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

Customer Reviews

Pretty Good Product For The Money

2008-02-28
This software is fairly easy to use. Building the roof can be challenging at times if you want anything out of the ordinary. I suppose I could call support and they could probably walk me through it but I just haven't had the time. The furniture, appliance and other selections are a bit limited also. All in all it is a good product for the money.

CADD Software

2008-02-28
Before placing my order for the Better Homes & Gardens Home Designer Suite 7.0 for $80.00, I called Chief Architech, the maker of the software, & asked if version 7.0 was the lastest version and if there was going to be a newer version coming out withing the next 12 months, I was told version 7.0 was the lastest version & there was no talk about a newer version coming out any time soon.
After receiving the software, there was a stricker on the box stating version 7.0 was the lastest version.
Then a few weeks later I find out version 8.0 was now out for $99.99 and version 7.0 was dropped to $59.99.
I feel Chief Architect had lied to me just to sell out version 7.0 to make room for version 8.0.
After calling Chief Architech and complaining, version 8.0 was offered to me for the reduced price of 59.99 plus $10.00 shipping.
I had stated that I still did not care that I was lied to and was informed they were sorry I was a unhappy customer, but there was nothing more that could be done.
I feel Amazon should be taking action against sellers that misleader consumers just to sell a product on the Amazon site.

Extremely useful product

2008-02-26
This was an extremely useful program. We are putting on an addition to our house and we we able to look at many alternatives using this software. We could not have done it just with pencil and paper. We have an exposed basement and the sloped lot can easily be landscaped with the program. The overall 3D views are very helpful. Well worth the price. Dealing with roofs is the only drawback we encountered. It would be nice to have more flexibility with roofs.

Broken

2008-02-25
The item arrived already open, both the box and the discs. I've tried repeatedly to install them and they are not working. I've contacted customer service over the phone and email and have had no response to sending them back.

Better Homes and Gardens Designer Suite 7.0

2008-02-22
Great product!!! Was a little worried about the learning curve but found it real easy to learn. Already designed a complete basement. Customer thrilled with design. This is the one to buy.

Poor software - buggy, crashes often

2008-04-12
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.

Good buy!

2008-04-02
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.

Useful, But Difficult to Decipher the Best Options

2008-03-23
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.

Waste of money....

2008-03-14
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 ****.

It was OK

2008-03-10
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.