Customer Reviews

Better Homes and Gardens Architectural Home Designer [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Although there are some minor glitches or inconveniences this is an addicting program for anyone interested in making changes or buying a new place. It is very easy to plot out a floor plan and view it from any angle (inside or outside) in 3 dimensions. My guess is that the higher version is a lot more flexible but this version was way better than I expected and all that is needed for the amateur.

I have used the Chief Architect Pro program and this is similar. I was very pleased with the "objects" in my design list and the final print out. I found that the camers did not work the same as the other program, but perhaps I just do not have that down yet. The program gave me everything I had on the Chief Architect, but at a much better price point.

I'm an amateur architect (never pursued a degree but have been designing and have helped build renovations, additions, custom furniture, etc.), so I was eager to finally get myself a good, cheap CAD design tool. I was very pleased by this program, and it does MOST of what you'll need it to do.

The only frustrating parts were the floor limitation (1 basement and 2 other floors max, it auto-generates a plain open "attic" for you), and the roof concepts (to create 2nd floor dormers, extend a roof from the 1st floor, put your knee-wall in the right position and it will automatically take of its height). You'll also need to be creative with the use of invisible walls to solve a lot of issues.

It is extremely important to play around with simple test models. I had a difficult multi-angle roof additiona that I wanted to do and it always auto-generated the roof in the wrong ways. So I built a dummy version with just that room and a dummy box for the main house, and it became a lot easier to understand what the roof parameters meant.

For visualizing additions, it's great. There are a lot of items in the library, and online you can get a lot more free bonus content (note that the bulk of the bonus content is in the first "Download Now" link -- easy to overlook). And never forget that you can always select geometric shapes from the library and texture them as needed -- great to manually create single steps vs. using the stair tool.

Some things like huge half-round windows are provided too, but they aren't entirely flexible and the library selection is limited to some basic types. You need to upgrade to the Pro version to get full control over fancier windows, but most standard windows are easily generated in this version.

The terrain editor can also be a little frustrating, especially if your yard is sloped and tiered like mine. Play around with Flat Regions and Elevation Lines. (Pro gets you Elevation Splines which auto-curve.) And the way to create stairs will take some experimentation (clicking between 2 sets of stair to generate a landing, definitely see the tutorial about this).

But it's a great tool for visualizing rooms, trying different paint colors, etc. For MOST purposes, this version will be just fine.

For about $300 more, the Pro version gets you a lot more flexibility with editing windows (any configuration possible and editable), better terrain control, and the ability to manually generate and connect roof surfaces, and no limit on how many floors your house can have (great if you have a finished attic).

The tutorials are good, but sometimes they are version-specific and refer to things you can only do in the Pro version! THAT is frustrating and I should really take away a star for it.

Overall, it's a well made product, easy to navigate, and relatively quick to learn. For most home projects and visualizations, it will serve you well.

But if you're an aspiring or amateur architect, you WILL want to upgrade to the Pro version very quickly. So just expect that expense will be coming soon afterwards. (BTW, they do offer occassional special deals for upgrading, so just watch for them.)

Have fun!

I trialed this software in hopes that I could create drawings that could be provided to a draftsman to review, or to work with drafters that work in the "big brother" - Chief Architect. After working in Chief Architect and Softplan demo packages, I found the BH&G Architectural Home Designer software was relatively easy to navigate and begin to create basic house & garage layouts.

In starting to spend more time in the details that are important to contractors, drafters, etc., I found the software was limited in its capabilities (not a surprise for spending less than $[...]). An example of a shortcoming is the software's inability to provide dimensions to exterior wall framing (exterior dimensions are to the exterior surface of the siding (e.g. vinyl/brick). While this may be useful for someone making an addition/modification to an existing house, it creates issues with contractors in properly locating walls, etc..

I also found that the 3D rendering would create some oddities, but can't blame that entirely on the software, as it could have been my PC's video card, as the oddities would appear/disappear as I move about in the 3D screen.

I think for $[...] it provides a lot of bang for the buck and you can produce layouts of different plans very quickly, giving you a good idea of different concepts, but if you're thinking that you'll be able to develop working drawings that you can provide to subcontractors using this software, I'd skip this version and step up at least to the BH&G Home Designer Pro ($[...]) - which can produce drawings on C-Size paper, or if your design is complex enough, you may need to step up to Chief Architech's true "Professional" software - "Chief Architect - X2 Lite" ($[...]) or full blown X2 ($[...]) ([...]). I am a believer in Chief's product after thoroughly working my way through the demos, and depending on your needs, you'll likely find one of their packages meets your needs.

I really had my hopes up when I spent $200 on this product. Getting the basic wall design is pretty straight forward, but when you try to more in and get to the details I found that the screen wouldn't redraw, or the image reduced in size to nearly nothing and finally would crash my computer. I do a lot of video and photo editing and my computer doesn't crash very often, except with this software.
I'm really sorry I wasted my money. I wish I would have purchased the least expensive product and see how it worked, before investing so much money on a product that does not work for me at all.

For the price- this is the best program available. I do find it a bit tempermental when adjusting location of windows and doors- especially if you are setting it up in order to do a remodle or redocoration of an existing room/house. Does have a lot more options than others in the price range- but is frustrating if you want to be exact. So- don't plan on making it that way- it does give you the 3D- but the walk thru option isn't as great as the box says. It helped me do what I wanted to do- add an extension onto our house & also consider a remodle of our master bath- but if you are serious about building more than once- it might be better to invest in the next level.
I haven't used the landscape portion yet- plan on that next.

I have had surprising difficulty learning to use this software, or at least making it work the way I need it to. Simply adjusting dimensions is not a easy as they suggest, not with precision; I cannot add floor or ceiling molding in parts of a room, just the entire room; can't flip the arrangement of standard items such as tubs; can't click and modify room labeling; etc etc. Also: be warned that their advertising video describes the capabilities of their full, most expensive software; my version does not include all of those capabilities. Even their training videos describe capabilities my software does not have, so that's really frustrating. That sort of advertising should not be allowed, in my opinion. The 3D walkthroughs are nice, and that is what I wanted the software to do. This is OK software, but be aware of its limitations and difficulties learning it.