3D Home Architect version?

Started by cedarglen, January 21, 2006, 10:04:53 AM

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cedarglen

If I signup at planhelp.com what is the minumum version of 3DHA I would need to open the files?

Charles

glenn-k

Actually maximum version - 3.0 -

Planet CD Rom seems to be out of it.

I found it here - http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/catalog_type.asp?ProductCode=26268&ai=704


cedarglen

you said maximum version 3.0. So newer versions of 3DHA are not backward compatible with versions 3 and before?

Charles  

Daddymem

Check eBay for some cheap copies  Scroll down for more in eBay stores.
Also get floorplan
3D
(various verisons) some bundled with TurboCad for less than list of $49.

jraabe

Here's our 3D Home Architect tutorial. In the first paragraph is a link to some free ($6 shipping) versions of the program.
http://www.countryplans.com/3dha/index.html

Also there is "The Competition" link on left. It talks about the later versions of 3DHA and how incompatible they are.

For right now, the template plans at PlanHelp are in 3DHA ver 3 format. That is a baseline program, easy to learn and OK for doing floorplan revisions. I would expect over the months that others will upload versions of other plans in other programs. Some of the folks on this site are using other more modern programs and may be willing to share their designs.


joe_landscaper

I just received the free $6 cd and the files from planhelp.com were easy to open and the 3DHA software is easy to use, I'm no genius either. ;)

Epiphany

#6
Finally getting a computer at home, so what should I get?  Is 3d Home Architect the best/easiest to use?  What about the software used by Mark Chenail - I believe.... the guy who won the 200 sq ft contest....

jraabe

#7
3DHA is certainly not the best - for that you need to spend $1000 plus. It is one of the easiest to learn, however. It is fine for floorplan layouts and some simple modeling. Other programs are harder to do the basics, but give you prettier renderings (IMSI floorplan 3D).

Mark draws in a paint program. You already have that program on your computer (or one like it). Goto Programs, Accessories, Paint (Win XP). Mark just knows how to make it do things other humans can't.  ;)

Epiphany



glenn-k

Seems the paint program has been greatly improved over the years - saves in Jpeg -etc.  I had ignored it for a long time until I saw Mark's work.  Now it comes in quite handy for a quick sketch or lots more.  Thanks to Mark for bringing it to our attention again.

Epiphany

Has anyone used Better Homes & Garden or Punch?  I'm looking for one that will let me "walk" through a 3D version of the finished house...

Amanda_931

I've found Punch difficult.  Maybe only because I haven't studied the book.

But somebody else here thought it was not great--maybe even worse than that.

3DHA does let you look at the rooms furnished (with their choice of furniture!) from a lot of angles and points.

I need to use John's tutorial on 3DHA.

I've never used CorelDraw to speak of--or MS Paint--although I have both because I have a Windows machine, and the former is bundled with Corel's Photo-Paint (no longer the weapon of choice for photo editing, but....).  

ergodesk


jraabe

#13
Interesting subscription software. It looks to be much like 3DHA but more current. Are you using this ergodesk?

It appears to have real potential.


Amanda_931

Their music is pretty awful.  And I don't think you can turn it off without restarting your computer.

jraabe

#15
I signed up for an initial subscription for the 3dplan program. I don't think it will replace 3DHA ver. 3. I had problems with it's display on my Win XP machine (which I could solve by resetting the resolution and rebooting the computer every time I run the program  :().

3dplan isn't as intuitive as 3DHA when it comes to dropping in windows and doors, cabinets, etc. It does have a more modern rendering engine, but there are better programs if what you want are pretty renderings. Also, because the program is running over the web, it is quite slow to respond to commands. This would quickly drive you crazy working on a complex project. 3dha, by contrast, is very snappy on a modern machine.

That's my mini-review. Let us know if you have better luck with this. We certainly do need an easy to use, inexpensive upgrade to 3DHA ver 3. The later versions of 3D Home Architect are certainly NOT that.

bartholomew

#16
Interesting. I was a bit dubious about it after not seeing any kind of trial offer for what is both a new product and a whole new delivery approach. It didn't seem as if the company had much faith in letting the product/service speak for itself. Just out of curiosity, does it allow you to save your plans in a standard exchange format? It would suck to end up tied to a subscription service because you can't get your work out of it.

I was looking at BHG 6 too and it seems ok but I'm hoping to hear from someone who's used it.

jraabe

#17
3Dplan can output only to bitmap (unscaled images). Using the print menu it prints without any particular scale adjusting the image to paper width and length (the same as most Windows programs).

It might be possible to get the plans to scale with a zoom copier, but this lack of printable scale drawings is a bad sign.

3DHA ver 3 can print accurate drawings to scale (on paper up to 8.5 x 14) and will even print large sized drawings onto additional pages and give you crop marks for aligning the paste up of multiple sheets.

I have a copy of BHG Home Designer 6.0 sitting on my shelf and did a review of it and 3D Home Architect ver 6 (also uninstalled and sitting on the shelf) about a year ago. I've purchased (and continue to buy) every design program under $200 hoping to find something better than the old 3DHA ver 3. So far every program I've tried has at least one major flaw.

If you want to try one of these programs make me an offer  8-) - maybe you'll have more success than I did.

ergodesk

Thanks for the review of 3DPlan. I also try out many other programs and find they also have many shortcomings, mostly I find its price the problem and time spent looking for the ideal program.

Right now I use am using Home Designer Deluxe 7, and Sketchup 5 to round out my IntelliCad 4.

What ever happened to Pen & Paper Version 1 ???  :-?

bartholomew

Don't know how I missed that John but searching did bring it up as well as some good info from the original forum. I'm somewhat wary of 3DHA because it sounds like people often can't get it to do the roof the way they want. I'm looking for something that will output adequate plans/sections/elevations for the building dept. as well as produce reasonably realistic 3d renderings.

Hey ergo, I do all my designing in PnP but my drafting skills aren't good enough for variance and permit applications...