Help with Broderbund 3-D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I recently bought and even more recently began using Broderbund 3-D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 to help me do some design work for a new home I anticipate. I found the program to be easy to use and pretty intuitive. It's been great for essentially 'copying' plans I "kind of like" and then playing with them to see if I can make a few changes and end up with what I want rather than trying to start with a blank screen.

This has worked fine for me for the most part but I've come across one problem I can't seem to solve. Yesterday I 'copied' a plan I kind of liked and then used a feature I'd not tried before that allows you to 'reverse' the plan (taking the garage from the right side and placing it on the left, etc.). The software did that just fine but it also reduced the size of everything so that it fits on one screen.

Now, while that may be nice if I want to print something out later, it's just too small for these tired eyes to work with easily. I've tried to find out how to 're-enlarge' this reversed image but to no avail. Ironically, I cannot find out how to take an existing plan and reduce it to a single screen, either, but I'm sure it must be there.

Can anyone tell me what I need to do on this? Thanks!

[dummy]

I have the Design Suite 3.5 program. On this version, click on the magnifying glass on the toolbar then use the cursor (hold left mouse button) to create a box around whichever part you want to enlarge. Release the mouse button and it is enlarged. Toolbar on/off is the F5 key. Hope this helps.

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Well, it helped some. I was able to enlage it to fill the one screen but not to expand beyond the screen as the original. This is certainly better, though. Thanks.

I'm still hoping to be able to get back to what was my original scale, though. I'll keep playing with it. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Gatorboy]

If you take the Magnifying Glass you can hold down the left mouse button and select any size rectangle you want to make fill your screen -- or just keep zooming in and you will get your desired look.

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color="blue"> select any size rectangle you want to make fill your screen </font color>

What I'm going for is to have the entire house larger than my screen like it is when I first 'build' my walls. I hope I'm communicating this adequately. I just thought that when I reversed my plan I'd have the same thing I had on my initial screen but reversed. Instead, I got the same plan but it's limited to my screen size to include all four exterior walls.

Maybe once I reversed my plan I gave up that option. If that's the case I guess I can just redraw the plan in reverse from the original I copied. That's exactly what I thought I could avoid by using the 'reverse' option. Now it seems I can do that but there's a tradeoff involved. Any thoughts?

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> What I'm going for is to have the entire house larger than my screen </font color>

That is what I meant by using the magnifying glass -- just make a rectangle around one of the bedrooms for example -- you should then have the entire screen made up of the bedroom, and you can scroll left/right; up/down to view the entire house.

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">...is to have the entire house larger than my screen ... </font color>

Hi Gary,

Just follow Gatorboy's suggestions and it will work exactly the way you want... however you must "click" the magnifying glass each time you want to do something...

Another method, I use, is use the "right mouse" button... a menu pops up... to place a wall, window, door, stairs, zoom, save, etc. ... "all on the fly"... (without repeatedly going to the top of the screen and clicking on the "top icons" moving from your current position)

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I got it (finally). [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Thanks to all for your help and patience, everyone. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Gary, Why not upgrade to 4.0 so you can help me with mine? IT came with a 5.0 user's manual. Go figure.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Pat

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Pat,

I can best answer that by just reposting something I posted earlier.

<font color="blue"> I just bought the Broderbund 3.0 brand new in a jewel case for $8.89 delivered to my door using the 'Buy it Now' option on Ebay. I could have possibly saved a whopping $.50 by just going with the opening bid amount then hoping I was the winner but, for half a buck, I figured I'd save the intrigue. </font color>

Given that's how much 3.0 cost me, I'd probaby only spring for an extra buck or so to upgrade. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]