- Intel® Pentium III® processor or faster

- Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows® Vista or Windows® 7

- 2 GB available hard drive space

- Mouse (recommended for notebook users)

- Internet connection (required for registration and automatic product updates)

Mastic Dreamhome Professional is not compatible with MAC unless there is a third party software installed that will mimic a Windows environment. If you have MAC OS Snow Leopard operating system, there is a built-in utility called Boot Camp which will enable your MAC to mimic the Windows environment. If you have an older operating system, you can try third party software like Parallels, Virtual PC, or Fusion.

To uninstall the software without the disk, use the Add/Remove Programs feature of your operating system.

1. Go to: Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel

2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs

3. Scroll down the list to find Mastic Dreamhome Professional

4. Click once to select Mastic Dreamhome Professional, and click Remove

When you define foreground, you will mask any area that appears in front of the product areas that you wish to change. In general foreground areas are things like trees, people, cars or furniture. They aren’t really part of your remodel but occur in the photograph. Defining your foreground is an important step in making your picture as realistic and life-like as possible.

Masking is the process of outlining areas of your photograph that you would like to apply new product to. Masking is only necessary when you intend to resurface an existing area with products such as the following product types: Paint, Flooring, Roofing, Siding, Masonry, Wallpaper, Countertops, etc. Product types like windows, doors, vents, shutters, railings, pillars, etc. are considered objects and are simply placed onto your digital picture. No masking is required.

No, you cannot remove foreground objects from your photograph! If there is a tree, car, person, or furniture in the original photo it is there to stay.

First, you must define a new layer and apply product to it. The range of colours for that product are now accessible and can be changed in one of two ways:

a. Single click on the applied product in your project window, and then click on any colour visible in the product colour bar located to the left-hand side of your screen. When using the product colour bar you might need to expand the bar to see the full colour list.

b. Double click on the applied product in your project window. This will bring up the product configuration panel, which will show you the list of colours available for that particular product profile.

For some products, yes, you can create your own colour. Some of the generic products in the software will allow you to create your own colour. To create your own color:

1. Apply a generic product profile to your layer.

2. Once the product is applied, double click on it to bring up the product configuration panel.

3. Adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness sliders until you have the desired colour.

4. Save the colour, and then hit apply.

Yes, by using the Zoom feature under the Layer Setting Tab, you can increase and decrease the size of most products.

Chances are you need to apply perspective and shading to the product areas to make the product profile look like it's part of the original photograph. For detailed instructions on how to do this please see the Apply Products tutorial (Tutorial #6) in the tutorials section of this website.

Yes, objects like windows, doors, vents, shutters and mouldings can be copied and pasted for faster project editing. Just select an object that you want to copy and press the Clone button (located in the tools tab). You can clone objects as many times as you want.

No, even though it may look like it's changing the product colour, it is not. Shading and shine only adjust the lightness and darkness of a region in the photograph and is intended to make the products seem as if they were part of your original photograph, not just sitting on top of your photograph.

No. If you don't have a digital camera, you can take a photograph with a film camera, and then scan it into your computer to use.

The software accepts JPG, BMP, and PNG formats.

A clear, straight-on photo of your home from a digi¬tal camera works the best. Please try and take photos in daylight, and ensure that they are crisp, as you will then have the easiest time masking. As well, if your photograph is taken straight on, instead of at an angle, it will be much easier to set the perspective of your regions.

A Mastic Dreamhome Professional project is actually a collection of layers, which when combined produces a composite image of a remodeled home. Projects are always able to be edited as long as you save them, whereas the photo of the finished projects are not able to be edited. It is important that you keep your rwp project file for your records, not just the finished photo of the home. The original photo you import using the import wizard becomes your project, however this photo is never permanently altered. The program makes a copy of your photo so that you will always retain the original unaltered image.

Due to a wide range of available monitors and graphic cards, and the variations in colour-display associated with every possible configuration, HomeWorks cannot guarantee 100% colour accuracy, however, HomeWorks takes great care in representing colours as accurately as current technology allows.

To improve the colours, please calibrate your monitor. Simply adjusting your screen to display warm colours (6500 degrees Kelvin) or cold colours (9300 degrees Kelvin) can greatly affect colour performance.

Also check to make sure you've chosen the correct monitor display setting in Mastic Dreamhome Professional. You can find this setting by clicking on Preferences found under the Mastic Dreamhome Professional button in the top left corner. And when printing, be sure to print a high-res image on premium glossy photo paper.

You can export your finished project as a JPG that you can email to others who do not have the software.