Yeh, paper and a tape measure is good, if you have exact measurements of your rooms and the foundation. But, if you are going to be moving walls that support weight or water lines, you'll probably want to use a program.
My contractor just did all of the redesign part for us, and just showed us print outs to get verification. I was extremely unhappy with my wife's decision to use a contractor in the first place, because it had been my dream to do the work myself. but, then after I saw the hassle it was... and how damned fast the contractor worked, I ended up happier. Plus, it would have cost me more in the long run doing it myself, and the half the house would have been unusable for months.
My only gripe with the contractor was that he drew up all of these grand plans for my smoking room, with cabinets for tobacco and tons of drawers built into the wall. He told us it was worked into the overall quote, but then became a dick right before he started on the cabinets and started wanting more money. I had my lawyer look over the quotes and tried to take him to court, but then we just settled on a new price. I still don't have the damned cabinets and such, but we got the whole thing done way under the our expectations.
