Rating: 
Summary: Great for visuals
Review: I purchased this product to create a sunroom, porch, and backyard layout for an addition that I wanted built and found this tool to be very easy to learn with very few glitches. it was pretty quick to build my sunroom and back porch and within an hour I had a good representation of what I wanted. The landscaping took a little longer to figure out but in a short while I had trees, fences and landscaping to my liking. I had a little trouble with walking around and placing the camera tool but got it after some trial and error. Also the project estimator was not as specific as I would have liked but it was close enough. Once I got to the final visuals, it was slow to create the image but the quality was unlike anything I have ever seen. All in all it is a great product and I would definately recommend it for a home and garden project.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this unless you want to design a box with windows
Review: I upgraded to this program assuming that the new roof tools and better wall angles would allow me to design the simple modern concrete home with loft that I was interested in creating. NOT SO, especially in terms of the roof option. Try designing a simple A-frame like structure and the roof wizard continually creates a roof with 4 surfaces instead of two..And where did all the furniture and ability to create fences and patio's with a click go? They were in the earlier version. This one is actually stripped down for more money! About the only thing that is better is the ability to scan in a floor plan....but why do that when the program keeps adding the same boring roof line. There is also no way to design a round room, something I really wanted and I shudder to think what the program would do with the roof if you could.
Rating:
Summary: CAD that's fun? That's crazy!
Review: I'm adding a room to my home, and wanted to play around with some design ideas before contacting a professional. I've tried a few cheap CAD applications and finally bit the bullet and purchased 3D Home Architect 6. This software is by far the best I've used. It's helping to visualize exactly what I want, and teaching me a few things about architecture as well. On top of that - it's fun! (My wife is starting to think that she's a '3D Home widow' because it's such a pleasure drafting with 3D Home Architect...) This is a must for anyone serious about designing plans for their home.
Rating:
Summary: Built House, Didn't Need Architect, Good Product
Review: I'm startled, frankly, by the poor reviews for this product. My wife and I fiddled around with floor plans using this software for a couple of years until we got it just the way we wanted, then took the printouts to a contractor. His guy drew it out to plans, and nine months later we had the home of our dreams. Typical of any unfamiliar software, it was a little confusing at first to figure out how to use the tools, but with a little practice, that became routine. Yeah, the roof thing is problematic, but that's not what you should expect out of something for this price. We saved about $25K on the construction costs by not having to have an architect and are delighted to have designed our house ourselves.
Rating: 
Summary: You can build a variety roof types
Review: I've just completed reading the reviews on various home design software deciding which one to purchase. While they all seem to leave something to be desired (not to mention their confusing names and software lineage), you can make a variety of roof types with this software. I have the demo for "3D Home Architect" Home Design Deluxe 6 by Broderbund as it says in the About dialog. I assume this is the software included in the suite.
Today I made a standard gable roof using the default 20 or 45 degrees, a standard hip roof, a low angle ranch style gable roof of 15 degrees, a "shed" style gable roof with two pitches 15 and 20 degrees on each side, one of 15 and 5 degrees. I tried to make a flat roof, but either I missed something or you need to make a gable roof of zero degrees, but it would not accept anything below 5 degrees.
The slope can be specified in 1 in N style, N in 12 or percent instead of degrees.
The roof tools are a bit counter-intuitive and obscure. It took me a while to figure out how to use them. Although the Wizard is limited to a choice of 20 or 45 degree pitches, if you look at the roof properties, you can specify ANY ANGLE once a roof is constructed. Also, in the roof list there are only 20 and 45 degree pitches listed standard for Hip roofs. But you can change these to any angle.
One of the difficult things to notice and get your head around is that these tiny blue squares on the roof selection marquee are how you affect changes to just one section of the automatically generated roof. So to create a gable roof, you need to first create a Hip roof, then select the roof, select the blue square for the end you want a gable, then click Properties, then change the roof type for that section to gable. I know, it is weird, having to change the roof type for just a section when "gable" usually refers to the whole roof.
If you don't select the blue square you will change the whole roof and just get frustrated.
Making a curved roof is also strange. It creates one with Hip style ends. You must select and convert the ends to Gable, oddly enough to create an arched roof with "gable" ends where the siding is exposed beneath the curve. You have to get used to working with each end of a roof individually. The end result is unfortunately a kind of "barn" style roof that is not really curved. By increasing the radius on sections, I was able to get a smoother curve without flat spots. If you think about it, the radius of a curved roof is wider at the base than the building, so the default radius is not enough. By fiddling with the roof data I was able to make a downward curved oriental gable roof. I still was not able to make a satisfactory curved roof or for it to display truss framing for it. I may try adjusting a double slope.
It always crashes when I try to TrueView render the scene, from the diagnostics it apparently is my ATI drivers or more probably the OpenGL drivers. Crashes have been rare otherwise.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT UPGRADE TO PREVIOUS VERSIONS
Review: I've seen some of the reviews on this forum. They range from very bad ones to excellent remarks. The last one from "A Software used from Seattle" is exagerated and obviously he did not take the time to read the manual. When you render a 3D image with the 3DTrueView option, the BMP file with this image is saved in the "Samples" Directory under "Program Files/3D Home Architect/Design Suite Deluxe6/Samples". Also, if all you want is a snapshot of the 3D image on the screen, you can press the Alt key, hold it and press "Print Screen" on your keyboard, then you simply "Edit-Paste" the image into Word, excel, etc. Now to the review part: RESULTING IMAGE
I've used Punch AS3000 extensively, and while the rendering of shadows is much faster than with 3D Home Architect, AS3000 lacks the ray-tracing engine therefore cannot render surfaces that reflect such as mirrors, glossy marble, etc.
The resulting images from 3DHA Design Suite are VERY, VERY close to a photograph. The ones from AS3000 tend to look Dull because of the lack of reflective surface support. Also, 3DHA allows for many different views, 2D with textures, 3D from top view, real-time editing in 3D of the location of objects, etc. FLEXIBILITY OF THE TOOLS
First of all, Punch's software is VERY limited in the configuration of items such as Doors, Windows, Kitchen Cabinets, Fences, Stairs, and all pre-loaded objects in general.
3DHA has all the dimensions and features of each object available for change. Punch AS3000 offers a built-in 3D object editor but cannot import popular industry-standard formats such as 3DS files, whereas 3DHA does, giving access to thousands of free objects available on the WEB. Textures are all pre-defined on Punch AS3000, meaning you cannot easily (without messing with file sizes, pixel counts, directories, etc.) add textures. On 3DHA you can add a texture from a BMP file with a few clicks and apply to object on the screen. Also, Objects have their surface groupings defined so you can for example, change the color of the wood of a Sofa without going leg-by-leg. 3DHA can also export to DXF AND 3DS, allowing your design to be used / rendered on industrial / professional level software. Punch AS3000 can only export to VRLM in 3D and to DXF on 2D. I sincerily believe 3DHA is a more professional software (actually it is a down-sized version of a professional package from CADSOFT). This is to me the best VALUE for the $99 retail price. Marco.
Rating:
Summary: This is a really good program
Review: If one wishes to design a simple dwelling, this program can provide some enjoyable times. It is fairly easy to learn and its user manual is clear. One can even design rather complex designs, so long as you don't exceed the program's limitations. But those limitations make it unusable for even some very basic design features. There is no way to make a wall fit under just one side of a staircase or make the top of a wall serve as a banister. (Trapezoid and triangle shaped walls are not possible.) Separate treatment of gables and the walls beneath them is not possible. Creating gable roofs where each slope has a different pitch and the ridge is off center is very cumbersome. Sometimes the program behaves as promised by the book, sometimes it does not. There is no way of producing exposed support beams -- at least not that I can find for the house proper; perhaps there is a way for porches. I have yet to find a way to create intersecting gables with a vaulted ceiling. Walls "customized" to heights less than the full height of the story are rendered at full height. It seems that in an effort to make things easy for the non-professional, the programmers took control away from the user and tried to make some architectural features automatic. But what the program comes up with is often unpredictable. (For example, strange additional pieces of roof attached to a dormer. Some walls extend to the roof, others do not, even when "customized" to do so.)
Such simple design features should be easily possible in a program whose base cost ranges from $70 to $100. For me, the investment was a complete waste. I have no practical use for a program that does not include such simple things, regardless of what extra "gingerbread" may be included. I want to design what I design, not merely what a program permits.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed feeling ... but the price is right! ;)
Review: Posted Nov 4/04 - Currently 3D HA Design Suite is on sale for $49 by phone order direct from Broderbund! This includes Home Design Deluxe 6 and Landscape Design Special Edition. I had mixed feeling about the purchase.
For starters, I certainly didn't apprecaite the 8KB/sec download for the 160MB HA Design trail version. However I was pleased to find that this version is a big improvement over HA v3 ... and miles ahead of the Punch! competition which I've also tried and came away with the realization that this is a hodgepodge of programs cobbled together in a glittzy interface.
That said, there are lots of areas that need improvements. I'm concerned about the weird wall fragments and especially the potential database corruption. Also, I don't understand why floors can't be added after the fact. It's especially frustrating if a floor is lost if the room is "opened" due to removal of the aforementioned wall fragments. Even grabbing the floor to change properties is a chore. It sure would be nice if Bruderbund had their own user forums so that users could have a place to go for advice from other users. God knows the Bruderbund tech support is next to useless with their glib "cookie cutter" response to problems.
I could come up with a long list of suggested improvements. Among them would be the ability to tab between layers, elevation views, and sections. Speaking of sections, why annotations and the like are mosstly disabled is a head-scratcher. That's exactly where I'd like to make notes and add additional graphics. Something like that would result in a framing view suitable for building permit approval. One other missing item is a property line tool that would allow me to place the structure(s) on the site, again required for building permit submission.
In summary: A lot closer to what I need as a basic house design tool but missing on a few counts. Hopefully the database instability won't bite me but the price was too good to resist! ;)
Rating:
Summary: 1 Star or less
Review: Strong "don't buy" of this product... less than 1 star. Beware, read the reviews of their previous products; save your money and buy something else.
Rating:
Summary: 1 Star or less
Review: Strong "don't buy" of this product... less than 1 star. Beware, read the reviews of their previous products; save your money and buy something else.
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