Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0 [OLD VERSION]

by Chief Architect

Product Features

• The Design Planning Center provides advice, decorating guidelines, tips and techniques from the editors of the Better Homes and Gardens magazine
• Browse library items with a full 3D preview before you place them in your design
• 4,000 library items to customize and create designs and 500 landscaping plants
• Place an image of your house in a plan, and design landscapes an other exterior elements to quickly visualize changes
• Over 1,000 cabinets combinations to choose from customize using unlimited styles and colors

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0017QZPNI
• Item model number: HB80-DN-0AZ1
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 28, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,160 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #16 in Software > Home & Hobbies > Gardening & Landscape
  • #26 in Software > Graphics > CAD
  • #48 in Software > Home & Hobbies > Home Design
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0 can help you with the basics to design, remodel or add landscaping to your home. With the Design Planning Center's expert design tips and a library of over 4,000 items you can create your perfect design. There are 500 sample plans all of which allow you to create a virtual walk-through of your home. The program enables you to easily visualize your project in 3D.

The basics for designing, remodeling or adding landscaping to your home.

Home Designer makes it easy to see and visualize your design ideas on your next remodeling project.

Create and take a Virtual Tour of your design.

Fun & Easy Home Design Software

Home Design Software

• Floor and space planning--use to size and visualize rooms for remodeling or redecorating
• Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, furniture, create decks and landscaping
• Easy to use automated building tools for roofs, stairs, framing, cabinets and more
• Generate various styles of Automatic roofs for your home
• 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 your new patio.
• Use House Wizard to choose your rooms and then drag them to your design layout configuration to generate a floor plan
• Choose from over 500 sample floor plans to help generate ideas

Remodeling Software

• Move a wall, change a color, add a room, redesign a kitchen and estimate the costs--all before you build. Home Designer makes it easy to see and visualize your design ideas on your next remodeling project.
• Material Painter--point-and-click colors for walls, floors, countertops and more
• Use the Color Chooser to create the perfect color for your walls, floors and more
• Insert doors, windows and skylights with One-Click
• Design Planning Center--expert design tips from the editors of Better Homes and Gardens¨ magazines
• Create the Virtual Look and Feel Before You Remodel!
• Automatically generate a cost estimation and material list for your project
• Assign costs for materials: descriptions, quantities, unit costs and more
• Materials automatically update as you design

Interior Design Software

• Material Eyedropper--choose your own or manufacturer colors and textures
• 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
• Generate new floors automatically based on your current floor plan design
• Drag and drop thousands of items from the Library Browser. Choose great looking furnishings including tables, chairs, sofas and more. Easily change the size, color or material.
• Use the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center to help guide your designs with guidelines, tips and expert advice
• Create and take a Virtual Tour of your design
• Cabinet Designer Tools--choose from over 1,000 cabinets--customize using unlimited styles and colors

Over 500 realistic landscaping plants in the library to choose from.

Use House Wizard to choose your rooms and then drag them to your design layout configuration to generate a floor plan.

Deck and Landscaping Software

• Create custom landscaping plans in 2D and 3D
• Over 500 realistic landscaping plants in the library to choose from
• Use the Deck Designer tools to quickly design the layout of your deck
• Design single or multi-level decks including free-standing, tiered and post-and-beam
• Create driveways, sidewalks and pathways
• Use the automatic tools for adding stairs, deck railings and roofs
• Define decking materials, place and arrange outdoor furniture to correctly size your deck or patio

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
• Better Homes and Gardens Design Style Templates
• 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 25 easy "step-by-step" tutorial training videos that will quickly get you started on your next outdoor design project

Design Tools

• Advanced 3D camera tools: Glass House, Doll House and Final View for truly photo-realistic 3D images
• Choose from several home style of templates--Colonial, Arts & Crafts, Traditional and more to start your next home project
• Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic--just point-and-click with the camera tool--you can even use Glass House view to see through surfaces.
• Create a Virtual Tour--by recording your camera movements
• Visualize designs with day and night views
• Generate shadows from the sun for realistic 3D views

Product Description

Creating your dream home has never been so easy with Home Designer 8.0. Choose from one of over 500 sample plans to inspire your ideas or build your own. Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, furniture, create decks and landscaping. Then visualize what your project will look like with 3D models and Virtual tours. Remodeling - Move a wall, change a color, add a room, redesign a kitchen, and estimate the costs before you build. Design in 2D or 3D – add, resize, and automatically dimension your plans. Change from day to night views and create photo realistic 3D renderings. Design Planning Center provides advice, decorating guidelines, tips and techniques from the editors of the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Create accurately scaled floor plans or generate new floors automatically based on your current floor plan design. Calculate square footage. Generate roofs, framing, dimensioning, foundations, and stairs. Step-by-step instructions create the various styles of roofs. Kitchens & Baths - Change colors, add windows, lighting, and choose furniture to accent and plan and decorate your rooms. Over 1,000 cabinets combinations to choose from – customize using unlimited styles and colors. Define doors, drawers, countertops, and more. Add cabinet details: hinges, handles, and pulls. Add appliances – ovens, ranges, refrigerators, hoods, and more. Landscaping - Over 500 botanically accurate flowers, trees, and shrubs. Create gardens, pathways, hills, valleys, ponds, and more . Add a pool or pond. Use the Pathway tool to design curb-appealing landscaping, driveways and sidewalks. Powerful deck and patio tools allow you to design and visualize your new deck with 3D models and can help you estimate the costs. Automatic Terrain Perimeters – customize to define your specific lot. Create terraces and retaining walls that follow terrains. Select custom fence and gate styles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy To Use, October 2, 2008

By 

D. Price "RVcook" (Anywhere, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I purchased this product as a replacement for my old, OLD 3D Home Architect. Having used software of this type before, it was very easy to use right out of the box.

It comes with a tutorial which may be helpful to someone who is not familiar with how to use different features, but I was more impressed with the online Home Talk user forums. If there is a question as to how to accomplish something, chances are it has been discussed there.

Overall, I find that Home Designer software is a much more stable program than my old 3D Home Architect; (it hasn't 'crashed' yet) and gives me plenty of options to play with.

Although this version is nowhere close to the Pro version, it its ease of use and attractive pricing make this a good choice for anyone who wants to "play" with changes to a structure or landscape.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use product, August 17, 2009

By 

L. W. Pardue - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I've only used this program a few hours, but it is easy to learn and easy to quickly get your creation started. With any new software, your going to have to learn each of their own GUI's and such.

The program would be perfect if the graphics were better.. If your expecting something close to real life photos of a home, don't buy this product. It's graphics are more on par of what you would see in Sims 2 houses/buildings.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Home Designer 8 Opinion, September 5, 2011

By 

Smoke - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I have a 10 year history with Chief Architect software based floor plan gui, & design. 8 is a crippled version of CA Full. In some areas it is better than previous versions, but is of little use to a veteran. If I were to do it again, I would select CA x1, and forget about the Home Designer Series. This software is for beginners.