Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer [OLD VERSION]

by Chief Architect

Product Features

• Powerful software for Home Design, Remodeling, Interiors, Kitchens & Baths, Landscaping, Site Planning and more
• Powerful Automatic Building and Design Tools like One-Click Automatic Roofs and Automatic Dormers, Material Painter, Color Chooser, Deck Designer tools and more
• Better Homes and Gardens Design Inspiration Gallery organized by room type; Exclusive Design Planning Center with Expert "how-to" Design Advice
• Create Accurately Scaled Floor Plans with 3D Design Tools and Virtual Walk Thru Tools
• Choose from over 7,000 built-in Library Items or import your own for unlimited possibilities; Over 3,200 realistic landscaping plants--with plant encyclopedia data

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0012BW00O
• Item model number: AD80MN0AZ1
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 7, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,111 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #40 in Software > Home & Hobbies > Gardening & Landscape
  • #69 in Software > Graphics > CAD
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Create Your Dream Home... Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer provides an advanced yet easy to use set of tools for Home Design, Remodeling, Interior Design, Kitchens, Baths, Decks, Landscaping, Site Planning and Cost Estimation.

Create your dream home today. View Product Demo.

Use the Pathway tool to design curb-appealing landscaping using stone, pavers, or sidewalks--line with trees, shrubs, flowers and more.

Design your ideal kitchen--move walls, create new cabinets, add appliances, and more.

Exclusive All-in-One Home Design Solution

• Exclusive Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center for expert design advice
• Choose from over 2,500 Sample Plans
• Design Inspiration Galley contains photos by type for design and inspiration design ideas
• Choose from built-in home style templates or create your own custom home design, or use the House Wizard
• Powerful building tools like automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing and foundations

Get Started Quickly and Easily

• The Quick Startup Options Guide will help you begin with "How-To" tutorials based on the type of your project
• Use the House Wizard for quick and easy layout of your rooms
• Select from the pre-designed Home Design and Landscaping Style Templates complete with colors, cabinets, decks and more
• Exclusive Design Planning Center for up-to-date How-To and Design Tips from the experts to help in your design process
• Includes Step-by-Step Tutorial DVD Packed with over 40 easy "step-by-step" tutorial training videos that will quickly get you started on your next home design project

Kitchen and Bath Design

• Design the Kitchen of your dreams--move walls, create new cabinets, add appliances. Design your perfect workspace!
• Plan the new layout of your bathroom with custom cabinets, sinks, showers and garden tubs. It's easy to visualize your ideas in 3D.
• Create custom cabinets in minutes by choosing your own colors, countertops, door styles and more
• Design your new kitchen or bath with using the Cabinet Designer Tools
• Use the Cabinet Designer tools to create unlimited of cabinet styles. Choose your own colors, countertops and door styles.

Interior Design

• Use the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center to help guide your designs with guidelines, tips and expert advice
• Design Inspiration Gallery--Our gallery of photos will help you to jump start your design and decorating style ideas with inspirational photos by rooms
• Material Painter lets you apply colors and materials quickly and easily
• Choose from thousands of colors and textures or create your own materials using a digital photograph
• Design for your lifestyle and personality--change colors, add lighting and choose furniture to accent your new room

Glass House View provides a full translucent view of your design.

Choose from over 3,200 plants with the Plant Chooser.

Decks and Landscaping

• Powerful deck and patio tools allow you to design and visualize your new deck with 3D models and can help you estimate the costs
• Design single or multi-level decks complete with automatic deck framing
• Quickly lay out your deck with stairs and arrange furniture
• Deck foundations automatically generate to match sloped lots
• Exclusive Better Homes and Gardens Plant Encyclopedia
• Choose from over 3,200 plants with the Plant Chooser
• Plant Hardiness Zone reference maps
• See what your plants will look like in 0-20 years
• Pathways--Use the Pathway tool to design curb-appealing landscaping using stone, pavers, or sidewalks--line with trees, shrubs, flowers and more

3D Models and Virtual Tours

• Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic with a point-and-click of the camera tool.
• Glass House View provides a full translucent view of your design
• Doll House View, a 3D overview without the roof, is an effective tool for space planning of furniture placement and traffic flow
• Create a Virtual Tour--draw your record line to Automatically Generate; or record your camera movements
• Visualize your home with day and night views
• Assemble a scale model of your design with Model Maker
• Generate shadows from the sun for realistic 3D views
• Point-and-click to remove wall surfaces, or use 3D Cross-Section Elevation Slider to quickly create a 3D slice of your desired view

Site Planning & Estimating

• Use Automatic Build Terrain and Terrain Perimeter tools to create flat, irregular shaped, or sloped lots--use a GPS to import or enter elevation data
• Create plot and perimeter plans; automatically generate a 3D model of your actual terrain
• Make your backyard design come alive using several easy-to-use terrain and landscaping tools. Add a pool or pond and visualize in 3D.
• Sprinkler Designer tools to easily layout sprinkler zones
• Fences and Driveways--With the Fencing tools you can choose a variety fencing styles and custom gates. You will also find driveway, sidewalk and curbing tools
• Hill and Valley tools make it easy to add gardens, beds and slopes that automatically appear in 3D views. Choose from landscaping style templates or create your own.
• Cost Estimating--Don't be surprised by the cost of your project. Automatically generate a complete spreadsheet for your project costs, broken down by category. Calculate the amount of lumber for your deck or concrete required for that new patio.

Product Description

Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer is an all-in-one Home Design software and provides feature rich tools for design projects including: Home Design, Remodeling, Decks & Landscaping, Interior Design, Site Planning & Estimating. Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, and cabinets. Choose colors, place furniture, create decks and landscaping. Powerful building tools like standard CAD tools, automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing, foundations, and Plan Check make it easy. Choose from a Library of more than 7,000 items including windows, doors, lighting, furniture, interior/exterior fixtures, cabinets, and more. A Sprinkler Designer tool and full landscaping capabilities including a library of 3,200 plants are included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars FUN to play with but some issues, March 12, 2008

By 

M. Sherer (Middleville, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I've been playing with this product for about a week, I bought it because It looked like a major upgrade from Home Designer Suite 7, which was a little quirky but got the job done. Maybe its just my expectations but the final renderings you get with this program don't look very good, as in not close to photo-realistic. They are no better than the Suite 7, and because this really isn't intended as professional home design software, the real function of it should be great visualizations. Bottom line they look pretty cartoonish.

There are a lot of great features in this software, like being able to design in the 3D view, importing your XYZ terrain data (DTM), stair tools, plant choosing tools, a whole bunch of authentic items like windows, furniture, fixtures, floor coverings, etc (although a good bit of the extra ones you have to download, which is odd because the software only ships on DVD-ROM). You can probably design your exact house using this software and maybe even build from it (if you're an experienced builder) but you may become frustrated in the process because of 2 fundamentals of the Better Homes & Gardens line of software.

They are:
1. It is real quirky and some of the "automatic things" can ruin your design if your not careful. For example, I added an "automatic stairwell" once and as it turned out ruined my design because it created "attic walls" that were not able to be deleted. I had to go back to my last save point because was unable to undo it. The zoom & pan tools work but they are very unintuitive and nonstandard. It just isn't fun to try new things for fear of screwing something up. If you are patient and creative you can get your design done, but not without some frustration. In short, the quirks are numerous, and I've only used this software a couple of weeks.

2. The maker of this software have 2 more expensive products ($500, & $2195) that are subtly hinted can do more. This is a gateway product, teasing you enough to want just a little bit more. The renderings of the $500 product don't look any better, however.

I think bottom line, if you are determined to design your house and learning new software is fun for you, this will do nearly everything, but if you get frustrated easily and/or only like easy to use software, steer clear.

Also, if you use Vista, it turns off Aero-glass while it is running.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, but a bit frustrating, March 24, 2008

By 

J. Barczak (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I bought this product to make a model of our existing home and property so I could plan some projects like a new master bath, garage, and landscaping.

We have a 60 yr old 1.5 story cape cod with dormers off the front and back + a 1 story addition. I viewed the video tutorials and refered to the User's guide as I made the first story and the basement in the software and everything worked pretty well. However, when I tried to make the complicated roof and 2nd story I ran into alot of trouble. The auto roof build feature might work well for a standard roof, but was a real pain for me. I viewed information in the forums and the other web resources and found alot of helpful information on dormers and Cape Cod designs, but nothing about my specific situation.

I have a help ticket in right now with their technical group and hopefully they will find a way to make my roof and 2nd story. I don't really want to spend another $250 for the full version.

Other notes - The 3D views and walkthroughs are very cool, but don't look as good as the pictures on the box. The landscape tools are straightforward, but I am having trouble with some items showing up in certain views.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the price, March 13, 2008

By 

Sean Sweetser "Seneschal" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I have had this product for two weeks now and just completed my first home. Not knowing anything about CAD software or architecture I was worried that this would prove extremely difficult.

Using this program was a breeze because I was able to just drag and drop doors, windows, walls into my plan. I was able to use the mouse to stretch and change the direction.

I was able to include my partner in choosing colors for the walls and floor tiles, we switched floor tiles about one hundred times before we arrived at the look we wanted.

I would recommend this program to anyone who is thinking of building or renovating a home, who is good with computers but not necessarily experienced with CAD software or Architecture.