Customer Reviews

Home Designer Architectural 2012

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

 

 

I had previously used Home Designer Suite Ver. 8 and wanted to upgrade. I couldn't locate my old installation media and no longer had the product installed. I sent an email to Chief Architect; Sales Rep. Jenna Sloyka found my old registration information and offered me a generous upgrade rebate. Prior to using Chief Architect, I also bought and installed the competing Broderbund and Punch products, but neither of them met my needs. After using Chief Architect, I wouldn't bother even trying anything else. I consider this a superior product and a really outstanding company with which to do business.

I am in the process of downloading the software but I have already used the Interior Design software from this company and this software is a more comprehensive version of the same software. There were only two choices when purchasing this software (Download or DVD) so I selected DVD believing I was selecting the download plus backup CD option. Turns out I had instead selected the DVD version only. After several emails back and forth with the company, Sales Representative Jenna Sloyka, agreed to set me up with the download version. This satisfied me and I would like you to know, because of this, I rate this as a good company to do business with.

I fully expect to find this software easy to use since I found the Interior Design one fairly easy to use - provided you watch the on-line training videos too. Since I am not an architect I find the terminology difficult but as I get used to the terminology, I know I will find the design process quite effortless.

I love that I can download brand name items like Benjamin Moore paint colours or furniture etc.

This is great software from "Essentials to Home Designer Pro 2012".
What I want to communicate to you is that each Chief Architect Inc software title has differing capabilities and features. In other words there is a good reason why they sell for different prices and that price determines how much you get in terms of choices and efficiency.

You do get what you pay for!

The hard part is knowing what you need and want before you buy: your money is a known and real quantity whereas your own expectations are sometimes harder to quantify especially by others.

Chief Architect Inc offers free trial demonstration software for its Chief Architect Premiere software and some of its Home Designer titles which you should download, install and try out.

I have and use all their software titles from Home Designer Essentials to Chief Architect Premiere, use them every day in my business.
Any of their titles are well worth your time and money, just take the time to study the capabilities of each of them and then pick out the right one for you.

David Jefferson Potter
A user since 1994

I am not a CAD person but this software is very intuitive to use, even without going through the tutorials. The only item I have run into that you need to be careful with is making sure of the orientation of cabinets. Good product. Highly recommend.

Decent product with a definate learning curve. I do have one disappointment. I bought the previous version in January 2011 for myself & had to get the latest version recently for my son. Since he lives over 700 miles away from us we thought we could exchange ideas by e-mailing files to one another for our home renovation project. With the newer version he can receive, open & modify my files but I can't open the revised files he sends back to me. I'll have to upgrade to his version to view & modify his files. However, I feel the cost to upgrade my version is too expensive after only having my software for one year! I haven't made the decision yet whether to upggrade or not due to this cost!