Rating: 
Summary: If you like hair shirts, you'll love Home Design
Review: - Hard workAll the books say home design is hard work. So why don't they warn us about Home Design?
To be fair, "total waste of money" is putting it a little strongly. With much cajoling, Home Design will actually produce a usable floor plan and model. But you'll sweat buckets if you want more than the simplest of floor plans. Bringing us perilously close to the "total ..." threshold, because if what you want is simple you can use any old freebie drawing package. - No substance to "crash" rumours The word "crash" implies that an object was travelling at speed. It's not quite the appropriate term in this context. We're definitely talking whimpers here, not bangs. Of course, I've suffered regular ... err ... whimpers, as have others who've gnashed their electronic teeth on this site and elsewhere. But I suppose I shouldn't grumble about having to reboot every time Home Design decides it's tired of life, because the program gets slower and more unstable the longer it's been running. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del is really rather akin to putting a suffering animal out of its misery. "What kind of animal?" you ask. Hmm. I guess it's a toss-up between a sloth and a skunk. I have to shoot, err, reboot my Pentium III/660 MHz/384 MB machine at least once an hour to get back to an acceptable speed and remain airborne. - Render unto seizure ... And don't talk to me about the much-vaunted "photo-realistic rendering". After an hour, I knocked the rendering process on the head (for want of access to any member of the Broderbund development team) because it was still just 30% finished. I'm only planning a little log cabin in the mountains, but I really would like it built on schedule. Or at least in my lifetime. OK, the target date for breaking ground is over six months away, but I had visions of having to leave my PC behind because Home Design was still trying to render the model when the removals van pulled away from the front door at the end of next year. I did think of setting up a user forum on Yahoo, but came to the conclusion that what users of this software needed was not a forum but a self-help group and a 12-step plan. - Back to the drawing-board If I could afford it, I'd invest in Chief Architect. That comes from Art Inc., the people who wrote Home Design's predecessors, which is to say the versions of Home Architect numbered up to and including 4.0. I've tried a demo of "Chief". It's intuitive, rock-solid stable, does far more than Home Design -- and Art Inc. only praises its product in averagely glowing terms, not like it's the best thing since sliced bread. Just a shame Chief Architect costs almost $500, even for the entry-level "Home Edition". - And finally ... Wisely, Amazon don't allow reviewers to post their e-mail address, but if you want to contact me about Home Design, send a message to community-help@amazon.com and they'll pass it on to me. [Amazon: remember to delete this if it ain't so!!]
Rating:
Summary: If you like hair shirts, you'll love Home Design
Review: - Hard work All the books say home design is hard work. So why don't they warn us about Home Design?
To be fair, "total waste of money" is putting it a little strongly. With much cajoling, Home Design will actually produce a usable floor plan and model. But you'll sweat buckets if you want more than the simplest of floor plans. Bringing us perilously close to the "total ..." threshold, because if what you want is simple you can use any old freebie drawing package. - No substance to "crash" rumours The word "crash" implies that an object was travelling at speed. It's not quite the appropriate term in this context. We're definitely talking whimpers here, not bangs. Of course, I've suffered regular ... err ... whimpers, as have others who've gnashed their electronic teeth on this site and elsewhere. But I suppose I shouldn't grumble about having to reboot every time Home Design decides it's tired of life, because the program gets slower and more unstable the longer it's been running. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del is really rather akin to putting a suffering animal out of its misery. "What kind of animal?" you ask. Hmm. I guess it's a toss-up between a sloth and a skunk. I have to shoot, err, reboot my Pentium III/660 MHz/384 MB machine at least once an hour to get back to an acceptable speed and remain airborne. - Render unto seizure ... And don't talk to me about the much-vaunted "photo-realistic rendering". After an hour, I knocked the rendering process on the head (for want of access to any member of the Broderbund development team) because it was still just 30% finished. I'm only planning a little log cabin in the mountains, but I really would like it built on schedule. Or at least in my lifetime. OK, the target date for breaking ground is over six months away, but I had visions of having to leave my PC behind because Home Design was still trying to render the model when the removals van pulled away from the front door at the end of next year. I did think of setting up a user forum on Yahoo, but came to the conclusion that what users of this software needed was not a forum but a self-help group and a 12-step plan. - Back to the drawing-board If I could afford it, I'd invest in Chief Architect. That comes from Art Inc., the people who wrote Home Design's predecessors, which is to say the versions of Home Architect numbered up to and including 4.0. I've tried a demo of "Chief". It's intuitive, rock-solid stable, does far more than Home Design -- and Art Inc. only praises its product in averagely glowing terms, not like it's the best thing since sliced bread. Just a shame Chief Architect costs almost $500, even for the entry-level "Home Edition". - And finally ... Wisely, Amazon don't allow reviewers to post their e-mail address, but if you want to contact me about Home Design, send a message to community-help@amazon.com and they'll pass it on to me. [Amazon: remember to delete this if it ain't so!!]
Rating: 
Summary: What A Piece Of Garbage!
Review: Can't add much that hasn't already been said...hard to use, completely counter-intuitive...and the help index and instruction manual are useless. If you type in "soffit," "beam," or "fireplace" there aren't even entries with corresponding instructions! Also, where are commands for crown molding, baseboard, etc? I'll stick with Version 3, which is a much easier-to-use product and offers more features.
Rating:
Summary: What A Piece Of Garbage!
Review: Can't add much that hasn't already been said...hard to use, completely counter-intuitive...and the help index and instruction manual are useless. If you type in "soffit," "beam," or "fireplace" there aren't even entries with corresponding instructions! Also, where are commands for crown molding, baseboard, etc? I'll stick with Version 3, which is a much easier-to-use product and offers more features.
Rating:
Summary: Updated but not better
Review: I designed a 3700 sf. home in 3.0 and am currently living in it. The vector generated graphics of 3.0 were Spartan, but looked three dimensional. And the interface was intuitive. The new version (5.1) is cute and very detailed but appears to be object based and looks like printed paper cutouts - no true 3-D realism - including the (so-called) photo-realistic renderings. It is EXTREMELY hard to master, frustrating to use, and illogical. Hey people at Broderbund - where did you put the SCROLL BARS? The walk through controls are poorly designed, too sensitive and don't allow you to record - at least I haven't found out how to do it. I never tried to print since I went back to 3.0 before finishing my current design. If you have 3.0 and like it, keep it and skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: A total waste of time
Review: I have used 3D Home ARCHITECT for years, V1, V2, V3. 3D Home DESIGN is from the same Broderbund, and costs more, so I thought it would be better. WRONG. Dimensioning is one of it's many problems. Dimensions aren't locked onto an element. You move a wall, and the dimenision stays the same. Wrong. And no way to remove dimensions all at once, Must be remove one at a time. Very slow. Needs auto-remove tool. And dims. should change as the wall is moved. Otherwise you must remeasure each move. No online help with program. Like I said it wastes a lot of time, and MY MONEY. 3D Home Design is all about sales, not function.
Rating:
Summary: Buggy, difficult to use, not-intuitive
Review: I just tried to design a garden for our new house using "3D Home Design - 3D Home Landscaping version 5". Despite what the box says, the software contains no templates of gardens that you can modify, just shapes (circles, rectangles, squares) with pre-programmed lot sizes (such as 40' x 110'). I tried to edit the dimensions of the 40' x 110' rectangle to mimic our new lot. Forget it. You cannot edit the sizes even if you follow the steps in the manual. So, I tried to create a new lot from scratch. Instead of a flat plane to show our new lawn, the program created a cylinder. The cylinder could not be modified no matter how I tried. I finally decided to accept the incorrect dimensions of the rectangular plot (40 x 110) and just insert sample plants (trees, climbers, etc) from the toolbar, to get an idea of what would look good next to what. The program crashed. When it did allow me to add the plants in outline view, they did not show up in 3D view, which means you can't see what they will look like in your garden (the whole point of the program!) The program crashed again when I toggled from 3D view to outline view. (My system surpasses the system requirements, so that was not the problem). I am not a software neophyte, and I followed both the manual and the tutorials step-by-step to create a diagram, but the software did not work. I don't believe Broderbund tests this before releasing it to the public. If anyone has found a quality landscape design software program, please tell me. Right now, I'm ready to turn to Powerpoint.
Rating:
Summary: Buggy, difficult to use, not-intuitive
Review: I just tried to design a garden for our new house using "3D Home Design - 3D Home Landscaping version 5". Despite what the box says, the software contains no templates of gardens that you can modify, just shapes (circles, rectangles, squares) with pre-programmed lot sizes (such as 40' x 110'). I tried to edit the dimensions of the 40' x 110' rectangle to mimic our new lot. Forget it. You cannot edit the sizes even if you follow the steps in the manual. So, I tried to create a new lot from scratch. Instead of a flat plane to show our new lawn, the program created a cylinder. The cylinder could not be modified no matter how I tried. I finally decided to accept the incorrect dimensions of the rectangular plot (40 x 110) and just insert sample plants (trees, climbers, etc) from the toolbar, to get an idea of what would look good next to what. The program crashed. When it did allow me to add the plants in outline view, they did not show up in 3D view, which means you can't see what they will look like in your garden (the whole point of the program!) The program crashed again when I toggled from 3D view to outline view. (My system surpasses the system requirements, so that was not the problem). I am not a software neophyte, and I followed both the manual and the tutorials step-by-step to create a diagram, but the software did not work. I don't believe Broderbund tests this before releasing it to the public. If anyone has found a quality landscape design software program, please tell me. Right now, I'm ready to turn to Powerpoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Worked Really Well
Review: I purcahsed this software to design my addition and decorate and got what I needed. It was straight forward and I also figured out how to bring in some custom furniture that I found. It gave me a good idea of what I was getting in the end. Good value for what I bought it for.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Powerful
Review: I purchased 3DHome Design Suite 5.0 after trying many different programs on the market including previous versions 3.0 amd 4.0. This product finally has integrated landscape and home design which previously was two different products shoved in one box. After a couple of hours, I designed my house and had a sloped lot created. This program was much better than previous versions of 3D Home and other brands
| 
