Architecte 3D Reviews 150

Having bought the software from Avanquest, I'm told it has been sold to Punch. I now have no access. Avanquest responds with auto emails saying it's now the responsibility of Punch; no response at all from Punch. In other words, it's a scam.

After spending $200 the software would crash and then corrupt the files I was working on so that they lost everything and I had to keep starting again. I tried to get help on the forums but after having to create an account to access them, the search in the forums shows less information than asking google search. The software itself isn't too bad (until it crashes and corrupts all your work). I recommend you find something cheaper and more reliable.

Architect 3D is good. It enabled me to submit plans for a single storey extension. Plans must be saved regularly (to a different file name), otherwise work will be lost. Product doesnt support drawing of gutters or 3D site profiles. Customization of fixtures and fittings is limited. The scaling grid does not meet UK requirements. However, elevation and floor profiles are good and with practice relatively easy to use. Value for money, but feature limitations due to price relative to much more expensive professional CAD products. 3D views are also great.

A big thank you to the 3d Architect team for their responsiveness. In less than 1 hour they offered me an arrangement. I ordered the gold version and ultimately it didn't suit me, I needed a more efficient version like the platinum, no need to do 36 thousand manipulations. Our arrangement was made simply by email. With a direct link to pay the additional amount and I was able to use the software a few minutes later.
They were super accommodating and very quick. Their software is great for work authorization applications and building permits as well as for home improvements. I recommend them without hesitation 😊👍.
A big thank you to the 3d Architect team.
PISCINES D'AQUITAINE.

Un grand merci a l'équipe Architecte 3d pour leur réactivité. En moins 1h ils m'ont proposés un arrangement. J'avais commandé la version gold et finalement celle-ci ne me convenait pas,j'avais besoin d'une version plus performante comme la platinum pas eu besoin de faire 36milles manipulations. Notre arrangement s'est fait simplement par mail. Avec un lien direct pour régler la somme complémentaire et j'ai pu me servir du logiciel quelques minutes plus tard.
Ils ont été super arrangeant et très rapide. Leurs logiciels sont tops pour les demandes d autorisation de travaux et les permis de construire ainsi que pour les améliorations de l'habitat. Je les recommandent sans hésitations 😊👍.
Un grand merci à l'équipe Architecte 3d.
PISCINES D'AQUITAINE

great customer service and quick response. easy to deal with. i’m a very happy customer.

Smooth sailing all the way. Their website on their products is very detailed, so purchasing the perfect software package was very easy. Downloading the software and activating it easy. Had a couple questions so I contacted the help line, got my reply next day and giving me the answers I needed; easy.

I purchased the software 4 years ago. I lost it.they helped me to resend the software and key again

What an innovative program that requires previous architect design or tech skills. Its literally AI level for novice designers. The 3D rendering from 2D modeling is making me with my clients as visualization is key in our field. Amazing software for the price, tech support is beyond exemplary and super efficient. Architect 3D is so easy my 11 year old is learning by just watching. Excellent job guys!!!!

One star because, despite repeated requests for a refund, Avanquest (who sell Architect 3D) have not responded at all (not even to say 'sorry but no' or to ask for more details on why I feel I deserve one). Automated emails promise a response within 2 days max., but no response actually comes. Lots of companies seem to do this these days, but it's an extremely poor way to treat customers and warrants a poor review to match.

My reason for asking for a refund is that it isn’t able to recreate the wonky stone walls of my house. There were some workarounds (suggested by a very helpful woman on the user forum) but none of them were satisfactory or gave me what I needed, so it is basically useless for me.

That said, if your house is fairly basic timber or brick build - basic square boxes with standard thickness of walls and no odd angles around doorways, windows and archways etc, then it might work for you. There are a few things to be aware of though.

The user guide is a little problematic. It tends to skip over anything that is remotely difficult to explain, and very often I found that the things that were missed were absolutely vital to understanding the software. But then the guide goes into quite a lot of detail on some very basic things (but easier to explain). If you have a reasonable knowledge of drawing and 3D software principles already (which most people wanting to use a piece of software like this probably do have) you will probably figure it out.

I also found the software quite buggy. The 'snap to grid' function seemed to snap different walls to slightly different grids, so that they couldn't be lined up without turning the snap function off completely. But then I had to move the walls together a cm at a time with the arrow keys (using a mouse or trackpad is too sensitive to be able to move anything to where you want it) and as my walls are all different thicknesses they don’t automatically join themselves (as I believe they would if they were the same). This makes even the basic function of creating your walls very tedious and time consuming. Without the snap function on it’s also very easy to accidentally move things out of alignment after you have gone to all the effort of lining them up. I also found that walls in the 3D view appeared to be different heights, even though they were all set to be exactly the same. I could get them to match up in the 3D view by taking a cm or two off the height of some of them – but it was a case of take a few cm off and check the view, take a few cm off and check the view – before you could get them matching. Again, very time consuming. At one point a ceiling (that I didn’t add) appeared out of nowhere in the 3D view, and then disappeared after I closed and re-opened the file.

While all of this is frustrating, I appreciate that something cheap isn’t going to have all the kinks worked out yet. And I could have lived with all of this if it was able to do what I needed. If it wasn’t for the fact that the company selling it have ignored me, I might give it 3 stars.

But treating customers with distain by just ignoring them is not impressive.

27/3/23 Update
I received an email reply a day after writing this review. Despite the fact that I had made it very clear in my email to them that I had firmly established that the software does not do what I needed to do, that I had consulted the instructions and also got some help and workarounds from the user forum, the reply directed me to the user manual and said: "Maybe you are missing some information on how to use all functions of the program correctly?"

13/4/23 UPDATE: I do now have a refund for this and I have added a star to my review. It is a shame that it took a negative review to achieve a response as this wasted time at both ends of the situation But it is now resolved.

Response very quick, problem solved, very competent and polite.
Could be a benchmark!

Been using this program for design work and can say it covers most or all basic functions to design houses and landscapes at a very cheap price. If I had a problem I just emailed support and in my case they responded very quick within 24hours or less. I can say for the price of $300 it is a bargain and with free updates for 2 years its a no brainer. Thanks Support

After purchasing the product, a member of staff helped to load the software to my PC. Unfortunately, the library of plants etc was missing, and my request was dealt with promptly.

It is a good piece of software and no doubt I will get more out of it with more experience.

Easy to use, and great support when I recently had issues.

The application Architect 3d 21Platinum continually stops responding and caused 2 lap tops to crash (one irretrievably). I have been unable to use the application on a third laptop as the licence key limit has been reached apparently.

When working, the software is fails to perform correctly.
At the start of a project setting the wall heights is not maintained as the software defaults back to the default 2700mm.
Each wall has to be then altered individually.

Too much of the basic functionality in the edit menu is greyed out and not selectable for example copy and paste.
Many of the functions simply do not work as per the instructions in the user guide.
The duplicate function
The distribute function
The spacing function are inter alia examples which do not work when items are selected.

The inability to group items together such as kitchen cabinets or room furniture and move them all together is a basic function that is even available in free to use software.
I fully accept that these issues my be down to user inexperience, however a request for support to eliminate user inexperience has not elicited a response in 14 days.
A request for refund generated an auto reply promising a response in 2 days when busy, however after 7 days a response still had not been provided.

Finally used the web chat function to chase my refund. I was offered a free upgrade to Architect 3d Ultimate which I declined, then a 50% discount off my purchase price. Which I also declined.

If the software doesn't work and customer support can't provide a response after 14 days, what would be the point.

On a positive note the refund was received the same day.

After my computer crashed, I had to reinstall all my programs. Needless to say the weblink for the Architect 3D has expired.

I contacted customer support and "whala", they mail me a link to the software plus the license key and I was up in running within 24 business hours

Easy to use and compatible with other software thanks to DWG

I lost by hard drive and my software purchase, support helped me retrieve my license key and download the software.

The product was too much for me, it would need constant use to become familiar enough to use successfully. I asked for a refund through the help line who answered very quickly and were very helpfull. Very good customer real people service.

Good value for money, for home use it really allows to do lots of useful planning and design. I've chosen this software after checking few other options and I'm happy with it. It requires a bit of learning before you can do more complicated things, but effects are really nice. The terrain designer is something really surprising and works well for me. For the things I'm missing: I was not able to create a real mirror with reflections in rendering mode, and in the 3d modeler there are no boolean operations possible and this complicates things. But in version 21 import from sketchup works, so I can live with it.

Generally an ok product for use on my mac. Takes a little time to get to know it, but does everything you need. Shame that the estimating tool and the design layout dont run as one - i.e. costs update as you work. Had one loading problem and the user support team were very helpful and efficient.