Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer

Other products by Chief Architect

Product Features

• Software for home remodeling, design, landscaping, and decking projects
• 500 sample home plans; House Wizard for a customized design
• Library of over 3,000 items to create a 3D Model in minutes
• Automatically generate a materials list for project-cost estimating
• Getting Started tutorial; 30+ videos for step-by-step instructions

Product Details

Data Sheet [2.61mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006AAOLE
• Item model number: 045500
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 4, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,547 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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  Software > Home & Hobbies > Home Design

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Home Designer is the best home-design software tool for your home remodeling, design, landscaping, and decking projects. Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer combines the leading-edge home design software from Chief Architect with the number-one home and garden publisher Better Homes and Gardens. All products are fully compatible with 3D Home Architect version 4.0 and earlier as well as the Chief Architect professional product line.

With Home Designer you can add as much or as little detail to the design as you want--it’s fun and easy.

Home Designer makes it easy to create your dream home:

• * Get started quickly and easily: The "getting started" tutorial will guide you through basic design projects. Watch more than 30 videos for step-by-step instructions. Select from over 1,500 sample home plans or use the House Wizard to design your house.
• * All-in-one home-design solution: create your dream home today with the look and feel before it is built with styles, colors, wallpaper, flooring, and materials.
• * Create your dream home: Design your dream home today with Home Designer. Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, cabinets, choose colors, place furniture, create decks, and landscaping. Design and visualize your home with 3D models and virtual tours--it’s easy, it’s fun!
• * Choose from design templates: begin your design by choosing from one of six Better Homes and Gardens home-style templates that range from traditional to contemporary, complete with colors, cabinets, and moldings.
• * Powerful home-design software: Enjoy the same building and design tools the professionals use--Home Designer is made for the home enthusiasts. Powerful building tools like automatic roof generation, stairs, decks, framing, CAD, dimensioning, realistic 3D models, and Plan Check makes it easy for anyone.
• * Create floor plans: Select from over 1,500 sample home plans or use the House Wizard to design your house. Open sample plans and customize to your specific needs.
• * Customize designs from the library: Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, cabinets, and architectural objects from a library of over 4,300 items to create a 3D Model in minutes. Use the library content to size your rooms, evaluate traffic flow, and create a visual model of your design.
• * Design tools: Inspire and enhance your designs with the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center. Use Material Painter to create a virtual look and feel of the design before it is built with actual colors, wallpaper, flooring, furniture, windows, and window treatments.
• * Building tools: Complete automatic building tools for roof generation, framing, dimensioning, foundations, and more. Automatically generate a materials list for project-cost estimating. Includes a complete set of CAD (Computer Aided Design) tools to detail designs and Plan Check--automatically validates the design against standard building principles.

Product Description

Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer is software developed by Chief Architect® for home enthusiast remodeling and home design projects. Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer is powerful home design software for home enthusiasts’ remodeling and home design projects. Combining the leading-edge home design software from Chief Architect® with the consumer home design editorial expertise of Better Homes and Gardens® magazine editors, we have produced the highest quality software for home design, remodeling and landscaping.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally!, March 26, 2005

By	K. Michael Kuebler "Weekend Builder" (Cedar Falls, IA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've tried many home design programs over the last couple of years and have always been disappointed. I've downloaded many free trial versions and purchased a couple. My latest, Punch Super Home Suite, was OK for 2D stuff but the 3D was impossible and frustrating. I took advantage of their money back guarantee!

I just purchased Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer for $39.00 from a local retailer last week. While I still have lots to learn I love it! I'm amazed at the sophistication for the price. I was VERY leery of buying this based on only one 5 star rating but I did. Well now there are two 5 star ratings so hopefully this will help others.

There are still some things that are "tricky" to construct but I haven't found anything I couldn't create yet and I discover more useful features every time I use it. The training videos are a great way to learn the software quickly and it comes with a hard copy manual, which is getting less common these days. If you are looking for an inexpensive but powerful design program definitely try this one!

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited Capability-Not for remodeling, June 7, 2005

By	Joe B. (Oakdale, NY United States) - See all my reviews

When I read the other reviews on this product, I was a bit surprised at their very positive nature. Then I remembered how I felt when I first tried this program and it all made sense. My guess is that the folks who wrote the positive reviews probably haven't worked with the program for very long or tried to create anything but the most elementary structures. I know I was very impressed at first. That is until I tried to re-create my own home as the starting point for a remodeling project.

This program is very intuitive and easy to learn, the problem is that it is also very limited. After you get past the ease of creating floor plans, the next obvious progression is to see the building in 3D. That's where the problems begin. The roof planes are nearly impossible to control. If you are creating anything other than a simple cape or ranch, you will quickly see how un-nerving this program can be.

Since most homes are comprised of several sections, controlling how the roof planes associated with those sections are generated is critical if you are to be able to create an end product that resembles what you had in mind. This program takes almost all of the roof plane control away from the user. The program generates the roof planes based on a few user defined parameters. This results in 3D images that almost never match what I had in mind.

Just for the record, I'm not technologically impaired. I am an engineer by trade. If I can't get it to work, then the average user is likely going to have even more trouble. In the end, if you can't get an accurate 3D model from this program that resembles what you are trying to create, then why spend the money or the time on this program. Just get a $10 floor plan program or jump up to the $500 version of this Chief Architect program which, as I've been told (haven't used it myself) , is very capable.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME! FANTASTIC PROGRAM......., December 5, 2004

By	R. Barber (Sacramento, Ca) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Chief Architect tops them all! This program is great. It has a easy userface like 3D Home Architect version 4.0! This program is definitely worth the $ 59.00 I paid for it. Eventually I will upgrade to the next version. This version also offers designing tutorials. And the backdrops are really nice. BUY IT!!!! I have tried soooo many Home design programs and this is the BEST!!! I WOULD GIVE IT 10 STARS BUT THEY ONLY ALLOW UP TO 5!!!