3D Home Design

3D Home Design Suite Deluxe 4.0
A Suite To Design A Luxury Suite

House plans, landscaping, home inventories, and home repairs: They can be enough to make you avoid home ownership. Broderbund's 3D Home Design Suite Deluxe 4.0, a collection of home design and home-improvement programs, makes home ownership less stressful and easier to manage.

The first program in this package is 3D Home Architect Deluxe. The Build House Wizard walks you through an otherwise overwhelming project. The wizard lets you choose a predesigned floor plan for your home, arrange rooms to make a home, or create rooms by building walls. We chose the first option and still had plenty of room to customize.

Select one of 22 types of homes from the Style Of Home drop-down menu. Choose the minimum and maximum floor space, as well as the number of floors, bedrooms, and bathrooms. The wizard finds all plans matching your specifications. You can add doors, windows, cabinets, fixtures, furniture, and even additional floors to the plan you choose. Click any of the toolbar buttons to launch the Library Browser and view illustrations of each item, helping you choose the furniture, doors, and other items that best match your home. When you're done, you can look at views of your home's exterior, floors, and framing, as well as a cross-section of the house. You can rotate all 3D images for a better view.

The second program in the suite, 3D Home Landscape Designer, didn't have a wizard and was considerably harder to navigate. Start by clicking the Plan Objects toolbar button, which is located to the left of the Seasons drop-down menu. You'll view and select landscaping features, such as sidewalks, flowers, tennis courts, driveways, gazebos, and fences. You can even add animals, such as cats, cows, chickens, herons, and flamingos, especially if you consider those creatures essential to your landscaping.

The most useful feature of 3D Home Landscape Designer, though, is its Encyclopedia. Use it to view pictures of plants and research each fully, including native habitat; month-by-month care instructions; ideal planting conditions; and descriptions of common diseases, pests, and treatments.

HomeStyles 1500 Best-selling Home Plans isn't as feature-rich as the first two programs in the software suite, but it is useful. Indicate the type and size of house and number of floors. Click the View Plans button to see all matching home plans. View the exterior sketch, floor plan, and full list of features for each house. Click Info Resource Center in the left pane to learn how to obtain the right to legally use the copyrighted home plan.

Our favorite part of this suite was Black & Decker Everyday Home Repairs, which covers more than 100 common household repairs. As you click each button, the program walks you through each concept, helping you diagnose and fix the problem. We knew nothing about faucets, but after just two minutes with this program, we knew we had a disc-type cartridge faucet, what parts it uses, and even how to repair it.

Start by clicking one of six buttons: Plumbing, Electrical, Windows & Doors, Walls & Ceilings, Floor Repair, and Exteriors. Each section includes buttons for Step-By-Step Instructions (a narrated slideshow), Instructions (a detailed guide with accompanying photographs and illustrations), Project Essentials (a summary of the Tools, Materials, Approximate Cost, and Approximate Time for Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert), Print Project, and Tips & Techniques. If there are any risks involved with the project, you will also see a Safety Tips button.

The final program in the suite is Personal Home Inventory. Click the Wizard button at the bottom of the screen and get prompts for information such as item name, category, purchase details, current and replacement value, and warranty. In addition to its simplicity, we liked Personal Home Inventory's concise reports, lists, and graphs.

Some of the programs in Broderbund's 3D Home Design Suite Deluxe are easier to use than others, but as a whole, this software suite makes it enjoyable to design and improve your home.

by Kylee Dickey