Software Review of:
Total 3D Home 
Deluxe 

I've used Autodesk's Picture This Home! Bath. Autodesk sold the program to Brøderbund in July 1998. Because the appearance of the workspace was so similar between the programs, I closely examined the properties of several files in Total 3D Home Deluxe. I found several that named Autodesk as the originator of the file. I believe that Total 3D Home Deluxe is a descendent of Autodesk's Picture This Home! series. 

What does the box hold?
When I opened the box, I found a jewel case with 2 CD-ROMs (one for program installation and one with program data), a registration card, a sheet offering a free copy of The Print Shop Deluxe III with electronic registration of Total 3D Home Deluxe. The Print Shop Deluxe III files share the installation CD-ROM. 

The box also contained a QuickStart Guide and a User's Manual. The QuickStart Guide, a tri-fold glossy brochure, has sections on Installing & Getting Help, The Basics, The Interface, Other Interface Items, Planning, Decorating Ideas, Shopping, Budgeting and Save a Plan. 

The User's Manual is a book with wide margins and decent sized print. Its 239 pages cover all areas of the program in six chapters and two appendixes. It contains numerous black and white screen shots and step by step instructions for every function in the program. However, it does contain some errors. These are mainly cut and paste sections where the author forgot to change the name of the function. These errors shouldn't cause any real problems using the program. 

What's included in the program? 
The program consists of four major activities: Decorating Ideas, Planning, Shopping and Budgeting. In Decorating Ideas, you start with a photograph of a nicely decorated room. You can choose among Bedroom, Child's room, Nursery, Family room, Living room, Dining room, Kitchen, Bath, & Office. There are four different photos for each type of room. The major furniture stays the same, the decorative elements change. You can choose different components in the room to change to suit your tastes or budget. You can change the wall paint, wallpaper, floor covering, furniture, etc. While you can't change accessories such as vases, pictures, and mirrors, you can hide them all, delete one or two from view or change the color of the item. You can only look at the room from the point of view of the photographer. 

In Planning, you work with an actual floor plan. You start with choosing one of the pre-done plans. Then you can change the dimensions, put in new walls, or add windows and doors. Once you've created the floor plan you can look at the room(s) in aerial view or take a virtual walk through. You can add different components you previously selected in Shopping or you can add everything from the photo that you did in Decorating Ideas. You can also add furniture, appliances etc to your floor plan, look at a room in Walk Through and then take a photo of your room to use in Decorating Ideas. If you select all the items to make a really detailed photo, it will take a long time. I did one on our AMD K6 3D, 266 MHz computer that took 24 minutes to draw. I did a less detailed photo that only took seven minutes. 

In Shopping, you look at actual products from various companies in different price ranges. After you have selected the broad category of component, you click on various buttons to narrow the number of items you will see. This is very handy since some areas have hundreds of products you can view. You can look at small pictures, then when you see something you like you can go to an information page that shows you a larger picture and provides details about the item. You can mark those items you like. You will have them easily available for use in Decorating Ideas and Planning. Marked items will be saved with your project files. 

Budgeting contains three worksheets: Product, Labor & Cabinet list. As you select and use items in your home, they are added to the appropriate worksheet. You can put in actual prices beside the estimate that the program generates. You do have to fill in the Labor worksheet yourself. 

Running the program
When I first ran the program, I took the two included tutorials on Planning and Decorating Ideas. They are interactive and really help you get to know the program. After that, I started working with one of the large homes included with the program. After I had added many items, the program stopped working and I had to reboot the computer. Their trouble-shooting tips in Help don't cover this problem. I finally decided that the home was just too big and that I should work with a smaller one. 

Our AMD K6 3D, 266 MHz computer has an older 14" monitor. It is almost too small. A 15" monitor is much better. I'm sure that a 17" monitor would be great. However, there is a noticeable performance difference between the 266 MHz and the 200 MHz computers. In the Shopping activity, I found many very dark pictures. That makes it difficult to really tell what object will actually look like. 

I tried creating my own house design, which you do in the Space Plan tab of Planning. You select a room, it comes in a standard size, and then place it on the work area. Then you can resize the room. This is the only area of the program that labels the rooms. I found it very difficult to design a house from scratch. You really need to work from a pre drawn floor plan. 

What isn't included? 
This is not an architectural design program. It won't provide you with the actual blueprints needed to build a house. Also, I was very disappointed to find no floor plan for the home pictured on the box. Although there is an office room there are no file cabinets to put in it. 

Unlike Picture This Home! Bath, there was no on-line notebook with decorating, planning and shopping tips and general information. Nor was there any information on design principles. Although this gives you complete freedom to do your own thing, you can easily make major layout mistakes that will result in very unlivable home. 

Bottom line
While I don't think this program quite lives up to the claims made for it; I like it overall. While you can learn the basics of the program fairly quickly, it takes some time to become proficient in using the Walk Through and Aerial View areas. If you're planning to remodel, redecorate, or build a new home this program can help you visualize the final result. 

Installing the Program
I originally tried to install Total 3D Home Deluxe on my Gateway computer. Although it installed OK, I could not get it to run. When I tried to start the program, I received an error message telling me that "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." When I clicked on details, I saw AHome caused an invalid page fault in KERNAL32.DLL." I tried going to http://www.broderbund.com/support (the web address on the box and in the Users Manual) and writing them an e-mail. I got no response after several days. Then I tried to call them at (415) 382-4700 for live assistance. I was given a different number, which turned out to be The Learning Company's support department. After waiting for 10 minutes I finally got to talk to a technician. The technician told me I had a corrupt KERNAL32.DLL and would have to talk to Microsoft or Gateway on how to fix it. 

I called Gateway. The technician there said I would have to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows in order to fix the problem. Since reformatting a hard disk is an extreme measure, I wrote an e-mail to Gateway Support on-line to see if they had anything better to offer. The first e-mail I received told me how to extract the KERNAL32.DLL from the Windows disc. The second e-mail I received told me if that didn't work; I would have to reformat my hard drive and gave me all the steps in doing so. 

At that point, I decided that I would install the program on the other computer in the house. The installation went OK and I was able to start the program with no trouble. 

As I was writing this review, I found another web site listed on the QuickStart Guide. It wasn't listed under the Getting Help section. I decided to check it out. I went to http://www.totalhomenetwork.com and found all kinds of information, including an area for registered users of Brøderbund's various home design programs. There I found an interactive technical support site http://www.totalhomenetwork.com/consumer/software.html). 

I tested it out by putting in my problem of "Invalid Page Fault in KRNL32.DLL" when starting the program. The first answer I got was "This error may indicate a conflict with your video card." It listed all the steps to correct the problem (essentially changing a performance setting in System Properties.) This solution was not even mentioned by the technician I talked to on the telephone. I followed their suggestion and was able to run the program on my computer. 

There was another error listed that is very similar to mine. It is "General Protection Fault in module KRNL32". The cause of the problem is "You may have experienced a conflict during the installation of the program. Anti-virus programs, screen savers, and other programs or utilities that run in the background in Windows 95 and Windows 98 may interfere with software installation. It is advisable to exit these programs prior to installation." They tell you how to make sure all programs are closed before installing the program. This is good advice when installing all programs. 

There were no links at the Brøderbund or The Learning Company Shopping sites to http://www.totalhomenetwork.com. This illustrates the importance of reading everything that comes with a program before you call the company using your own money. 

System Requirements
Platform: Windows 95/98, Media: CD-ROM, CPU: Pentium/100Mhz or better, RAM: 16MB, Hard Drive: 70MB, Video: 800x600 16-bit, CD-ROM: 4X or better, Sound: Windows compliant sound device. 

My System
I tested Total 3D Home Deluxe on a generic computer with an AMD K6 3D processor chip running at 266 MHz, 64 MB RAM and a 6.4 GB hard drive. The computer also has a Microsoft Intellimouse, an external Iomega Zip drive, a SoundBlaster-64 sound card, a S3 Virge 3D video card and a 120MB SuperDisk drive. Its operating system is Windows 98. 

I also tested Total 3D Home Deluxe on a Gateway 2000 P5-200 with a Pentium 200 MMX (Intel Pentium processor chip running at 200 MHz with Multi-media Extensions), 64 MB RAM and a 6.4 GB hard drive. The computer also has a Microsoft Intellimouse, an internal Iomega Zip drive, a wave table sound card, a STB Nitro 3D video card with STB Vision 95 and a 33.6 fax/modem. Its operating system is Windows 95. Both computers are hooked up to an Epson Stylus Color 500 printer. 

Vital statistics
The retail price for Total 3D Home Deluxe is $49.95. I've seen it for sale in CompUSA and Best Buy. You can visit http://www.totalhomenetwork.com/consumer/software.html for a demonstation and product information. You get to it by going to http://www.totalhomenetwork.com and clicking on Software Owners.