Software
Review of: |
 This
is a home design and remodeling program from Abracadata. It allows you
to design floor plans, place furniture, fixtures, windows, doors. It will
also allow you to do offices. You create this plan in 2D, like a regular
paper plan. Then you can view the plans in 3D, just as you and I see things.
And as you make changes in the 2D plan, you can see the changes take place
in the 3D view. Cool effect.
This program starts you with a blank sheet, and using the many handy tools, you can place walls and modify them. Make them different heights, textures, change its height off the ground (handy for raised floors, or uses), and thickness. Then place doors, windows, furniture, cabinets, whatever you can think of. These come from pictures and info that come with the program, or that you can add from the website. Or you can create your own items. Then you can view this all in 3D. Walk into your house, walk down the hall, turn left or right, backup, look down from above, sidestep, whatever. You can see the textures of the walls or floors, associated colors, items and furniture, even paintings on the walls. You walk through things though. No opening of doors here. It comes with more than 100 floor plans you can alter and add to. It has some (maybe a dozen or so) fully done homes, furniture and all. You can even place wall studs easily. And if used in conjunction with another Abracadata program, Design Estimator, it can calculate materials and costs to build. However, after downloading all the objects and textures from the website, I still found it didn't have all the things I looked for. Different doors, windows, furniture. You are limited to the items they display. You can design your own, but that is time consuming and labor intensive. I do not want to go through all that. So you make do with what is given to you. My recommendation? This is not a bad program. It's not exactly as I expected, but a decent enough program. After playing with some of the floor plans provided, I think it has potential. If it only had more objects, I would be thrilled. Give it a test run if you are looking for a program of this type. Go to their website, download the free demo and try it out. Minimum Requirements: Windows 3.1 or higher; 486DX2/66 minimum (Pentium recommended); 8MB RAM minimum (16+ recommended); 2 to 34 MB hard drive space, CD-Rom drive; VGA or SVGA monitor, and a mouse. I could not find it around town. On their website it sells for $70 for IBM's, $100 for Macs. You can request a free catalog from Abracadata by phone (800- 451-4871) or by e-mail (Abracadata@POBoxes.com).You can always download the free demo of this program to try out first.
Joe LaBonté lives in Converse with his wife, Denise. He works for the Post Office as an Electronics Technician. He can be reached at www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/2696 or joecool@flash.net. |