Format:DVD-ROM Platforms:Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista ESRB:Everyone Media:DVD-ROM Batteries Included:No Operating System:Windows Vista Shipping Weight (lbs):0.4 Dimensions (in):7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
Chief Architect Home Designer helps you with the basics to design, remodel or add landscaping to your home: Home Design, Remodeling, Interiors, Kitchens & Baths
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Design in 3D and 2D Plan View simultaneously and visualize your design ideas in 3D
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Visualize flooring styles, countertops, cabinets and new interior design styles
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Standard CAD tools, automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing, foundations
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3,600 new realistic plants with plant encyclopedia data from tropical to desert
Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description 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. 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. Design your dream home today!
Helps you with the basics to design, remodel or add landscaping to your home. Click to enlarge.
Advanced 3D camera tools: Glass House, Doll House and Final View for truly photo-realistic 3D images. Click to enlarge.
Home Designer makes it easy to see and visualize your design ideas on your next remodeling project. Click to enlarge.
Design in 2D and 3D. Click to enlarge.
Use the Deck Designer tools to quickly design the layout of your deck. Click to enlarge.
Use House Wizard to choose your rooms and then drag them to your design layout configuration to generate a floor plan. Click to enlarge.
Fun & Easy Home Design Software Chief Architect Home Designer is Chief Architect's entry level title that can help you with the basics to design, remodel or add landscaping to your home. With over 4,000 items you can create your perfect design. There are 500 sample plans all of which allow you to create a virtual walk-through of your home. The program enables you to easily visualize your project in 3D.
Home Design Software
Floor and space planning--use to size and visualize rooms for remodeling or redecorating
Quickly place and arrange walls, windows, doors, furniture, create decks and landscaping
Easy to use automated building tools for roofs, stairs, framing, cabinets and more
Generate various styles of Automatic roofs for your home
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 your new patio.
Use House Wizard to choose your rooms and then drag them to your design layout configuration to generate a floor plan
Choose from over 500 sample floor plans to help generate ideas
Remodeling Software
Move a wall, change a color, add a room, redesign a kitchen and estimate the costs--all before you build. Home Designer makes it easy to see and visualize your design ideas on your next remodeling project.
Material Painter--point-and-click colors for walls, floors, countertops and more
Use the Color Chooser to create the perfect color for your walls, floors and more
Insert doors, windows and skylights with One-Click
Create the Virtual Look and Feel Before You Remodel!
Automatically generate a cost estimation and material list for your project
Assign costs for materials: descriptions, quantities, unit costs and more
Materials automatically update as you design
Interior Design Software
Material Eyedropper--choose your own or manufacturer colors and textures
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
Generate new floors automatically based on your current floor plan design
Drag and drop thousands of items from the Library Browser. Choose great looking furnishings including tables, chairs, sofas and more. Easily change the size, color or material.
Visualize your new Kitchen or Bath
Create and take a Virtual Tour of your design
Cabinet Designer Tools--choose from over 1,000 cabinets--customize using unlimited styles and colors
Chief Architect Product Comparison Which Chief Architect product best suits your needs? Review this product comparison matrix (PDF file).
Deck and Landscaping Software
Create custom landscaping plans in 2D and 3D
Over 500 realistic landscaping plants in the library to choose from
Use the Deck Designer tools to quickly design the layout of your deck
Design single or multi-level decks including free-standing, tiered and post-and-beam
Create driveways, sidewalks and pathways
Use the automatic tools for adding stairs, deck railings and roofs
Define decking materials, place and arrange outdoor furniture to correctly size your deck or patio
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
Select from the pre-designed Home Design and Interior templates complete with colors, cabinets, decks and more
The online help system provides detail information on all types of building projects
Includes over 25 easy "step-by-step" tutorial training videos that will quickly get you started on your next home design project
Design Tools
Advanced 3D camera tools: Glass House, Doll House and Final View for truly photo-realistic 3D images
Choose from several home style templates--Colonial, Arts & Crafts, Traditional and more to start your next home project
Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic--just point-and-click with the camera tool--you can even use Glass House view to see through surfaces.
Create a Virtual Tour--by recording your camera movements
Visualize designs with day and night views
Generate shadows from the sun for realistic 3D views
Product Description This Home Design software, Chief Architect Home Designer Suite 9.0 provides feature rich tools for: home design, remodeling, interior design, landscaping, decks, cost estimation, and site planning.
kids like it too!December 27, 2009 K. Housman(East Coast, USA) 30 out of 33 found this review helpful
I purchased this computer program because both of my kids asked for a compter "game" that they could design houses.....an architect game.....They are a 10 y/o boy and 13 y/0 girl. I bought this for Xmas thinking that it would probably be over their heads and too technical but couldn't find anything else that fit. I had read reviews of most computer architect programs and this one sounded great but most likely too complicated for them. I was wrong. Both of them are consumed with designing their own home. They have had no problems with the programming or language. They are so excited about telling us the new features they created. The program can be downloaded onto more than one computer and does not need the disc for playing. I really thought this home program would be complicated for them but they are loving it and getting a wonderful feeling when they create something so uniquely theirs and "adult like". I have not worked the program but if you have a kid interested in architecture......I think this is a great creative program for them as long as they are moderately computer savy. I am sure it is wonderful for adults to use as well! First present they both used and most favorite present they received. Sorry Santa!
Better than PunchOctober 7, 2009 David C. Young(Tallahassee, FL) 45 out of 53 found this review helpful
We spent a casual week or so shopping for DIY home design software; I wanted to finalize a home design I'd been doing on napkins and in my head for years. Studied all their websites and compared/contrasted. Finally pulled the trigger on the $99 Punch software at Best Buy. Long story short; after a week of frustration, I took it back for a refund (BB doesn't like to do that on opened software, so I called and got a mngr's approval.)
What were the problems with the Punch? In no particular order:
1) The OOBE (out-of-box-experience) was not very good. It installed and ran OK; and the initial start-up scheme they have developed to get the rank novice going (that of dragging boxes (rooms) into rough locations) went OK; but the process began to bog down quickly due to my inexperience with the program. That's to be expected, but viewing the tutorials and then digging deep into the manual were often more frustrating than illuminating. Hey Punch: suggest you hire someone with ISD (Instructional System Design) experience to solve this problem.
2) No support for adding a fireplace? YGTBKM! Maybe it's in there, but I searched and searched, and the word "fireplace" was not to be found in the index, nor the reference manual, nor the search function.
3) No ICF support. This is becoming far too popular a modern green home construction technique to ignore.
4) I found the program to be far too finicky in such simple functions as "snap-to-point" when building a wall; I was wasting a lot of time trying to get it to do the simplest things. This is where Punch drops the ball the most; they don't appear to have designed the tutorials and training to overcome the most common errors of a typical beginner. (I have a Master's Degree in Educational Technology, so feel qualified to judge).
I then bought the Chief Architect 9.0 from Amazon for $53. At least for me, I'm having an easier time of it. (I'll grant you that the struggles with the first product made me somewhat more skillful with the second).
Not everything is perfect with CA 9.0 however. Expect some learning curve and frustration.
1) Very disappointed that the Punch had a 300+ page printed manual, while the CA 9.0 has only a .pdf.
2) I liked the fly-around camera function much better in the Punch than the CA 9.0; it's simpler and more intuitive. Quite often with the CA 9.0, with just a gentle flick of the mouse I get crazy gopher's-eye-view of my house from underneath, or sometimes a termite's-eye-view from inside the wall. Sheesh.
For $53..... thumb's up!
What a GREAT program!January 30, 2010 Topper (Linda)(Minnesota, USA) 10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've been working on a rather large project involving the design/layout of several custom buildings. I've been using some pretty old CAD software, both 2D and 3D to rough out my designs. A year ago I splurged and bought a program specifically for house/architectural design.. I was excited about it. and it took a while to get comfortable with the new format and eventually I got going on redoing all my previous drawings.
Though it was much better than what I had, it was still lacking...
About mid summer I was watching for the upgraded version of that same program to be discounted...and was nearly ready to buy.....
Just a few days before I had intended to place the order I got an email of features from Amazon and just on a lark clicked on the link for the Home Designer software being offered.
I went to the page and saw the video and just sat here gap jawed.. then I read the reviews.. and I was sold...
Now.. to be fair the video is a bit misleading. It shows all the features of all their programs, not telling you just exactly what you can, or can't do, with a given package. I bought the low end product and I admit that I was disappointed when I found that it didn't do EVERYTHING in the video... and when you go through the tutorials.. you have to watch for the little logo on the bottom of the screen to see if what they are discussing is included in your version.. but other than that....
It's wonderful. The learning curve isn't too bad. Watch the tutorials and play around a bit with a practice project until you get used to how things work. Once you get the hang of it layout and customizing goes very quickly...
The detail in how you can do interior layout of the rooms and even outdoor areas makes it really fun to work with, you can SEE what the furniture will look like in the room.
There are plenty of ways that you can customize objects and such within their software so that you can get pretty close to furniture size and such to approximate your own pieces.
One feature that I VERY much wanted, and found is not in the version I purchased.. was to import objects that I created in my other software. Since this package doesn't include that feature, I'm saving up to upgrade. Since the drawings that I'm working on now can be imported into the upgrade I'm not wasting my time in continuing to work, and when I am able to upgrade I will then be able to use my own object designs as well.
The walk through feature, I must add, is a blast... to layout a 'dream design' that has only lived in your mind.. and then be able to do a virtual walk through... makes it all worthwhile!
Mostly AwesomeFebruary 1, 2010 Fat Paulie(Foxboro, MA USA) 9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I love this application, and have been using it for years under older versions (4.5 and earlier). Upgrading to version 9.0 is a HUGE improvement over the old ones - there are so many more features, and the graphics are unbelievably fast compared to the old versions. I love the huge number of library items you can add to customize your design. The improved camera tools make looking at your design very easy. I like the 'glass house' view too. And the final rendered views look great. Deck and landscaping design has greatly improved too, with great flexibility.
Minor irritations: It is very frustrating trying to build a house to exact measurements, due to the overpowering 'snap' feature, which I can't seem to turn off effectively - you can temporarily disable it, but it also disables all the other features so the wall you're resizing winds up separating from all the other walls. Very frustrating. Also, in trying to create a section of a room that is slightly raised from the rest, it doesn't display correctly on the views - the room is drawn without any floor.
These are minor inconveniences in an otherwise fantastic product.
EXCELLENTMay 3, 2010 TCFS 1 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am not an architect, but a mechanical engineer, and needed some software to analyze how an apartment building of my own would look before starting construction.
I have tried other 3D architectural software in the past, but this one is the best I have purchased until now. Very easy to learn, intuitive, lots of support by videos, easy to use for the average user.
This software is very professional, in just a few days after installing it in my laptop, I have almost finished a very reasonable design and had it reviewed by an architect, and everything seems fine.
The software makes sound suggestions and allows you to make progress very fast and the outcome is very, very useful.
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