Wish it could do a little more
Written: Jan 21 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy to learn and flexible
Cons: lacks several of "today's" home design features
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| hangdamoon's Full Review: Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 |
Good middle of the road application. Pretty fast and easy to learn. It is so easy to learn its easy to outgrow very fast. I designed a 4100 sq ft house on this and wanted to do more things like tray ceilings, dormers etc and you had to "trick" the program or give up. I also used it for 2 remodels. Nice features are: quick look at room dimensions and square footage overall and by room, ability to change room names, add text comments, change plan colors, turning on and off items for faster viewing. Plan check is nice to remind you of overall mistakes. It was nice to be able to record a walkthrough but they are HUGE memory hogs and kind of jerky. The roof draws a nice fast hip roof if that's what you want. Drawing to scale is a nice feature. The furniture and such is pretty dated but you can use it to get a good sense for traffic flow. Just change the dimensions to your own furniture and use generic icons. Cabinets are nice but they need more variety for today's kitchens.
Bad stuff: 3d textures are pretty poor, don't bother. And if you do bother, forget trying to mix stone and stucco or brick and siding. Stair options are limited especially if you want to try curved stairs, bullnose treads etc. Certain appliances like microwaves should be treated as accessories that you could put anywhere. The help online is gone and the help that comes with it is ok for basics but no good for anything advanced or troubleshooting. Roof alterations are very tough. Since this is aimed at amateurs, explaining certain terminology would be great. I still haven't been able to determine why it draws attic walls when I don't want them, some quirk of the program or a trouble shooting item not discussed. It happens when you try to get creative with a roof.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hangdamoon
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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