HGTV Home Design for Mac Review

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(More customer reviews)Been using Better Homes and Gardens, and Punch! 3D Home software on PC for years, and when I switched totally to Mac, I was tired of having to use Fusion to run my latest (but dated) program Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 7.0. So, I asked for this, HGTV Home Design for Mac, since it's one of the few in a reasonable price range for Mac OSX.
I'm a fairly advanced user and found this program easy to pick up on. However, that doesn't make it keen. Sometimes it makes me wonder what the software testers were thinking when they approved this for the retail market. Some may find it convenient that another wall automatically begins to draw after you draw the initial wall, and you have to double click (or something along the lines of multi-clicking) to get it to stop drawing walls, or create a polygon of sorts. Flat out annoying, especially when you're using a Bamboo Pen to draw up the plans. I decided I'd get over that issue (after I exhausted the menus to see if I could change this preference) and just continue with the design I was working on.
Limited changes to walls as far as plan drawing goes. And it wasn't until I was half way through one side of the "house" plan that I noticed the drag and drop (not point and place, which I prefer) doors cannot be "opened". They're practically ornaments on the wall unless it's a glass paned door, then you can check a box that says "look through" and it makes the glass transparent. So in the 3D view, which is quite fast on my MacBook Pro, All I saw was a bunch of closed doors. I couldn't look from room to room unless I walked through a closed door like a ghost. I also attempted to make all the doors cased openings instead so I could at least get a feel for the plan... I guess cased opening didn't ring any bells with the developer either. I don't want just a drywall opening. I want a door jamb, with casing, with no door. *sigh* I attempted to find the answers to these in the manual - and I'm going to call it a guide to what's already obvious. There's no secrets or instructions in the "manual" that you couldn't already figure out on your own. You cannot change the size of the door by clicking on the door and dragging it to size, you have to enter the door's advanced menu and adjust the inch-size. There are also limited options on what the door can actually be (i.e. single hinged, multi-fold, pocket, etc.) I may have been too frustrated to dig further, but I only found single, french, sliding and offset hinged doors. Maybe a bi-fold door, too.
You can, however, select one of THOUSANDS of textures for your doors and other surfaces. Windows are fine... I almost put windows in place of doors so I could see from room to room. You don't realize how much you need the "make open" option for a door until you're trying to create a laundry room - or any room - or until you are using the program for other than interior decorating needs.
All that said, I must be too spoiled for this program - but it's not comprehensive enough for me. Also, not being able to print "blueprint" style is a deal breaker. It's unfortunate that I'll actually have to utilize their 90-day moneyback guarantee. Let's hope this guarantee is actually legit.
If you're average to advanced, or creative at all and you care about functionality and usefulness over couch textures, this program is probably not for you. I'll try to update on how the 90-Day Money Back goes.

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