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3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe Version 9

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3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe Version 9

(8 customer reviews)

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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.

List Price:	$29.99
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Product Details

Product Length:	7.63 inches
Product Width:	1.5 inches
Product Height:	5.38 inches
Product Weight:	0.25 pounds
Package Length:	7.5 inches
Package Width:	5.3 inches
Package Height:	2.4 inches
Package Weight:	0.15 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 8 reviews

System Requirements

Platform:	Windows XP / Mac OS X / Windows XP Professional / Windows XP Home Edition
Media:	CD-ROM
Item Quantity:	1

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

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 1.5

Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

How do I rate this MINUS 5? Mar 04, 2010
I've used an older version of this software for years designing kitchens and bathrooms for my customers. New version will not open old files and this is NO improvement over version 1 through 8. All the good old features that were easy to use are gone. I understand Encore might be owned by Microsoft, so you may need to take classes to learn to use the features; no more using intuition to use the software. I downloaded the software for $39.00 from their website, then demanded and got my money back. Bought it from Amazon, wishing it would work better...What a dreamer ;-( Don't buy it at any price. I may try to buy the old software so I can open my saved files.

1 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Home Architect Dec 05, 2009
This is a great program and easy to use, the end product was good enough to submit to my contractors for bidding on my new house.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Too bad 2 Rate. Jul 04, 2009
It's too bad you don't have a minus scale to rate this product. Punch is the worst fraud in the pack. It is amazing that they are still allowed to sell this useless program. It is cartoonish and a waste of time and money. Broaderbund should be very careful about allowing other companies to use their name on these sorry programs. As a 10 year user of the 3DHA 4 program it is sad to see the name misrepresented.

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

I should have researched more! Dec 23, 2008
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.

20 of 20 found the following review helpful:

Unusable! Feb 10, 2008
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.