Broderbund 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6 [OLD VERSION]

Other products by Encore

Product Features

• Convenient wizards and tutorials help create basic plans fast
• Professional-grade drafting tools in an easy, intuitive interface
• New stylish name-brand materials and rendering capabilities
• Easy to use; powerfully generates buildable blueprint-style plans
• Unlimited customization guarantees a flawless finished project

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001GU7K6
• Item model number: 383206
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 5, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,326 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Whether you’re embarking on a serious building project or simply experimenting with home design ideas, find everything you need in 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6. Convenient wizards and tutorials help you create basic plans fast, while unlimited customization guarantees a flawless finished project. Easy to use, yet powerful enough to generate buildable blueprint-style plans, 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6 is the only design program you need.

• NEW! Easy-to-use tabbed interface! Countless hours of testing and research went into redesigning 3D Home Architect’s user interface. And we couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Now it’s easier to get started, easier to access and use your tools, and easier than ever to design the home of your dreams--down to the very last detail. Just wait and see!
• NEW! House Builder wizard! Now it’s easier than ever to design your dream home! Select from the size, style, and element configuration you like best and 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6 will generate your new structure already equipped with walls, floors, and a roof.
• NEW! Kitchen Builder wizard! It’s our most requested upgrade feature and you’ll soon see why. Simply select the style, shape, and orientation for your new kitchen and watch as it appears before your eyes--complete with cabinets, a sink, refrigerator, and cooking area! It’s perfect for visualizing your new home or remodel project!
• NEW! Point-and-click materials paintbrush! Now you can easily apply materials to your designs with the new materials paintbrush in just a few easy clicks. Carpet, countertops, concrete, and more--it’s all within easy reach!
• NEW! Project Trace! Scan in your favorite layouts--even from your own sketches! Then trace over them and create scalable, editable plans. Your new plans work seamlessly! You can even use plans exported from other home design programs.
• NEW! 2D designer's view! Enjoy accurate top-down representations of furnishings and other design elements in the 2D designer’s view.
• NEW! Walk Around tool! Step inside your dream home and explore your design room by room. With the new Walk Around tool, you can take a virtual tour of your home to see how it would look when you’re standing inside. It’s the next best thing to being there!
• NEW! Stylish name-brand materials! Enhance your interior design with actual materials. Try out leading manufacturers' products in your virtual designs.
• NEW! Rendering capabilities! Activate ultra-sharp rendering capabilities to view your plans onscreen with unparalleled depth and dimension using 3DTrueView technology--including new surface properties that make mirrors reflect, countertops shiny, and more!

Plus, some old favorites:

• Improved! Enhance your home’s interior with more stylish furniture, lighting fixtures, customizable cabinetry, sinks, appliances, window treatments, and more.
• Change room dimensions, create ceilings and roofs, customize doors and windows, and more with just a few clicks--smart editing makes every adjustment a snap.
• And much more!

Are you longing for a bigger, better, or brand-new home? Stop dreaming and start designing! Featuring professional-grade drafting tools in an easy, intuitive interface, 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6 is the jump-start you’ve been looking for.

Product Description

3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe makes planning your dream home a pleasure, instead of a chore. Floor plans, remodeling or working on additions is problems at all for this software. Begin planning the perfect home with software like that used by real architects & designers! Budgeting tools and materials lists make it possible for you to break ground with confidence Landscaping and garden modeling tools are included -- create a beautiful yard to compliment the home of your dreams!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cautious Optimism, May 19, 2004

By	MrTwistoff "hobbesclarity" (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

The software is easy to use, easy to learn. Newer versions have gotten progressively better at providing "canned" components (i.e. footers, windows, doors, textures). This version is even more customizable than previous versions.

The tabbed interface, and selectable toolbars make the interface a lot more functional. I definitely like version 6 better than 3, 4, and 5.

HOWEVER, I would offer a SIGNIFICANT word of caution. Broderbund has a habit of leaving its established client base in the dust. I have been using the application for years, and therefore have a large library of floor plans developed (for my own home, future ideas, etc). In previous upgrades, Broderbund has changed file formats, thus making it impossible to bring previous work into newer products.

I have written to them pleading for consistency, or at least import/export functionality. They have provided no satisfaction. My most recent email to tech support on version 6 yielded this response:

"I understand that you are inquiring about importing a CAD file format into
3D Home Design 6.

This program has the ability to export as DXF, 3DS and WRL files, however
is not capable of importing or opening DXF or other file formats.

Sorry about the inconvenience."

"...inconvenience..." Do they have any clue how much work it is to re-create multiple (dimensionally accurate) designs over AND over again?

While it is nice that you can export to DXF format (great for transferring plans to construction engineers, architects, etc...), it is THE PITS that you CANNOT import from a standard file format (like DXF).

If you are serious about your design and remodeling work, and plan to use this for more than just a room makeover, you may want to consider how important it is to you to take advantage of upgrade features while having to rebuild your designs in the future.

BEFORE you have an established plan base, you may want to consider other products that can import standard formats (i.e. Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Pro).

Check out the reviews on Punch!Professional Home Design Suite Platinum for a better idea of what people think of Broderbund and its' products.

80 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Cool -- So Expandable!, October 2, 2004

By	Sharon Huston "software addict" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

OK, there seems to be a ratings war between this FANTASTIC product and Better Homes & Gardens Designer.

This one wins hands down, all due to CUSTOMIZATION.

I can get the colors/wallpapers/carpets/flooring --and furniture-- I want instead of relying on the (not bad) selections in this program, or the (just miserable) selections in BH&G.

Three main custom features worth noting:

1. Unlike BH&G this product lets you import JPEGs as textures so you can import (for instance) wallpaper copied from a wallpaper site like DecoratorToday. Or take a digital picture of the brick on your house, and use it instead of the preset bricks, which are probably the wrong color. (Admittedly, adding new textures/materials isn't the easiest -- check the help topics under CUSTOMIZATION for details.)

Texture imports are a really, really, really basic feature -- even Total3D Home and that stupid Punch program have the capability. What was BH&G thinking??!!??

2. IMPORT capabilities! I was very disappointed with the five beds in BH&G. The ten or so in this product is a better selection, but it still doesn't rock my world. But then in the help file (under CUSTOMIZATION again) I found a section on "importing elements." You can actually add 3D furniture models other people have created!!

The help file said the models were common on the net so I Googled "furniture 3DS" (3DS being the file format) and after a few false starts I found a few gold mines. Herman Miller, for instance, has 3DS files of their furniture. So does B&B Italia. Most of the 3DS files are newer, modern furniture, although I did find a few antique-looking pieces including a roll top desk and early Frank Lloyd Wright craftsman-type furniture.

3. The software lets you stick in images as "photo boards", so even if you can't find your furniture as 3DS you can at least place a non-3D image of it in the room. Maybe not the most noteworthy feature, but personally I'd rather see a photo of something I like than a 3D rendering of something straight out of DULLSVILLE, which is where all the BH&G homes are located.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Powerful but not user-friendly, August 21, 2005

By	enb14 - See all my reviews

I have been using this product for about six months to redesign several rooms in our house. It is fairly flexible and powerful and has a good variety of colors, textures, materials, etc. to work with. However, don't believe the "intuitive, easy to use" claims made by the company producing this software. I have run into many problems where the program required me to do something unintuitive, such as raise all of the furniture in a room off the floor by 1 inch in order to be able to put a rug in the room. Also, you cannot "nudge" objects using the arrow keys as you can in almost any graphics program, so exact placement of objects becomes a frustrating game of, "Can I let go of the mouse on this exact pixel?"

For the amount I paid (which was $20 more than it should have been because of Fry's' typical refusal to honor the rebate that they themselves advertised), it is not a bad program. But it's sad that there isn't anything out there that's much better.