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Rating: 
Summary: Floorplan 3D - a struggle
Review: I am running Floorplan 3D on windows 2000. I consider myself to be very good at windows GUI, troubleshooting PC software problems, locating information, and making things work. I really wanted to make Floorplan 3D work 'cause I think it could be great. On my 650MHz laptop w/ 256Mb memory, FP3D was very crashy. The install left a lot of loose ends - FP3D wouldnt launch from the start menu shortcut for example. I found that the FP3D UI was very basic, unevolved. I couldnt copy objects and couldnt change properties after placing them. The database kept crashing when I tried to import things from example drawings from their website. I call tech support... they said they were busy - promised to call me back, but never did. FP3D is a cool idea, you can do work with it painfully, but far from a polished product. I put about 12 hours into working the problems, and then decided that even if I became an expert, the workarounds would slow me down too much. I want to do floorplans, not work around software bugs and UI limitations. I am returning my copy for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: Floorplan 3D - a struggle
Review: I am running Floorplan 3D on windows 2000. I consider myself to be very good at windows GUI, troubleshooting PC software problems, locating information, and making things work. I really wanted to make Floorplan 3D work 'cause I think it could be great. On my 650MHz laptop w/ 256Mb memory, FP3D was very crashy. The install left a lot of loose ends - FP3D wouldnt launch from the start menu shortcut for example. I found that the FP3D UI was very basic, unevolved. I couldnt copy objects and couldnt change properties after placing them. The database kept crashing when I tried to import things from example drawings from their website. I call tech support... they said they were busy - promised to call me back, but never did. FP3D is a cool idea, you can do work with it painfully, but far from a polished product. I put about 12 hours into working the problems, and then decided that even if I became an expert, the workarounds would slow me down too much. I want to do floorplans, not work around software bugs and UI limitations. I am returning my copy for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: Still searching for something better...
Review: I have used this program for two years now and find that it can do many fun things. It does have the bugs mentioned in the other reviews, but I have found that many other home design softwares have similar bugs. You can have a "basement" in it, but only if you designate the first floor as the basement and go from there. You can add multiple levels, but it is not intuitive and took me months to figure out how to do. My biggest gripe with this software (and all the others I have tried), is that it will not allow for attic designing. Any new floor level generates a new roof line. I am still searching for a product that will allow me to convert attic space to living space. Also, it does not allow for curved stairs. I have spent hours of fun with this product and have remodeled my home many times on screen. This software remains my favorite until I can find a product that will allow me to convert my attic.
Rating: 
Summary: Only Problems
Review: I`m very angry about this software. Especially the Garden-Software, but also the Design-Set does not work correctly. Always Errors and break down of my PC. It is gettin' not better by using a 900 MHz-PC. All my complaints to IMSI were without results. Just wasted money !
Rating:
Summary: Fun, But Gets Boring Quickly
Review: My husband (whose name I am writing this under) bought this for me. Ever since I was a kid I loved drawing floor plans. I thought this would be a more technical and fun way to do it. It is, and although it gets boring after a while I still keep coming back.There are a lot of options that are not available in this that might be available in newer versions but I haven't investigated that yet so I don't know for sure. Here are a few things that 'bug' me about the software: -Can't build a basement
-Can't build decks/patios
-Can't build driveways (without a lot of work and patience)
-Just learned to create a swimming pool but can't build anything around it
-When generating a 3D image it takes forever, if you are lucky enough to even get it at all
-There are a lot of little details you need to pay attention to which is a good thing if you want it completely personalized but annoying when you render an image and see that your TV screen is a mirror and it is reflecting light and furniture off of it
-Not a huge selection for wall treatments/carpets
-There seems to be a little glitch - I need to save all my work everytime I do something since for some reason the program completely shuts down. No errors, just closes
-Customizing walls isn't the easiest thing to do
-Occasionally the inside of the house becomes the outside. Carpet gets replaced with grass and there is no fixing that. Have to start over
-Constantly having to change the appearance of things like doors etc. I would like to be able to set a default since I find myself using the same Birch Veneer on my doors/baseboards/windows
There are a few more but they have slipped my mind. Overall, I still like using Floor Plan 3D. If you want to use it for fun I would recommend it. If you want to use it to design your dream home I would suggest looking somewhere else first. This creates too much stress to be taking it seriously. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions or would like to see some generated images from the program. I will be more than happy to send them. They are impressive, not because I made them but because it is a good program... for fun. -Beth
Beth@splatterdesigns.com
Rating:
Summary: Fun, But Gets Boring Quickly
Review: My husband (whose name I am writing this under) bought this for me. Ever since I was a kid I loved drawing floor plans. I thought this would be a more technical and fun way to do it. It is, and although it gets boring after a while I still keep coming back. There are a lot of options that are not available in this that might be available in newer versions but I haven't investigated that yet so I don't know for sure. Here are a few things that 'bug' me about the software: -Can't build a basement
-Can't build decks/patios
-Can't build driveways (without a lot of work and patience)
-Just learned to create a swimming pool but can't build anything around it
-When generating a 3D image it takes forever, if you are lucky enough to even get it at all
-There are a lot of little details you need to pay attention to which is a good thing if you want it completely personalized but annoying when you render an image and see that your TV screen is a mirror and it is reflecting light and furniture off of it
-Not a huge selection for wall treatments/carpets
-There seems to be a little glitch - I need to save all my work everytime I do something since for some reason the program completely shuts down. No errors, just closes
-Customizing walls isn't the easiest thing to do
-Occasionally the inside of the house becomes the outside. Carpet gets replaced with grass and there is no fixing that. Have to start over
-Constantly having to change the appearance of things like doors etc. I would like to be able to set a default since I find myself using the same Birch Veneer on my doors/baseboards/windows
There are a few more but they have slipped my mind. Overall, I still like using Floor Plan 3D. If you want to use it for fun I would recommend it. If you want to use it to design your dream home I would suggest looking somewhere else first. This creates too much stress to be taking it seriously. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions or would like to see some generated images from the program. I will be more than happy to send them. They are impressive, not because I made them but because it is a good program... for fun. -Beth
Beth@splatterdesigns.com
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time......
Review: We were planning on building a home so I purchased this software to help me design a basic floorplan to take to our architect. Luckily all I wanted was a basic design because that is about all you can get. First off, when I got the software home and loaded on my PC it would even run without getting an error. I ended up waiting two months for IMSI to post a "patch" on their website that I could download to fix the error. Then after loading the patch the program would run, but every once in a while it would just crash (especially when trying to delete walls). After doing a few changes I would always have to save it so that I wouldn't lose what I had just done when it crashed. Another bothersome thing is that you cannot print out the floor plan to a specific scale (1/8 inch = 1 foot, etc). In fact, it isn't printed to any scale that I can figure out. It all depends on the size you have it zoomed to on your screen. This was especially annoying when the architect was trying to figure out room sizes. Yes, you can print the dimensions but they are too small to read when you print the floor plan on one sheet of paper. I ended up printing out the floor plan on 6 pieces of paper so that you could read the dimensions and then having to cut and tape the 6 pieces of paper together. The roof drawing feature was very irritating. I turned it on to see what the roof looked like. I guess my plan was too complicated because the software never could figure out what to do, even to the point where it drew one section of the roof upside down so the ceiling was pointing into the air! The worst part was that I turned the roof feature off and then deleted all of the roof that it drew, but then every once it a while it would just decide to draw the roof all over again. I would strongly recommend skipping this software.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time......
Review: We were planning on building a home so I purchased this software to help me design a basic floorplan to take to our architect. Luckily all I wanted was a basic design because that is about all you can get. First off, when I got the software home and loaded on my PC it would even run without getting an error. I ended up waiting two months for IMSI to post a "patch" on their website that I could download to fix the error. Then after loading the patch the program would run, but every once in a while it would just crash (especially when trying to delete walls). After doing a few changes I would always have to save it so that I wouldn't lose what I had just done when it crashed. Another bothersome thing is that you cannot print out the floor plan to a specific scale (1/8 inch = 1 foot, etc). In fact, it isn't printed to any scale that I can figure out. It all depends on the size you have it zoomed to on your screen. This was especially annoying when the architect was trying to figure out room sizes. Yes, you can print the dimensions but they are too small to read when you print the floor plan on one sheet of paper. I ended up printing out the floor plan on 6 pieces of paper so that you could read the dimensions and then having to cut and tape the 6 pieces of paper together. The roof drawing feature was very irritating. I turned it on to see what the roof looked like. I guess my plan was too complicated because the software never could figure out what to do, even to the point where it drew one section of the roof upside down so the ceiling was pointing into the air! The worst part was that I turned the roof feature off and then deleted all of the roof that it drew, but then every once it a while it would just decide to draw the roof all over again. I would strongly recommend skipping this software.
Rating:
Summary: Did what I needed
Review: With this tool I was able to create a virtual model of my home and try out different improvements, furniture, and paint colors. This program allows me to create furniture in TurboCad (a truly great program) and easily access them. The colors in the realistic image tool are accurate enough to use for trying out paint chips on walls (scan the chips in any photo software and sample them for RGB colors). Unfortunately this image tool is Painfully slow. This program handles complex roofs and half stories very poorly. Hopefully newer versions of this software have improved some of its shortcomings (V 6.0 was released in April 2001)
Rating:
Summary: Did what I needed
Review: With this tool I was able to create a virtual model of my home and try out different improvements, furniture, and paint colors. This program allows me to create furniture in TurboCad (a truly great program) and easily access them. The colors in the realistic image tool are accurate enough to use for trying out paint chips on walls (scan the chips in any photo software and sample them for RGB colors). Unfortunately this image tool is Painfully slow. This program handles complex roofs and half stories very poorly. Hopefully newer versions of this software have improved some of its shortcomings (V 6.0 was released in April 2001)
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