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    Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 [OLD VERSION]

    Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 [OLD VERSION]

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    From: Chief Architect
    Category: Software

    List Price: $99.99
    Buy New: $59.55
    You Save: $40.44 (40%)



    New (5) Used (2) from $41.52

    Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 46 reviews
    Sales Rank: 1402

    Format: Cd-rom
    Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows Xp, Windows Vista
    Media: CD-ROM
    Operating System: Windows XP
    Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
    Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 9.5 x 3
    Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.

    MPN: 045-501-7-m
    Model: 045-501-7-M
    UPC: 750839011325
    EAN: 0750839011417
    ASIN: B000HGFALG

    Release Date: September 1, 2006
    Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
    Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

    Features:
      • Expert design tips from the editors of Better Homes and Gardens magazines
      • Create a virtual look and feel of the design with actual colors, wallpaper, flooring, furniture, windows and window treatments
      • Easily design kitchens and baths with plans and 3D layouts
      • Choose from a library of over 6,000 items for your designs
      • Automatically validates the design against standard building principles

    Accessories:

      • Micro-Gold Flower Fantasy Deluxe

    Similar Items:

      • Better Homes and Gardens Picture Painter [Old Version]
      • Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
      • Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer [OLD VERSION]
      • Tips & Traps When Building Your Home
      • Remodeling a Basement (Build Like A Pro)

    Editorial Reviews:

    Amazon.com
    Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 is software developed by Chief Architect for home enthusiast remodeling and home design projects. This software helps you design the home of your dreams with 3D models, virtual tours, even more library items, easy to use building templates, a new Plant Encyclopedia and landscaping features with over 1,000 plant terrain and outdoor items. Combining the leading-edge home design software with the consumer design editorial expertise of Better Homes and Gardens, Home Designer Suite 7.0 is the best software tool you will find anywhere for home and remodeling design.

    No matter your level of design expertise, Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 will get you moving toward a stunning visualized design of your dream home. The Getting Started Tutorial will guide you through basic design projects. Watch more than 30 videos for step-by-step instructions. Select from over 1,500 sample home plans or use the House Wizard to design your house. You can create your dream home today with the look and feel before it is built with styles, colors, wallpaper, flooring, and materials. Plus, you can quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, cabinets, and architectural objects from a library of over 4,300 items to create a 3D Model in minutes. Use the Library content to size your rooms, evaluate traffic flow, and create a visual model of your design.

    Create your Dream Home
    Design your dream home today with Home Designer. Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, cabinets, choose colors, place furniture, create decks and landscaping. Design and visualize your home with 3D Models and Virtual Tours.
    Choose from Design Templates
    With Home Designer, you can quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, cabinets, choose colors, place furniture, create decks and landscaping.
    Powerful Home Design Software
    Enjoy the same building and design tools the professionals use--Home Designer is made for the home enthusiasts. Powerful building tools like automatic roof generation, stairs, decks, framing, CAD, dimensioning, realistic 3D models, and Plan Check makes it easy for anyone to use.
    Create Floor Plans
    Select from over 1,500 sample home plans or use the House Wizard to design your house.
    Design Tools
    With the program's Planning Center, you can use Material Painter to create a virtual look and feel of the design before it is built. You can test your design with actual colors, wallpaper, flooring, furniture, windows, and even window treatments.
    Building Tools
    You'll have complete automatic building tools for roof generation, framing, dimensioning, foundations, and more at your fingertips. You can even automatically generate a materials list for project cost estimating. The software includes a complete set of CAD (Computer Aided Design) tools to detail designs and Plan Check, which automatically validates the design against the most current building standards.


    Product Description
    With Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 7 is the all-in-one home design solution! It's the right tool for home enthusiasts using their remodeling and home design projects. This powerful software combines leading-edge technology with creaive home design expertise, courtesy of the Better Homes & Gardens magazine editors. It's got all you need for home design, remodeling, interior design, decks, landscaping, cost estimating and more. Inspire your designs with the Design Planning Center; create a virtual walk-through of your house; or design and visualize in 3D. Choose from a library of more than 4,300 items for your designs -- and generate automatic material lists for project cost estimating. Create the inspired designs you need for a true dream home! Create complete customized cabinets with drag-and-drop Detail cabinets with wood type, countertop material, door/drawer styles and more Create Plot and Perimeter Plans on flat or hillside lots and generate a 3D model Deck tools; post-and-beam foundation are automatically generated to match your lot Select from over 1,000 plants, terrain and outdoor items from the landscaping Library


    Customer Reviews:   Read 41 more reviews...

    2 out of 5 stars Poor software - buggy, crashes often   April 12, 2008
    D. Young
    1 out of 2 found this review helpful

    They list this software as Vista compatible. Their vision of compatible is the software runs 10 minutes then crashes - if you can finish all your work in 10 minutes, you'll be fine.

    The drawing tools are weak, doing a simple 45 degree bend in a kitchen island is impossible. Doing something simple like putting a sink where you want it on a countertop is impossible - it always centers the sink in the space provided. If you're used to even the drawing tools in MS Powerpoint, this will be a big disappointment.



    4 out of 5 stars Good buy!   April 2, 2008
    Jennifer Hansen (South Jordan, Utah)
    1 out of 1 found this review helpful

    We bought this product because we have a small basement and needed to figure out the best way to finish it for maximum space. My husband and I are both very happy with it, architecturally (placement of walls, space, cabinets, etc.) It is very easy to use and has done everything we have needed it to do. Whenever we've had questions we've called customer support and they have been extremely helpful. We have not used it for landscape yet, so I'm not sure how it is for that. As far as design goes (sofa fabric, wood color, etc.), it is adequate. It has a lot of options, it's just not very life-like(like a real picture). But it has been good enough for us to get a great idea of what it will look like. I would definitely recommend this product.


    3 out of 5 stars Useful, But Difficult to Decipher the Best Options   March 23, 2008
    CastAway (NC)
    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

    This is a very complicated software package with so many options it can be intimidating due to the lack of intuitive function for each of the options you can select. Maybe if you're into the construction business you will understand some of the terms used, but I don't get many of them. A comprehensive glossary would be helpful to show what each of the design options means. But given this is an attempt to put home design within reach of the masses, perhaps it's the price we have to pay. Prepare for a steep learning curve!

    I have struggled with the elevation settings ever since I got the package installed. Trying to put the house footprint onto the site plan has been difficult; at times, the software puts the structure underneath the terrain and I can't figure out why. I have a narrow sloped lot and getting the house to fit with a daylight basement was the goal of getting this software. I'm still trying to identify the key variables after several weeks.

    The wall textures seem to be reversed each time I have created a floorplan. The result is the exterior of the structure has the texture of inside walls showing and vice versa. I've had to manually fix each wall after building a plan.

    The wall cutting tool is hard to use. It doesn't clearly show exactly where the cut is being made. Only after you select the cut-out section do you see what part of a wall is actually being removed.

    Many of the roofing options are very hard to decipher. Putting a roof over a bay window has proven to be a real chore with trial and error being the only way to figure out what the end result is going to look like. Lots of wasted time.

    Building a porch have proven hard when trying to specify if the porch is over the foundation or an extension from the foundation. I'm still not sure I have it figured out.

    The room build wizard is the best way to start out to get a basic floorplan generated. Building a wall at a time is painfully slow. And the instructions state you must build walls in a clockwise pattern or they won't all connect up properly.

    Having the ability to place furniture in rooms gives you a better sense of how practical your design really is.

    The framing view is so small it is impossible to see any detail of the lumber. I have yet to figure out how to zoom in.






    1 out of 5 stars Waste of money....   March 14, 2008
    Michael A. Swanner (New Orleans, LA)
    4 out of 7 found this review helpful

    You think if the software could do all the great things it says so easily, then a garage shouldn't be so hard, right? The simplest things like getting it to print right, laying out joist, wall height...pain in the... If you have never touched a tape measure or hammer and want to play pretend architect you might have found what you need. I recommend anyone with knowledge of construction, CAD, or decent software steer clear - it will only confuse and frustrate you - I though since it was created by Chief Architect it would have been worth a ****.


    3 out of 5 stars It was OK   March 10, 2008
    Veronica Sanchez Garcia (Pomona, CA)
    3 out of 5 found this review helpful

    We were excited to play with this program because we are designing our new home next year. We found it tough to use and not very user friendly. The house we designed with it had holes in the roof, missing cabinets and crazy pitches in the roof. We did not have the patience to learn it, decided instead to use pencil & paper.

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