3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite Reviewer's Comments
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Our number 2 ranked home design software and "TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award" winner is 3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 by Encore. It's an inexpensive, no-frills home design software product that's easy to learn, offers a strong set of home design features and has excellent help support.
Fewer features and a few control issues were the main reasons 3D Architect Design Suite Deluxe didn't receive a higher ranking.
3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite Screenshots. Click to Enlarge
Feature Set:
3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 comes with a healthy set of features and a bonus CD with 1,500 separate home plans. The program also boasts some handy tools, like the Automatic Roof Creation Tool; once you have your walls in place, this instantly places a roof on your house with a click of a button. The program offers four default roof choices, including: hip, mansard, curved or double slope—most of which you can further customize.
Other features unique to 3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 include a House Builder Wizard, which is designed to help home design beginners get going, and a Photo Board Wizard, which allows you to import objects created from digital. There are also plentiful Furniture Objects you can place throughout your design.
3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0's 3-D feature allows you to walk through or fly around your home design, allowing you to view the inside and outside of your design from any angle. While in 3-D mode, you can change wall textures and colors easily with a click of your mouse.
The only landscaping tools offered are basic topography features you can use to define your lot.
Ease of Use:
We found 3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 well-designed and easy-to-navigate. For example, when you click a tool icon, the choices relating to that tool are displayed down the right-hand side of your screen. You can also change toolbar settings easily for better customization.
However, we found scaling frustrating—the smallest scale you can set your design at is �"=1', and you can't scroll your work area up and down or side to side. This makes it difficult to navigate when designing larger, custom houses as you can run out of space easily.
Ease of Installation:
3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 was easy to install.
Help/Documentation:
Broderbund provides support for 3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 with video tutorials and a built-in help section that is well-written and informative.
Summary:
With 3D Home Architect Home & Landscape Design Suite 9.0 you receive a lot of features for a small price tag, but you also get limitations. With a few alterations and more features, Broderbund would have a first-rate home design product.
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