HGTV Home Design & Remodeling Suite

PROS: very full featured; easy to use; great priceCONS: my version lacked the insert floor option, but customer support solved that problem for me. Manual could be better.BOTTOM LINE: I highly recommend this product.OK, it's not SolidWorks or AutoCAD, but who needs or wants a general full-featured solid modeling program with a big price tag and big learning curve to accomplish a very specific task - home design. The HGTV product is fairly simple to use and amazingly complete. You build 3D models with simple tools and then you can do realistically rendered views and walk-throughs. Once the model is complete, you can produce 2D dimensioned floorplans and elevation drawings from it. I am using it for high-level design and will leave the rest to an architect but you can do everything yourself including framing, flooring, roofing, electrical and plumbing.I encountered a bug in the version I received, it omitted the menu item to insert floors (although floors are automatically inserted by default, just don't delete them). When I contacted Nova Software, they acknowleged the problem and upgraded me at no cost to their companion Platinum version that includes landscaping.To use photo-realisitic rendering requires some fairly serious computing power, especially to produce a walk-through, but if you computer is up to it, the results are great. The good news is that you can do 3D views and walk-throughs without the intensive rendering and you can therefore still get a really good view of how your design ideas shape up in 3D.The manual could be a bit more complete. You will have to do some experimenting with the program to understand how to use some features. For example, you can use an automated wizard to create a basic house with all framing, roofs, ceilings and floors, but you probably won't get exactly what you want. You can do the same thing manually, but the manual is not a great help. I recommend you create a house with the wizard and then view the properties of all the elements created to see what is in the model and what you will need to do on your own.For the cost this is a fantastic product and very full featured - I highly recommend it.

I thought I would like and be able to adapt with relative ease to this application with just a bit of a learning curve but what I did not know or realize at time of purchase was this is a CAD application and requires intensive studying of the supplied manual which is over 700 pages. Now I do not mind a bit of studying but I had hoped the Remodeling Suite would be more user friendly. That aside, this application not only gives the user the blue print style of plans but it gives a 2D & 3D drawing which is marvelous once the user conquers the manual. I give this application 3 stars not because it's deficient in anyway but because of my not understanding what I was purchasing. As far as the item I received I must give 5 stars because it came complete and when I say complete it had everything in the box from the seller just like the day it was new.

This is the worst piece of software that I have ever tried to install and run. The book does not match what is on the screen and there are features discussed in the manual that do not exist in the software. In addition, the software stopped responding and had to be closed and restarted about every 5 minutes. I tried it on a second computer and it displayed some of the same issues with the software not matching the manual. While it did not close down on the second computer, different problems were noted with some functions not working at all. Whatever you do, do not buy this software. HGTV should be ashamed for putting out junk like this. I plan to return it and try the Home and Garden version.

The program is designed more for someone very familiar with a CAD application. Unless you are very experienced in manipulating it, it gets very frustrating. I also find the help area greatly lacking. I only wanted to design a kitchen. It never lets me in the room to see what it looks like. All I can view is the overhead or a very far off view of the interior. Someone should create a program that allows you to start with a simple box. A box you can put doors and windows in and then decorate. I would not recommend this program unless you have lots of CAD experience.