Rating: 
Summary: Worst Software I Ever Purchased
Review: I was very disappointed in 3D Home Design Suite Professional 5.0. It is the worst software purchase I have ever made. I am a very happy user of prior versions of 3D Home Design Suite, and I looked forward to this "upgrade." It turns out that this is not truly an upgrade, but a product with an underlying CAD engine by a different company from prior versions. This fact is obscurely disclosed on the back of the box in very fine, inconspicuous type, that for many of us, would require a magnifying glass to read. This problem with the underlying engine CAD engine means that you cannot import or open your plans that you created in prior versions of the software.In spite of the above problem, I decided to bite the bullet and simply re-create some of my designs using the new software. I found this new version to be clumsy and very user unfriendly and after working with it for a while, decided that a switch is not worth the effort. Executing what was a simple operation in prior versions became complex and time-consuming with this version. Using it is torturous, and I could never be happy with this product, so I reverted to using my prior version. Under the terms of Broderbund's 90-day "complete satisfaction guarantee," I shipped the product to Broderbund and requested a refund of my purchase price. It is the first time I have ever returned a software product due to poor performance. To their great credit, my money was promptly refunded, so I was out only the sales tax and shipping charges, a total of about $15, plus a lot of valuable, wasted time. I recommend you save your time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Software I Ever Purchased
Review: I was very disappointed in 3D Home Design Suite Professional 5.0. It is the worst software purchase I have ever made. I am a very happy user of prior versions of 3D Home Design Suite, and I looked forward to this "upgrade." It turns out that this is not truly an upgrade, but a product with an underlying CAD engine by a different company from prior versions. This fact is obscurely disclosed on the back of the box in very fine, inconspicuous type, that for many of us, would require a magnifying glass to read. This problem with the underlying engine CAD engine means that you cannot import or open your plans that you created in prior versions of the software. In spite of the above problem, I decided to bite the bullet and simply re-create some of my designs using the new software. I found this new version to be clumsy and very user unfriendly and after working with it for a while, decided that a switch is not worth the effort. Executing what was a simple operation in prior versions became complex and time-consuming with this version. Using it is torturous, and I could never be happy with this product, so I reverted to using my prior version. Under the terms of Broderbund's 90-day "complete satisfaction guarantee," I shipped the product to Broderbund and requested a refund of my purchase price. It is the first time I have ever returned a software product due to poor performance. To their great credit, my money was promptly refunded, so I was out only the sales tax and shipping charges, a total of about $15, plus a lot of valuable, wasted time. I recommend you save your time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it
Review: I write this review sitting in the study of a house that I designed entirely myself using the broderbund software. It took me two years, but I was able to make floorplans that a local builder was able to work from and get permits from. My house is exactly as planned and the 3-D model generated by the software is a spitting image of the house. When I show it to people and tell them that it was all done before the house was built they don't believe me. I get the impression from the reviews that people think being an architect is something one can learn in an afternoon from a book. Not so. If you really want to design something that will be built, the amount of time you will spend mastering this software is nothing compared to the time it will take you to understand how all of the various local and national building code rules are going to force you to do this or that with your plan. I am not an architect, but I was able to use this software to enable me to have a house built exactly to my specifications. If you aren't willing to invest a lot of time in it, you should hire a professional.
Rating:
Summary: Most UNINTUITIVE product ever used
Review: I've been in software development and sales for almost 20 years. This product qualifies as the most unitiutive product I've ever used (going back to DOS days). I've sold very sofisiticated software products that were 100 times easier to use. I can't believe Broderbund trys to sell this as a consumer product. In addition, after working on a design for an hour or so the software would crash and corrupt the file forcing me to recreate my work. Never mind saving your work every few minutes. It didn't matter as it would still corrupt the file. I would highly recommend finding a different solution.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: I've used 3D Home Architect 3.0 for years with great success. Even though it's 5 years old, it beats the pants off of version 5.1. Actually, 5.1 appears to be a completely different package, and you can't open any projects that you created with the older versions. Tasks that were so simple with 3.0 are ridiculously difficult and frustrating with 5.1. For example, if you add an interior wall that is not connected to an exterior wall, you have to drag it to where you think you want it, then measure (with a very difficult to use tape measure), then move it again, measure, and repeat until it's where you want it. What happened to automatical visual dimension lines that were in 3.0!!!? The primary problem with this version lies in it's lack of usability. It takes hours to do what took minutes in the previous version. I was grateful for Broderbund's money back guarantee - I took them up on it. This product stinks. The biggest dissapointment is, there's no upgrade path for fan's of 3D Home Architect 3.0, which was (and still is) an exceptional product. I STRONGLY recommend against this product.
Rating:
Summary: This is a HUGE step backward from version 3.0
Review: I've used 3D Home Architect 3.0 for years with great success. Even though it's 5 years old, it beats the pants off of version 5.1. Actually, 5.1 appears to be a completely different package, and you can't open any projects that you created with the older versions. Tasks that were so simple with 3.0 are ridiculously difficult and frustrating with 5.1. For example, if you add an interior wall that is not connected to an exterior wall, you have to drag it to where you think you want it, then measure (with a very difficult to use tape measure), then move it again, measure, and repeat until it's where you want it. What happened to automatical visual dimension lines that were in 3.0!!!? The primary problem with this version lies in it's lack of usability. It takes hours to do what took minutes in the previous version. I was grateful for Broderbund's money back guarantee - I took them up on it. This product stinks. The biggest dissapointment is, there's no upgrade path for fan's of 3D Home Architect 3.0, which was (and still is) an exceptional product. I STRONGLY recommend against this product.
Rating: 
Summary: Where are the plants?
Review: If you use the generic houses and sample lots provided, getting started is easy, but doing the design, and filling in materials will take a while to master. But, where are the plants? I live in Arizona, and from the advertised library of 3500+ plants I found ONE native to the desert, that I could actually use.
Despite that frustration I continued, only to find I couldn't print my design. Even after downloading new drivers for sound, video and printer the software crashed. Upside is a 90 day money back guarantee.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: It simply won't work in Windows 2000. It is a buggy, hard to use, pathetic program with a lot of deficiencies. I have been trying to work with the developers of the product because there is no way to get customer service from Broderbund. So far they have no ideas! Move a line and a phantom shoots off into infinity. Move another and the program might crash or you get a permanently detached wall with about 10 line fragments hidden under it. Walls become detached on their own with object fragments. The stair generator won't create a real stair. Raised platofrms and stair segments are almost impossible to make - if you can keep the program from doing really BAD things. There are no scroll bars - go figure! Rendering is poor and is shading based rather than detail based. A walk through (like version 3) is impossible. Detached dimensioning from objects leads to SERIOUS errors that make this a useless program for serious work. This is truly a BETA PROGRAM. Not ready for sale and definitely not for the person looking to build their own house.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: It simply won't work in Windows 2000. It is a buggy, hard to use, pathetic program with a lot of deficiencies. I have been trying to work with the developers of the product because there is no way to get customer service from Broderbund. So far they have no ideas! Move a line and a phantom shoots off into infinity. Move another and the program might crash or you get a permanently detached wall with about 10 line fragments hidden under it. Walls become detached on their own with object fragments. The stair generator won't create a real stair. Raised platofrms and stair segments are almost impossible to make - if you can keep the program from doing really BAD things. There are no scroll bars - go figure! Rendering is poor and is shading based rather than detail based. A walk through (like version 3) is impossible. Detached dimensioning from objects leads to SERIOUS errors that make this a useless program for serious work. This is truly a BETA PROGRAM. Not ready for sale and definitely not for the person looking to build their own house.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: It's a good thing that Broderbund has a money back guarantee, I'm going to need it. This software was obviously written by people who have never tried to use it. The two complaints I have after spending only 2 minutes with it: First, it is painfully slow - I have a 2.8 GHZ machine with 512 MB of RAM and it takes several seconds to repaint a wire-frame of an empty plan with one wall. Second, you can't import designs from the old version - probably because Broderbund decided it would be cheaper to write this version themselves unlike the previous versions which were developed by Art Inc. After spending a little more time trying to see if there are any redeeming qualities I've discovered that there aren't any. It's just pathetic. It crashes, it moves objects by itself, it's frustrating to use, it's making me hate my computer. Don't give these turkey's a cent, this thing's a lemon. Broderbund, go back to writing games. You were at least good at that once.
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