Quotation Apprentice Home Theater Designer lets you build a professional estimate as fast as you can draw the system design!  Start with any one of the four available drawing views - logical view, back panel view, rack view or plan view - and automatically generate the other three views.  All four views remain dynamically linked to the actual item in the design, which can be accessed and changed from any view.

Totally customize the Designer by adding your own data - your favorite components, your prices, your costs.  Manage your data in either Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel; it's your choice.  Add whole new types of equipment, furniture or any other product, by adding your data and new Visio shapes.  Add services in the same way, or add labor by providing installation hours by item or product type.  You decide which additional items are shown as 'related items' for each type of product or service selected.  Over 1500 current home theater components and cables are provided as a starting point for your database.

Use the generic back panels provided with the Designer, modify them, or create your own using the Designer's blank back panel and connectors.  Wire your back panel drawings manually or use the Wiring Assistant to automate the cabling.  Import pictures of actual floor plans created in AutoCAD or other drawing programs, and size them easily in the Plan View scaled drawing.  Snap rackable components into the provided equipment racks in the Rack View.

As you create your design, five different reports are dynamically updated - an invoice, a quote, a profit analysis, an installation checklist and a connections report.  Export the reports to PDF, Microsoft Excel or Word.  Export the drawings to Microsoft Visio, where they can be printed, exported as pictures, or used to generate a webpage containing the drawings.

The benefits to you?

Speed/efficiency:

• Intuitive, drag and drop drawing
• Auto-generation of alternate views
• Dynamic link to product data from the drawing, including installation times
• Dynamic updating of reports
• Ability to pre-engineer packages of equipment and save as generic designs

Professionalism/accuracy:

• Four graphical views, including wiring diagrams and floor plans
• Quotation automatically generated as design is drawn
• Ability to import pictures of CAD drawings and other floor plans
• Detailed reports and implementation guides -- installation checklists and connection reports
• Various output mechanisms, including web pages and integration with Microsoft Office

Profitability:

• Profitability analysis report
• Related items suggest correct accessories
• Ability to pre-engineer packages of equipment and save as generic designs

Ease of Use:

• Your data - your components, your prices, your costs
• Ability to add new categories of products, shapes
• Ability to determine related items for each type of product
• Ability to use either MS Access or MS Excel for database management
• Ability to export drawings and reports into Microsoft Office tools
• Drawing automation, including auto-generation of alternate views and the Wiring Assistant

Take the tour, checkout the videos, look at the outputs...  See if the Home Theater Designer can't transform the way you create Home Theater designs and customer estimates!