Features

• Design a dream landscape with survey, deck, and plant wizards
• New state-of-the-art animation and outdoor lighting
• Create property lines with surveyor tool; customizable plant editor
• Simple, complex, and multi-level deck templates
• PhotoView editor; file import/export options; dynamic user interface

Reviews (5)

Big Disappointment
I bought this package with the intent of designing a large patio for my backyard. The tools are very clumsy to use and attempting to draw free-form curve lines is almost impossible. Drawing a rectangular patio would be fairly easy, but who needs a software package to do that?

I should have saved my money and bought some graph paper to sketch things out by hand.

Powerful tools, takes time to learn
This program can do a lot, you just have to take the time to find out how to do it. We scanned our floor plan, and using the Floor Plan Trace tool, we had an exact copy of our house modeled within two hours. The lot topography was more difficult to duplicate; the tools allow slopes and excavated areas, but contours are hard to get right. Some room for improvement there. We built terraced stone retaining walls, various plants beds, and reserved an area for a future pool. The database didn't have all or even most of the specific plants that we wanted, but we could find suitable equivalents. The program doesn't offer a huge assortment of pre-made objects, but the tools allow you to construct just about any 3D object you want - it does take time. As a previous review stated, for some smaller projects it might be quicker to do a paper sketch. But if you want to model your existing house and landscape in order to do a "what if" analysis of what a blue spruce would look like next to the garage, or where to route a new garden path (and be able to examine it from all angles), this is a good planning aid.

Easy to visualize
It made my backyard & deck design easier to visualize. I put a picture of our house in the program then drew a new deck. I also added plants and other landscaping ideas to see how they looked. I hadn't used the computer to do stuff like this before and I didn't have much trouble figuring it out.

Not worth it even if it were FREE!
Absolutely AWFUL for doing any type of landscaping. It was $70.00 wasted in buying this program. It is NOT intuitive, has VERY limited capabilities other than a few of the basics for landscaping. I wanted to design a brick walkway, a round brick sitting area and a Koi pond with some plants around it. Not too demanding of a project. The results were totally unacceptable, and the touted features virtually worthless. Perhaps if you want to design a basic deck... square with a railing, you can do. Maybe even a bit more than that. But if you want to do anything OTHER than a wooden deck, better get out a pencil and sketch pad -- it'll be a lot easier and look better.

My advise? Don't waste your money or effort with this program.

Great for homes but landscaping NO WAY
I have just bought this software and although this is good for homes (not alot of selection like chimneys) this is not the way to go for landscaping. There are not enough plants to be happy with and the plants that are there you can not change the height or how wide they get. The plant editor is lousy as well, the plants all look like pices of cardboard cutouts. I would not recommand this software. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Review

Your yard has always been good to you, giving you space to play with your kids, barbecue, and even sun-bathe on those lazy summer days. But now you're ready to bring some creative elegance and flair to your outdoor living. And you don't want to spend a mint just to have a landscape designer or consultant tell you what you want. If you know what you want, but you just need a little help turning that vision into reality, the Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer software package is just for you.

Better Homes and Gardens, the number one home and garden publisher, has partnered with leading software designer Chief Architect to bring you the Landscaping and Deck Designer. This program can help you transform your yard space into the landscape of your dreams, at a fraction of the cost of what a professional would charge. Using the software's fun, intuitive, and easy-to-use tools, you'll quickly be on the way toward becoming the envy of your neighborhood as your backyard barbecues in the sun turn into elegant moon-lit affairs on your new deck.

With the Landscaping and Deck Designer, you don't need any design experience to plan your new landscaping, deck or patio areas. In a few easy steps, you'll be able to take care of site planning and cost estimating. The software will give you everything you need, from conception to planning to pricing.

With a huge library of over 1,200 plants at your disposal, you won't have to be stuck with the same old options the local home and garden shop offers. You can create beautiful landscaping with trees, shrubs, water features, and flowers of your own choosing. You can even import your digital photos and add your own custom landscaping features to your plans. To keep those plants thriving, you'll want to install a sprinkler system. The "sprinkler designer" feature can help you lay out sprinkler zones for optimal watering. A "furniture" feature allows you to project a wide variety of backdrops, objects, images, and textures onto your designs. It's never been easier to select the right patio furniture for your new deck or out by the swimming pool.

As you plan your new outdoor living area, the software can project 3D models of your plot and perimeter designs, giving you realistic images of what your designs will look like. A "terrain" feature can help you build fences and driveways, and the software will help you choose the best materials for the pathways you design through your gardens. You'll even have a special "fence tool" at your fingertips that will help you to choose from several different custom fence and gate styles.

In short, with the Landscaping and Deck Designer software at your fingertips, you can say good-bye to all those cookie-cutter yards that populate new developments. You can finally say hello to an outdoor living area that not only reflects your dreams and visions, but that also reflects how your outdoor area should be experienced, day in and day out, for years to come.

Features:

• Landscaping templates designed by Better Homes and Gardens help you to quickly place your landscaping beds
• Use the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center to guide your designs with tips and advice
• Choose from a library of more than 4,000 items for your designs, including over 1,200 plants
• Plant Hardiness Zone reference maps helps you choose the most appropriate plants, and a Plant Chooser feature helps you search for plants based on climate, drought tolerance, deer resistance, and much more
• Layout sprinkler zones quickly and efficiently
• Design single or multi-level decks with Deck Designer
• Assign the materials you want for your new patio design
• Quickly lay out your deck, add stairs, then place and arrange furniture
• Deck foundations automatically generate to match sloped lots
• Design and visualize your areas in 3D
• Import your own photos of houses, plants, people, and more
• Produce realistic images of your outdoor projects
• Easily create hills and valleys for custom landscapes
• Automatically generate materials list to estimate costs
• Includes free How-To Tutorial CD

Reviews (3)

Fence angles on odd shaped lots will be a problem.
From the online reviews I decided to purchase Landscaping and Deck Designer ver. 7.01. I have to warn you that if you have an odd shaped lot you'll run into a problem with the software. If you have to make fence angles that aren't at 90 degrees perpendicular to each other you may not be able to draw a fence that is exactly shaped like yours. I have an odd shaped lot and when I tried to make the fence angles the same as mine the drawn fences only rotate in 7 1/2 degree increments. This means you either have to make a lot size bigger or smaller than what your actual lot size is. The work around is to draw a lot size bigger than yours then manually draw your actual fence lines. I confirmed with their tech support that the software works that way.

This is best consumer level landscaping software out there
After extensive research, I eventually concluded that nothing really good existed in the low end consumer world of Landscape Design software, but I held out great hope that Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer would be different.

So I took a chance and bought it from Amazon in April.and After some initial delays in actually getting the product, it was worth the wait!This software has blown me away after using it just two days now!!

This is the newest 7.x version of the landscaping modules first introduced in the BH&G 6.x home designed suite.The new version, just recently released in Mar/Apr 2005 by Chief Architect for BH&G is now standalond landscaping and deck design product.I suspect a 7.x home designer suite will eventually follow.

It is clear that this software has inherited many good things from its more professional rooted product line at Chief Architect.

This latest Landscape and Deck designer is really easy to use.It comes with a program CD and tutorial CD.After a quick and easy installation process ... I found myself able to use this software quite quickly.

This worked for me, since I despise reading confusing manuals and going through endless tutorials ... this software was easy enought to "figure out", with a little help from the tutorial videos and the help subsystem.

Each video clip on the tutorial CD is only 2-4 minutes in duration and shows how to do several useful things at a time.This "show and tell" approach to learning really worked for me.I watch a quick video -- then I go do it myself.

Unlike other tutorials, this one is quick and to the point.You won't spend more than 30-45 minutes to watch all of the videos included.I reccomend watching the first 1-3 videos, then go try the program yourself, then come back to the tutorial videos a finish them off after you have an initial grasp of the program.

There is also a more comprehensive help utility where you can look up individual topics by topic or search for things within the help system ... very good overall.

This program is easy to use and the 3D capabilities are very impressive.I had my new home' irregular shapes lot laid out and my new home located on that lot to within half foot precision in the first night of use.You almost fool yourself into thinking this program is more than just landscaping, but there are certainly limits, but reasonable ones.

I was zooming around my lot and house in 3D on the first night of use.The house roof wasn't exactly correct, but very close ... and thats where the landscaping program meets its limits ... you can't really make the house architechturally correct from top to bottom, but very accurate dimensionally and certainly good for planning your landscape and/or deck.

You can even take an actual picture and mask out the surrounding and paste that picture onto your 3D model of the house.That really makes the product yield realistic looking models.And I did that one side of the house on my first night of using it.

You can save pictures of your 3D drawing to files, you can even make a motion video tour of your landscape ideas.I was blown away by the capabilities.I can't wait to get home and see what else I can do.

I didn't get into the landscaping till day 2.By the end of Day 2, I had an initial landscape layout 80% completed.This program is very usable and probably could be used by a pro if they didn't have the budget for the $1000+ software out there.

I can't say enough good things about this software.It should be a top seller within 1 year, if others feel the same as I do.My hats off to BH&G and Chief Architect -- "home run" guys.

Professional Calibre Software But Easy to Use
As a designer and general contractor who has for many years relied on Chief Architect professional level CAD software, I nevertheless decided, when it came time for me to research consumer-level home design and landscaping products (as I am frequently asked to recommend these products), that I would evaluate those by other companies, as well.

I'm happy to report that the BH&G products won out.I was amazed to see how much Chief Architect capability has been incorporated into its consumer level products, marketed under the illustrious Better Homes & Gardens name.I am thoroughly impressed with how useable these programs are and how quickly non-professionals are able to learn them.The quality of the output is stunning and, as far as I'm concerned, the Chief Architect based products far surpass the competition in terms of integration and useability.

The unexpected outcome of my evaluation is that I deem these products, despite being consumer oriented software, to be of sufficiently high quality that I can use them in the office as ancillary products for interns and short-term employees to use.The output from Home Designer Pro can then even be opened in Chief Architect for further work by professionals.The Home Designer series is a boon for the consumer and the professional alike.In this day and age it's nice to see software developers who take their craft seriously and who are responsive to their customers, and to acknowledge that rare quality I've taken the time to write this review.

Jay Palmer
New York, NY
... Read more

Features

• Inspire your designs with the Design Planning Center
• Create a virtual walk-through of your house
• Design and visualize in 3D
• Choose from a library of more than 4,300 items for your designs
• Generate automatic material lists for project cost estimating

Reviews (21)

Very solid product
I was looking for a software that would let me create a good design of my new house. I am not an architect and I am not interested in details such as plumbing, electrical, framing etc. I just wanted to create the walls, add the doors windows, furniture, stairs, roof, etc.

This software can do all of these easily, no bugs, no frustration, everything fits or can be rezized. So far I am 80% done with my house. I have had no crashes when I use it with my desktop (2.6 GHZ P4, 256 RAM, GeForce FX5200). But it crashes when I use it with my Laptop (P4 1.8 GHZ, 512RAM but a mobility ATI radeon). The error message says it crashed because of my video card and it happens when switching to 3d view.

To see the good about this software read the marketing review, I strongly agree in all of them. I'll list only my complains:
- Not 100% of the objects can be copy/paste from one plan to the other.
- When you start a design make sure you carefully select the template plan. The template plan gives properties to the objects (cabinets, tables, walls, etc). Because when you are half way in your design and realize that you want some object (ie fancy railings) that is not available in your template but it is in another, you also realize that you cannot change the template of the plan you are currently using. You can open a new plan with the correct template, add the object and do a copy and paste, but not all objects can be copy and pasted (ie. Railings).
- When you switch to 3d view it recalculates everything. This gets annoying and slow when your project is almost finished.
- So far i do not see a solution to adding new objects. For example a new door style, a new sofa style. The publisher does not have an online database where they can add new styles for users to keep their design updated.

The software is pricy but it is the best I have used. Granted that I have not used the punch software. I have wasted 15/20$ at a time buying low cost software on the software bins

We love this software!
We bought this software after researching alot of others to find the best product for the price we wanted to spend. We are very happy that we chose Home Designer! Our project is adding 1500 square feet, part of which is a second story, to our existing home as owner/builders (pretty ambitious, huh?). We have been able to design and redesign with this software while working out alot of the problems we have with our lot constrictions. We read about other programs only having preprogrammed lot dimensions that weren't editable, but we drew our weird lot dimensions and started right in! It's nice to see that things we thought would work in our heads aren't really that practical when you put them "on paper". We now have the luxury of seeing everything in the new space that we dreamed about for years! The decorating aspect of Home Designer is great too with lots of options and textures. We've been able to see the space and plan it better with the AWESOME 3D views, Doll House view and Glass House view. AND it takes hardly any time, is easy to use (love the drag and drop) and we had a "do-able" plan within 3-4 hours. We still have the roof to work out but that's it. We haven't had any problems with crashing or drawing speed. It all works seamlessly and really quite fast. Our computer runs Windows XP with 512mb RAM and a 64mb GeForce4 MX graphics card. We highly recommend this software for home building or remodeling!

They just want you to buy the upgrade
It's as if they stripped out most of the functions on purpose...I guess they want customers to be frustrated with this software so you'll buy their expensive upgrade.

I hope they take my return instead.

Almost worthless for anything but a box with a roof
I bought this software to help design an addition to my house, but Home Designer Suite 6 is not even able to let me draw my existing house, a 1400 square foot house with an attached garage.

The problem is more than one style of roof, and a mud room attached to the front of the house. Home Designer cannot accept more than 1 roof style, and does not allow me to add a roof to the mud room without automagically changing the roof on the main part of the house.

I feel really stupid for spending $80 on this product, and will probably go back to paper and pencil.

Outstanding Software - Very Powerful
This is great software. I have the Home Architect Deluxe 3.0, so I already had some experience with how the program would work. From that, this version let's you do amazing things if you take the time and put in a little effort. Photo quality renderings that no architect could ever give you.

Anyone who is giving this a low rating isn't spending enough time with it. And that's not to say you need to take a course on it.... I spent about 3-4 hours and got the results I wanted, which was a 3D rendering of our planned house, which has a complex roofline. Powerful software can overwhelm people, or they just don't want to give it the time to learn. Like Microsoft Excel, you can't expect to become an ace with spreadsheets just because you buy the software. You have to put in a little time to learn.

The results you can get from this software can't be produced any other way. Buy it and spend some time with it and you will love it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Review

Your yard has always been good to you, giving you space to play with your kids, barbecue, and even sun-bathe on those lazy summer days. But now you're ready to bring some creative elegance and flair to your outdoor living. And you don't want to spend a mint just to have a landscape designer or consultant tell you what you want. If you know what you want, but you just need a little help turning that vision into reality, the Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer Bundle is just for you.

Better Homes and Gardens, the number one home and garden publisher, has partnered with leading software designer Chief Architect to bring you the Landscaping and Deck Designer Bundle. This program can help you transform your yard space into the landscape of your dreams, at a fraction of the cost of what a professional would charge. Using the software's fun, intuitive, and easy-to-use tools, you'll quickly be on the way toward becoming the envy of your neighborhood as your backyard barbecues in the sun turn into elegant moon-lit affairs on your new deck.

With the Landscaping and Deck Designer Bundle, you don't need any design experience to plan your new landscaping, deck or patio areas. In a few easy steps, you'll be able to take care of site planning and cost estimating. The software will give you everything you need, from conception to planning to pricing.

With a huge library of over 1,200 plants at your disposal, you won't have to be stuck with the same old options the local home and garden shop offers. You can create beautiful landscaping with trees, shrubs, water features, and flowers of your own choosing. You can even import your digital photos and add your own custom landscaping features to your plans. To keep those plants thriving, you'll want to install a sprinkler system. The "sprinkler designer" feature can help you lay out sprinkler zones for optimal watering. A "furniture" feature allows you to project a wide variety of backdrops, objects, images, and textures onto your designs. It's never been easier to select the right patio furniture for your new deck or out by the swimming pool.

As you plan your new outdoor living area, the software can project 3D models of your plot and perimeter designs, giving you realistic images of what your designs will look like. A "terrain" feature can help you build fences and driveways, and the software will help you choose the best materials for the pathways you design through your gardens. You'll even have a special "fence tool" at your fingertips that will help you to choose from several different custom fence and gate styles.

In addition to the software, you also get the latest edition of The Better Homes and Gardens New Garden book -- a wonderful way to inspire and provide ideas for your outdoor living spaces. With over 600 pages of great ideas and glorious color photos of more plants and landscaping arrangements than you could ever need, this book will provide you with an endless fountain of inspiration.

In short, with the Landscaping and Deck Designer software at your fingertips, you can say good-bye to all those cookie-cutter yards that populate new developments. You can finally say hello to an outdoor living area that not only reflects your dreams and visions, but that also reflects how your outdoor area should be experienced, day in and day out, for years to come.

Features:

• Get invaluable design ideas from The Better Homes and Gardens New Garden book
• Landscaping templates designed by Better Homes and Gardens help you to quickly place your landscaping beds
• Use the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center to guide your designs with tips and advice
• Choose from a library of more than 4,000 items for your designs, including over 1,200 plants
• Plant Hardiness Zone reference maps helps you choose the most appropriate plants, and a Plant Chooser feature helps you search for plants based on climate, drought tolerance, deer resistance, and much more
• Layout sprinkler zones quickly and efficiently
• Design single or multi-level decks with Deck Designer
• Assign the materials you want for your new patio design
• Quickly lay out your deck, add stairs, then place and arrange furniture
• Deck foundations automatically generate to match sloped lots
• Design and visualize your areas in 3D
• Import your own photos of houses, plants, people, and more
• Produce realistic images of your outdoor projects
• Easily create hills and valleys for custom landscapes
• Automatically generate materials list to estimate costs
• Includes free How-To Tutorial CD

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

Reviews (6)

Extremely slow rendering and a reminder of....
a software program called Floorplan. I like version 4.0 a heck of alot better. Im glad I only tried the trial version. Im very disappointed with 6.0. the rendering takes forever and the graphics are'nt as good as version 4.0 or as good as Punch architectural series 18. Don't waste your money on the version.

do it yourself_____ (fill in the blank)
As an architect, I can't help but be insulted that one might think making a good building is so easy. I know we all live in houses, but that doesn't mean that 5-8 years of architecture school plus years of practice can be so easily overridden. Why not do-it-yourself medicine, or dentistry? How about law? All those things are just as easily picked up, right? We all have bodies, and teeth (hopefully)and know what's right and just-- don't we?!! There is a lot more to designing and building a good building than meets the eye.

OK for Simple Folk
This is an adequate program with a few nice bells & whistles, but the lack of a migration path thru project upgrades (from a prior version) or file imports makes this a brand new program for old users. If I need to "re-key" all my data anyway, there are competitive packages offering significantly better features and multiple file handling options. But if you are familiar with prior versions and are newly creating simple plans, this is a good alternative.

Cautious Optimism
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.

Very cool 3-D and Easy to use
This is a VERY cool program. It allowed me to trace over a scanned design, create project from basic house layout, or free style. Once I got the hang of how things worked I was building homes in no time. I especially nice feature is the ability to paint the texture of walls, floors, cabinets, furniture, etc from within the 3D view.
Putting up walls can be a bit quirky, but in time you figure it out.
I would recommend this to anyone who needs to get a real view of what their home will look like.
Having experience playing The Sims doesn't hurt either ;-) ... Read more

Features

• Sixteen powerful programs in one
• Includes Roofing Wizard, Topo designer, advanced lighting capabilities, and Deck Wizard
• Also includes Cabinet Wizard, Custom Texture Builder, and PlantFinder
• Enhanced user interface with 3D cut-away viewing tools

Features

• Comprehensive layout program with easy-to-use tabbed interface
• Photo realistic 3D renderings of landscape plans with 3DTrueView
• Take a virtual tour of the yard with Walk Around view tool
• Easily create structurally sound, fully framed deck plans
• Powerful design capabilities and extensive reference resources

Reviews (4)

So Much for Creating a Plant List for my Garden!!
When I purchased this program, it had only one review from the cad fellow who said "skip it" because it was not user friendly. I disregarded his review because of the program's extensive plant encylcopedia --9500. Well, I had an old Sierra Garden Design program that turns out to have been MUCH MORE useful. The new program allowed me to search by plant and soil properties, but I couldn't figure out how to print the information it provided,never mind save it!! I wanted a print-out of plants and plant pictures to add to my water logged garden site. This program stinks. Then I tried to draw my garden, it was hopeless. This is truly one program to skip. Trust the reviewers. There are four of us now saying dump this one!!!!

Skip this one
Wished I'd researched this turkey before purchase. If you need to use the terrsin/3D features - you're done for. If you need to design something in real life and you use this program - you're done for.

Time consuming and difficult to manipulate
I struggled with this software for a couple of weeks then gave up. I'm no rookie-I am familiar with AutoCAD, Access, Excel, Word, Adobe Photoshop, Powerpoint, Project etc etc and this program just didnt seem to follow any of the rules. Realizing that a 3D image(incidentally there was no house template anything like mine) was going to take about as long as it took to landscape a garden, I tried 2D-hoping to superimpose walls and vegetation on a photo of my house...hours later i still couldnt easily construct the scene.
If this were any other type of product, I would be retuning it for a refund-but with software you dont get to take it back.....so unless you want to spend many hours in front of your computer-rather than in the yard I suggest you pass on this.

Stunningly awful - NO "Stars"
I've drawn all sorts of garden plans and elevations by hand for years, but I was in a hurry to kick out a piece of work this weekend. I purchased this program because I thought I'd be able to quickly draw simple features, plop in a few basic plants and render elevations. After all, version 3 of this program, although pretty clunky, was fairly basic and easy to use. The newest version MUST be much more intuitive.

WRONG! The tools operate NOTHING like any human being I know actually draws. If anything, this program is LESS intuitive than earlier versions. Way too much emphasis on "catalogs" and automatic features and not nearly enough on ease-of-use. Amazing how software actually keeps getting worse instead of better.

The folks who write these things really need to rethink from scratch how people create these types of drawings manually. At this point, pencil, ruler and quadrille paper are faster and easier (and cheaper)and yield better results. Don't waste your time and money on this. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Suprisingly Fun
I found this game at Target and the graphics looked good and the overall plot amusing so i bought it. The mini games are well worth the money-some actually took me a fair amount of time to complete. This is an ideal game for girls from ages 6-11. Bt i'm an older teen and i still enjoyed it! The only complaint i have with this game is that it took me very little time to complete the game( but you can always go back and change some of the aspects of your wedding or start over).

Planning a wedding was never so much fun!
This is a fun and engaging program with an amazing amount of activities and mini-games that are all wedding related.Most of the stuff you have to do for a real wedding is here, but of course, a lot more fun.I'll try to explain.

You begin by choosing a bride, brides maids, and a venue for the wedding, then you play this hilarious elimination game to choose a groom, and then choose his grooms men.If you want to skip this part you can have your mother choose all this for you. You then find yourself in the mall, where you can design your dress, choose your shoes, your jewelry, design your ring, design the brides maid dresses, choose formalwear for the men, get your hair done, choose your make-up, choose your music, design your cake and your bouquet, and even make a poem to read at the ceremony.You win more choices for these activities by playing six mini-games in the mall. Most of these are quite fun, my favorite being the dice game, which is a shower game where you exchange gifts.Each game has three levels, giving you more design choices each time you win. Once all these things are done, you can decorate the scene of the wedding and get married.On every screen throughout the entire game is a camera for taking photos for the wedding album which you also get to design and decorate.

The interface is fairly straight-forward and easy to use, no instructions needed. Although the graphics are 2D, they are nicely done with lots pretty colors.The repetive narration can get annoying but it is minimal and the music is awesome.There are tons of things to do and the replay value is high.Another nice feature is that you can completely install this to your hard drive and run it without the cd.

Overall, this is a fun and creative activity program that would be a big hit with girls ages 6-12.But hey, I'm a grown-up and I love it.

... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Kyoto Gardens: A Virtual Stroll Through Zen Landscapes utilizes Apple Computer's QuickTime VR technology to "walk through" 24 of Kyoto's most renowned gardens. A seamless panorama of wood, sand, and stone lets users experience Japanese garden design and the world of Zen firsthand. Maps, slides, screensavers, essays, history, and aesthetics are brought together in a truly interactive cybernetic journey. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Outstanding piece of work!
This is something else. Beautifully presented and perfectly matched to music (if you switch it on). After seeing the gardens for myself, I can say the photos chosen brilliantly represent the "feel" of the gardens. The insightful essays discuss all aspects of the gardens, their history and design. A visual masterpiece.

The computer interface needs very slight work but is very well produced. Such a slight mark on an otherwise perfect experience.

Beautiful!
This does allow you to look through 24 gardens in the 360-degree viewpoint, with the full-circle perspectives from several other vantage points within each garden, so there more than 24 "Viewings". You can also explore the images through the program or simply through a photo browser. You will find litte things you missed, so look through it more than once!. I've also used several of the pictures as my wallpaper.

It's pretty pricey anywhere but Amazon, so if you are looking to buy it, Amazon's the place to go!

Kyoto Gardens: A virtual stroll through Zen Landscapes
This title, in brief, allows users to 'walk through' (360 degree viewing) 24 of Kyoto's most famous Zen Gardens. It includes cross-platform (Windows & Mac) QuickTime 'walk throughs' of the gardens, accompanied by detailed notes on the history and design features of the gardens, a 150 plate photo collection and 5 essays by well known scholars on Zen and landscape gardening. Defintely worth a look! ... Read more

Features

• Create precise photographic renderings of your future dream gardens
• Browse through the Visual Plant Seeker tool to select flora by growth rate, size, bloom season sun and moisture tolerance
• Create your own bills of materials from grouped objects, to examine the cost of your landscape
• The powerful DeltaCad software lets you tailor your existing terrain -- edit, rotate, copy and change scale
• Draw precise plans with accurate lengths and areas, in Metric and English measurements

Amazon.com Review

Landscaping at your desktop is the name of the game in 3d Home Landscape Designer Deluxe, a package that helps you work on your yard without breaking a sweat--or risking costly mistakes. With a massive gallery of over 9,000 plants and yard features from deck chairs to playground equipment, this program gives users a chance to plan every aspect of an outdoor environment in minute detail, trying out as many different concepts as imagination and time permit.

Though 3d Home Landscape allows you to focus on the interior of a home, it puts far more energy into exterior design. Terrain modeling makes it possible to mold the land itself to any specification before features are added, with hills and even lakes adding depth to a given project. Using this feature it is possible, with practice, to closely model your own land and then to analyze its design strengths.

Once time comes to actually lay down foliage, 3d Home Landscape's Plant Encyclopedia is there to help, carrying detailed information on maintaining every plant in a garden. Your finished designs can be previewed with an eye to how the yard will appear in all four seasons.

Like most home and garden design programs, this one will let you move through the three-dimensional model of your house and yard, viewing each creation from all angles. It is a complex program that requires patience in the learning stages. Fortunately, the user's guide is thoughtfully written and easy to use, and there are first-rate animated tutorials available with the program that cover each new stage of the landscaping process.

And once mastered, 3d Home Landscape can help you work out every imaginable garden design, no matter how wild or daring. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Not User Friendly
This software gives you seemingly endless options, which is both good and bad. Good because you can micromanage down to the texture of the bricks in the pathway of your garden, but bad because these powerful tools only get a few lines of explaination in the user's manual. I consider myself to be fairly computer savvy, but the program makes it difficult for you even to join fences to the house properly or add slope to your terrain. I'll spend several more hours trying to see if I can make any progress in learning this program, but I don't think you should have to have a CAD degree just to design some landscape on a computer.

Read the Reviews FIRST - ZERO Stars
I just now read the reviews of this product; unfortunately, I did not read them before I purchased this pathetic program. Basically - false advertising. Does not include anywhere near the number of items indicated on the box and queries to Broderbund indicate the items are no longer available. Save your money - get some crayons!

Actually 0 Stars DON'T DO IT!!!!
I have had Broderbund Home Designer 5.0 for about 4 months now. Three years ago I used 3D Architect Vers. 1.0 to remodel my kitchen and it was great. So, I decided to buy 3D Architect Professional 5.0 to design my Master Suite (converting two BRs and a bath to do it) and remodel my back yard and pool....completely. To begin, all Broderbund architectural products' names are similarly named. I thought the "professional" 5.0 included (and was led to believe by skimming the info on it) the landscape design program. You can even switch to landscape mode but NOTHING happens! After calls to tech support and customer service asking why I can't get to the landscape portion, I (not they) realized I had to buy 3D Home Landscape. So I went to buy it, installed it and went to use the program and still no landscape mode. Long story short...after many frustrating calls and e-mails, I (again me, not they) discovered how the two programs merge together to form one program (if installed in a certain method and order) named yet another program name...3d Home Designer 5.0. Unbelievable!

Again, long story short...after limping through a multitude of crashes, letters to tech support and getting answers back e.g., "I don't know, I don't use the program" and countless other frustrating and irritating things, today was the last straw. I opened the program and four months of re-creating my four bedroom tri-level home and yard are gone to waste. As soon as I open the program to do anything, it crashes. I have re-installed and to no avail.

BY ALL MEANS, save yourself the frustration and look for another package. I used to work in the computer industry up until '98 and Broderbund typifies the reason I got out...mediocrity!!

If you are doing a very simple two room house, want to WOW your friends or clients twirling the house around, do walk thrus (on the computer, can't make a separate walk thru file and send to someone), or you want your three-year old to be an architect and start them off early...buy it! Otherwise...go back to the ole drafting board....which is what Broderbund ought to do.

Buggy, difficult to use, not-intuitive
I just tried to design a garden for our new house using "3D Landscaping". Despite what the box says, the software contains no templates of gardens that you can modify, just shapes (circles, rectangles, squares) with pre-programmed lot sizes (such as 40' x 110'). I tried to edit the dimensions of the 40' x 110' rectangle to mimic our new lot. Forget it. You cannot edit the sizes even if you follow the steps in the manual.

So, I tried to create a new lot from scratch. Instead of a flat plane to show our new lawn, the program created a cylinder. The cylinder could not be modified no matter how I tried.

I finally decided to accept the incorrect dimensions of the rectangular plot (40 x 110) and just insert sample plants (trees, climbers, etc) from the toolbar, to get an idea of what would look good next to what. The program crashed. When it did allow me to add the plants in outline view, they did not show up in 3D view, which means you can't see what they will look like in your garden (the whole point of the program!) The program crashed again when I toggled from 3D view to outline view. (My system surpasses the system requirements, so that was not the problem).

I am not a software neophyte, and I followed both the manual and the tutorials step-by-step to create a diagram, but the software did not work. I don't believe Broderbund tests this before releasing it to the public.

If anyone has found a quality landscape design software program, please tell me. Right now, I'm ready to turn to Powerpoint.

Frustrating
I am about to uninstall, both my wife and myself gve this a try. My lot size is not one of the given ones. Setting up a lot (a 90x180 foot rectangle) is impossible. Did not bother going any further, with it. There is a couple of hours wasted I will never see again..... ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Buyer Beware
I researched various design software prior to purcahsing Punch AS3000 and thought I did a good job of doing so...I was wrong. I have been in construction related fields for over 20 years, and feel as though given some instruction, guidleines, etc I can learn almost anything! Purchasing this software proved me to be wrong. Upon making my purchase I learned that there were no "demos" available, this should be warning #1! I pursued it. I was told that I would have 90 day support via phone tech support, which I did, however, when I did call I was treated as though i was truly "bothering" the receiver of my call, and then treated as though they could not believe that I did not know how to do waht I was asking. The manual is basically useless as it does not walk the user through applications in any sort of logical format. The tech support is not helpful, the so called tutorials are also useless. I strongly reccomend that you do not waste your money on this program. My only wish is that I could provide an alternative solution at this time. Each task is cumbersome and most require "custom 3D sorkshop" design which if you have the patience and "creativity" to figure out how to use still do not accomplish the task.

Determine Your Patience Level Before You Buy
EXPERIENCE:
I suppose knowing my experience may help to gauge my ability to use the program and help you to decide what you are capable of doing if you purchase this program. I have worked with computers for nearly 20 years. I am a professional graphic designer and web developer. So, I suppose my experience with software would be in the advanced category. However I have never used this program prior to my purchase, but have used other home design and 3D software in my past.

PROS:
Great 3-D walk-through. Fairly descent selection of colors, materials, indoor, and outdoor furniture and landscape design elements. Fun to use if you don't need any custom items that are not in their library. I liked the ability to design more then just the floor plan, such as lighting, deck, plumbing, etc.

CONS:
3D tools seemed to be difficult for the average user. My expectations were not set high, as this is supposed to be a consumer-based product, thus it should be fairly easy to use with direction from the manual. However it lost me! It was several days getting the hang of using it and I still couldn't get basic items designed properly. For example, I needed to create an L-shaped island with sink for the kitchen. It just was not an easy thing to do. Because they did not have such things in their library, I was forced to use the 3D tools (designing from scratch). When creating the object dimensions, it is not easy placing the shape in it's proper location, and it was difficult to get the elevations correct as well. Try putting one of their sinks in your own 3D designed countertop, it just doesn't work well at all! It was truly more work then it should have taken for such a common task. Same thing when applying materials such as wood choices to furniture (albeit furniture was not real important for me) it took much more work then what should be considered a basic task (too many pieces to color within one furniture element). The roof never got quite finished either. I could not get the walls to fit within the dimensions of the roof (or visa-versa) on a 2nd story. I tried so hard, but not being an architect or engineer, I would say that this task requires you to really know what you are doing. It was not discussed well in the manual either. So, was it me, or was it the software with the limitations, I really couldn't tell you.

Needless to say, I got a bit frustrated, and hopefully without sounding like a know-it-all, frustration just doesn't happen to me very often when it comes to design programs. Don't get me wrong, I had those days back when I was learning to use design software, but using a consumer-based program such as this should have been simple for someone with my design background. I don't believe though, that it had to do with being easy or difficult, as much as it had to do with the limitations of the program in my circumstance. But for the newbie, I believe it would be considered a difficult program to use.

MY ADVICE:
If you really need something that covers a lot of ground, but doesn't require a complex design, or complex elements, then this should be fine. However if you don't have the patience or time, and you want to add more custom features to your project, I believe this program is overpriced for your needs, as it will prove to be more work then you bargained for. In fact, although I'm sure they put a lot of money into developing this program, I think it is overpriced for the average consumer trying to design their new home or remodel.

DO NOT BUY
I just recently purchased this software and was completely NOT satisfied! This is a very basic program that simply is overpriced. The box looks nice...and it appears that you just purchased something professional...but please believe when I say this is FAR from the truth. They claim to have all these so called wizards, that basically let you change the size of an existing object and a material from a very small list of materials and thats it! For instance I wanted to see how my kitchen would look...well I jumped into the cabinet wizard to find I had only two door styles to choose from...and much worse I could not add molding, millwork, or handles. Sure, if I want to spend hours creating these things in their cubersome and ackward 3D workshop, then I can add them. This is just ONE of many examples. I tried to email my concerns, but four days later I got a reply that they believed their product was highend software. I wanted my money back but they refused and said I should have spent more time researching their product...how is that for customer service? They went on to say this product does not need a guarantee or even a demo version for you to try out...even though they offer a 90 day money back guarantee with all their other products. Save your money or spend a little more and purchase Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Pro 6...it is far superior in every aspect. AS3000 may claim to have all these features...but let me tell you they all are very basic and limited. This is NOT a professional program...it is a professional scam and waste of your hard earned money! DO NOT BUY! ... Read more

Features

• PlantFinder sortable database with over 2,000 landscape plants
• Deck, home exterior, topography, and other options add realism
• Integrate real-world photos of your home; design beautiful landscaping
• PhotoView technology; walk or fly through your creation in 3D
• 9 programs in 1 intuitive, easy-to-use interface

Amazon.com Review

Be your own landscape architect--for less than the price of an hour'sconsultation--with Sierra's Complete LandDesigner 3D Design Collection 7.0. Eight programs make up the total design package: the core is the simple butpowerful LandDesigner 3D, an intuitive walk-through guide to garden and lawndesign. Its wizards help to quickly enter your site's data (like area,elevation, and shade), then add plants or objects from its 6,500-item database.Cycle them through the seasons and the years in three dimensions from any anglewith the time-lapse function--always an entertaining show. Make changesinstantly, update the shopping list automatically, and check out the beautifulsamples if you need a bit of help from the experts. The Photo Garden Designerimports photos of house and yard to get an even better, if sometimes startling,image of the new look.

Once the new design is set up, the shopping-list feature is tremendously useful,and the Personal Garden Planner will keep track of maintenance tasks. The onlineGarden Encyclopedia and Ortho Home Gardener's Problem Solver answer questionsquickly and make selection even easier, brilliantly using audio and video toinstruct and inspire. Every program in the package is simple and fun to use(though it's expected that you know your way around a garden before you start),and the graphics in the design software are stunningly sharp (though users ofslower computers will find the animations a bit sluggish). Caveat emptor: youmight find it tempting to stay indoors with Complete LandDesigner 3D DesignCollection 7.0. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Time consuming,still a GREAT program! Check requirements 1st
First, I'd like to say that I think this software is a great value for the price. There are however, some requirements you should be aware of before you buy. These programs require TIME and PATIENCE. If you are doing a complete landscape, expect to invest many hours. I'm not talking months or anything, but until you get the hang of it, progress will be slow. If you are using the 3D program, you will have to take LOTS of measurements if you want realistic results. BUT, once you get a nice replica of your home and garden, it's fun to experiment with adding/removing features. More important than the time investment, be aware that due to the details in graphics, these programs may not be compatible with your computer. Please be sure your computer meets the "recommended" (different from 'minimum') system requirements. I will also include some info from the program's "README" page. ..."Matrox Millenium G400, ATI Rage chipsets & Voodoo3 3000 are known to have problems with 3d acceleration". And..."STB Velocity 128 video card does not work properly...at all" Please note that some of these problems may have been fixed with recent drivers. Also, the video acceleration feature can be disabled and this is a likely remedy for video problems. At any rate, I wanted to mention this just in case. If you have the requirements, I highly recommend you try this software. Some of my favorite features are the price trackers. These are great if you are on a budget. I am landscaping my backyard and found that some materials which are nearly equal in quality had significant price differences. I'm sure this will vary upon location, but it still gives a good ballpark figure. Also, you are not limited to outdoors. This program also enables you to redecorate indoors as well. I have completed my backyard and have started my guest bedroom! I think this is generally easy to use software that will give you lots of good ideas. Just follow the manuals and tutorials and you shouldn't have any problems. I am sure there will be negative reviews from people who will think the programs are too time consuming or not detailed enough. Please keep in mind, these are not CAD programs. They certainly could be used by professionals for basic landscape outlines. (the cost minus rebate) you will get your money's worth. And another bonus, if you try it and hate it, you can send it to the company and get your money back.

Doesn't work!
The Land Designer portion of this software will not work at all on my computer. I have a new computer that well exceeds all of the system requirements. I'm running Windows XP on it. The program won't even open. I e-mailed customer service and the best they could do was tell me to clean the cd with water and then reinstall it!? Needless to say, that didn't work. The Photo Garden Designer portion worked fine, but that's not what I bought it for! Don't waste your time or money on this program.

does NOT work with Windows 2000
Even though the box says this product will work with Windows 2000, it does NOT. It locked up everytime we tried to draw our landscaping plan. Tech support was of no use whatsoever and eventually told us to send it back, which we did and 6 weeks later we have YET to get a refund.

I will never buy another product from Sierra Home again.

What a waste of time.
Too many glitches and bugs to talk about. Their website was of no help and after waiting for phone tech support, (my nickel) for a half hour, they couldnt resolve any of the problems. They said they would give me my money back, but how about the three days I spent screwing around with this piece of trash?

One particular problem is that saving a file overwrites the old one without removing any of the deleted changes. The result is a uselss mess. Another is that for no apparent reason it does not choose to save some items, so when the file is brought back up all the work has to be done over again. Of course if you expect to print what you see on the screen you are dreaming.

Break out the graph paper and pencil. You will do the job in half the time. Take the money and buy some plants.

It has its good points
First, some caveats:

* Sierra has discontinued development of this product. They have no plans to produce any future versions.

* Make sure your PC will support the software. And if yours satisfies only the minimum requirements, you'll have trouble building up a design with a lot of objects in it. It can be better to start with the house, slope, and property line, then copy your "basic" design and create the back, front, and side gardens (etc) separately.

* There is no way to export any portion of a design and then import it into another one, although it is possible to create certain types of objects and reuse them.

That said, I find the program useful for visualizing things like "where should we put some trees" and "can we create an attractive vegetable garden on the slope in the back yard? I found it frustrating while I was learning, but now I enjoy using it.

In addition to LandDesigner 3D, I enjoy using
* The Garden Encyclopedia -- I can search for plants that are low-maintenance, hardy in my zone, and grow to a certain size.
* The Ortho Problem Solver -- for identifying insects and diseases. I prefer other references (Rodale) for the solutions.

The following are somewhat interesting:
* Designer Garden Library -- would have been better if it were possible to export elements for input into my own designs.
* Landscaper Design Guide -- You really need to get some good books on these topics, though.
* Photo Garden Designer -- If you've already "built" your house in LandDesigner 3D, why bother with this?

I don't think much of:
* 3D Deck -- Frustrating and limiting.
* Personal Garden Planner -- What, I need ANOTHER calendar/organizer? Much easier to build a schedule in Excel or Outlook. ... Read more

Product Description

Features 8 titles that will turn your exterior into a showcase! Includes: LandDesigner 3D, 3D Deck, Photo Garden Designer, Ortho Problem Solver, Personal Garden Planner, Encyclopedia, and Design Guide. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Very Powerful
I purchased 3DHome Design Suite 5.0 after trying many different programs on the market including previous versions 3.0 amd 4.0. This product finally has integrated landscape and home design which previously was two different products shoved in one box. After a couple of hours, I designed my house and had a sloped lot created. This program was much better than previous versions of 3D Home and other brands

I liked it
I write this review sitting in the study of a house that I designed entirely myself using the broderbund software. It took me two years, but I was able to make floorplans that a local builder was able to work from and get permits from. My house is exactly as planned and the 3-D model generated by the software is a spitting image of the house. When I show it to people and tell them that it was all done before the house was built they don't believe me.

I get the impression from the reviews that people think being an architect is something one can learn in an afternoon from a book. Not so. If you really want to design something that will be built, the amount of time you will spend mastering this software is nothing compared to the time it will take you to understand how all of the various local and national building code rules are going to force you to do this or that with your plan.

I am not an architect, but I was able to use this software to enable me to have a house built exactly to my specifications. If you aren't willing to invest a lot of time in it, you should hire a professional.

Most UNINTUITIVE product ever used
I've been in software development and sales for almost 20 years. This product qualifies as the most unitiutive product I've ever used (going back to DOS days). I've sold very sofisiticated software products that were 100 times easier to use. I can't believe Broderbund trys to sell this as a consumer product. In addition, after working on a design for an hour or so the software would crash and corrupt the file forcing me to recreate my work. Never mind saving your work every few minutes. It didn't matter as it would still corrupt the file. I would highly recommend finding a different solution.

What A Piece Of Garbage!
Can't add much that hasn't already been said...hard to use, completely counter-intuitive...and the help index and instruction manual are useless. If you type in "soffit," "beam," or "fireplace" there aren't even entries with corresponding instructions! Also, where are commands for crown molding, baseboard, etc? I'll stick with Version 3, which is a much easier-to-use product and offers more features.

This is a HUGE step backward from version 3.0
I've used 3D Home Architect 3.0 for years with great success. Even though it's 5 years old, it beats the pants off of version 5.1. Actually, 5.1 appears to be a completely different package, and you can't open any projects that you created with the older versions. Tasks that were so simple with 3.0 are ridiculously difficult and frustrating with 5.1. For example, if you add an interior wall that is not connected to an exterior wall, you have to drag it to where you think you want it, then measure (with a very difficult to use tape measure), then move it again, measure, and repeat until it's where you want it. What happened to automatical visual dimension lines that were in 3.0!!!? The primary problem with this version lies in it's lack of usability. It takes hours to do what took minutes in the previous version. I was grateful for Broderbund's money back guarantee - I took them up on it. This product stinks. The biggest dissapointment is, there's no upgrade path for fan's of 3D Home Architect 3.0, which was (and still is) an exceptional product. I STRONGLY recommend against this product. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Easily design your ideal landscape around a virtual image of your home with 3D Home Landscape Designer 4.0. View your creation over time and through the seasons, all in 3-D. Use the extensive plant encyclopedia to select the perfect plants for your garden and expand your botanical knowledge. The encyclopedia features 7,500 plants with 9,500 photos. Find facts on growth zones, climate, soil, and more. View 100 plant-care demonstrations and look through 600 illustrated solutions to garden problems. The software also features instant 3-D viewing of your designs with onscreen plant growth and seasonal changes and slope and elevation modeling. Even view your garden during the day or night or add 3-D garden objects like gazebos, fences, lighting, and more. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Some good stuff, but where are the plants?
To be fair, this software has some good stuff in it. The part dealing with design and layout of the landscape is all right. The 3D walk-through is not so bad either, although the plants could be a bit more realistic looking.
Two things bothered me though, Lack of common plant species, and home design.
I live in Colorado, and the software did not have any of the common trees and bushes in my backyard. Cleveland Select Pear, Purple-Leaf Sandcherry, Miss Kim Lilac. So I couldn't really do any sort of representation of what my yard already looks like. The software does let you enter new plants, but I want to design, not waste my time compensating for the software. To double-check this, I also entered the plants from Colorado State Universities Plant Select 2000 list. Nothing.
The house design was rudimentary, the grid was completely inaccurate, my house would have been 300 feet tall if I had been going by the grid. Also, the lack of window and door components was really depressing.
All in all, disappointing software.

Underrated
I found this software to be quite versatile once I learned my way around. I was able to create a surprisingly realistic 3-D scape of my house and yard and it certainly has helped me to be able to visualize what I wanted to do. The program will never make your garden look real, but to expect as much would be ridiculous.

Having said that, there are two issues I have with the software. First and foremost, the program restricts you from placing trees that exceed the "typical" height of the species - in my case I have two rock maples that must be over 60' tall, but the program won't let me make them big enough.

Second, the program does not do a good enough job with the plant encyclopedia. Common names are often inaccurate and it was only after much searching that I was able to find many common plants listed under bizarre names. Also, some obvious species are missing. No oregano or coriander, for example! Broderbund needs to make the architecture open enough to allow open exchange so users can create and share new plant species.

Still, it's easy to "fudge" something like coriander, and there's a wealth of great data in there. I enjoy it thoroughly!

What a waste of time and money.
I purchased the landscape design software recommended on Victory Garden - what a waste of time and money (Staples will not refund software that has been opened). I tried several times to get past the first few basic steps of positioning the house on the lot and after hours of frustration I just gave up and removed the program from my computer. I didn't get anywhere near the "design" step. I use a computer 40+ hours a week at work, so I'm pretty savy, but this program is not user friendly. It focuses way too much on the 3-D glitter and not enough on useful and usable tools for the home landscaper.

DON'T EVEN CONSIDER THIS JUNK
I purchased this software because it was the only software I could find to do 3D landscaping. I thought I got a great deal when it was discounted from $54.95 to $6.98, but I found I paid too much. Its not even worth the hard drive space it takes up. The software feezes up frequently, the drawing features are very limited...only lets you draw your yard and home in retangular shapes. Not intuitive at all. Very limited plant encyclopedia. I'm sorry I wasted the postage.

Useless without 3D Home Architech
The basis of landscape is to fit it to your house. Unfortunately, if you don't have 3D Home Architech already, you're hosed in having any chance of devolping anything useful that looks like your house. Buyer beware - you need the suite - and there's no warning that 3D Home Architect is needed. And once you've bought this software, you are destined to buy more outdated software to make it useable - so you might as well go for it all with the suite. It has been a long time since I have bought any Broderbund software, and it will be longer yet, as in never! ... Read more