Sorry, I have no idea, but I'm looking for something, too...so I'll be following your thread. Good question :)

Chief Architect gets great reviews on Amazon. I just bought it, the $99 version (I forget what it's called), but haven't used it yet--was busy, and my husband's coworker borrowed it over the holiday. He thinks it's great.

I do know that if you buy any version of Chief Architect and then decide you really like it and want more features, you can upgrade to the next level without paying more because they have rebates. For instance, I bought the $99 version, and if I decide I want the $150 or whatever version, I buy it and get a $100 rebate, which covers the cost of my $99 version.

I "bought" and used Plan3D for designing my kitchen remodel a few years ago. I had previously purchased Broderbund 3D Home Architect (version 5) which was slow, buggy, and unusable to the point that I simply threw it out. One of my many complaints about it (3D Home Architect) was that you could only edit your design in a 2D overhead view, drafting mode, and to see the results in 3D you needed to wait 15 sec. while the program slowly rendered a single 3D view.

Plan 3D pros:
* Plan3D not only allows real-time 3D rendering including interactive 3D walkthroughs, but it even allows you to edit the design in the 3D view.

* Well designed user interface that makes it fairly easy to do the common tasks that users are most likely to want to do, without also making less common user needs impossible.

* If you are not happy with the textures available for the objects in your design, (for instance I wanted quarter-sawn oak) you can find use any image you want and easily used that as the texture for the object in question.

* Although its kindof gimmicky, the ability to open and close doors on the models in the program allowed me to see whether the doors would interfere with one another or impede traffic flow when open.

* Realistic enough rendering that you get a good sense of how the end result will look (see images below)

Plan 3D cons:
* Their wacky pay-as-you-go pricing model.

* If your internet connection goes out, you cannot start the program.

* Although their online downloadable distribution model allows them to easily push out upgrades, bug-fixes, and new models and objects, I never noticed any of the bugs that vewed me being fixed or any new models.

* Very hard to make and edit complex shapes for floors and counters, especially when trying to approximate a curve.

After finishing the remodel (mostly) and taking a bunch of pictures, I went back to the Plan3D design and took snapshots from the same view points:

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Thanks bob,

Thank you very much for your post. I think I'm going to give it a try. The price certainly seems reasonable. I'll post again after I have tried the software.

Thanks again

A girl named "Max"