Home Designer Suite

It is a good program but takes time to learn.

At first you might think the program is low budget but its not. It takes some time to get used to and figure out all the tools. Its took us about two months to figure it all out but once your passed that stage its a great program. Lots of fun building your home or even a small project. Use the online tutorial and take your time,dont rush, do a little each day and you will figure it out sooner than you think.

I have been looking around for months for a decent program for design work for a home remodel. This program does a fairly decent job of that with some small exceptions. One thing some of the other programs I have tried out allow for locking of dimensions so you can set the length of a wall and have it keep that length when you add in other sections to build out a room. This one I have been unable to find any such feature so each time you add in something it would keep altering all the other dimensions around it to different sizes. While I can see it as a good thing to auto adjust for sizes, sometime you want a length to remain the size you set it at while you are still adding in additions. The biggest issue I have found was with the library, there are so very few options in there it makes it almost not worth it. Using the browse feature to find new libraries is super cumbersome, they are all broken out into different packages some free but most have a fee which ranges from low to high. Within those extra libraries though, you only get 5-8 objects where 1 is good and all the rest are just trash objects. These really should be modified to just get all of them for X price, or categories where you get everything for X price instead of Bathroom 1, bathroom 2, bathroom fixtures... etc. Trying to find a particular item in the catalogs is next to impossible and is either not available or buried inside something else. Then when you find the one you need, every time it is only available in the more costly version and not available in this version. Kind of poor setup for consumers since most people dont need the bells and whistles the more costly ones have because we arent architects, and if you get the cheaper version you cannot even buy the additional catalogs.

Great software. I used this program to remodel a family room. Im no engineer but I was able to layout an entire room and navigate through a 3D rendering in just a few hours. The program is relatively straight forward. By referring to the on-line tutorials I was able to add more specific features and personal details that brought the renderings to life. For the money, this psoftware includes a lot of powerful features. But if youre designing the transportation hub for a major city, this is not the program for you.

Bought this software because it is on Amazon, My goto location to buy everything. I have used cad programs in the past and always manage to fumble my way through to what I need. But this program was extremely annoying after hours of working I had only created 10 posts to hold my roof up! and no roof! So i went to punch software and bought home design 21. After about 8 hours on the punch program i already had the whole house laid out and a lot of windows in. No return policy means I just got screwed out of $107.79. My advice, if you are not familiar with Chief architect, then get Punch home design

Not as user friendly as an older model that I used.

A lot of reviewers had or have concerns about the steep learning curve of Home Designer software. I didnt. Yes I would have liked to see a more basic training video as the current one starts off fast. However, like all programs of this type you have to work with the various icons to see how they work. Within a couple of hours I had completed the layout of a new addition that I am considering. Was able to work with dimensions, moving walls, labeling, put on various door styles and everything that I needed. The information you need is somewhere and usually easy to understand.

If you dont want JUST THE BASICS, dont buy it. Everything you want to do will cost you extra.

I purchased the program but did not get around to activating it until after the 30 day return window closed. Trying to get in now is impossible. The company says the problem is with Amazon. I cant seem to figure out how to access Amazon past the 30 days.

Awesome ! I bought as I read it was addictive so I figured if it was addictive is was really good. I love this thing! It takes time to get used to how to use the tools and later floors with the correct dimension info. I learned a lot of basic construction just by playing with this software. I had an issue with the 3D functions and after a few chats with the tech support I learned my computers video card needed to be upgraded. The tech sent me a link to get the right upgrade for my computer - he went above and beyond software support and it works without any flaws now. Amazed by this software. Take the time to watch the tutorial videos on line and save often as you experiment with the tools.