Chief Architect Architectural Home Designer provides an advanced yet easy to use set of tools for Home Design, Remodeling, Interior Design, Kitchens, Baths, Decks, Landscaping, Site Planning and Cost Estimation
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Artistic 3D rendering techniques for Watercolor, Glass House and Technical Illustration views; 3D Design Tools and Virtual Walk Thru Tools
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Powerful automatic building and design tools like one-click automatic roofs and automatic dormers, material painter, color chooser, deck designer tools and more
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Choose from over 7,000 built-in library items or import your own for unlimited possibilities
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Over 3,200 realistic landscaping plants with plant encyclopedia data
Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description Architectural Home Designer 9.0 is the latest release from Chief Architect, the professional software design company and the software of choice by more builders, architects and designers. Architectural Home Designer leverages the same professional quality from Chief Architect making it the most powerful and easy to use home design, remodeling and landscaping software.
Create your dream home with powerful and easy to use home design, remodeling and landscaping software. Click to enlarge.
Design the Kitchen of your dreams--move walls, create new cabinets, and add appliances to design your perfect workspace! Click to enlarge.
Powerful deck and patio tools allow you to design and visualize your new deck. Click to enlarge.
Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic with a point-and-click of the camera tool. Click to enlarge.
Glass House View provides a full translucent view of your design. Click to enlarge.
Choose from over 3,600 plants with the Plant Chooser. Click to enlarge.
Exclusive All-in-One Home Design Solution
Choose from over 2,500 Sample Plans
Choose from built-in home style templates, create your own custom home design or use the House Wizard
Powerful building tools like automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing and foundations
Artistic rendering techniques for Watercolor, Glass House and Technical Illustration
Get Started Quickly and Easily
The Quick Startup Options Guide will help you begin with "How-To" tutorials based on the type of your project
Use the House Wizard for quick and easy layout of your rooms
Select from the pre-designed Home Design and Landscaping Style Templates complete with colors, cabinets, decks and more
The online help system provides detail information on all types of building projects
Includes over 40 easy "step-by-step" tutorial training videos that will quickly get you started on your next home design project
Kitchen and Bath Design
Design the Kitchen of your dreams--move walls, create new cabinets, add appliances--Design your perfect workspace!
Plan the new layout of your bathroom with custom cabinets, sinks, showers and garden tubs. It's easy to visualize your ideas in 3D.
Create custom cabinets in minutes by choosing your own colors, countertops, door styles and more
Design your new kitchen or bath using the Cabinet Designer Tools
Use the Cabinet Designer tools to create unlimited cabinet styles. Choose your own colors, countertops and door styles.
Interior Design
Material Painter lets you apply colors and materials quickly and easily
Choose from thousands of colors and textures or create your own materials using a digital photograph
Design for your lifestyle and personality--change colors, add lighting and choose furniture to accent your new room
Choose from a variety of interior items--including chairs, tables, sofas, fabrics, accessories and more. Resize, change colors and materials to meet your exact needs.
Import your own symbols from 3D files types including .SKP, .OBJ and .3DS
Smart Design Objects, Drag-and-drop from thousands of design objects in the built-in Library organized by category
Decks and Landscaping
Powerful deck and patio tools allow you to design and visualize your new deck with 3D models and can help you estimate the costs
Design single or multi-level decks complete with automatic deck framing
Quickly lay out your deck with stairs and arrange furniture
Deck foundations automatically generate to match sloped lots
Plant Encyclopedia to learn more about the plants in your designs
Choose from over 3,600 plants with the Plant Chooser
Plant Hardiness Zone reference maps
See what your plants will look like in 0 - 20 years
Pathways--Use the Pathway tool to design curb-appealing landscaping using stone, pavers, or sidewalks--line with trees, shrubs, flowers and more
Chief Architect Product Comparison Which Chief Architect product best suits your needs? Review this product comparison matrix (PDF file).
3D Models and Virtual Tours
Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic with a point-and-click of the camera tool.
Glass House View provides a full translucent view of your design. Choose other Artistic rendering techniques for Watercolor and Technical Illustration views.
Planning of furniture placement and traffic flow
Create a Virtual Tour--draw your record line to Automatically Generate; or record your camera movements
Visualize your home with day and night views
Assemble a scale model of your design with Model Maker
Generate shadows from the sun for realistic 3D views
Point-and-click to remove wall surfaces, or use 3D Cross-Section Elevation Slider to quickly create a 3D slice of your desired view
Site Planning & Estimating
Use Automatic Build Terrain and Terrain Perimeter tools to create flat, irregular shaped, or sloped lots--use a GPS to import or enter elevation data
Create plot and perimeter plans; automatically generate a 3D model of your actual terrain
Make your backyard design come alive using several easy-to-use terrain and landscaping tools. Add a pool or pond and visualize in 3D.
Sprinkler Designer tools to easily layout sprinkler zones
Fences and Driveways--With the Fencing tools you can choose a variety of fencing styles and custom gates. You will also find driveway, sidewalk and curbing tools
Hill and Valley tools make it easy to add gardens, beds and slopes that automatically appear in 3D views. Choose from landscaping style templates or create your own.
Cost Estimating--Don't be surprised by the cost of your project. Automatically generate a complete spreadsheet for your project costs, broken down by category. Calculate the amount of lumber for your deck or concrete required for that new patio.
Product Description Architectural Home Designer 9.0 is all-in-one Home Design software and includes: Home Design, Remodeling, Decks & Landscaping, Interior Design, Site Planning & Estimating. It leverages the same professional quality from Chief Architect making it the most powerful and easy to use home design software. Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, and cabinets. Choose colors, place furniture, create decks and landscaping. Powerful building tools like standard CAD tools, automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing, foundations, and Plan Check make it easy. Choose from a Library of more than 3,600 plants and 7,000 items including windows, doors, lighting, furniture, interior/exterior fixtures, cabinets, and more. HOME DESIGN Choose from thousands of styles, colors, wallpaper, flooring, and materials. Move a wall, change a color, add a room, redesign a kitchen, create your own cabinets, and estimate costs before you build. REMODELING Experiment and create models and virtual tours. Arrange walls, windows, doors, decks, and automatically generate 3D models to visualize at any angle. Powerful building and remodeling tools include automatic roof generation, foundations, stairs, and more. INTERIOR DESIGN Choose or import thousands of items to customize your design. Point-and-click to change wall colors, flooring styles, countertops, and more. Choose from name-brand colors and materials or create your own. DECKS & LANDSCAPING Over 1,500 botanically accurate flowers, trees, and shrubs. Create gardens, pathways, hills, valleys, ponds, and more for your outdoor living area. Powerful deck tools allow you to design, visualize, estimate, and build your outdoor living project. SITE PLANNING & ESTIMATING Design your lot and plans with easy terrain tools. Identify your costs and materials for your next project before you begin. Design in 2D or 3D. Add, resize, and automatically dimension your plans.
Customer Reviews: Got me through the semester!June 30, 2010 CindyH(San Francisco, CA USA) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This awesome app got me through two intensely grueling presentations in my first semester of Interior Design school, and with a very short learning curve! Within about a month, and without reading the manual (though there's a lot of good help available), I was able to create floating curved ceilings, sunken floors, raised stage platforms with steps in front, partial brick walls with 9-lite windows, wood ceilings, custom wall textures (like WovinWall panels and custom art from scanned swatches or downloaded images), and so much more! With Google's 3D Warehouse of SketchUP symbols (v.6 or older), I was able to furnish my created spaces with reasonable accuracy (eg, Saarinen tulip table, Louis Poulsen artichoke pendant)--even down to the musical instruments on the stage! (One of my projects was a Beatnik Jazz Bar.)
The finishes (floors, walls, etc.) were reasonably accurate as well, with textures and colors easily "tweakable." I especially liked the eyedropper tool, which lets you copy and apply the material of one object (eg, zebrawood chair) to another object (eg, side table to match). When customizing the color of a particular material (eg, textured Tectum wall panel), there's an eyedropper there too, so you can click on an existing object that you'd like to match (eg, wood on the adjacent ceiling), grab that color, and apply it to the texture of your particular material. So no maniacal hit-and-miss eyeballing necessary for a perfect match. Cool! The object info box was wonderful too--here you can input a plethora of parameters for that particular object and accurately customize it to your heart's content.
My only gripes: The exported .jpg images were a little low rez--they're at a nice large size (about 9" x 13"), but you get a few jaggies that even Photoshopping can't get rid of. The perspectives, however, were dead-on accurate. The 3D camera got a little wacky at times--I've found it best to leave 3D and reposition the camera in 2D, rather than use the camera tweaking tools in 3D, which greatly reduced the accuracy of perspectives (you get overstretching and other funky distortions when you go more than a couple of clicks). The colors on screen could be a little more accurate too--with subtle finishes (like Benjamin Moore paint colors), what you spec as a color isn't exactly what you're seeing on the screen. Then you'd have to go back and tweak and export again. But this could very well be just a calibration issue, which I haven't yet looked into (my games and DVDs look great though!).
If you're a designer or design student that has cheap access to the professional version, I'd say skip this one and go for that one--even for a novice like me, I could already tell that this version has its limitations (also, I'm not sure if this particular version is NKBA compliant--the Pro versions are)--but if you're just looking to get your feet wet, or are looking for ways to try out different ideas before going through a costly remodel, this one's for you! Don't waste your time or money on the cheaper versions--you'll quickly outgrow them!
Very nice product...but...June 24, 2010 J-man(Jonesboro Tn) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
At first I thought it was a tad difficult and cumbersome to use. Then I reviewed their closest functional competitor Punch! Punch! seems to have a usability disaster on their hands. Great support on their forums and a surprisingly capable product. Doesn't take you long to get used to it. No key movements like most Cad packages (annoying), you have to use the mouse. Could almost take off a star for that. But, they have terrific training videos and the product can do pretty much everything you need.
I have read reviews on this product. Only knocks I have ever seen is that the usability is a little difficult at first. I find this a bit true, but a little overstated of a problem in my opinion.
As a professional software engineer, I know that the fact such a complex graphics program, has never once crashed on me, CA has their act together. The object oriented approach that migrates to the User Interface is a superior approach, though that might add to the non-software professional user's confusion. But, it is without a doubt the best approach. It is the future of program usage anyway.
Have not seen a superior one for the home market or a marginal competitor for that matter. And I did look hard. This is the one to buy, in my opinion. If you are not convinced, go to their website and watch the training videos. [...] Very helpful for getting you up to speed.
Still room to improve usability (are you listening CA?) even before you add more features. I give them an A. Improve the User Interface (replace the somewhat ugly/cheesy icons too) and you have an A++.
-j
Way over this Engineer's head!July 9, 2010 Golden Dolphin(Somewhere in Fly Over Country) 1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm building a house in the next few months so I thought I'd buy this an design me a floorplan. Yeah, Right.
I work with computers daily, I'm a Mechanical Engineer by profession and I ran the R&D department of a monster automotive interior trim department for years.......AND I COULDN'T USE THIS PROGRAM IF MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!
And to add insult to injury, I had a computer crash and didn't have the damn program backed up......downloaded version gone.
Back to velum and protractor....save yourself the headache.
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