Virtual Architect Ultimate Home Design with Landscaping and Decks

I invested a lot of time with this software, so returning it was a painful decision. The following outlines my experience:

This is NOT ver 8.0 as described, but 7.0. Its fairly intuitive if youre familiar with CAD type tools, or even some MS Office tools for that matter. The objects are all organized logically (e.g. Building, Interior, Landscape, etc.). There are some quirks about things moving/resizing after youd think that theyd be anchored. I dont want my exterior walls being resized when Im trying to draw/resize interior walls. Its mostly for decorating and visualization than it is for actual construction specifications, so some of those features are less intuitive. It comes with a large book as well as tutorial videos on the DVD and a ton of documentation and help files. It also has a 30 day money back guarantee. Ill play with it for another week before trying to get the ver 8.0 that I thought I was getting. Id wager some of the issues Im seeing are likely resolved in 8.0. Id also hope to see more vendor products in the updated version. Ill keep playing to see if this is a program that can help me get to plans/drawings, in which case Ill upgrade to ver 8.0, or return it for something else. But I was able to map out my whole house in a few hours, so its not that complex to use.

I was able to frame out my home and add some elements like electrical outlets but it crashes consistently when I right-click on an element and click properties. Fortunately I can export and do a lot of stuff in PS

Well just got this today. Saturday. I’m installing on a laptop and I need to go diskless and the code does not work. A rough start. I have to wait until Monday for support and hopefully not have to pay for support. I was excited for the product and too bad I have to wait.

It isnt clear to me how to upgrade to Version 9, which is what I bought. I noticed another reviewer ordered Version 8 and received Version 7. So this may be a trend. That reviewer did not indicate they were able to upgrade on-line. And I didnt see any reply from the shipper. I was impressed with what Version 9 could do, but so far I am not impressed with Version 8. I hope the shipper corrects this. If you dont see an update from me, assume there was no response from the shipper, and try to find a different source or different software.

We wanted to enter a floor plan and make adjustments to the dimensions. The product claims to be easy to use, but holy smokes it is complicated. I expected to be able click on a wall and drag it. Or add a wall or a window. Way too many options and is not intuitive.

It didn’t do everything I wanted. Interior choices were set to a few items. Went with Chief Architect instead. If your just doing something simple like a garage this works. Also was advertised as 2017 but software was 2008 and wanting vista. Had to trick system into thinking I was on a window 7 machine. Doesn’t play well with windows 10

Really easy to use. Put together a floor plan within a 1/2 hour of opening up the software. Instructions are great.

anything you want to do is a lot of looking up time spent; nothing is intuitive or easily found. Unless its a basic square or rectangle house

I Agree with a previous reviewer. It seems to have a lot going for it but is not very intuitive. Also there is very little in the way of useful tutorials.