Customer Reviews

3D Home Design Suite Deluxe 4.0

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

My husband and I have completely gutted a very old house and needed some help visualizing the re-building process. I bought this in spite of the bad reviews because I could find no similar programs that anyone seemed to like better. Therefore I was not expecting much and have been pleasantly surprised! The only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 is the annoying AOL stuff. I go through a great deal of trouble to keep my PC's AOL-free. The learning curve was substantially less than many things I have used. My husband and I both did the tutorial, which took a couple hours and got us up-to-speed in no time. Any new software takes some time and patience to learn. It was incredible to see our new-old house take shape! Some things we thought would work, we have reconsidered. And we got some new ideas. I have not tried the landscaping feature yet, but the inside of the house comes first. It is only my opinion, but I think this is a pretty good program that has done exactly what we wanted it to do with a reasonable learning curve.

The software itself is not that bad. But what annoys me is that when you install the software, the program takes the liberty to clutter up your PC with advertisements on your PC. This, in my opinion is absolutely SHAMEFUL!! Not only this, but every time you install a different utility, the program re-installs all the advertisements.
The software itself, as I said, is not terrible. But by no means is it the best.

The good:
- good software performance
- good software garantee
The Bad:
- cumbersome and non-intuitive drawinf tools
- no capability for a grid background of any type
- no ruler bar or any type of static measure facility
- no right-click properties on objects so I didn't find where to set wall height.
- incomplete help index i.e. terms used in pop-up messages that are not in the book or help.
- 3d view was excessively cumbersome, would've been nice to have single-click mouse control

I was very disappointed

Iam a Real estate broker, and my father is a retired architect. I frequently need to make realistic floorplans with interior details such as cabinets, appliances, etc for clients. The first program of this type I used was Broderbund's 3DHomeArchitect. After trying the others, I keep coming back because of the simplicity of Broderbund's. The others may have more capability, more realistic looking views, etc. etc., but when you need to learn the program, and make a plan of your existing home, or a floorplan for an addition or a sample design to give to the city planning department or your architect, there is nothing that works faster, and with plenty of completeness than this program.

I was very hesitant to purchase this software after reading the reviews... most were dismal! Once I received and installed the software, I had my first plan within 1 hour. I had my first perspective within another 30 minutes! I've already tried several different floor plans and have eliminated down to the best 2 options. What a great tool! My remodeling plans are now ready to begin discussions with the contractor.

To be objective, maybe it was easy for me because I made my living, 20 years ago, designing and drawing plans? But in those days, it was all by hand - no computer in sight, let alone software...

I don't do "steep learning curves" well or complicated tutorials - and I can be impatient. This was a breeze, I highly recommend it.

This software package is very complete, and appears to have good content. The user interface is very cumbersome, and difficult to work with. The landscape tool set is ackward, and makes the design process difficult. I have been working with it on and off for more than a month, and have yet to achieve good results. I will likely shelve the product and do my design on paper.

Just my experience.... Hope my feedback is useful.

I was so disappointed. I wanted it for interior design ideas and it can render a 3d of your room but it is cumbersome and hard to figure out. I never have trouble with software but I cannot get the hang of this. It also has this lousy landscape program that I cannot get working. It completely bombs if you try and use it with Windows 2000. I could never recommend this software

Sorting through the various home design offerings here, I found generally weak reviews for every product, but this one had at least a few supporters, so I gave it a shot. Don't do it! Horribly cumbersome and tedious to use. Not user-friendly. I have things I can't delete; I want to swap floors around but you can't once they're created. You have to start over from scratch in a new document if you make an error. Absurd not to be able to cut/paste/delete at will in this day and age. Oh, and I couldn't orient the plans I did develop to print to fill just one sheet of paper. It insists on printing the entire work area (most of which is blank). Wasted many hours. Have found something better. :)

As a designer, this is what I recommend to my clients as I can take what they've created and expand upon it. I find other so called personal CAD programs to be nothing more than just pretty pictures.

The program is clumsy, and seems to be a rehash for newer operating systems that is still based on the old software core. That's probably why, despite the incredible graphics capabilities of PC's sold in the last three years, this thing is slow, slow slow. To do anything but simple tasks is frustrating beyond belief. I found it utterly irritating. You can choose from an existing palette of sinks, cabinets and other items, but customizing them is really not pleasant to do.

The good news is that if you fold up the box, you can use it to shim a poorly leveled table. The cd makes a good coaster to protect the finish of the table, but watch for the hole in the center--condensation can drip through and mar the varnish.

Save your bucks, skip this one unless you have a high frustration level and a lot of patience.