Punch 5 In 1 Home Design

Rating:
Summary: Reviews reviewed !! Punch products - best of the lots !
Review: I've been using Punch Products for about two years now. Prior to that I tried many others without sucessfully completing a home design secondary to being too difficult, not having the tools needed for certain functions, and poor, slow, cartoonish renderings. Punch! was the first program that allowed me to complete a Home!

I've read the reviews and some of what was said related to 5 in 1 is partially incorrect. Walls that move in even numbers is related to the default when the 'snap to grid is on'. All one needs to do is shut the 'snap' off. All doors and windows are customizable to any size, height, width, and trim. All roofs are customizable to pitches other than 12:12. None of the walls shrink when moved separately or as a whole. I've used this particular program for 6 months before ugrading, and 90% of what I've read in these reviews in incorrect secondary to a person's lack of knowledge and inability to make use of tools available in the program.

This program is a great starter program if you're looking to buy anything for less than $50. Since then I've advanced to Punch! Super and then to Punch!Pro, which is only $25 more than '5 in 1'. As mentioned I've tried all sorts of programs over the years, and none of them contain all that one needs to design their home, however, Punch!'s products are the closest yet in focussing on people's requests and producing quality 3D views. In addition, the 3D furniture workshop is a bonus in itself where alterations, and creativity can be performed to create stunning objects for the home, and alter any that require adjustments for better fit. What more can I say? Punch! is far superior in comparison to other programs of the same cost!

Rating:
Summary: Good, but must try harder!
Review: I've read all of the previous reviews and there is a lot I have to agree with.
Firstly, the walls do move about of their own accord (occasionally). I have found the best way to make them behave is to design each wall individually, rather than use a pre-formatted room shape.
I have several years experience using CAD and 3D design software, and have to say the rendering has to be the most painfully slow that I can remember. That said, the final result is quite good. Moving around in the 3D viewing window is also extremely slow, especially if your design is quite detailed and "busy".
The 3D viewing angle is rather inflexible, not being able to tilt and look down. I know there is the "helicopter" mode, but this is of limited use internally.
The lighting/shadow effect is also very basic.
The 3D furniture workshop package is supposed to allow you to design anything from scratch. Well, I suppose so, if you have unlimited time at your disposal. I found it very clunky and quirky.
I would also like to have more flexibility in importing and editing textures.
The range of included furniture and other objects is quite limited.
One thing I would have liked would have been a time-limited demo of the program before I shelled out. If I had, I would probably have waited for the next version.

Rating:
Summary: Good comprehensive product
Review: I've used this product and the Broderbund suites and have definitely been pleased with this one. This product gives me the flexibility i want for doing design work. I've used the program to create a model of my home -- its working fine. Has a topography tool, which I've used to sketch my backyard. Even has a user support site.

My only major complaint? The undo functionality is highly limited. You might accidently erase a wall thinking you can undo it -- think again.

Rating:
Summary: Caveot Emptor - Best of a Bad Lot
Review: If you are going to attempt to do any designs that are not rectangular, having regular roof shapes - be prepared to tear your hair out with all of these consumer products. The best of this sorry lot is Punch Professional. I know, I spent 20 years in the CAD business and I've tried them all. Regrettably, you'll have to spend [$$$] if you are at all serious about your design. In other words at [$] bucks you get what you pay for - which is a bug filled - square box building toy.

Here are some things which will drive you mad in Punch:

1) Try to do a curved wall built out of straight segments at an angle. First it nearly impossible to get the segments the same length, let alone at the same angle.

2) Try and put a segmented roof over that curved wall. Forget it - you'll never get the elevations or roof segments to line up. Also when you connect roof types (like a hip and gable) Punch doesn't join them - it just slaps them together - so there is no continuity between the segments. Forget about matching their pitches so that they flow together.

3) Try to take out an exterior wall, then put in a bay window projection (or some other change like that). Chances are, when you delete a segment, it will turn all the other segments inside out - forcing you to re-apply siding and interior textures one by one to each surface - a particularly nasty bug and HUGE waste of time.

4) The Window tool has a similarly nasty bug. Even though you type different settings, more often than not it ignores them and tries to insert windows with default settings. This will drive you insane, and screw-up other things (see below).

5) If you try to insert a window into a wall where it should fit (but it doesn't for some inexplicable reason) the program will wipe out other windows/doors on that wall. That will really tick you off, espeicially if you're building up a complex wall of windows. Yes, you get an annoying error message, but you cannot back-out of the action - nor does Punch give you a choice of fixing the problem before the program does its damage.

6) You cannot specify more than 5 vertical or horizontal lites on a window. That's stupid.

7) Stacking windows is nearly impossible (like putting a transom window over a double-hung). Try doing this on a segmented wall and you can kiss your afternoon goodbye (working around their bugs).

8) There is only one level of undo - so forget about "what-ifs". You'll have to save multiple versions.

9) No way to selectively print out house sections/rooms. Totally brain-dead in this regard. Also, rendered images have to be exported as BMP. No way to directly print / save them.

I'd go on, but you get the idea. Be prepared to waste a lot of time working around their ... bugs ... And this is the best of them!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Keep Looking
Review: Ok, I too bought both 3d home Architect that is marketed by Broderbun and Punch Pro Home Design. The Broderbun product is bad but Punch Pro is horrible. I have read the manual so that is not the problem. While the software is not intuitive, and the documentation is superficial, learning the software is not the problem. It's just plain bad. Standard features in any package like this - 2d (plan view) zooming in and out, undo, selecting a feature to modify, etc, just don't work correctly. Advanced features like moving around in the 3d view don't even come close to being adequate.

I thought maybe it was just me so I started examining the sample plans they provide. They all look like they are slight modifications of the same three or four plans, are all pretty simplistic, and most have structural problems. If all you want to do is draw a box with a roof on it this software will do it - but you'll still suffer getting it done. If you want to do anything slightly creative don't even bother.

If all this isn't bad enough they suggest that you download and install the "patches" for the program. The "patches" are over 150 megs. This size of the patches isn't that big a deal for me because I have a fast connection. If you don't have a broadband connection too bad I guess. The patches don't help with most problems anyway.

My last warning - there is a reason this software does not come with a money back guarantee.

Rating:
Summary: Punch vs 3d home architect 4.0
Review: Punch is a limited program that is not very intuitive. The walls dont self sguare for a room, door choices are few, closet doors are limited, and measuring is difficult. I went to 3d Home, faster more intuitive, easier to use. Punch was a waste.

Rating:
Summary: Undocumented "auto-shrink" feature!
Review: The box is pretty, and there seem to be many features and functions, it just HAS to be good, right? Wrong!

Just try and resize a wall. Or move it. It will always shrink to one grid unit less than you drew it. OK, so just drag it longer. Oh, darn, the other wall has shrunk now! Do this a few times, and the house will end up in the wrong place. Try and shift it whole, and you guessed it - the whole thing shrinks!

The only update on the website is to v3.5.1, yet I seem to have v3.5.2 already?! Nothing in the discussion groups except a few allusions to "walls don't always go in the right place". My guess is that most customers did what I did: Took it back.

This is the ONLY piece of software I have ever returned, in more than 15 years in the IT industry. Punch obviously have no test programme in place. If I released a piece of software with such a fundamental flaw, I would be hung, drawn, and quartered.

Don't trust this software - the company's standards are obviously very low indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Keep Looking
Review: This is a program that seems to have so much, but then you find all of these stupid limitations that suggest the program was never "play tested". These limitations have made it almost useless to get what you need. Examples (in no particular order):
1. With the CAD tools, you cannot "group" graphic items like you would be able to do with any simple drawing program (let alone CAD).
2. The screen can show the "grid" spacing, but you cannot make a floorplan printout with the grid, which can be very useful for visuallizing and making hand sketches.
3. The furniture tool is worthless. You can create 3D objects, but there is no way to specify their size (no menu you can acess to enter dimensions, not even on-screen rulers so you can see it).
4. When you use the ruler tool, you can show the lengths on your floorplans. However, if you print a floorplan with these rulers, they are not scaled correctly with the rest of the drawing, so they give incorrect information for dimensions.

5. You cannot export drawings into a useful format (e.g. no GIF, JPG, etc.) that you could then import into other programs.
6. It is next to impossible to specify different wall thicknesses. You can customize a wall thickness, but then when you have a wall that connects to that another wall, the program automatically groups them together and makes the thicknesses the same for both. Yet another example where there is just no need to do this.
7. You cannot specify lengths that are a fraction of an inch. Everything is rounded to the nearest inch. I don't think it would have been that difficult to specify the variable as a floating point rather than an integer. But the programmers once again didn't think about it. In the real world, there are items and walls with lengths that have fractions of an inch.

Rating:
Summary: It just misses
Review: This is a program that seems to have so much, but then you find all of these stupid limitations that suggest the program was never "play tested". These limitations have made it almost useless to get what you need. Examples (in no particular order):
1. With the CAD tools, you cannot "group" graphic items like you would be able to do with any simple drawing program (let alone CAD).
2. The screen can show the "grid" spacing, but you cannot make a floorplan printout with the grid, which can be very useful for visuallizing and making hand sketches.
3. The furniture tool is worthless. You can create 3D objects, but there is no way to specify their size (no menu you can acess to enter dimensions, not even on-screen rulers so you can see it).
4. When you use the ruler tool, you can show the lengths on your floorplans. However, if you print a floorplan with these rulers, they are not scaled correctly with the rest of the drawing, so they give incorrect information for dimensions.

5. You cannot export drawings into a useful format (e.g. no GIF, JPG, etc.) that you could then import into other programs.
6. It is next to impossible to specify different wall thicknesses. You can customize a wall thickness, but then when you have a wall that connects to that another wall, the program automatically groups them together and makes the thicknesses the same for both. Yet another example where there is just no need to do this.
7. You cannot specify lengths that are a fraction of an inch. Everything is rounded to the nearest inch. I don't think it would have been that difficult to specify the variable as a floating point rather than an integer. But the programmers once again didn't think about it. In the real world, there are items and walls with lengths that have fractions of an inch.

Rating:
Summary: Punch 5 in 1 Home Design
Review: This is software that you have to spend some time with to understand. But if you spend the time, the software delivers and leaves the competitors behind. Most of the negative reviews I have read point out shortcomings that really don't exist if you understand how the software works.

I initially thought that the program lacked certain features or had some of the same shortcomings mentioned in other reviews. A few minutes on the phone with their Tech Support people to supplement the manual and the help feature and I was pointed in the right direction. In most cases the software could do what I was trying to accomplish, the problem was that I was not far enough up the experience curve. One thing I did do was upgrade to the Professional Home Design for another $20 dollars. It is worth it. My overall experience with home design software is that you have to be patient as it is not simple or intuitive as gaming software.
Two shortcomings - No strong undo feature so you need to save before you try something new. Also, there is a limit to 3 floors, so if you have a finished basement, a finished attic and two floors, you can only show 3 of the 4 floors; although you can complete the remaining floor in another file.