How to take an Idea and put it on paper?

One can only doodle on paper what you'd like to build for so long, and unless you're an architect it will stay just that, scribbles on paper. So how to take an idea and get some sense of what it will look like in a 3 dimensional world?

I've tried Google Sketchup, Punch! 4000, and now Chief Architect.

Google Sketchup is a very basic 3d modeling program. You can from basic to somewhat complex shapes and place textures that you find on the shapes. In other words, you could make a box and stick a stone texture.jpg you found online on the box and it will work just fine. The render quality isn't great, and you can't do a "floor plan" per se (you could create a box and place "walls" in it just to get a layout idea...) so it's not great for serious planning purposes. The good thing about it is that you can produce shapes and buildings quickly and they look reasonably good after a little learning of the tools. This helps in laying out different shapes and styles of building rapidly. You also can't beat free.

Punch! 4000. What a disappointment. This is one of the most popular programs out there for designing a home. Well, if you're designing a standard suburban McMansion, this will do just fine. If you want a structure that is in the slightest way unique, forget it. Round or semi-circular rooms with matching roofs are all but impossible. Additional tools such as terrain or calculator feel like separate programs, and the data must be saved separately sometimes. The zoom with scrollwheel is a big pain in the butt, it re-centers the cursor in the screen and skews your zoom. Frustrating design. Limited structure options. I could go on and on about what this program lacks along with poorly designed and integrated features. The 3d renderings are acceptable, and the fly-around options work pretty good once you get the hang of it. But that's just my opinion. I can't recommend this software.

Chief Architect (Demo). This is a pretty complex piece of software, and expensive too. I wish I could save my designs and refine the designs a bit more to get a better feel for the program, but the demo limits what you can do. I have difficulty with making a deck on a upper floor that also is a roof, the program doesn't like that, and making a round roof also escapes me but it does seem possible. The building material types are much better than Punch!'s, the most recent version has ICF walls available as an option. The camera tools are poor, I can't figure out how to control them. If I had the cash, this'd be the program I'd get; along with a few tutorial videos as well. If you're on a budget, this program wouldn't be worth it unless you took the time to learn how to use it properly.