Rating: 
Summary: Good product and Excellent Support
Review: A few years ago, I shopped for a product to help me design my house. I evaluated 3 products and found only this one is usable for my purpose (design a home of my own). Yes, it doesn't not have all the features I need, but for the price it is more than what I can expect. When I upgraded to 4.0, I found it somewhat different than 3.0, but once I get used to it, I found it very useful.The support is excellent and it is free via email. I have yet to find any company does as well. They response through email in a day or two. They have never failed me. Once I lost my CD during a move, I called and they replaced the CD for $10 (S&H). Very professional. Good company, good service, good product. Of course, I want more features. This is the only reason I don't give it a 5-start rating. Can't wait to see what's in 5.0 in Sept, 2002. If they offer a upgrade with reasonable cost, I definitely will do so.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Program for a First Time CAD User
Review: As a designer and builder of children's playhouses, I was looking for an easy-to-use CAD program to assist in the creation of these structures. I have found 3D Home Architect to be a fairly good program for a novice CAD user. As some of the reviews here have noted, the program is not as intuitive as it might otherwise have been; the 3D rendering could be A LOT faster; and I found the User Guide to have some errors (some of which were corrected on the website as technical notes. One of the corrections though--for a gable roof over a dormer--did not supply the correct answer either. Customer Support, however, did provide a quick and accurate response). For the average homeowner, this program is excellent. It also serves my needs in designing custom playhouses. I would have liked to have seen some of the features offered in Chief Architect 7.0 [...] but I have been pleased with my purchase and would recommend it. By the way, a free, functional demo version of CA 7.0 is available for download, but it is limited in that you cannot save or print your plans, amongst some other limitations.
Rating: 
Summary: For the money it is unbeatable
Review: For the money this 3D Home Architect 4.0 can't be beat. You can easily build walls, install windows, cabinets, fixtures, doorways, etc. The impressive thing is that if you want to resize something, like a wall, it displays in a revolving manner the actual wall dimension. The full camera enables you to click on a spot and get a full view of what your design looks like in its completion. The amount of detail, like being able to put paintings on the wall, or custom effect painting is not an option. As you go up the chain of Broderbund software you gain a lot more in the way of small details. That gives you a more finished look, rather than a comic book level of realization. If you are a design professional, and need to show customers a print out of what their new design for the kitchen will look like, this is great for that. Placing cabinets, refrigerator, windows and doors, tables and chairs, windows etc, are easy to place and move around. As far as minute accuracies of wall and cabinet sizes, you gain more precision as you move up the versions. In Better Homes and Gardens version, which is a spin off of the same people who give us Chief Architect, you get more specifics.
Starting with Home Architect 4.0, then up to Better Homes and Gardens Designer Suite 6 for twice the money, and Designer Pro 6 for ten times the money, and finally Chief Architect 9.5 for twenty times the money. (These prices can vary during the life of this review, so check the product pages for current prices) Each of these programs give you more and more details. They are all usable in the upgraded program. Since they are all made by the same people, you can open a cheaper versions creation and embellish it with the additional tools. Their is some confusion over 3D Home Architect 5.0 not being compatible with 4.0 even though it is a Broderbund Product and therefore uses different tools, and is not usable for existing works in the Broderbund family. If you go to the listing on Architect 5.0 you can read a review explaining that further.
If you buy Chief Architect Deluxe 9.5 from Broderbund you get very exacting software. In Chief you can size a wall as specifically as you want, and do the same with cabinets windows etc. By double clicking on a wall for example, up comes a window and you can type in a very specific dimension like 17' 8 3/16", and it will automatically size the wall to that dimension. In 4.0 you can only resize the wall in 1" increments, and cabinets in 3" increments.
These versions come with a library of different styles of furniture, windows etc. The Chief Architect even carries specific models of some popular manufacturers with their specific dimensions. Jeld Wen windows are an example of that. (Andersen and Pella are not included??)
In Chief you getter higher quality 3D models....
With Chief you get full CAD editing and too many features than would be advisable to list in a review of 4.0. If you would like to try a free demo version of Chief Architect Deluxe 9.5, you can do so by downloading it from the Chief Architect site. It is 17 megabytes so if you are using 56K it will take quite some time. The demo version is a full version with certain limitations, not the least of which is being able to save your work or print it. In addition the libraries are limited.
Overall I like the program, the learning curve is enjoyable due to being able to just click on build, choose a wall, a cabinet, window etc, and lay it out on the screen.
All in all I highly recommend the program.. For the money, 4.0 is unbeatable.
Rating:
Summary: For the money, it was more useful than I had expected.
Review: For the money, Better Homes & Gardens Home Designer Suite 6.0 was the best, and it could read the plans in 3D Home Architect 4.0 - which was great too, but had issues with XP - so I posted on both products. Apparently this is the upgrade to 3D Home Architect - which you can research. I recently designed my garage that I planned to look exactly like my house, complete with Cultured Stone from their library. All I had to do was draw the walls, install windows, cabinets, doorways, and it automatically built the foundation with the slab. Then the hard part - show my wife in 3D what I was doing, and I had to cut it back in size. I was able to print the plans, and get my building permit with very little work, and probably saved myself a lot money and time, and it was more useful than I had expected.
Rating: 
Summary: Least of all evils I guess
Review: Has some powerful features, but not a very quality product. Don't expect the quality that is in most microsoft products we use every day. For instance:
- a help index that had all the necessary key words
- an index in the manual that is worthwhile
- Nonspecific error codes that persistently appear leaving you to guess what is causing them
- no keyboard shortcuts (esp for critical items like zoom, etc.)
- all kinds of little bugs here & there
- no implementation of mouse wheel, etc. For floor planning only I'd recommend Visio 2003 - a realy quality product with all the dimensioning you really need. It's a pity to see them put this much effort into a product, and then shoot themselves in the foot with sooo many little shortcomings.
Rating:
Summary: Not an Architect but for the Home Owner it is Perfect
Review: Here are my thoughts: - I don't intend to submit architect quality plans to my local office. I'll get a professional for that. However, HAD 4.0 gives me an excellent perspective for what is and isn't possible. Moreover, with all the planning constraints imposed on the construction area, distance from boundary, etc I think HAD 4.0 is essential. - I'm English and my architect is French. We need a common tongue. I have already sent him one set of "plans" and his attitude "for once I know exactly what is required of me", I certainly haven't compromised his "artistic integrity" and I had the distinct impression he was interested in acquiring a copy of HAD 4.0 for himself. - For the most part I found HAD 4.0 to be a stable programme in both W2000 and WXP. There seems to be a glitch when "File-Save" is activated for the first time and the programme hangs. The best way to overcome this is to close down the File window and wait for the prompt for you to save the file. Incedentally, HAD 4.0 has an excellent autosave option perhaps anticipating this problem where all "corrupted" files are re-presented. What would I change. The price is excellent and I would certainly pay 2-3x the current price. The roofing option is limited but for 90% of designs is not a deathknell. I didn't buy HAD 5.0 because of the negative reviews but HAD 4.0 covers all my needs.
Rating:
Summary: Better graphics with the same easy to use interface.
Review: I have been using 3D Home Architect since version 2. I just recently decided that version 3 was just not cutting it anymore and started looking for another product. Luckily, I found that 4.0 was coming out so I bought it as soon as it was available. I love it! It has a great wizard for those people who want to be more creative with theri design but still has a huge number of plans that you can copy or modify. For really industrious people, you can do everything down to the wiring from the ground up. It is much easier to change materials and do interior decorating, although that can sometimes be confusing. This is probably because I tend to install and use immediately without reading directions - until I screw something up. I accidentally reset a bunch of colors and somehow all of my furniture defaults to being bright red :) That's what I get for not reading the manual first. Also, the view is much better graphically. Instead of being blocky and primitive, you see everything in applied material view which in previous versions was slow and restrictive. Of course, you'll need a serious machine or else this could be very slow. I have an Athalon 733 processer and 256MB of RAM. There are views that are faster but I like to see everything as close to the real thing as possible. The possibilities are endless with this new version. And considering the performance improvements and how much better everything looks, you won't be disappointed. ...
Rating: 
Summary: For the doodler only!
Review: I have Punch! Professional Home Suite but thought that the 3D Home Architect 4.0, touted by many people as a good home design software, would allow me flexibility in doing renovations. Boy, was I wrong! It's capabilites are limited by a poor selection of objects and the minimium of design features. It's highly touted improved rendering feature pales by comparison to the Punch! product and you cannot view the rendered design in the same window as the design itself. Too much keyboard work! 3D's only saving-grace is its ability to allow straight-on viewing of walls which allows you to move or manipulate textures or objects from that perspective. Great for placing chair rails, borders, etc. Punch! does not have this feature but does have a very handy furniture workshop program that allows you to create or edit objects. While the Punch! product is perhaps 3 times the price, you get 3 times the power and creativity. If you want something to play with, 3D Home is fine. If you want to do serious designs, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: This one is good!
Review: I have used this extensively and find it intuitive with enough features to render your concept in "rough". This is NOT for a finished architectural plan. But you can bring up enough to show the concept to a professional and talk through the rest.
This is also a "fun" program to use, but it's best to read the user guide which is short and gets you through things nicely.
Don't expect the super artistic or serious CAD features of the expensive programs. Do expect this one to be easy to use. It is forgiving and lets you do quite a bit for the money.
I read reviews of 5.0, and understand it is not the same product, using a different engine. Too bad too as they say this one is discontinued. Because this is the best one it appears. Drats. I was hoping for an upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: great program but won't run on XP
Review: I love the 3D Home Architect 4.0 . I have purchased 2 Punch programs also, they are impossible to use. the 3D Home Architect 4.0 is simple and beautiful. the only problem I have run into is: I just purchaed a new computer with WindowsXP and the 3D Home Architect 4.0 will not install. I have heard that the upgrade to 3D Home Architect 4.0 is not good. any suggestions?
| 
