Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 6 review:3 stars (Limited Capability-Not For Remodeling) - When I read the other reviews on this product, I was a bit surprised at their very positive nature. Then I remembered how I felt when I first tried this program and it all made sense. My guess is that the folks who wrote the positive reviews probably haven't worked with the program for very long or tried to create anything but the most elementary structures. I know I was very impressed at first. That is until I tried to re-create my own home as the starting point for a remodeling project.

This program is very intuitive and easy to learn, the problem is that it is also very limited. After you get past the ease of creating floor plans, the next obvious progression is to see the building in 3D. That's where the problems begin. The roof planes are nearly impossible to control. If you are creating anything other than a simple cape or ranch, you will quickly see how un-nerving this program can be.

Since most homes are comprised of several sections, controlling how the roof planes associated with those sections are generated is critical if you are to be able to create an end product that resembles what you had in mind. This program takes almost all of the roof plane control away from the user. The program generates the roof planes based on a few user defined parameters. This results in 3D images that almost never match what I had in mind.

Just for the record, I'm not technologically impaired. I am an engineer by trade. If I can't get it to work, then the average user is likely going to have even more trouble. In the end, if you can't get an accurate 3D model from this program that resembles what you are trying to create, then why spend the money or the time on this program. Just get a $10 floor plan program or jump up to the $500 version of this Chief Architect program which, as I've been told (haven't used it myself) , is very capable.4 stars (Almost perfect) - I am landscaping a sloped lot with complex terrain features. I wanted to lay out the driveway, the terrasses, pathways, stairs and a pool.
This SW alows to design the terrain you want, this is a great feature. All the surface work (driveway, pathway, etc.) follows the slope perfectly, this is another great feature. For the pool and the terrasses I had to be a little creative as there are no pool tool nor any way to design retaining walls directly. The trick is to enter the grades of the terrain as if the retaining wall was there and then to cover the (vertical) land with a driveway, it creates the illusion in 3D of a retaining wall. For the pool, a nice pond full of clear water does the trick. My lot is almost landscaped now. I have not used much of the house building features as I'm only interested in the view of the house from the outside.3 stars (Lots of Missing Features) - If you want a program to give you an idea on how a new room or garage will look, this program is for you. If you want a program that will help you change your ideas for colors and placement, this program is for you.

But if you want a program that will help you design and build your entire living area, this program will not work for you. For example, it has no pools - so forget about building one. The landscaping portion can't help you with drainage, so you may build a building on your property, but you may end up with a flood plain.

Need a retaining wall - ask a contractor to come out - this program can't make a 3' wall.

It's OK for land gradations and showing you the slope of the land. It's OK for exterior walls, but the colors are limited and you can't use the windows color pallette to choose the EXACT color you want.

Three stars is perfect for an OK program.
Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 6 Features:
Computer software (programs)
Gardening (Gardens)
Landscape (Landscaping)
Home Design
Layout
House Floor Plans (Planning)
Interior Design
Improvement (1-2-3)
Personal Improvement
Self Help
Inspire your designs with the Design Planning Center
Create a virtual walk-through of your house
Design and visualize in 3D
Choose from a library of more than 4,300 items for your designs
Generate automatic material lists for project cost estimating

Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 6 is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around  79.99USD.