CNET Editors' review
Plan your garden with ease using this free program, although it helps if you have some knowledge of plants. Showoff Home Design lets you add trees, annuals, perennials, and even outdoor furniture to a picture of your house (or any image). All you need to do is select your image and start adding elements.
The program doesn't install until you provide registration information, but the setup process doesn't take long. Showoff Home Design automatically searches for a camera to locate your image, and defaults to a sample image if it doesn't find one. It's a simple process to locate a picture on your hard drive, camera, or even the Web, and the app helps walk you through each method to start a new project. The interface is dominated by the large editing screen with command buttons at the top to open and save projects, and buttons on the left to manipulate the items you place on your image. The catalog of images is found on the right and holds seven main categories, including Landscape Plants, Outdoor Furniture, Decks, and Patio Garden. Simply choose a category to see more options. Landscape Plants includes annuals, perennials, trees, hedges, edibles, and other plant types. Each of these subcategories includes a picture of every plant, and, once selected, you can easily place the plant of your choice on the picture of your house or yard. It's easy to rotate, flip, resize, and otherwise adjust pictures until they're placed just where you want them. We really liked the capability to add patio furniture and other nonplant elements to get a true sense of what the yard would look like when finished.
While this program proved easy to use, you'll have an easier time finding plants if you know whether it's an annual or biennial, or considered to be ground cover or an ornamental grass. That said, we recommend this simple program to anyone who'd like to do some planning on the front end before visiting a nursery or digging a single hole.
Publisher's Description
From VisApp:
Our Visualizers can help you with interior design and remodeling, landscaping projects, exterior additions to your home and architectural changes.
Showoff Visualizers are the free tool that allows you to envision all your home projects in one place. Upload your own photo to visualize what the completed project will look like before the job begins.
What's new in this version: New Paint Visualizer, Doors and Windows Visualizer, Roofing Visualizer, Siding, Stone and Brick Visualizer, Outdoor Living Visualizer, Home Accessories Visualizer and our Landscape Visualizer. Select any one project visualizer for your home remodeling project, or use them all.
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"showoff.com is a complete Home Design Studio"
Version: Showoff Home Visualizer 3.0
Pros
Homeowners can easily test out their ideas on pictures of their own home, or a model home, and virtually see a home or landscape renovated with their choice of paint colors on walls, or a new roof, siding and landscaping before the work begins.
Visualizers are available for Paint, Roofing, Landscaping, Doors & Windows, Outdoor Living, Siding, Home Accessories and Outdoor Lighting using products from the Showcase of Products.Cons
We would like to hear from you with any Cons you may find. More products are needed and they are being added almost daily as we sign up paying customers that help keep the site free.
Summary
Showoff.com is now a complete Home Design Studio for all Home Improvement and Landscaping projects for homeowners and it is still FREE.
We have developed Visualizer Apps for users to upload a picture of their home our yard and visualize, have fun experimenting and custom designing home and landscape projects. Homeowners can easily test out their ideas on pictures of their own home, or a model home, and virtually see a home or landscape renovated with their choice of paint colors on walls, or a new roof, siding and landscaping before the work begins.
Visualizers are available for Paint, Roofing, Landscaping, Doors & Windows, Outdoor Living, Siding, Home Accessories and Outdoor Lighting using products from the Showcase of Products. In addition, an Inspiration Gallery includes pictures of completed projects to provide ideas for projects. More products are being added to the Showcase and Inspirational Gallery, almost daily, which users can browse without registering.
Showoff.com remains free because the website is sustained by businesses in the Home and Garden industry with Visualizer Apps on their website and the leads it generates. Manufacturers, suppliers and contractors services are presented virtually, at the time homeowners are planning projects.
PC Magazine choose showoff.com as one of the top free software applications in both 2010 and 2011 before it became the site it is today.
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