Not Rhome, but I have the Home Designer Suite version. It is OK, but if you are planning on any "unusual" cabinets (open shelving, custom purposed cabinets like plate display or wine racks, etc.), it's either not possible or cumbersome to do. And, the colors and door styles of cabinets are a bit limited. If you're just looking at the 3D line drawings, it's fine. But, if you want to see "maple natural" versus "honey stained" versus "spice", you can't do that. And, if you have a particular door style in mind, it may be hard to get that look perfect in your renderings, though there should be something close.

I'm Not Rhome and a home user and sure that Rhome has the Chief Architect suped up version because she mentioned that before.

If you want an idea of what you can do, you can take a look at my flickr set that has some renderings and home plans that I've done in it.

My flickr set

It is limited if you want to really produce exactly what a space will look like. But there are workarounds that I've learned like:

• Using soffits to make any rectangular or flat shape necessary.

• Using Formica wood patterns to get better wood colors / finishes.

• Generally using things that don't belong but look enough like other things to take their place (valances as furniture feet for cabinets, enlarging coffee tables to dining room table size, shrinking down columns to use as leg supports for countertops, etc.)

It is not terribly intuitive to learn. I say that as someone who has written software and user interfaces. It doesn't follow certain windows standards, which is frustrating. However, you can certainly get a rough idea very quickly, it takes a while before you can really get a particular look though. I think that CA is more flexible and easier to customize the proper way without lots of hokey work-arounds.

Here's me comparing two options for peninsula in the program to give you an idea of some of the flexibility and rendering:

I'm using an older version (Home Designer Suite 7) which I know doesn't have some of the newer features.

Well, I am RHome410 ;-)...and I have the full, actual Chief Architect version, thanks to DH's job. But I have worked with several others here who have the BH&G versions and they do as much as a homeowner designing a remodel could want, it seems to me...or in most cases. Mine will do all sorts of calculations and materials lists, and different construction views that I never use. And since mine is at least a few years old now, the home designer softwares, I think, probably have more and more current finishes and styles for cabinets, appliances, construction details, etc. Plus, the home designer ones are WAY easier on the wallet!

At one point I borrowed the Interior Design version of the BH&G software from our library, just to see how it compared. It is one of the cheapest options. It did the renderings similar to my Chief Architect.

The websites are probably your best bet in determining which software is best for you. The BH&G softwares, made by Chief Architect for homeowners, come in MANY different versions with different offerings. I have linked the comparison chart below. You can see more detailed descriptions of each one on different pages of that website, too. Just remember that you can likely find what you want for less money than the prices they list.

Please do not hesitate to ask me any more specific questions, and if you buy one of the softwares, they are so close in commands, etc., I can often help you figure out little tricks to represent things you may want that aren't in the library, or a pre-set option. You can email me through 'my page,' also.

Here is a link that might be useful: comparison chart for BH&G home designer softwares

brickton -- thanks for the Chief Architect tips. I can't believe how much nicer my cabinets render when clad in Formica!

Ha!...I still have to use soffits or panels to create other things, and I never thought of using the Formica woods to augment the wood finishes that I don't think are very good in my version!