Rating: 
Summary: Why All This Moaning?
Review: I have owned and used 3D home Architect versions 3 and 4 for years-and I can tell you that I have never gotten as much satisfaction out of a software purchase as I have with Version 5. Perhaps you are just using the wrong mindset when trying to use this product. My sincere recommendation is:
1. Dust off your 12 gauge shotgun.
2. Mount the CD on a stick and back up about 10 yards.
3. Load a shell with #4 shot.
5. Take careful aim and whisper under your breath "Version 5, Version 5"
6. Pull the trigger.
The smile that will creep across your face when you see that the CD is no more is well worth the purchase price.
If you want easy to use, intuitive house design software, use 3D home Architect 4. If you are frustated by that program's limited roof drawing abilities, get a professional CAD program.. Do NOT waste your time and money on Version 5-or if you have-shoot it.
Rating: 
Summary: Leaves much to be desired
Review: A few years ago, when designing 2 rooms at my office, I became fluent in most of the off-the-shelf, under $100 design programs. I recall switching between 2 applications that each had great features, and would have made a perfect product if merged. One was 3D Home Architect 3, the other (which I can't recall the name) had some similarities to Home Designer 6. Having just tried 3D Home Architect 5 & Home Designer 6, I still have the same feeling: each has very strong & very weak points.Having now sampled both applications, I can't seem to figure how so many people posted hate for 3DHA. I think it's a tie between the two. My big criticism w/ HD6 is that you cannot manually change wall dimensions. It was incredibly tedious to recreate rooms based on the dimensions I had. Apparently, the pro version ($500) allows this function, but I wasn't going to pay that for my little project. When you click a wall you've created in 3DHA, it displays measurements to every other nearby wall. You then can click any of those measurements to resize it manually. This is the absolute most logical way to get exact measurements. In HD6, the library of items is pretty skimpy compared to 3DHA. 3DHA easily allows custom items to show in the 'library' so it's easy to reuse them. As for the 3D rendering, 3DHA really sucks. It is incredibly difficult to get the camera view into custom positions. This is where HD6 is best. You can arrange multiple cameras in your layout, each corresponding to another rendered window. You can also double-click the camera in the layout & it brings up other view settings such as height & field of vision angle. As for working w/ your layout, 3DHA allows you to drag a selection tool over multiple items, creating a multiple selection. You can then move all of those items at once, or select their properties. For changing the color of multiple items, this is great. HD6 does not allow you to select multiple items & then change characteristics of them. Imagine having a room you want to change the color of all of the cabinets. According to my findings, in HD6 you'd have to change each cabinet one by one. In 3DHA you would just hold the shift key & select all of the cabinets, then make your changes. Maybe I'm asking for too much from <$100 programs, but it sure seems both programs make it much harder to do things then they have to.
Rating: 
Summary: I won't buy anything from Broderbund again
Review: 3D Home Architect is a complete crock. I have attempted to use it many times. After hours of reading and playing with it I am still unable to perform the most simple task. I own V1.3 of this software and it outperforms the current version by light years. I also spent lots of time trading emails with Broderbund in an attempt to obtain either additional product support or a refund and I got nothing. So henceforth they will not see another dime of my hard earned $. Sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent low end Architectural CADD software!
Review: My company offers training to building contractors who need continuing education credits for their annual license renewal. I have developed a poplular course over the last few years that allows for hands on individualized training in 3d presentations and working drawings using low end CAD software as a platform. A couple of years ago, I purchased a number of copies of 3d Home Architect 4.0 to use as a teaching platform. Once I found the glitches and tweaked the user manuals, the program proved satisfactory. To keep my course fresh, I have susbsequently purchased 5.0 as well as another low end package from Punch for review. I settled for the Punch version without really looking close a Broderbund's 5.0. I have written a tutorial for Punch and found that students blow right through course with little difficulty. Figuring I could offer them more, I reloaded 5.0 and took a closer look. Wow! I find 5.0' video tutorials extremely helpful.
For my Basic Architectural CADD offering, the program has proved to be glitch free. Granted the program is not compatible with 4.0, but for the price, a guy just starting out can't lose. I now have two packages that the contractors visit.
It will be interesting to see which one they prefer. (Isn't free enterprize wonderful?) Concening the negative comments, perhaps those that are critical of 5.0 are expecting high end performance from low end software. If that is the case, AutoCad may be the route to go. If you have the time and money to learn it! It has been fun to watch the improvements occur with CAD software, particularily the low end. One can only imagine what is coming down the line! Jerry S.
Rating:
Summary: 3D Home Architect 5.0 is really awful, sorry to say.
Review: I lost my copy of 3DHA 3, so some time ago I purchased the 5.0, and it's awful! It's baffling that a newer version could be so much worse that a previous one. It's very difficult to use... you try to draw a wall one way and it appears in the wrong direction! The graphics are poor... you try to add a floor or carpet and it disappears. Don't waste your time! Sorry Broderbund. I'm hoping that the version 6.0 is better. I liked the 3DHA3 a lot.
Rating:
Summary: 3d HOME ARCHITECT 5 MISSED THE BOAT
Review: This product doesn,t support Windows 98
unless you have Windows 98 SE
I have never bought a product that supports
only 98Se and newer operating systems.
I guess Broderbund wants to be on the bandwagon
when 98 goes away but that will be a long long time
since about 90 percent of the world is still using win98.
Rating:
Summary: Broderhund?... never again!!
Review: I'm glad I only invested less than 30 dollars for this. It is so frustrating, the least user-friendly program I've ever seen. It's less than intuitive, you cannot select any object easily, any command needs either more than three clicks or a subtle combination of selection/right click/selection/enter. That is true even if you just want to move or rotate any object.
Building the walls already took me a couple of hours. Some default features forbid you to personalize some shapes such as stairs. Furniture management goes from way too much details for dozens of cabinets to totally inexisting type of furniture (I couldn't find the rugs for example). And it's not possible to create your own, personalized shapes.
I may have missed something and certainly didn't go through boring tutorials but I expect such software to be intuitive to the common, particularly if they are supposed to simplify access to CAD.
Rating: 
Summary: Corner cabinets, how to make?
Review: Having trouble figuring out how to make a corner cabinet for sinks. Any help will be appreciated. Krohr
Rating:
Summary: How I long for yesterday...
Review: I did use the previous version and found it better than version 5 by far. The version I used (number unknown) was a free demo version which was lost through a hard drive failure. Since I liked it so much and had become dependant on it, I purchased the latest version. Mistake! It has changed almost completely. What I could do on the old version that I can't do now:
1. Use the drawing of one level as a background layer for a new one. This feature could be switched on/off through the drop down menu. So fast and easy.
2. Build a new level by importing another floor - Again such a great feature and time saver, apparently lost in this version.
3. Dropping items such as furniture into the drawing was easier too. The sofa, plant, cabinets could be stretched to fit. Now you have to go into a new window and specify its dimensions which requires that you know the exact dimention you require and not nearly as fast. For example, to place a bookshelf into a specific length of wall to fit exactly... The previous version had things practically snap into position. Not so now.
So many other features have disappeared -too many to mention but generally, the program is not as instinctive as it was and the processes are tedious and all take much longer that they did before.
I am trained in architecture. I have worked with far more complex software. Working with 3-D Home Architect provided a way to very quickly draft something simple without hassle. This is completely lost now and I will be looking for an alternative. How I long for yesterday! Anyone with an old demo version to give me?
Rating:
Summary: Horrible program
Review: I bought this before seeing the other bad reviews. I can easily believe this is a complete rewrite, instead of being based on the previous program. I had an old version, maybe 1.0, and it was far more usable! Hard to do:
- selecting an object to move or delete. I keep clicking, it keeps not selecting.
- cameras - can't figure out how to view through them. My old version was quite usable, I could see neat 3D views of a room.
- the rotation stuff very hard to view in 3D. Graphics may be nice, but it's impossible to go where I want, without getting motion sick.
- Couldn't make stairs the right width. No apparent settings. They either were too narrow, or stuck through a wall, not allowing me to use the wall on the other side in another room. I could adjust lenght, tread, etc, but not the width of them I'm giving up, now that I can see its just a badly designed rewrite, not a real upgrade. Sigh! I really liked the old program!
| 
