Ease of Use:  

This product is fairly easy to use, but we found it ran extremely slow even on systems with more processing power than the minimum specifications. If you have a PC with less than a 1.4 GHz CPU, and less than 1 GB of RAM, you should consider an upgrade before purchasing this software.

Otherwise, we were glad for the ready-made home and landscape plans, and we got up and designing in a relatively short amount of time.

Features & Tools:  

TurboFLOORPLAN Landscape & Deck has a standard set of features for landscape design. Nothing really stood out when comparing with other products, but we did like the ability to scan in a blueprint or picture and trace it. Automatic dimensioning also takes a lot of the headache out of design, and if you need to you can manually enter dimensions for walls and objects. Being able to edit individual object properties was also very helpful.

Support & Documentation:  

The Getting Started Guide was a little brief but still had good, detailed tutorials. We would have liked to see some in video format.

We were a little disappointed to find that IMSI charged $9.95 and $4.95 for phone and email support, where other companies do either or both for free.

IMSI’s Landscape & Deck is a solid product that shows potential. We think the higher-ranked products have greater aesthetic appeal, and in most cases a more complete feature set. If you have a powerful PC, and prefer a no-frills approach to landscaping, then Landscape & Deck 12 is a good match for you.