HomeGauge or 3D

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

Originally Posted by dbowers

As a trainer and inspector I have had, tried and used most major software and book systems. Such as: Inspect Vue, 3-D, Inspect-It, Report Plus, Home Inspector Pro, Bouralis, einspection, ITA's checklist AND software, etc, etc.

....Hurray for HG.

Agreed. Nothing else would do.....

HomeGauge

[Jeff Orcas]

This is a Chevy vs. Ford argument. Everyone has an opinion. Home Gauge is a nice program but I didn't want to pay as you go. I looked at a number of products and settled on 3D. Its database driven, PDA support and has an office manager module that talks to QuickBooks. Total package.

What they don't tell you is support is mediocre, the comment base is next to useless (motivation to change it) and the program can be slow. On the plus side, it can be modified to the nth degree, comes with a PDF driver, has a picture editor and can automatically create a color coded summary. I had several competitors using 3D and I could customize my reports so they look so much better than theirs. With the latest version I can update the comment database on the fly even in the pda version.

Jeff

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by Jeff Orcas

This is a Chevy vs. Ford argument. Everyone has an opinion. Home Gauge is a nice program but I didn't want to pay as you go. I looked at a number of products and settled on 3D. Its database driven, PDA support and has an office manager module that talks to QuickBooks. Total package.

What they don't tell you is support is mediocre, the comment base is next to useless (motivation to change it) and the program can be slow. On the plus side, it can be modified to the nth degree, comes with a PDF driver, has a picture editor and can automatically create a color coded summary. I had several competitors using 3D and I could customize my reports so they look so much better than theirs. With the latest version I can update the comment database on the fly even in the pda version.

Jeff

I'm not going to start a fanboy argument but just to be fair: You don't have to pay as you go for HomeGauge, it has PDA support, it has an office manager that talks to Outlook, and anything can output PDF with freeware (cutepdf). Oh yeah, and the support rocks!

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

Without all the Bells and Whistles....

HOMEGAUGE

Reports Generated & Printed On-Site.


What is the Question...?

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Kevin,

I don't know how 3D or HG work. But there is a big difference between using a print driver like cutepdf or primopdf to 'print' to pdf and actually creating a report directly to a pdf document.

[Jeff Knight]

OK Dominic...I'll bite. What are the differences between the two...and of those difference what are the ones that home inspectors really need ?

Jeff Knight
Knight Software Solutions, Inc.
www.knightssoftware.com

Mr. Bowers...FYI.. it is Borealis not Bouralis.

Also...we have a French version that has French Comment in it if anyone is interested. We developed it for some inspectors in Quebec Canada many, many years ago.

[Jeff Knight]

Originally Posted by wdevries

Jeff no offence intended, but thats exactly what one needs to do live, reconfigure as he walks through the house, making changes, adding canned responces.
WHY?
to see for himself how the software can change on the fly,
modifying templates
modifying responces
how it feels as he does the inspection, and how it responds to his quirks and reporting style.
This is where the rubber meets the road, and where the software should and will shine for that inspector.
I used IV3 and 4
Currently HIP
waiting for HG but have demo'd the hell out of HG4 trial
I was a PPC user prior and love the portability, dock in the van upload and massage the report.
We all know IV had an issue here for onsite reporting.
Hip is a super software and I really enjoy what I am capable of delivering
note ( what I am)
HG really took me by surprise with this release and when I can get it in a full version to really put it to the test I am looking forward to it.
Both correction ALL software is good, WHY?
it delivers a typed readable report for your clients. (my hand printing is horrible)
2) it lets those that CHOOSE to add pictures along with comments an option.
3) it has a layout that can be followed and can or rather should be modifiable to be presented in the way the inspection occured so that the CLIENT can read and remember as we went through the house, recall the pros and cons of the home via the report.
4) upload capabilitys, nuff said here
5) webhosting, again nuff said.
6) support, this is where some differ, Dom at the moment is able to survive on his USB plugin and requires zero down time except for the occasional re boot. HG is always a phone call away and if the person who does know is busy they will call back. but answers are for the most don right there.
7) the final report printed or electronic the differences here are a bit.
HG uses Html electonic and HIP uses Adobe PDF with the menu guidence system, both are great and work well, but you as the user would have to decide what you want and feel your clients need.

As a side note I would really like to review your software so I am able to make decisions based on actual testing rather then hearsay.

To those that are looking to buy I am sorry but yes you need to try each for atleast 30 days 60 would be better to really feel the software, you need the 30 just to get it into usable shape and tweeked to where you can actually properly test it. Maybe the software makers will up the ante to 60 or more days for a proper trial.
Then move to the next software your looking at and do another 30 days and so on
DO not attepmt to do a side by side trial yo will only get frustrated and scrap them all, you need the time to learn and 30 days rolls super fast.

any question I would be happy answer from my POV
Billy

Bill,
Yes..you should be able to modify your information on the fly (and our system does it nicley) but I am talking about an inspector feeling out the software and how long it will take to actually do the inspection with the software and the template being set up the way they do an inspection. If you are constantly adding new comments on the fly and adding rooms and materials and the order is completely different then what you are used to etc. it will take you forever to do the inspection.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software
www.knightssoftware.com

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Do they NEED it? No, it's not life or death. Many people won't even notice the difference. Maybe just geeks like me. One difference is you don't need to mess with a print driver or exterior software.

When you take a word doc or html page and use a print driver, the driver is doing it's best to interpret the page and convert it to a pdf. If the original has page breaks in bad places, like images split across pages, that will occur in the pdf as well. It's also not very efficient at reducing photo sizes (some programs do better jobs than others). But writing directly to pdf format allows for a lot smaller pdf file sizes. For example a 30-40 page report with 40 good size pics averages < 1 meg. Ben Kelly did a 99 page , 400 picture report that was less than 8 megs (it was a 1900 house in really bad shape, longest report I've seen).

Also, writing directly to pdf opens up all sorts of cool features, such as file security and other features that I don't want to go in to as it would divulge too many secrets If other guys want to keep converting docs and html to pdf that's fine. I'll stick with writing directly to pdf format. I know we're not the only ones. I thought you write directly to pdf too?

[Jeff Knight]

Dom,
We write to an RTF file format...that way the inspector can open the inspection report in any word processor that supports RTF and they can then edit the report as much as they want. That way our clients are not limited to whatever text editing features the inspection software has. They can use our software to collect the inspection data as they do their inspection in the field and then e-mail the back office the RTF file where someone can bring it up in Word and do anything to the report that Word can do. It eliminates us having to reinvent the word processing wheel and helps us concentrate on the data collection side.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software
www.knightssoftware.com

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by Jeff Knight

Dom,
We write to an RTF file format...that way the inspector can open the inspection report in any word processor that supports RTF and they can then edit the report as much as they want. That way our clients are not limited to whatever text editing features the inspection software has. They can use our software to collect the inspection data as they do their inspection in the field and then e-mail the back office the RTF file where someone can bring it up in Word and do anything to the report that Word can do. It eliminates us having to reinvent the word processing wheel and helps us concentrate on the data collection side.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software
www.knightssoftware.com

That works too There's definitely advantages to each system. html is easily accessible online, you're saving in rtf which is editable in word (I understand the reinventing the processor bit, I'm always trying to improve ours), pdf can control the layout and size. It's actually good that programs do things differently as it gives guys the option to find what they want. It also keeps us inventing to keep up with each other

[kpierce]

Great points Dominic. When your software outputs a report in pdf, can you re-open it and edit it within the HIP software?

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by kpierce

Great points Dominic. When your software outputs a report in pdf, can you re-open it and edit it within the HIP software?

No, the PDF is 128 bit encrypted so no one can edit it (actually becomes illegal as you'd have to crack the encryption). But you can reopen the inspection file in HIP (.hzf file) when you clicked Save Inspection, make the changes and regenerate the pdf.

I've been checking out homes in Olympia and the surrounding areas. I need to get out of SoCal. Have any suggestions?

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by dmaricic

No, the PDF is 128 bit encrypted so no one can edit it (actually becomes illegal as you'd have to crack the encryption). But you can reopen the inspection file in HIP (.hzf file) when you clicked Save Inspection, make the changes and regenerate the pdf.

I've been checking out homes in Olympia and the surrounding areas. I need to get out of SoCal. Have any suggestions?

Really? Any reason for Olympia? That's really a personal preference. I'm a big water guy so if I were to move it would probably be up to Lake Tapps (about 30 miles east of Tacoma) or on Lake Washington (a few miles East of Seattle). Of course they are expensive houses. Olympia is nice though. Peter Doane would probably have more info on the area down there. I don't get down there too often.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

I've honestly only been up to Washington 3 times. Last time I visited a business I was working with in Olympia. I drove all around up through Redmond, Seattle and around as well. I'm not stuck on Olympia by any means, just using it as a starting point I guess. I would like to be close to the water. But I'm also trying to stay out of those rain forest paths! I need a map to show where those are. I know there's parts of Washington that gets 100x the rain of other parts.

[kpierce]

Yep, they call it the "convergence zone". Not 100% of the time, but often, when there's snow or big storms, they'll hit just North of Seattle up through Everett harder than everyone else. Then of course, the further you go up the foothills towards the Cascades, you'll get more percipitation. Honestly, as far as "nice areas" that just feel good, I'd move to the Bellevue, Issaquah, Sammamish area. They clearly spend much more money on "upkeep" of the community. However, you also pay for it. I could go on and on about areas but the "Eastside" (of Lake WA) is definitely a great area.