If you have some general knowledge of computer-aided-design, and you are familiar with general building blueprints, you may enjoy tinkering with this software.
I found the nicely-packaged 3-CD software at Wal-Mart for ten dollars, so I could not resist a tryout. After all, ten dollars can hardly buy 2 hours entertainment in many areas.
I had no problem installing the program, and in a few minutes I was popping rooms together as if they were Lego blocks. After about three hours of experience I had begun a more serious project, representing a small home-office structure that I am very familiar with.
The first problems I had where when I wanted to represent uncommon structural details which exist in "my" building. I had to accept substitutes. Oh-well, no big deal. It still looked like my building. The real trouble came when I tried to place items on shelves while in the elevation view. I wanted a TV placed in a common entertainment center cabinet, and could not do it. The TV would either sit on the floor, or on top of the darn shelf! Oh well, I don't really need the TV there.
After many concessions, I had a rough representation of my little office.
Next, I had some fun playing with the various paints and fabrics for the interior components.
I cold go on, but why? A few days after I made my building I went back to make changes and found that I could not save the updated file. When tried to save it, the program would hang up. Uninstall and reinstall did not help.
Maybe my computer has a problem, but it is not apparent with any other software I use.

So I removed the software from my system. I will save it, and try again when I get a new computer.

Overall, Total 3D Home is a fun application, with potential usefulness in planning a "typical" residential building, but I found several things that were not possible with my limited expertise:

I was completely baffled when trying to represent a stack of concrete blocks. I could find no way to do that, although I have lived in a raised home which to this day sits on a series of stacked blocks 8 feet above the ground.

I was unable to show a concrete slab, although I know a lot of buildings use them for a foundation.

I was unable to show a post standing free outside of my building. I needed several to support a walkway leading to a second-floor deck.

I could not show a wooden deck lying on the ground with legs under it.

About the walk-thru:
I found that I was always trying to get the "camera" further back from the objects I was viewing, as if all my rooms were too small.

There is a 90-day money-back guarantee, but I don't think I could get Broderbund to send me ten dollars. I would just as soon hang on to the application and try it on a future computer that may deal with it better.

By the way- I use a Windows 98 system with 256 megabytes of RAM, and lots of hard drive space, so I don't think I had a memory problem.




Recommended: No