Customer Reviews

Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I recently had the onerous job of drawing several plans for an addition to my home. I had the option of hiring an architect ($$$), or doing the drawings myself--and I selected this software to do the later.

First of all, I was successful drawing 5 or 6 floor plans for my existing home and the addition. However there were some "hiccups" and problems along the way. Here is what I found:
- I gave up trying to create a roof that would look anything like what I needed to draw. This was true for my existing home as well as the roof for the addition. This was by far the biggest problem with this software--I watched various on-line "videos," looked for help in forums, etc. but I was unable to render it correctly. Big problem because I was unable to get a good 3D or elevation drawing and actually was forced to draw these views by hand (well, a ruler and pencil). The auto-generated roof function is totally useless unless you have a very simple roof structure.
- My home has walls of various thicknesses--while the software provides preselected wall types, it doesn't allow you to customize the thickness (which was a problem). So I had to use a "canned" masonry type wall (12" thick I recall) to represent a wall I have that's not masonry and about 18" thick (don't ask!). If you have a newer home with "standard" walls, then you probably won't have this problem. In my case, I don't think I have any "standard" walls (home is relatively old).
- Button layout is confusing--they would be better off following typical "Windows" layout. Easy to forget what the icons represent.
- I tried to use this software to lay out a garden--however I literally couldn't find any of the plants I'm growing in their library. I understand there's an optional product can purchase (which I didn't), but they really should provide a better "basic" choice of plants.
- Very difficult to add dimension lines--it's difficult to explain unless you try to use it. For example, you "drag" across an area you want to add a dimension line...it invariably sets one of the points to the middle of a wall--which isn't what you want if you want the interior dimension of a room. They don't provide a simple way to click on two "spots" and produce a dimension line. If a dimension line sits inside of a wall, it's very difficult to select it...on several occasions I was forced to delete the wall because I couldn't select and move the dimension line out of the way. There's an alt-click (I recall) method to select overlapping objects, but it sometimes just doesn't work.
- Sometimes, no matter what I did, I could not get a precisely sized object (like a wall's length). They have a "nudge" tool for precise sizing that doesn't work on all objects. Software has a propensity to "snap" to grids or other objects which can be really annoying. You can disable it, but it's hidden in some menu somewhere.
And so on-- there were many other minor irritations that I worked through. The bottom line (sic) is that I was able to get most of the layouts done (except anything that would show a roof)--but I had to "fight" the software in order to do it.

I think this can be a fun suite of programs if you like to speculate about how a new project in your house or yard might turn out. A reasonable library of materials and a relatively simple design process allow you to create rough approximations.

There are software limitations, however, that will frustrate perfectionists. Design angles are limited to 7.5 degree increments, for instance, so getting the exact angle of your hedge, angled sidewalk, or slanted driveway may not be possible if that angle isn't divisible by 7.5 degrees.

Another example of limitations is that the roofing application makes no provision for certain circumstances in which two sections of roof have different slopes. The result is that you can't really recreate the roof on an L-shaped house unless the two branches of the L are the same width. I thought this was a user error until I found that the tech support solution was to widen the thinner section of the house to get the roof to line up right.

In short, the program is not going to provide architectural specs for a house or a reliable blueprint for landscaping your yard. Perfectionists will have to just "let it go" after a certain point. That having been said, the software IS fun if you are the sort of person who enjoys design software.

I bought this software because we were going to completely redesign our kitchen and living room into a great room. I wanted to see the layout in 3D with color combinations rather than just sketching it out on graph paper. This program did exactly what I needed it to do. It even let me create an island with a countertop overhang (once I referenced the help file to find out how to do it). I got to play with numerous ideas for walls, flooring, cabinets, countertops, lighting... you name it. I work in the construction industry, and it helps to have some knowledge about that generally, but I think that almost anyone could use this program. The help file is extensive. It comes with a handbook, but I never had to get that out. If I had, I can't imagine what else I might have been able to do with the program. The only negative things I can think of is that you can't paint an accent wall (all walls in a room are colored at once), and the Suite version has a limited number of materials and furnishings to choose from. But it sure did the trick for what I needed. I'm anxious to use it for landscape design and for remodeling the upstairs of our house.

I bought Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 because we were planning to remodel our house.

When I installed the software, the first thing I did was run around for ten minutes with a tape measure and sketchpad so I could set up the initial floor plan in the software. After another ten minutes I had the floor plan in the computer.

Over the next three evenings, my wife and I experimented with tearing out walls, moving walls, adding walls, extending the size of the house, adding rooms etc etc. The software allowed us to put in all fixtures and fittings - showers, tub, kitchen sink, fridge, stove and more. There are several camera view options too, so you can explore how the home will look with the changes you make. Fantastic!

The software cost less than $100, but we think it saved us thousands by allowing us to experiment with design decisions without having to go build them to discover they would not work - from positioning the toilet and shower in one bathroom, to the need to add an extra 5 feet to the laundry room.

Once the builders started the work, we were able to tweak the design as we went to take into account necessary changes - supporting walls we missed in our ignorance, changind door widths, locations, new colours for the walls, different floor coverings etc. Changes never took more than a few minutes.

Soon we plan to build a whole new house from the ground up. We will be able to use this software to make our own plans and designs before handing them over to an architect or draftsman to create a blueprint and fix the rough edges.

If you are experienced using any sort of design or drawing software, this package will be easy for you to use. For the inexperienced, there are helpful tutorials and videos. With a little patience, anyone should be able to use this software.

My best software purchase in YEARS!

Overall this is a great product, and does exactly what it is advertised to do. The users interface is fairly simple to use, and the graphics are great. In less than a day I was able to model my kitchen almost exactly.

The only annoyances are relatively small:
One drawback is that you can only edit the dimensions of walls by "dragging and dropping". It would be nicer if you could just type in a wall length (you can dimension other components this way... i.e. cabinets). One other similar drawback is you can't define relative dimensions; i.e. I dimensioned my master bedroom and closets... then realized I had an error in the dimensions of the adjacent room (shared a common wall). When I moved that wall, there was no way to shift the entire master bedroom with it... so I had to go through and shift each wall / dimension manually.

All in all a very great product... and very addicting. Another bonus is that you can go online and find websites with expanded libraries of components (furniture, brand name paint colors, wall paper, flooring, etc.) [...]

Sure, there are some weaknesses in HDS 7.0, but consider the price vs. a professional design system. I'm having loads of fun with mine, and it is certainly more than enough to get you started with designs. It allows you to "see" the effects of changes to floor plans, colors, materials, etc. It has some trouble with things like complex roofs, but if you get over that it is a great software package.

Highly recommended.

**UPDATE**
Although this review applies to an older version of the product (I can only assume that the newer versions are even better), I used this software to design a total basement finishing job - every detail from framing the space to placement of electrical and plumbing, to placing and sizing key furniture elements (like a pool table) into the finished space. I used the printed drawings to give to the contractors and trades doing the work, and they were thrilled. Once the complete job was finished, you can take the printed version from Home Designer and it is virtually identical to the finished space! That paid for itself many times over!!

This is a great product for the beginner who wants to do some simple or basic remodeling or has limited software experience. Bonus packets are available online to add to this product. It had limits for me, though.

Full door base cabinets are not available. I could not make a counter overhang that extended from a corner base cabinet as the backsplash was automatic on the corner base unit. I couldn't get rid of the backsplash without getting rid of the cabinet. Also, drawer base cabinets are limited. I wanted to use a three-drawer cabinet base unit but only a bread drawer base with four drawers was available. Materials are limited for interior walls. No tongue and groove for wainscot.

I purchase the software so that we can design furniture, colors, etc. in all of our rooms in a new house we bought. So basic interior design.

Within one and half hours I had the software loaded, went through a few of their tutorials and had the bedroom designed with furniture we were considering buying the next day. The software showed me that the sizes of the furniture we were planning to buy might not fit well and/or make the room look small.

So for one and half hours, this was not bad. I thought it was very easy to use the software, but the furniture options are definitely limited. For example, the software did not have a simple dresser that has has 6 drawers, three & three. I had to use instead a 9 drawer dresser (three & three & three) with a mirror as the alternative, the closest option. It worked but it would have been nice to have something so basic available. The software did not have many basic office desk types that are common today. Again I found an alternative but not optimial.

So in summary, very easy to use. Nice if you need to put something together fast. But the options are limited.

I got this for my husband for Christmas. We are in the beginning stages of planning our perfect home. This is so easy to use for the novice home designer. The tutorials were easy to watch and understand. I love all the sample homes and plans that give us tons of ideas. I would recommend this to anyone who is trying to plan their perfect home. It is completely enjoyable

After I received the product I installed it, using it was not very difficult and designing was fairly easy. I did not like the flexibility of customizing my design and its contents. 3D deign looks great on the computer but printing those pictures turn out horrible. The software was not what I read it to be and it did not work well for me and what I wanted it to do. I am a small remodeler and the idea was to design the job leads and print them out for an impressive proposal! Not good for that type of detail. I am going to give the BHG Pro a try. The great thing about buying this software is the guarantee that you will like it, if not you can call customer service and obtain a return RMA and get your money back within 30 days. I did! Ease of use for your personal designs, fine, flexibility of custom designs, not good.