Product Description

Are you longing for a bigger, better, or brand-new home? Stop dreaming and start designing! Featuring professional grade drafting tools in an easy, intuitive interface, 3D Home Architect Home Designer 9 is the jump-start you've been looking for. Convenient wizards help you create basic plans fast, while 3D walk through tours guarantee a flawless finished project. It's easier to get started, easier to access and use your tools and easier than ever to design the home of your dreams -- down to the very last detail. This DVD based design solution is Powered by Punch! Software – the leader in high-end home design software. Home Designer v.9 is Windows/Mac compatible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #934 in Software
• Brand: Encore
• Model: 13920
• Released on: 2007-05-15
• Platforms: Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Features

• Intuitive interface provides you with tools to plan, visualize and execute your home design ideas
• Choose from thousands of furnishings, textures, and color combinations
• When your home design is complete, take a 3D walk-through tour
• View various remodeling options using the wide variety of material templates
• Includes ready-made home plans and rooms and a large library of appliances, furnishings, and more

Amazon.com
3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe Version 9 is the ultimate, high quality home design tool that will assist you transforming the idea of your dream home in a reality--all at a value price. Taking home design to the next level, Home Design Deluxe offers a wide variety of features that utilize the latest design techniques and technologies.

Take a 3D walk-through of your design

Design any room to your specifications

Drag-and-drop textures, colors, and objects into any room

Design Your Dream Home With Ease & Accuracy
Whether you're designing the home of your dreams, decorating a bathroom or just updating your kitchen, the new intuitive interface provides you with tools to plan, visualize and execute your design ideas. You also have the option of looking through ready-made home plans and rooms.

Product Features

• Create a structural frame for your home use the Framing Tool.
• Use the Roofing Tool to decide on roofing styles and materials.
• View various remodeling options using the wide variety of material templates.
• Browse through the large library of appliances and choose the one that's right for you.

Additional Helpful Capabilities

• Choose from a wide variety of viewing options as you design your home.

This DVD based design solution is Powered by Punch! Software--the leader in high-end home design software. Home Designer v.9 is Windows/Mac compatible. The possibilities are endless with this all-in-one home design solution.

Interior Design & Decor
Design any room in your home to your exact specifications. Choose from thousands of furnishings, textures, and color combinations. Your design options are endless!

3D Home Tour
When your home design is complete, take a 3D walk-through tour of the inside or a 3D fly-around tour of the outside.

Doors & Windows
Customize the size of each window and door using the design tools.

Customer Reviews

Low value product
Over the last several years I have used 3D Home Architect to design offices and homes. The version being reviewed has deteriorated significantly from prior versions in functionality and features. It seems the company buys a new version of the software from 3rd parties and calls it "3D Home Architect" resulting in absolutely no file compatibility with prior versions. I'm pretty disappointed with the current version and would not have purchased it if I had known how bad the product is. Don't waste your money!

Unusable!
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, my disc was not blank (I didn't read the reviews first), but it didn't help much because the first step before you can use the product is to register it, using the license code.

Unfortunately, there is no license code anywhere to be found. Not on the box, not on the disc, nor on the website.

There is no customer support to ask.

Hence, the product is totally unusable. Thirty bucks down the toilet.


[Edit February 10th]: Okay, in all fairness I did manage to get the program to load and run today. Let me explain how, in case anybody else comes up against this. The fine print in the installation instructions indicates that you have to provide an "organization" name, even if you're just a private individual. If you fail to do so, your registration will fail at the very end, without any explanation as to why. The only opportunity you get to enter an organization comes at the very beginning of the registration process, and it is not marked as mandatory at that point -- but it is.

Once I entered a fictitious organization, and typed in the 9-character code on the box (which is not labeled as a "license code" and hadn't worked before so I assumed it wasn't), my registration finally went through. Geez, would it have killed them to make this the least bit obvious?!?

After all that, I've been playing with the program and have managed to make it work, after a fashion. It took me a couple hours to find the "objects" (furniture, fixtures and appliances shown on the box), but they ARE in fact included (hidden under the "library" option). The software is pretty basic and it's buggy and it renders kind of slow, but I guess I have to retract my earlier statement that it's "totally unusable." It has some very odd limitations -- you can create gables on your roof but you can't cut out the roof beneath them or add sides, ceilings are merely the underside of your roof, table lamps by default are added at floor level, there's only one style of door and window, and so forth -- but I've had the same exact complaints with Punch software for 10 years. They're not going to fix anything.

Would I buy it again? Probably not. The product could be completely transformed with 5 minutes of better instructions, but it's still a dog in pajamas.

I should have researched more!
I too am among the many (sadly) who purchased the program. I agree with all the previous comments about shortfalls. I too had a problem with registration, but you would think adding a short note explaining the registration procedure with my order confirmation would save time and frustration. I have used several superior PC based architect programs and know quite a lot about design. This program is primitive, unintuitive and slow. The roof defaults to a set height, not connecting to walls. Adjustments to height had to be made with all objects. The "object" library is limited and until you experiment several hours; hard to use. Rotating object is difficult and inside details are lacking. Selecting or changing material coverings/looks is challenging. The manual is of minimal help as well. $30 isn't a lot to spend, but it is a good deal to waste. If you own an Macintosh, consider using a PC based program first. Sorry, but since they aren't any I can find, Mac users are left out in the cold.