By Steve Marinucci
Published Aug. 29, 1998, San Jose (CA.) Mercury News
IF YOU'RE planning to build a house or just add a room, a number of computer programs and bundles can help transfer your imagination into virtual reality. Here are a few that I tested:
BOB VILA'S HOME DESIGN (Compton's Home Library/Windows 95, $39.95):
Two CD-ROMs combining home plans (with some home designs featuring animated tours) and design tools. The second CD-ROM has Vila's video segments on all aspects of designing and planning a home. More than 1,000 home plans can be searched and blueprints are available to view on disc.
Designing a house is relatively easy through the use of the mouse. As you add elements, you can view the results in 2-D or 3-D. Included on the disc is a link to the Vila Home Design Web site http://www.bobvila.com/index.htm, which includes additional home projects, listings for resources, products for sale, interactive advice, plus a 3-D VRML virtual reality house online.
Overall, I found ''Bob Vila's Home Design'' a great aid if you're planning to design a house.
BRODERBUND 3D HOME DESIGN SUITE (Broderbund, $79.95):
This bundle consists of 3D Home Architect Deluxe, 3D Home Interiors and Imagine Your Landscape, all for Windows:
(box) 3D Home Architect Deluxe (Broderbund, $49.95 separately): Nuts-and-bolts design program with 3-D views of finishing projects. Fairly easy to use and without a lot of bells and whistles. Functional and more than adequate if you're looking for a basic design program to help preview whatyou've got in mind.
(box) 3D Home Interiors (Broderbund, $49.95 separately): Companion to above with drag-and-drop catalog of furniture and interior applications that can be imported into design plans and linked to shopping lists so you can plan your spending. Nice touch: You can vary lighting views to see how the room will look.
(box) Imagine Your Landscape (SHOW OFF! SOFTWARE): The subtitle says ''Update Your Landscape With Living Pictures,'' which about describes it. You can either use the pictures that come with the program, or with a scanner, import a picture of your home and see how your landscape will look. The program could stand to be a little more user-friendly because many of the functions are hidden in the pull-down menus, which we found a bit hard to access.
THIS OLD HOUSE -- KITCHENS AND HOME ARCHITECT ($49.95):
Bundle consisting of This Old House -- Kitchens and 3D Home Architect Deluxe:
(box) This Old House -- Kitchens (Windows 3.1/Windows 95-Broderbund): Encyclopedic planner for adding on kitchens, including a ton of practical video tips and a very handy feature called ''Material Sampler'' that lets you easily see how various color schemes will work together. If you're only planning a new kitchen, this will help you get the right idea, though the design software here didn't work as well as 3D Home Architect Deluxe, which fortunately is included.
(box) 3D Home Architect Deluxe (same program as in 3D Home Design Suite reviewed above):
If you're buying the packages that include 3D Home Architect Deluxe, the better choice is clearly the This Old House package. The combination of the This Old House and the 3D Home Architect Deluxe programs is more useful than those in the other package.
