Customer Reviews

Custom LandDesigner 3D Design 7.0

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

 

 

Custom Land Designer is advertised as "5 unbeatable tools for designing and maintaining the perfect landscape and garden." The only way it can be unbeatable is if there is no competition. The 3D design portion is intuitive to use, but has no precision measuring or snap-to capabilities, making designing a facsimilie of your house impossible. The selections for your home are sorely lacking as well--a handuful of ugly windows, a handful of ugly doors--so you're better of selecting a prefab house resembling your own. The software has a slope feature, but you can't see any slope in the miserable 3D view. The mousewalk in 3D seems to be random--you move the mouse, sometimes you head in the right direction. The sky backdrops are laughable--one has a worms-eye view of a house, skewing the perspective in 3D and making your house and lot appear fit for a mouse. The trees and plants in 3D all look the same, and become distorted when you change height. This has the effect of making every design look like something from 1988's Jack Niklaus Golf for the 386; or better yet, colorforms. Grating sounds are played whenever you place an object thereby adding to the irritation of arduous design. It is as intuitive and easy to use as it is completely useless and bland. Also, as a side note, the manual I got was for 3D Home and Land design, so I have a manual describing programs I don't own.

Perhaps later versions will be more intuitive to use and the plants more realistic but this one is neither. I found the user interface and help confusing and inadequate. Many frustrating hours were spent trying to learn it. My hope was that the program would provide a better idea for plant spacings and mapping of what I have. I had also hoped it would illustrate visually what groupings would look like before I purchased them. But when I entered the groupings I already have, what I saw was a badly rendered cartoon version of my plants. It is like looking at a badly done portrait and recognizing only elements of the person. Maybe a later version will be worth the time and effort to get the data entered.

This is the worst written software I have ever bought! There is no valuable help built in and it is very restricted on the shape that you make your lot or garden. The toolbar has only a couple of buttons and you have to click on them every single time you complete a task, even if it's a repeat task. There also is no toll-free support. Very user unfriendly!

I NEVER write product reviews, but I just had to with this item. Be advised that (according to Sierra online support) you DO NOT get everything listed on the box--LandDesigner, PhotoGarden Designer and Garden Encyclopedia are the only products you'll receive software for. You WILL NOT get Designer Garden Library or Landscape Design Guide. I wrote support three times on this and the fact that I can't seem to go back to fix the windows I added to my house, and received curt, insufficient answers days after I submitted them. I'm considering sending this product back, but I haven't seen another with reviews that were much better. I'm very frustrated and wish you better luck with your software purchase.

I LOVE this software! I was almost completely discouraged from buying it by the negative reviews, but I'm glad I decided to take a chance. I'm working on landscaping my yard, and I'm one of those people who can't visualize things: I have to see it. This software may not reproduce everything perfectly (my backyard is all slope, and I can't get it perfect: but it gives a pretty good idea), but for my money its done a fantastic job of recreating my house and all surrounding areas. I've experimented with different hardscaping and planting beds, and I've created really good designs that work for me. Yes, the software took some time and patience to learn, but I found the Help menus extremely helpful and easy to use. Maybe I'm more motivated to put this time in-- but I've enjoyed every hour I've spent. I find it so much fun and so useful that I'm using it to help my brother design a landscape for his backyard. It far surpassed my expectations, which were admittedly kinda low at the start.

I've used the photo design tool for a few years now...struggling to make my final landscape projects look more realistic and professional. Caveat emptor: the objects in the database are (1) limited for designing with anything beyond Home Depot plants here in California; (2) cartoon like (3) not easily turned, skewed or put into the right scale in the photo. Example: good luck finding a useable Birch, Laurel or Crape Myrtle tree. No realistic groundcover - not to mention Lavender, Plumbago, Roses or Salvia. These are just basic plants and should be represented. Also - big issue: the scale of plants and objects is either too small for most photos or, when increased in size, has a funky look (chunky). Last, none of the objects can be "skewed" properly to show them from a 3/4 angle or along beds and borders.

Don't buy this unless you want an Amateur package for your home with limited plant selections. Another drawback: you can't "block" out objects in your photo that you want to remove (plants, steps, patios). So I'm back in the market for a new product.