Broderbund 3D Home Architect Home Design Deluxe 6 
Good
68
OK, there seems to be a ratings war between this FANTASTIC product and Better Homes & Gardens Designer.
This one wins hands down, all due to CUSTOMIZATION.
I can get the colors/wallpapers/carpets/flooring --and furniture-- I want instead of relying on the (not bad) selections in this program, or the (just miserable) selections in BH&G.
Three main custom features worth noting:
1. Unlike BH&G this product lets you import JPEGs as textures so you can import (for instance) wallpaper copied from a wallpaper site like DecoratorToday. Or take a digital picture of the brick on your house, and use it instead of the preset bricks, which are probably the wrong color. (Admittedly, adding new textures/materials isn't the easiest -- check the help topics under CUSTOMIZATION for details.)
Texture imports are a really, really, really basic feature -- even Total3D Home and that stupid Punch program have the capability. What was BH&G thinking??!!??
2. IMPORT capabilities! I was very disappointed with the five beds in BH&G. The ten or so in this product is a better selection, but it still doesn't rock my world. But then in the help file (under CUSTOMIZATION again) I found a section on "importing elements." You can actually add 3D furniture models other people have created!!
The help file said the models were common on the net so I Googled "furniture 3DS" (3DS being the file format) and after a few false starts I found a few gold mines. Herman Miller, for instance, has 3DS files of their furniture. So does B&B Italia. Most of the 3DS files are newer, modern furniture, although I did find a few antique-looking pieces including a roll top desk and early Frank Lloyd Wright craftsman-type furniture.
3. The software lets you stick in images as "photo boards", so even if you can't find your furniture as 3DS you can at least place a non-3D image of it in the room. Maybe not the most noteworthy feature, but personally I'd rather see a photo of something I like than a 3D rendering of something straight out of DULLSVILLE, which is where all the BH&G homes are located.
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Bad
8
After years of using the previous 3D Architects, with great success, I assumed version 6 was, as they offered, an upgrade. Wrong! It's a completely new program without the ability to import files from early versions. A real let down since I often go back to older files for designs. Futhermore, getting support is a joke. You just get the run around with the automated services. This will be the last Broderbund software I buy. After all, if they do it to 3D, why not Print Shop, or one of the others?
