Thus far my small forays into landscape software have been disappointing. I got the home architecture suites from Punch and Brøderbund a few years back (not the latest editions available today), and they had some nice features (like the ability to "age" trees and shrubs and the ability to view from different angles), but tended to crash a lot. (Perhaps to be blamed on my PC, which knows I'm usually a Mac user and likes to lash out at me.) I tried the online BHG program, but it seemed pretty minimal in terms of its library, and I don't like the java or flash implementation. I haven't tried the expensive ($1000) packages, but in a lot of forum searches, it sounds like people who have done a lot of experimenting have come to the conclusion that they are the only ones that are really up to the job for anything fancy. (As someone who has designed software, I suspect there are market forces at work here. There are probably a million people who are willing to plop down $50 to try out a basic software package. There are maybe a few thousand willing to pay $1000 for a really good one. There may not be that much market in-between -- i.e., the folks selling the premium packages have probably done market research that says that if they sold it for, say, $250, they would only (say) double their sales, and thus lose money.) For my purposes, really useful features would include - overview and 3D walk-around modes - ability to see plant sizes at different ages - ability to see how things look in different seasons. For a relatively inexperienced gardener like me, this last one would be a great help, as I'm finding that the ability to visualize how a single space will look in different seasons is coming slowly, and have a hard time designing a space so that there will be a succession of things in bloom throughout the season. (I'll probably get better at this over a couple of years, but then I'll probably want to pull out most of the perennials I've planted in the meantime!) Sizes are also something that I still misestimate. My first year gardening, things were WAY too crowded in some beds, and I had no conception of the vertical dimension. A software program where I could "grow" the plants virtually in seconds would have been a big help. (The lesson I've taken to heart is, "Until you understand how things are going to grow, plant annuals unless you're willing to dig your 'babies' up in a year or two.") If things have changed, and there are consumer-level programs that can do the job, I would be glad to hear of it. I should think there WOULD be a good market for a sub-$100 program that is actually useful for serious garden planning. It would quickly pay for itself in terms of "mistakes" avoided.

Well...I'm the OP and macv is right, we DO have plans already and all I THOUGHT I wanted was to SEE stone/siding ideas on the exterior. We'd been feeling like chickens with our heads cut off and thought at least let's focus on THAT. What nobody here knew, and I didn't think was important at the time to mention, is we're still tweaking interior walls/rooms, etc. Now, after a recent conversation, we might even move out an exterior wall! PLUS, the whole thing was drawn using one brand of ICF with certain dimensions and we might not necessarily use that particular brand. We thought this was irrelevant if just wanting to try and figure out stone choices! I see now maybe it's not. Because I'm finally understanding (from this whole discussion) that the "shell" and interior walls and roof, etc. need to be accurate and drawn in first, in order to see the house in that awesome 3-D! format, I can't even begin to start with the outside look until the floorplan is figured out once and for all! BACKGROUND: I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but...because our building site is sooooo particular (ie: 1 side goes uphill, two sides go downhill or is close to a CLIFF, and one side is possible to alter) we actually did hire a designer to put our ideas to paper. The PROBLEM is that he charged us for every discussion (NO, we weren't pains in the butt and didn't bother him or change our minds over and over, it was just a major misunderstanding about how he charges and we didn't know any better). We've already spent $5,000 when we finally said enough is enough...and as I said before, we're discovering the floorplan is still not really right. (example: he drew a "winder" stairway that's only 36" wide not counting railing); the master suite is really, really cramped, etc! We trusted him as the "expert" and let him draw in a "bedroom" and the "stairs".....(in his defense, this is a Y-shaped home so spaces are a little tricky to fit everything in.) So. My dilemna wanting a program suggestion is probably NOW more to do with HAVING to DIY while we tweak the plans ourselves and THEN hiring someone AGAIN to put it in usable blueprints. ALL that everyone has said here has really helped me to understand the guts of architectural design and what one gets with one program over another. Being a real novice, I'm in the boat that I feel I HAVE to learn something (so, please...user friendly) because we just can't keep paying and paying and paying for more and more discussion about it. Don't get me wrong, I RESPECT the professional and I don't presume to be able to take their place when we need the REAL building plans. Does this make sense? PS: The above "cut & paste" idea is about my speed right now, but I intend to learn the technology to automate this process! One primitive thing I've already done though is make a foamboard model that I can hold in my hands and SEE! My original inquiry on this forum was resorted to because even my model is NOT FAST and easy to CHANGE if I'd come up with different ideas. ohhhhhhhhh boy...This project is fun...and isn't fun sometimes! Thanks for reading. The OP

Zep, I finally had some time this morning... so I downloaded HijackThis and followed your instructions to the letter. Here's the uninstall list. Now, my husband and I took a look at it and he said "if it's just installed and not running then it's not a problem". Is that true? 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) Ad-Aware Adobe Bridge 1.0 Adobe Common File Installer Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Adobe Flash Player Plugin Adobe Help Center 1.0 Adobe Photoshop CS2 Adobe Reader 8.1.3 Adobe Stock Photos 1.0 AnswerWorks 4.0 Runtime - English AOLIcon Apple Mobile Device Support Apple Software Update avast! Antivirus Broadcom Advanced Control Suite Canon IJ Network Scan Utility Canon IJ Network Tool Canon MP Navigator EX 1.1 Canon MX850 series Canon MX850 series User Registration Canon My Printer Canon Utilities Easy-PhotoPrint EX Canon Utilities Solution Menu Cardiris Cisco Systems VPN Client 4.8.02.0010 Creative MediaSource Dell Digital Jukebox Driver Dell Driver Reset Tool Dell Media Experience Dell Support Center (Support Software) DellSupport DMX Update FileZilla (remove only) Free Solitaire 3D 1.7 Google Desktop Google Earth Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer HijackThis 2.0.2 Hotfix for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (KB953595) Hotfix for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB947864) Hotfix for Windows Media Format 11 SDK (KB929399) Hotfix for Windows Media Player 11 (KB939683) Hotfix for Windows XP (KB942288-v3) Hotfix for Windows XP (KB952287) ImgBurn (Remove Only) Intel Matrix Storage Manager Intel(R) 537EP V9x DF PCI Modem Internet Explorer Default Page iPod for Windows 2006-03-23 IrfanView (remove only) iTunes J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 10 J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 11 J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6 J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 9 Java 2 Runtime Environment, SE v1.4.2_03 Java(TM) 6 Update 11 Java(TM) 6 Update 3 Java(TM) 6 Update 7 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 1 Learn2 Player (Uninstall Only) Macromedia Flash Player 8 MailWasher Free Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Hotfix (KB928366) Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft Compression Client Pack 1.0 for Windows XP Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2005 Microsoft Excel 97 Microsoft Internationalized Domain Names Mitigation APIs Microsoft Money 2005 Microsoft National Language Support Downlevel APIs Microsoft Office Access MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Access Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Microsoft Office Excel MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Groove MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Groove Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office InfoPath MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office OneNote MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Outlook MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office PowerPoint MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Proof (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Proof (French) 2007 Microsoft Office Proof (Spanish) 2007 Microsoft Office Proofing (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Publisher MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Shared MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Shared Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Office Word MUI (English) 2007 Microsoft Picture It! Premium 10 Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition Installer Microsoft Plus! Photo Story 2 LE Microsoft Publisher 97 Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005 Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Feature Pack 1.0 Microsoft Works Microsoft Works 2005 Setup Launcher Microsoft Works Suite Add-in for Microsoft Word Modem Event Monitor Modem Helper Modem On Hold Mozilla Firefox (3.0.5) MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB925672) MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB927978) MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB936181) MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB954430) My Way Search Assistant NVIDIA Drivers OpenOffice.org Installer 1.0 Paint Shop Pro 7 Photo Click Photodex Presenter Picasa 3 PIXMA Extended Survey Program PowerDVD 5.5 Presto! PageManager 7.15.20 ProShow Gold Qualxserve Service Agreement Quicken 2007 QuickTime RealPlayer Basic ScanSoft OmniPage SE 4 Security Update for 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB951550) Security Update for 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB951944) Security Update for 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB958439) Security Update for CAPICOM (KB931906) Security Update for CAPICOM (KB931906) Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (KB958437) Security Update for Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 (KB950130) Security Update for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 (KB951338) Security Update for Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 (KB950114) Security Update for Microsoft Office system 2007 (KB954326) Security Update for Microsoft Office system 2007 (KB956828) Security Update for Microsoft Office Word 2007 (KB956358) Security Update for Step By Step Interactive Training (KB898458) Security Update for Step By Step Interactive Training (KB923723) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB928090) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB931768) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB933566) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB937143) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB938127) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB939653) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB942615) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB944533) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB950759) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB953838) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB956390) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB958215) Security Update for Windows Internet Explorer 7 (KB960714) Security Update for Windows Media Player (KB952069) Security Update for Windows Media Player 10 (KB911565) Security Update for Windows Media Player 10 (KB917734) Security Update for Windows Media Player 11 (KB936782) Security Update for Windows Media Player 11 (KB954154) Security Update for Windows XP (KB938464) Security Update for Windows XP (KB941569) Security Update for Windows XP (KB946648) Security Update for Windows XP (KB950760) Security Update for Windows XP (KB950762) Security Update for Windows XP (KB950974) Security Update for Windows XP (KB951066) Security Update for Windows XP (KB951376) Security Update for Windows XP (KB951376-v2) Security Update for Windows XP (KB951698) Security Update for Windows XP (KB951748) Security Update for Windows XP (KB952954) Security Update for Windows XP (KB953839) Security Update for Windows XP (KB954211) Security Update for Windows XP (KB954459) Security Update for Windows XP (KB954600) Security Update for Windows XP (KB955069) Security Update for Windows XP (KB956391) Security Update for Windows XP (KB956802) Security Update for Windows XP (KB956803) Security Update for Windows XP (KB956841) Security Update for Windows XP (KB957095) Security Update for Windows XP (KB957097) Security Update for Windows XP (KB958644) Security Update for Windows XP (KB958687) Shockwave Shutterfly Plugin Sonic Audio module Sonic DLA Sonic MyDVD LE Sonic RecordNow Copy Sonic RecordNow Data Sonic Update Manager Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Spelling Dictionaries Support For Adobe Reader 8 Spybot - Search & Destroy TrueSwitch Wizard Verizon TurboTax ItsDeductible 2005 TurboTax ItsDeductible 2006 TurboTax Premier 2007 TurboTax Premier Investments 2006 Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (KB952142) Update for Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 Help (KB957249) Update for Microsoft Office Word 2007 Help (KB957252) Update for Office 2007 (KB946691) Update for Outlook 2007 Junk Email Filter (kb959141) Update for Windows XP (KB951072-v2) Update for Windows XP (KB951978) Update for Windows XP (KB955839) VC 9.0 Runtime Verizon Broadband Toolbar (IE only) Verizon Broadband Toolbar Firefox only Verizon Online Help and Support Verizon Servicepoint 1.5.22 Viewpoint Media Player WD Diagnostics WebCyberCoach 3.2 Dell WexTech AnswerWorks Windows Genuine Advantage v1.3.0254.0 Windows Media Format 11 runtime Windows Media Format 11 runtime Windows Media Player 10 Windows Media Player 11 Windows Media Player 11 Windows XP Service Pack 3 WinZip X-Win32 7.1 ZoneAlarm ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker

Thanks for mentioning this! I am having so much fun exploring my new house. I've been looking for a decent 3D program with more options than the IKEA room planner. That program did a better job of letting me really dig into my kitchen layout and cabinet plans but I couldn't put in furniture. This works so much better for actually getting into the rooms and walking around to make sure that it correlates and there is enough room for everything we want / need to include. And with DH traveling he can actually see what I am talking about when we discuss changes. So far, I've created our great room & kitchen, our master suite and will focus on my craft room and DH's office next. I'll have our whole house planned out in 3D before we even start digging.