This is a great way to design and visualize structures. There are some parts of it that are less intuitive than others, so you should expect to look at the help files. In some instances the help files were also fairly not super helpful, which could be an easy improvement.

But overall, this is a pretty good piece of software it just needs to have some ease-of-use improvements.
Such as:
-Allow the user to re-material/re-color a whole object (or multiple) without having to select and apply the sub-parts
-Improve the documentation around bridging floors with a staircase.
-Improve the documentation around building single-slope roofs

I just purchased this product and downloaded from Amazon. I am designing a detached garage with apartment and doing a conversion of main home. First time opening informed update available, no big deal. I have created a simple 4 wall first floor and it crashes every time I try to add a second floor.. Sent a message to customer support and we'll see about their customer support.

Update, good news was customer support was very responsive, bad news was that the graphics card wasn't going to ever work. Good excuse to buy a new computer. I continued using the software while I waited for new computer. While I could build I couldn't do graphic views but it didn't stop me from moving forward and using the different tools. Today my new computer came, I immediately added a second floor (on portion of 1st floor), I liked the software even on old computer, I am really liking it now. I have a lot to learn but some of the tutorials I watched are being very helpful.

If you have never done CAD before there is a steep learning curve. You know what you want to do, just not how.

The help system is extensive and like a lot of help systems it does not make sense until you figure out how to do the thing you are trying to do. At least in the beginning it gets you close so you can figure it out and than it makes sense.

Another frustration is a number of thing I want to do are in the higher end editions but not enough that I want to pay for them.

The sequence of doing things is also important and I usually get it backwards. There is a logic to the where things are at in the menu system, I just do not know where it is. I finally learned to look at the bottom of the screen where some the features you are looking for show up.

Watching the videos is important. In addition to the subject matter, the instructor use a lot of little tricks that make life easier. To get the most out of the videos it helps a great deal if you have already spent time crashing through the program. Getting to the pretty pictures they show is possible with the higher end edition but in my mind not worth the time and trouble unless you use this stuff professionally.

Yes I would buy it again.

We have used Home Designer Suite twice now to design and build a home and redesign an existing one. We preferred the older version as it was a little more user friendly, although we are getting used to this version also. It is a great product to see exactly what your home will look like from top to bottom, including color, windows, walls, furniture, etc. We would highly recommend this product.

Very easy to get started and to use. Functionality is very intuitive. Within a couple of hours I completed a layout of the first and second floors as well as the garage and basement of my house. I'm now progressing with the interior room partitions, stairs, doors, windows and room labels. The main building gable roof was very easy to construct, however I have to admit constructing the garage gable roof is presenting a challenge.
FYI I referred to the site survey available at the county auditor's website to determine the building's plot location as well as building's perimeter dimensions.