning curve :)

: Thanks!

I use photoshop to play with existing pics. I would imagine there are many paint programs you could also use. 3D stuff is too time consuming and even dealing with wood grain realism can slow you down. I just pick colors from areas on the existing pic and start painting. I try to paint in thin strips the size of each actual strip not worrying about filling the area all in. Tends to look better that way. Tweak the color a shade darker or lighter now and again for variety.