Features

• Use with any printer-compatible stationery, including folded cards, envelopes and place cards.
• Easily layout your stationery, add graphics, photos and text, includes 12 original fonts.
• Keep track of RSVP count, guest list, gifts, even thank-you notes.
• Store all your contact names and addresses in the built-in address book.
• Use again and again for all your parties and events.

Reviews (4)

Not worth it
I cannot load the program onto my computer. I took the software back to the store to exchange it for another and had the same problem loading the second copy. I couldn't even get started and the website was no help at all. I am taking this back and trying another brand. This is not user friendly at all.

Don't waste your money
I brought this version. I had an older one and believed this would give me more options to design. Well,they fooled me!
I couldn't even figure the dare program out! The program, to me was designed for professionals not the novice like myself. I could get the basic floor plan down but changing to 3d, adding furniture,cabinet etc forget it. I was so disappointed that I would never recommend this program to anyone.

Disappointing
Even though the package states that it includes "cabinets", it doesn't. You can't "drop in" any of the available sinks and stoves because there is nothing to drop them into. I installed it twice and had the same effect. Interestingly, you can see the "cabinets" in the editing section, you just can't get to them. If they are available somewhere within this package, they certainly aren't easy to get to, even for a computer user with over 20 years experience. Forget the money, I wasted a too many precious hours on this program.

There are also no freehand drawing tools.

Stick with version 3.0
I have version 3.0 that is about 4 years old. It has more features than the 5.0 when it comes to bath fixtures and doors. this purchase has been a waste of money. The Company's description of the new version was misleading. I will not purchase any more products from them. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Work on your yard on the rainiest of days, or plant a garden you neverhave to weed. Create a 3-D rendering of your dream garden, scan a photograph ofyour home and lay out flowers and trees around it, or just research the bestplants and gardening techniques for your geographical area. Total 3D LandscapeDeluxe 3.0 makes all of this and more possible.

The Total 3D Landscape process is relatively simple. First, lay out a plot ofland including a home floor plan, lot shape, lawns, garage, and gardens; hills,depressions, streams, and ponds go into the mix as well. Then it's time to addplant life: browse a catalog of more than 4,000 cultivable plants to find yourfavorites, or use the detailed search engine to match what you've got in mind.If you want to find flowers of a particular color for a specific soil type, andthen define the types of insects these flowers will attract, this program canhelp.

Total 3D Landscape Deluxe 3.0 favors detail-oriented users, gardeners who wantto nail down every possible element of their landscape plan before going outsideand getting to work. The program's interface is somewhat unfriendly and doesn'toffer many shortcuts for repetitive tasks. What it does provide, though, isplenty of gardening information--on seasonal planting, irrigation, gardendesign, climate, plant types, and everything else a home landscaper can imagine.The program will even calculate a budget that estimates the cost of the gardenyou're planning, one that's flexible enough to include such elements as the costof labor if you aren't planning to do all the heavy lifting yourself.

As if that weren't enough, Total 3D Landscape Deluxe 3.0 comes with three otherapplications: Sunset Garden Problem Solver, Black and Decker LandscapeConstruction and Design, and The Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Gardening.This trio of helpful resources will fill out the encyclopedia of gardeninginformation available to users. With these additional sources, you can extendyour gardening expertise indefinitely, turning to this CD-ROM library again andagain. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Watch Out! - Inexplicable Double Images
I am seldom moved to complain publicly about a piece of software, but Total 3D Landscape did not work properly on my plain vanilla Dell system running Windows 2000 with plain vanilla video. Working in 2-dimensional mode and placing plants in location, I got unwanteed duplicates of the plants 6 inches to the right on my screen. I'm one of those persons who has been fooling around with computers so long that I can fix almost anything. Not so with Total 3D Landscape. The program was completely unusable and simply not worth the more than two hours I wasted on reinstalling and searching for any possible mistake I might have made.

Buy DIGS
Spend the cash and buy Design Imaging Group, Inc software. www.designimaginggroup.com. It is expensive, powerful and works flawlessly. You cannot get good landscape design software cheaply. I have tried them all. Good luck.

Look Elsewhere!!
Not user friendly! Look elsewhere. Continues to lock-up with windows XP. The packaging is deceiving. Refused to honor rebate (no leeway for mail time).

Won't see the CD Rom
The program seems to have the right idea, but it crashes all the time and now I can't even get it to recognize the Data CD Rom while I'm running it. Real waste of time and disappointment.

Incompatable with Windows XP Professional
Program crashes with Windows XP Professional. Other reviews indicate frequent crashes with other systems as well. You can spend a lot of time learning the program and entering your specific plan, only to go "KABAM!" Really a shame, since there seemed to be so much potential. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Punch Professional Home Design Suite does something very few home planning applications achieve: it brings together designing both the interior and the exterior--including the garden--of your home on one CD-ROM. While the software is perhaps a bit complex to learn at first, the huge range of features offered make this forgivable. You can start with a blank screen, work with a pre-drawn plan from the software's library, or import scans of the existing floor plans of your home. Whichever option you choose, simply clicking the onscreen tabs allows you to switch between working on the floor plans, electrical plans, the plumbing system, roofing arrangements, heating and air conditioning, external decking, or landscaping.

Getting objects such as furniture into position on a plan is mostly a matter of drag and drop, while you can also use a Computer Aided Design feature to draw curves, arcs, and other standard shapes. It is useful to be able to see a flat plan and a 3-D view side by side, and to walk through the 3-D view or do a flyover. You can even change the light direction, intensity, and brightness on the 3-D views to get as close to the real world as possible.

With several useful tools above and beyond the designer, Punch Professional Home Design Suite is a rounded application. The 3-D Furniture Workshop lets you edit the library of furniture objects or design your own from scratch. RealModel lets you turn a home plan into a template for making a scale model--you can even print textures onto paper for pasting to the building materials. HomeEstimator works out how much it will cost to build your project life-size and how much of each type of material you need. --Sandra Vogel ... Read more

Reviews (18)

No! Stop! There's a better way!
As a hobby, I design a lot of houses. I have been using 3D Home Architect 3.0 and wanted to try Professional Home design to step up. I'm not impressed.

What the program offers: 1)complete integration and compatibility of program functions, 2) 3D rendered walkthroughs, 3) the ability to build custom furniture models, 4) the ability to build a physical scale model of the design

Those are really neat sounding features, but they do not make up for the software's faults.

For one, the floor plan design tools are somewhat counter-intuitive. I found that I couldn't break a wall in two, and the auto dimensions were not helpful in determining the locations of any interior walls. It is impossible to copy and paste doors and windows. Unlike 3D Home Architect, most objects do not recognize when they are against a wall.

Particularly annoying was kitchen design. This thing behaves more like modified rendering software than a home designer. When you start placing cabinets, the selection looks neat already rendered, but I could not tell if they had doors or drawers! The selection of cabinets that I could identify was woefully inadequate, and when placed the sizes were a little off.

After trying to design a kitchen I didn't even try the other features. If home design software can't get a kitchen right it's otherwise useless!

So I say if you want to build a model of your house, get the cheaper 3D Home Architect 3.0, print out a floorplan, and get a modeling kit. Believe me, you'll still save time over using Professional Home Design.

Best of the Lot
I have been working with Punch Pro now for over a year and as with any program, flaws exist. For 10 years or more I have worked with Expert Homes, 3D Home Architect, Total 3D, and others and until I found Punch! I had been unsuccessful in completing a home design from scratch. Finally, I created my home. I started out with Punch! 5 in 1, built my home, and have upgraded ever since, to Punch! Super, and then to Punch! Pro.

The 3D rendering in Punch is the most realistic, non-cartoonish, and fastest renderings out of all the programs I've tried. In addition to it's excellent rendering qualities, it has offered me by far the most useable tools for creativity related to flooring, roofing, wall styles, doors and windows, decks, landscaping, furniture, and the like. I'm able to move walls, split walls, build up, build down, and create any type of roof I so desire. The Esitmator calculates essential lumber and main inserts for the home design, and allows for additional inputs of criteria necessary for actual building and creating floor plans. What I especially enjoy the most is the furniture workshop where I can easily alter or create, design, and decorate my furniture to an exact fit suitable to my own needs.

Learning the program, as with any other, requires patience and persistance and in the end the results are worth waiting for. I would encourage those who have not yet tried it to thoroughly learn of it's capabilities, go to the support websites to learn of enticing and exciting new ideas for creativity and work-arounds, and be patient and persistant before giving up on the Punch Program. No program is without flaws! I plan to continue with Punch and in addition try others for comparison. I have not yet found anything better and more cost effective than Punch!

Worth the money.
I loaded the software in the afternoon. By 2 in the morning, I had a floorplan I was happy with, a 3d rendering, and even was able to render a 'neighborhood' of homes. Many, many years of computer experience behind me. I'm also very good with Visio. But Visio won't render 3D and it doesn't 'know' architecture.

Having said all of that, most of the quirks noted are valid. The 3D movements are hugely frustrating (THAT programmer should be strapped to the helicopter!). It's wall selection, sizing, cutting is cumbersome but ultimately gets you there. And it's object library of 'stuff' inside a house is trivial. And the landscape trees are ugly.

But I knew what I was after and 12 hours later I was pretty happy with the results. My task was a small, single level, duplex. Not a real complex task. Wanted a good blue print for further analysis and a 3D perspective. Got it. I wouldn't want to be a paid professional and give this output to clients, though.

Glanced through the manual during lunch before the marathon. No crashs. HP/AMD 900Mhz, 512Mb, XP/Pro

So, to me, it was worth the money.

Don't believe the hype!
As a mechanical engineer, I've used all kinds of CAD programs as well as other types of software. This has to be one of the worst software packages I've ever used. The interface is maddeningly archaic. It makes one wonder about the caliber of programmer that Broderbund is hiring. It also makes one wonder who's writing these reviews, some hardly seems believable after actually experiencing the software.

PLEASE, do yourself a favor, don't believe the positive reviews, and save your money. Given a technical background, I lulled myself into believing I should be able to handle it in spite of the negative reviews, and came away severely disappointed.

Stick to a general 2D drawing program such as AutoCad, Vellum, or Visio, it'll be much less headache and still fulfill 99% of what most users are looking for.

hard to learn
have had this software for several months now and have not been able to master it. ... Read more

Product Description

IMSI Instant Architect v.14.0 - Complete Product - CAD - 1 User(s) - PCInstant Architect gives you high quality CAD at an amazing low price. You'll be creating incredible drawings in no time even if you've never used a CAD program before. ... Read more

Product Description

Total 3D Home & Landscape Suite provides all the tools and inspiration you need for your next home and garden design project.This suite combines powerful 3D design tools with dynamic imaging, designer showrooms and gardens, brand name products, pre-designed home and garden plans, and digital photo importing - all together in one package!Whether you are remodeling your house, decorating a room, or creating an enchanting water garden, everything is included. ... Read more

Features

• Use the Floor Designer to drag-and-drop over 1,500 floor plans into place -- work with them or simply use them for inspiration
• Over 2,500 designer showrooms to give you ideas for your home
• Millions of possible combinations - colors, textures, appliances, flooring, fixtures and furniture -- all real products from leading manufacturers
• Browse through a Database of over 4,000 plants to pick what will look best in your landscape Import your own photos to add new plants and yard elements
• When your work is done, take 3D walkthrough of your home and garden to see how it looks

Reviews (1)

Pretty good. . .almost
Not a bad product. . .once you figure out that you have to check the arial view after every little change you make to ensure you haven't crashed the system.I got most of a home built, then forgetting my own advice, made several changes without checking.Well, sure enough, now the place looks like an earthquake hit -- all the furniture is floating and out of place and the system has a glitch, so I can't put it back.Not a user friendly program, but if you have computer experience you should be able to figure it out. ... Read more

Features

• Start with 1,000 customizable floor plans from HomeStyles, or create them with Smart RoomBlocks
• Select from 3,000+ resizable objects; add doors, windows, furniture, appliances, and more
• Customize colors, patterns, and textures, and view your results on-screen
• Automatically track costs and stay on budget with SmartEstimator feature
• View realistic 3-D renderings of your home from any angle

Reviews (2)

OK for my purposes
I set out to design a decent floor plan and thats about it. Many people gave this software bad reviews but they failed to mention that this software is NOT a 3d rendering software as you would expect from Lightwave or 3ds max, but instead it is software for designing floor plans.

As far as changing scale ALL home blueprints in the us are typically 1/4 : 1 so it's pointless to want to change it.

With a little preplanning a slight knowledge of drafting, anyone should be able to use this software to design a house.

Hint: If you need to add a component thats not available, print it out and add it yourself with a pencil and a ruler.

Buggy
This looks like a great product, but unfortunately it's not quite there. On the input and display side, it's quick and not too quirky. I was able to input my yuppy home in a couple of hours. The 3D effects are amazing, including Aerial and walk thru modes. Unfortunately, it crashes frequently. I have several different floor plans saved, and they all crash the program (on 2 different PCs) in a matter of seconds, when changing modes. I'm hoping tech support can bail me out - if not I just wasted my weekend. Not recommended - yet .... ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Design a dream home right at your desk, or just work out the details of your new landscaping plans. Either way, Instant Home Design offers to take the guesswork out of a proposed building project.

The concept behind Instant Home Design is a simple one. Users evaluate a planned renovation to a home by scanning in a photograph of the house. Once uploaded, the photo can then be altered and expanded upon. You can change the exterior of a home from wood to brick, add a skylight, or build an additional bathroom. Viewing the altered photograph, you can thenmake informed decisions about whether a contemplated change is worth the expense.

Unfortunately, a host of minor glitches will probably leave eager renovators frustrated with Instant Home Design and still in the dark about the merit of their design scheme. The most fundamental of these problems is the interface, which is non-intuitive to the extreme and makes the process of using the program hard to learn. True, clicking on almost any screen object will trigger a lengthy video, one which purportedly explains how to use the features of the package. However, instructions on the basics--how to draw a house or room from scratch, for example, or how to single out part of the roof for alteration--are all but lost amid cheerful video chatter about more esoteric options.

Instant Home Design is also prone to system crashes, and though it works in partnership with a Web page that allows users to download interior and exterior wall patterns and other home décor elements, the site tends to have errors and it loads very slowly. The program also lacks features that add to the appeal of its competitors. In particular, users cannot get automatic price estimates for their renovations, or move easily from room to room in a simulated 3-D tour. Finally, drawing a new home from scratch with this program is an intensely slow process.

To some extent, Instant Home Design suffers from a flaw common to most current home design software. It is extraordinarily difficult to take a flat picture of a home and then provide information about its three-dimensional features. In this respect, Instant Home Design merely reflects the weakness of similar programs. However, Instant Home Design has been less successful than others in combining the techniques available for merging digital photographs with images of home furnishings and finishes.--Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (13)

ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY WITH THIS PROGRAM!!!!! I cant believe that the manufacturers of this thought it would be something that someone would buy! I wish I had read the reviews before I bought this, but mistake learned, and I will NEVER buy Topics Entertainment CD program AGAIN!!!!!!

DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT
I bought this software (at Best Buy) thinking it was going to have many of the features that it advertised such as "instant" home design. I just wanted to have fun and build my fantasy dream house. Boy, what a lemon product. My computer froze EVERYTIME I tried to embark on a project. None of the disks worked. Directions were confusing. It was such a disappointment. DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT. (Note: Best Buy has the WORST return policy of all. Avoid shopping there. In addition, their credit card department is a sham. Bad customer service.)

** LEMON AUCTION **
I'm putting this piece of garbage up for auction just too see how low of a price i will get for it.

1 cent bid ? it's your's LOL.

Not Instant, Not Home Design, Not Good.
This program just allows you to make Scrapbook type 'paste ups' of photographs.
If you have a scanned or digital photo of your house, room or yard, you can size and paste pictures of furniture, appliances, decoration or garden items etc., over the top, to see what it may look like, but it's not very easy.
The controls are non-intuitive and the 'how to' videos are annoying.
I'm sure there are better products.

Do Not Buy This Product!
This is a piece of junk. Like previous reviewers said, the packaging look impressive and the price is low. But all you are buying are four disk that will ultimately become beverage coasters. I spent money and now I still have to go buy another program! I wish I had read reviews first! ... Read more

Features

• Step-by-step instructions combine with how-to videos for better home improvement
• High-quality graphics and presentations walk you through fixing your roof, putting up a new wall, laying down tile, repairing hardwood floors & more
• Multiple projects you can follow along with at home

Amazon.com Product Description

This package of four cooking titles offers hundreds of recipes and information on fitness and health. Custom Cookbook will automatically create shopping lists from recipes, and lets you easily substitute ingredients to suit special dietary requirements. Gourmet Desserts has over 300 recipes illustrated with color photos, and gives you custom recommendations based on activity, lifestyle, medical history, and eating habits. Diet and Fitness lets you easily plan meals with a recipe book including 350 recipes, and custom recommendations based on your personal information. Labels has a full-featured interface that displays label sizes, the number of labels, xy-coordinates, and more. It also includes a database that lets you easily store and edit information. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Gourmet Cooking Suite
I wish I had seen the previous reviews before I bought this product. If I had I never would have made the purchase. I am using Windows Me and can access the cookbook section of the program but the diet and fitness CD does not install properly.
I have not tried the labels CD since I have other software that can create labels if I need them. I DO NOT recommend this software.

Gourmet Cooking Suite
I was thinging of buying this software until I read these reviews. Don't think I will.

Gourmet Cooking Suite
This program sounds very good on the cover. When you open it, there are several programs, which make you feel as if you get alot for your money. However, there are serious flaws in the exercise/diet program. There is difficulty saving material. It often will shut down just as you are planning your menus. It may be a deal at 10 dollars, but not the 20 dollars originally asked.

Software Looks Old
I recently purcahsed this item and it is [not worth much]. It looks old, like the windows programs of the early 90's. It has a limited amount of recipes and the overall use of its other futures are very basic. Try one of the other recipe software items. It has got to be better than this.

If only the program was as good as the box it came in.
The software is not up to par with many other computer based cook books, lacking both content and usefullness. The fitness portion of the program is about as usefull as a small pamphlet on health, but not as easy to use. To sum up this part of the software "before you do anything check with your doctor" (and while you're there pick up a health and fitness pamphlet, you will not need to buy the software then). The lable maker portion works, and one may find a use for this, but again for what you pay for the software you could buy a lot of stickers at the dime store. To put it in a nutshell, walking is good for your health, and you should keep walking when you see this program (at least pick up your pace while passing it on the shelf). ... Read more

Product Description

Atari (24800) Punch Super Home Suite MB ... Read more

Features

• Use with any printer-compatible stationery, including folded cards, envelopes and place cards.
• Easily layout your stationery, add graphics, borders, photos and text, includes 13 original fonts.
• Keep track of RSVP count, guest list, gifts, even thank-you notes.
• Store all your contact names and addresses in the built-in address book.
• Advanced features include spell check, one-pass envelope printing, floating images, text boxes with full justification and more.

Amazon.com Review

Balance the yin and yang in your home, arrange your furniture tomaximize comfort and harmony within your surroundings, and organize your officeto bring wealth and opportunity to your door. These are topics covered by FengShui, an informational CD-ROM intended to help users design their homes with theflow of positive energy in mind.

Feng Shui is essentially an interactive textbook, explaining the basic conceptsunderlying the age-old Chinese art of managing the movement of chi--the lifeforce--within the home. It is a do-it-yourself manual for anyone interested inFeng Shui. Offering tips as involved as repainting your rooms in positivecolors, or as simple as putting a plant in a corner that will otherwise disruptchi's movement, Feng Shui gives a good general overview of its topic. It alsoanswers frequently asked questions, including how to choose a Feng Shuiconsultant.

The information in this CD-ROM is intriguing and well presented, withphotographs, illustrations, and live readings of all the textual passages.However, Feng Shui never moves beyond the level of simple data delivery. Thereare no interactive exercises, and no means for creating energy-savvy floor plansof your home. Users hoping to evaluate the flow of chi through their houses willhave to do this manually, using the data provided. There is no way in thispackage to use the computer to shortcut the process--it might as well be abook.

Even if its bells and whistles are rudimentary, though, the core content of FengShui offers significant interest to anyone looking to create appealing andcomfortable environments for their family. It also raises issues often ignoredby Western decorators, by bringing the whole environment to a user's attention.As long as your high-tech expectations aren't engaged, these features will makeexploring Feng Shui a thought-provoking and thoroughly worthwhile experience.--Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Feng Shui
This CD Rom covers a wide range of topics, yet is easy to navigate and understand. This CD Rom will be useful in the work place and at home. I wish I had had this years ago. There are many projects I've undertaken that I would have done differently with the sound advise from "Feng Shui".

Excellent!
I purchased this for my girlfriend, Beth, who has been really into decorating and interior design. Before I knew it, she'd gone nuts with the idea and re-organized and re-decorated the whole house -- with the exception of my office. She told me I'd be sorry for not letting her in there to make sure the Chi was moving properly. Truth be told, she was right. I'm going to let her work on my office since all of a sudden I find myself feeling very energized when in the rest of the house and very melancholy when in my office.
This piece of software has changed our lives. Chi moves freely throughout the house -- and our lives.

extremely disappointing cd
I had been doing some basic study of feng shui and found this CD. Much to my disappointment, it did not provide any interactive sections. All the cd provides is a person reading to you the wording that is displayed on your computer. It only tells very basic information (word for word) that can be found on the website that the cd refers to. I considered the purchase a complete waste of money.

This software is compelling and easy-to-use
Whether you have practiced Feng Shui or not, this software offers a wealth of knowlegde designed to help you understand it's function in daily life.

Each section is narrated to help you better learn the important factors in maintaining good Feng Shui throughout your home and office.

An example of what I've learned is that in order for the proper flow of Chi, water shouldn't be near fire. Translated this means that having your stove right next to your refrigerator is bad Feng Shui. Interesting stuff, huh?

Feng Shui is handy for those who are thinking about remodeling their home because of the helpful layout hints and do's and don'ts of arranging furniture.

This software is a great way to begin your Feng Shui practice, or simply polish up on the knowledge you already have. You will find the content satisfying and intriguing.

Great product!
It's fun and easy to use. Packed with good ideas and useful concepts. A friend who's used this gave it to me as a gift and I'm delighted with it. Neat idea for the upcoming holidays. ... Read more

Features

• Simply drag and drop to create complete floor plans; 1000+ ready-to-build home plans
• 2500+ designer showrooms to give you ideas and inspiration for your home
• 5 million+ combinations of colors, textures, appliances, flooring, fixtures, and furniture
• 20,000+ real products from leading manufacturers
• Real-photo dynamic imaging for superior realism; import digital photos

Reviews (6)

An OK program, depending on what you need it for
Unlike many of the other reviewers, I am having no problems using this product. No crashes (running WinXP Pro on a 300 MHz Celeron from 1999). This may be because I am only using it to model a 1000 sq. ft. condo.

This program is a fine one for testing interior design ideas. I'll be ther first to tell you that the tutorials, help, and manual are horrible. It took me 2 days to figure out the main power of the program (which isn't really mentioned in the manual). This program is great if you have objects or textures that you want to import and apply to walls, floors, or the generic furniture in the program. It also has a lot of power when you start browsing the product catalog (note: Items in the catalog are separate from items in the program, but can be imported and look ok when they are.). When using the program, learn to use the product catalog, import features, and design center early. It's confusing, but it will be worth it. I am still confused by this process (along with many others).
This program is very counter-intuitive, but there are ways to figure stuff out. Expect to get part done with a project and then realize that you have to start over. YOU CAN GET GOOD INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS AND RESULTS FROM THIS PRODUCT BUT NOT MUCH MORE. It is not 'Home Designer' software. Don't expect to design a house and give the plans to your builder.
I only paid $25 for this program and am glad I didn't pay the MSRP of $40. It's worth the money I paid for it. If I wanted something better I would have gone with BHG's Home Designer Suite 6. You can download a demo at Chief Architects website. It's a better program, but costs 3-4 times as much.
You can decide for yourself. If you're actually building something (addition, whole house, etc.) don't go with this program, it won't help you at all. If you just want to see what your living room will look like with a different color paint, floor, or furniture then it's worth a shot.

THIS IS WORTHLESS
This program was only good for making a color board. It also takes up a lot of memory/space on the computer, and manuevering the camera in the walkthrough is a nightmare!!! For an easier program where you can download a sofa, end table, etc, you see on the internet, and rendering very photo realistic pictures, I suggest trying two products for home design: Custom Home 3D Design and 3D Home Architect Professional 5.

Totally Atrocious
I whole-heartedly agree with all the reviewers who have given it a 1 star.

One of the Most Un-Intuitive software ever built. UI sucks. Help sucks. For example, there are a bunch of buttons / labels that have no mention in the help. TYpe the exact same thing that a label is saying, and you find nothing.

These folks have just thrown in a bunch of "features" to hype up this nonsense of a product. You can't even change the units of measurement, can you beat that ?

Let me quote just Some of the many many outrageous things :

1. No way you can change the units of measurement, no way to specify your "scale". This is so basic for any charting tool.

2. The manual forbids you from building plans using just walls, you "have" to use "rooms". And once you do, you cannot delete the walls of your rooms. You can only make them "invisible" but they keep coming in your way whenever you try to fix a door or a window etc.

3. Create an elevation for one of your rooms and then switch to aerial view, "gaping empty gaps" show up on your walls now.... yeeeks.

4. You cannot resize your roofs or customise their angle of elevation in different places.

5. They dont even support spiral staircases...

Well, I have been struggling for a few days trying to make some sense out of this product and produce an useful diagram with no luck, even though I am an experienced developer myself :-(

the list goes on.... These guys must be put in jail for wrapping up this total piece of trash in this beautiful box with wonderful claims...

Total Garbage
My computer crashed multiple times. Frustrated I looked for online reviews to see if it was my computer or the software. Well..it is the program...this is a joke. Don't even bother.

Fraud
There is a limit of how bad software can be and still deserve the proud name of a Lemon, not plain ugly fraud. Total 3D Home Deluxe 6.0 is beyond this limit. This company (Individual Software) is taking advantage of the store policies that do not allow return of opened software to make money on casual one-time buyers attracted to the box. I can't imagine anybody who bought this software and wouldn't want their money back.

This product is a fraud. The box could just as well be empty. (This would have saved me some time). I have never in my life paid money for anything close to this. In fact, any decent human being would be ashamed to give this away for free.

It works exactly as described in the above review. It quits all the time silently to the operating system without warning. Just adding a shower anywhere causes such a crash. Opening a saved plan may be impossible and cause a total loss of everything.

Describing all the many bugs is pointless, since this is entirely unusable "work in progress(?)" far from beta level.

I consider myself an old hack quite experienced in avoiding bugs, using work-arounds, and finding ways to do poorly documented things etc. in all kinds of software. I am NOT just an innocent guy who wants to build a home addition and has no time to tinker with software. Everybody else's Windows systems may crash ten times a day - not mine. (now using XP Pro, but also true for previous versions). I have never seen software without bugs.

I don't expect to get great software for the price of a dinner for two at a cheap restaurant (with beer for one). However, Total 3D Home Deluxe 6.0 leaves me speechless.

Bottom line: junk. ... Read more

Features

• Import a photo of your house and add structures and accents to your home
• Adjust dimensions, alter colors & materials -- then print out complete blueprints in no time
• Produce accurate, precise 2D drawings with DeltaCad -- draft plans and blueprints with absolute precision, in both Metric and English units
• Zoom in & out of drawings, change scale and color, rotate, copy and mirror objects

Product Description

Get the expert advice you need to remodel, build a new home or get ideas on how to bring a fresh look to tired decor! Includes 10 complete products to design and decorate your home with ease! Includes: Sierra Home Architect, Photo Home Interiors, Designer Rooms Library, 3D Deck, Home Design Guide, Home Improvement Encyclopedia, Electrical Wiring, Cost Estimator, 3D Design Shop, and Design Trace & Import. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!!!!!
THE BOX LOOKS PRETTY LIKE MOST OTHER HOME DESIGN PROGRAMS BUT THIS SOFTWARE IS GARBAGE. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. I SUGGEST BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS HOME DESIGNER AND HOME DESIGNER 6.0 THEY ARE EXCELLENT PROGRAMS WITH AN EASY LEARNING CURVE. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Complete Home 3D Design 5.0 is a tool for do-it-yourselfers, first-time designers, and home enthusiasts looking for easily accessible, accurate, and expert solutions for home design and home improvement projects. This program lets you design your home inside and out in photo-realistic 3-D.

Create your design from more than two million combinations of furnishings, appliances, colors, materials, and styles. Complete Home includes step-by-step tutorials, instant help guides, instructional videos, how-to guides, and home improvement tips. Plus, Complete Home is the only home design program that lets you import actual photos of your home's interior, then experiment and decorate with more than one thousand paint, wood, wallpaper, and stone textures. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

xp=ng
I tried to load it on a new updated pc and could not get it to launch. It claims it is xp compatible but I would not use this product if you have xp.

constantly crashes on windows XP
Like another reviewer, I also liked this product, especially its ease of use, and the speed with which you could change your floorplan. But when I got an XP it crashed all the time. To add to the frustration, there is no support from their website for this product. I couldn't even find the product on the site. So I can only recommend it if you have an, apparently older computer. It worked fine using windows 98, but got slower and slower as my plans got more complicated. When I went to windows XP which I though would help, it became useless.

Good luck with Support!!!
I used to think this software was great...then I updated my OS to Windows XP, and now it crashes constantly. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected. But what I didn't expect was the complete lack of support. Sierra's site doesn't have any mention of Complete Home, or of Home Architect Version 3 or higher. It looks like they abandoned their site five years ago. There are still support files that talk about Windows 3.1, and no mention of W95, W98, NT, ME or XP. So, I can't recommend this product at all. As far as I'm concerned they abandoned me and I'll have to buy another product from a different company... a company that is not named Sierra.

The best of home architect programs!
Be patient starting out & get your measurements correct. Take your time learning the basics but once you do, it's lots of fun! You can walk thru to see how your new room would feel & if you don't like it, flip things around with a few mouse clicks. Change your wall colors, floor tiles, fabrics, re-size & re-upholster furniture.I used an older one to design our bed & beth addition but lost my cd & tried other programs but was very disappointed. Once you have your basic plan done (be sure & save a copy of it), it's always there for re-decorating or re-modeling! Women may like this better than men, although I think people would expect men to like it better.

Tons of great features, but designing is a little tough
As a user that is well versed in AutoCAD and an older home design program, I thought that this was a little trickier to draw floorplans. The zoomign and screen size isn't what I hoped. Still to it's credit, it does have a ton of color, texture and material options when you start to decorate. ... Read more