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Best Home Design

Sweet Home 3D [Download]
Sweet Home 3D is aimed at people who wants to design their interior quickly, whether they are moving or they just want to redesign their existing home. View the changes in the plan simultaneously in a 3D view, in which you can navigate either from an aerial view point, or from a virtual visitor view point. PC Minimum System Requirements: PC Recommended System Requirements: Processor: Intel Core RAM: 1 GB Hard Disk: 280 MB Video Card: Any Supported OS: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP. Customize colors and texture of furniture, walls, floors and ceilings.
Reviews
"I say it is freeware because you can go to their home website and download the exact same program and furniture collections for free, but you have to download each and install the program and import the collections. By buying it through Amazon, you get the program and all available furniture collections packaged into one installation program and you provide the developers with a little cash for their efforts. If you can't find an item of furniture or a door or window you need, you can install the free Sketchup Make program, search the Sketchup 3D Warehouse and import any 3D model, or draw your own in Sketchup (steep learning curve, but worth it)."
"This software is not only VERY affordable but easy to use for ALL."
"Before purchasing this though, I played with a few free download program from various vendors ranging in price from $60-$200. I would not expect to use program to turn plans directly over to a builder, but it will save you thousands in architectural fees by laying out your own floor-plan first."
"This includes what we normally think of as furniture (tables, chairs, beds), and also doors, windows, staircases, appliances, cabinets, fixtures, tools and so on.). After a few hours of trial-and-error practice, I was able to produce respectable concept drawings (to show to a contractor) for a home addition, and for separate woodworking workshop and garden tractor garage buildings. The program author lives in Europe, so an American user may notice a few quirks."
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Chief Architect Home Designer Suite 2018 - DVD
Home design, remodeling, interior design, kitchens & baths, decks & landscaping, cost estimation.
Reviews
"Some of the materials are hard to locate for placement in the library."
"Has everything you would need to Design a 3D Home of your own with Support frame the Home Design distributors."
"Great product for construction business use."
"I purchased an earlier version of this software and after many revisions, I took a printout of what we created to a builder and my house is in the process of being built."
"I just got the DVD edition of Chief Architect Home Designer Suite 2018 and was eager to get started with it, having been using one version or another for the last decade or more. I have drawn hundreds of "dream houses" over the years, which unluckily were all lost in the last computer crash. Finally in the depths of a Help file, I found a little box that said the inside dimensions by default show the distance between *framing walls*, not wall surfaces. I didn't try to go any further with it, and I am sorry now that I blew a hundred bucks (I am retired, on a fixed and very limited income) on this POS."
"I mean, most home owners wanting to design their home would probably want at some stage a countertop without a cabinet, whether it be in a kitchen, or bathroom vanity. If you are new to home design software arena, go for something else. Their top software is $2600, and I don't know many average people who can throw that kind of money away on home design software."
"It indeed has it's faults (which for me includes the lack of realistic usable items to include in your design - Like who needs a fire engine or how about more than one three tier chandelier!). All three installations ended in a bright blue screen from Microsoft saying Windows 10 didn't install correctly."
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Chief Architect Home Designer Architectural 2018 - DVD
Powerful home design software for DIY home enthusiasts.
Reviews
"Trying to get it to go back to a simple gable roof will cost you tutorial time. Speaking of tutorials they are very good, BUT plan on spending HOURS of your time watching them and then trying to fix the surprises that happen."
"Good program, like other reviews takes some time to get, but there are training videos."
"Very nice piece of software that I've only invested about 6 hours in so far, and have the back yard design pretty much complete. The end points want to jump to preset coordinates which appear to be a foot or more apart, making exact modeling of what already exists in my yard impossible. What started to become irritating is that the length would adjust itself automatically when I connected the next perpendicular wall segment. There are additional library packs that can be purchased to expand the selection, but I guess I had expected a wider variety for the couple of hundred bucks I paid already."
"Recently I upgraded to the 2018 version, and am using it to design a custom home that we hope to build in a few years. I was able to set the home design within the lot, design a series of retaining walls, include a pool in the back yard, design the landscaping, and customize elevations to work well with the boundaries of the lot."
"Hopefully I can save someone the time and frustration I have experienced trying to find good home design software."
"I'm impressed by the training videos, online resources and features available in the program."
"Great software for home improvement contractors."
"This application is incredibly versatile and allows me to not only draw up conceptual designs but also look at what my current home looks like with different perspectives."
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Best CAD

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6
Consider Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC to get the latest updates, and ensure that the software works with raw files from the newest cameras.
Reviews
"There are four new features that are intended to convince version 5 users to upgrade: -Better performance. -Facial recognition. -Panorama merge. -HDR merge. I suspect what people care most about are Panorama and HDR. Here's the good news about these features: The output file for both the HDR and Panorama merge is Adobe DNG (RAW) so you can continue to modify the photo as a RAW film in Lightroom. Every program I've used for HDR and Panorama can only output a JPEG or TIFF even when they can accept a RAW files as an input (and of course, it's a major pain to have to convert your RAW files to TIFF or JPEG for programs that cannot accept RAW). Despite the lack of controls for HDR and Panoramic merge, there's a huge plus to having these features built into Lightroom and having the output file kept in RAW. But if you want the ability to control the process than the upgrade may not be worth it for you at this time (especially if you want that surreal look to your HDR images)."
"Like several other one-star reviewers I could not find the serial number to install the software, even after over an hour of browsing the Adobe www site and going in circles that always led to having me look on the box or the DVD sleeve."
"I was on the verge of purchasing the Lightroom 6 standalone product when I discovered the following: Adobe is in the process of moving its products to a subscription-only based business model."
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Best Illustration

CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO
CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO, The #1 Comic & Manga Software Worldwide, is the most efficient and advanced all-in-one solution for drawing, laying out, illustrating and publishing manga and comics. Designed specifically for illustrating manga and comic art, specialized features provide a complete solution all in one program. Frame-by-frame animation - features include adjustable timeline, onion skinning display and light table for creating seamless transitions.
Reviews
"I found that drawing in paint tool sai is still far smoother than doing so in this program, and coloring, and shading, and etc. I still haven't figured out how to zoom in on the model but you can click and drag to move or rotate parts of the "doll" to get a pose you need. Well their website has you covered with a literal BUTTLOAD of individual and brush sets taht you can easily install into the program."
"Update 1 month later : I keep finding more and more reasons to love this program, its half the price of SAI but arguably stronger engine, there's so much power packed in this application, even if you don't use it, it's very easy to get into and fiddle with to learn the controls. If you are on the fence on finding an application for your digital drawing needs, this is a tough one to pass up on, I think most people who digital paint shy away from this thinking its only for manga, the brush engine and customization available in this application will more than cover your doodly needs!.I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer from what I read and see on online tutorials, yet offers so much with the standard tools available from the get go."
"The learning curve is easy and if you get stuck there are many tutorials."
"No more awkward lines! Still easy to use, Has extra features that Sai tool did not have, and plethora of resources made by other users that adds expandability of the tool! If you are looking for a good paint tool that doesn't break your bank or cause awkward sensation while drawing, Clip studio paint is worth a try."
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Best Animation & 3D

Anime Studio Pro 11
Anime Studio Pro 11 is perfect for professionals looking for a more efficient alternative to traditional animation.
Reviews
"You'll also save yourself a lot of time in learning because this one is by far, one of the easiest programs for me to understand and use. You will still have to spend some time learning how to work it, but I highly doubt you'll need to enroll yourself in a college class to understand it."
"Great Software, but have trouble running it on Win 10..."
"I only bought the Debut version because it was cheaper and I wanted to learn Anime Studio's original selling point it's bone feature. I recommend this version over the Debut version of Anime Studio 11 because you will find more tutorials for the bone feature and a webinar for the frame by frame feature."
"The included Tutorial and User Manuals (pdf format) are good and can be accessed in Anime Studio from the help menu."
"Excellent software with great tutorials on their youtube channel."
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Best Photography

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6
Platform: PC/Mac Disc. Consider Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC to get the latest updates, and ensure that the software works with raw files from the newest cameras.
Reviews
"Like several other one-star reviewers I could not find the serial number to install the software, even after over an hour of browsing the Adobe www site and going in circles that always led to having me look on the box or the DVD sleeve."
"There are four new features that are intended to convince version 5 users to upgrade: -Better performance. -Facial recognition. -Panorama merge. -HDR merge. I suspect what people care most about are Panorama and HDR. Here's the good news about these features: The output file for both the HDR and Panorama merge is Adobe DNG (RAW) so you can continue to modify the photo as a RAW film in Lightroom. Every program I've used for HDR and Panorama can only output a JPEG or TIFF even when they can accept a RAW files as an input (and of course, it's a major pain to have to convert your RAW files to TIFF or JPEG for programs that cannot accept RAW). Despite the lack of controls for HDR and Panoramic merge, there's a huge plus to having these features built into Lightroom and having the output file kept in RAW. But if you want the ability to control the process than the upgrade may not be worth it for you at this time (especially if you want that surreal look to your HDR images)."
"I was on the verge of purchasing the Lightroom 6 standalone product when I discovered the following: Adobe is in the process of moving its products to a subscription-only based business model."
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Best Graphics Training & Tutorials

Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 Student Version
software.
Reviews
"Great product."
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