You can design a media wall in general 3D tools like SketchUp or Fusion 360, but you model everything by hand and still get no cutting list or cost. Wallwrightunits is built for media walls: design in 3D in the browser and get the parts, optimised cuts, C16 framing and a costed bill of materials automatically — free during launch.
Use SketchUp or Fusion 360 if you already work in 3D/CAD and want general modelling power for more than a media wall. Use graph paper only for a rough first sketch. Use Wallwrightunits to actually design a media wall and get the cutting list, framing and costed bill of materials — without CAD or maths.
| Wallwrightunits | SketchUp | Fusion 360 | Graph paper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free to use | Yes (during launch) | Web version only | Personal/hobby only | Yes |
| Built specifically for media walls | Yes | No — general 3D | No — CAD/CAM | No |
| Runs in the browser (no install) | Yes | Web version | No — desktop app | — |
| Chimney breasts, recesses, slats built in | Yes — as components | Model by hand | Model by hand | Draw by hand |
| Automatic cutting list | Yes | No | Partial (manual setup) | No |
| Costed bill of materials | Yes — live, itemised | No | No | No |
| C16 timber framing generated | Yes | No | No | No |
| UK metric + MDF sheet sizes | Yes — throughout | Configurable | Configurable | Manual |
| Learning curve | Minutes | Moderate | Steep | None |
| Best when you… | want a media wall designed, costed & buildable | model general 3D scenes/furniture | do precision CAD/CAM parts | sketch a rough idea only |
In SketchUp or Fusion you start from an empty canvas and model every board, recess and slat yourself. Wallwrightunits starts with the actual parts — chimney breast, recess, protrusion, TV cut-out, slat panel — so you place components, not vertices. A wall that would take an evening in general 3D takes minutes.
A 3D model in CAD is just geometry — it can’t tell you how many MDF sheets to buy or what the wall costs. Because Wallwrightunits is built for this one job, the same model produces an itemised, waste-optimised cutting list and a live, costed bill of materials as you design.
Media walls in the UK are built from standard MDF sheets in millimetres. General tools can be configured for that; here it’s the default — sheet sizes, metric dimensions and sensible framing centres are baked in, so the cut plan matches what you’ll actually buy.
Design software usually stops at the picture. Wallwrightunits turns the same geometry into C16 framing, a numbered build sequence and an interactive 3D assembly player — so the design, the cuts and the on-site build order all come from one source and never drift.
For general 3D work these are excellent tools — we won’t pretend a media-wall app replaces them.
For a media wall specifically, a purpose-built tool beats general 3D software. Wallwrightunits lets you design the wall in 3D in the browser — placing chimney breasts, recesses, TV cut-outs and slat panels — and then generates the cutting list, C16 framing and a costed bill of materials automatically. General tools like SketchUp or Fusion 360 can model a media wall but won’t work out the parts, cuts or cost for you.
Yes. Wallwrightunits is free to use during launch — design a media wall in 3D and get a build-ready cutting list and bill of materials. SketchUp has a free web version and Fusion 360 is free for personal/hobby use, but neither is built for media walls or produces a cutting list. Graph paper is free but error-prone for getting proportions and MDF cuts right.
You can — they’re capable 3D tools. SketchUp is good for general modelling and visual layout; Fusion 360 is a precision CAD/CAM package. The trade-off is that you model everything by hand and neither produces a media wall cutting list, timber framing or a costed bill of materials. For a one-off media wall, that’s a lot of setup for output you still have to work out yourself.
No. Wallwrightunits is built so anyone planning a media wall can use it — you set the wall size and add components from a list, and it handles the geometry, framing and cutting list. SketchUp takes a bit of learning and Fusion 360 has a steep CAD learning curve, which is overkill if all you need is one media wall designed and costed.
Wallwrightunits does — it produces a waste-optimised cutting list (sheet nesting and stud packing) and a live, itemised bill of materials with UK pricing as you design. General 3D/CAD tools give you the model but not the cut list or the cost, so you’d work those out separately.
Design your media wall in 3D in the browser and get the optimised cutting list, the costed bill of materials and the build order — free, in minutes, no CAD experience needed.
or see how it works first →