Home & Garden Design Collection

Amazon.co.uk Review If you want to create your own dream home from the comfort of your own PC look no further than the Home & Garden Design Collection. This title includes two CD-ROMs providing a series of fun tools that enable you to design your home and to landscape virtual gardens. One of the strongest features is the 3-D photoview program that lets you import a digital or scanned photo of your home onto the computer so you can landscape around it and make the images part of the final design. This title does take a while to install on your computer which is not surprising when you consider all the different programs it offers. There are tools for all kinds of interior design, adding bathtubs, adding windows, adding floor drains. You can add colours and calculate the square footage of pathways. It's detailed too so for example you can design intricate roofs and determine their textures. The title comes with plenty of background information including a clear index which shows you how to use all the different tools. You can use these programs for professional level planning and designing but complete beginners will have to be prepared to commit time at first to mastering the different functions. The 3-D effects are powerful and the end result is a bit like a video game as you move through the design. The great advantage of this program is that you can try out lots of ideas and get a pretty good understanding of how they would look in your home. Some people sometimes find it difficult to visualise how building work might alter a room. Using this program you can create virtual effect before bringing in real builders. --Justin Hunt