Customer Reviews

Turbofloorplan Home & Landscape Pro V12 [Old Version]

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

 

 

We are getting ready to build a house and this program worked great for designing a floor plan. It was easy to learn the basics, like creating and moving walls, installing fixtures, etc. It does have its quirks. Sometimes items such as furniture and fixtures do not like to go where you want them to; like there is an invisible wall that they can't pass through. You are left playing with the mouse for a little bit to get them into place.

The more complex features, like installing ceilings, cutting holes in the floor for stairs, and getting the roof perfect take some reading and practice to get it right. One thing that is annoying is that the roofs are always hip unless you modify them. Getting them to be gable end roofs take some practice, even after you read how to do it.

What is really nice about this program is that once your floor plan is laid out and furniture is in place, all you have to do is hit 3D and you can walk around the outside and through the house to see what it looks like. We made several changes after the walk-through.

This is NOT a CAD program that should be used to design final house plans, especially if you are not an architect or know the Building Code for your area. Not all features are exact. For instance, the program placed too many stairs in the stairwell. I made it work, but when I gave the plan to my architect, the stairs ended up being a few feet shorter. This worked in my favor because it added some more depth to the rooms in the back of the house. It just goes to show that the program is not always exact and an architect should do the final design. But this program was great for getting the basic design squared away.

This is a very nice general design software however, I was looking for something that would provide more detail. The software provides for common selections for a given area, probably the area the software designers are from, it didn't come close to the building codes in my area of California. You definitely CANNOT print a set a blue prints from this software package. The software wouldn't even provide a proper material list simple balcony. It listed general lumber and nails. I couldn't specify specific hardware, such as, screws, Simpson ties, etc.

Since this software doesn't stand out from the rest, I rated it average.

I should start by saying I had low expectations. I read several reviews for this type of software and didn't like any of them so I picked one with a reasonable price point. It exceeded my expectation in most areas. I was only interested in the floor plan aspects so that is all I have worked with so far.

I created my floor plan from memory and it was very easy to lay everything out. I had to move walls a few times and it was a breeze to just drag it. I have used this kind of software in years past and moving a wall usually messed up a bunch of unrelated things, in this software the only thing that happened was the wall moved. It was a bit quirky in that I couldn't get the tub to rotate properly and even had to remove the toilet to get it into the right place.

As I mentioned I did the floor plan from memory because I didn't have the actual dimensions and was too excited to wait. It probably only took 10 minutes to do an initial layout the first floor. When I got the real dimensions I was expecting to have to start from scratch but I was able to just use the drag wall feature again and fix everything very quickly.

My first complaint is that the stairs went up instead of down. I probably could fix that but I tried for a few minutes and gave up, I blame both the software and my laziness. My second and more important complaint is about dimensions. I want to print plans with and and without dimensions. I couldn't figure out how to turn them off so I had to delete each dimension line one at a time. That was ridiculous and that is why I only gave 4 stars

Looked good at first blush but has several limitations. Can't resize a single wall; adjusting one always adjusts one or more adjacent walls. Have existing house plans I wanted to 'plug-in' but gave no option to do so. Hard to do anything but a strict rectangular plan.

I purchased this product based on reviews claiming it was easy to use. If you have no experience using this type of software don't bother way too many steps to even get started.It probably is a useful product to someone with experience but not for a novice first timer.

Basically, its worth what I paid for it.
But its not as good as an old software 3D home architect.
I dont think that one is made anymore and definitely doesn't work with vista.
Anyway, I was able to draw my house easy enough.
But adding a floor, ceiling, and roof were much harder.
Doable, and after I read the whole book, I thought I could do it.
But its hard.
It also lacked some basics.
Like I could not place a wall or a fence at an angle.
It would only put in walls at like a 10 degree.
My stone wall also would not angle nor the property line, so I could not draw up the real thing.
Also, the slope function was too basic, it only lets you add a slope across the screen.
But I live on a hill so I have a street slope, 2 side slopes and a back slope I cant model.
Finally, the 3D rendering works, but is goofy.
If you zoom in then some clicks will show the nice picture and some wont.
If you leave it there, the nice picture turns into a wireframe.
You also cant put use dimensions between walls and fences so you have to make another wall the right length, then move the fence, then remove it.
Goofy.
But, for the price, its a nice little program to do a layout.

First off, it's not as easy to use as they let on. Curved walls took awhile to figure out how to do. The biggest annoyance though is when you place something and customize it to your liking, it will randomly change back to the stock view. At first I thought it was the auto-save doing this ( yeah kinda defeats the purpose of auto-save ) but even after turning that off, it still does it. I was thinking of getting the newer version but I hate spending a bunch of money for some software that just doesn't work well.... I'll have to see if there is a demo to see if they corrected the issues with this version in the new one. Must admit though it is much better in some areas than the program I had previously...

I think this product is a great overall product. I mainly got it just because I enjoy dabbling with design and such, not to actually make anything. For what I wanted it for (like a game) it was great. Very detailed and somewhat easy to use and navigate once I got the hang of it and used it for a while. I will have to say on initial setup it was a bit difficult to figure out how everything worked. The end result on the graffics are alright, they tried their best but it is nothing like looking at a real picture. For the price I would say I would buy it again. You get what you pay for but not much more. If I was in the market for a program like this and needed to actually use it for a real house I was building I would say go with a little more expensive one, you will get your monies worth.

I owned a prior version of this software that was much more usefull in creating blue prints. Somehow with this version of the software it has become so comlicated that I was unable to create a simple two story garage. I had to purchase another piece of software (Easy Blue Print) to do my drawings. If you just want to draw square and rectangular one story stuctures to see what it would look like this is for you. Otherwise I would steer clear.

I purchased this program for my husband so he could design some buildings. As far as he is concerned it is just "So SO". Only slightly better than what he can actually do on paper. He is mildly disappointed in this program. Would not recommend this program for advanced computer users. It was received in great condition and on time as stated. I Love ordering items from Amazon...