Punch! Home Design Architectural Series 3000 review:5 stars (The perfect solution) - Moving into a new house, I had so many projects to make it my own. This product made it all happen. It was easy to start and I had walls drawn and showing in 3D in a few minutes.
First, I drew the existing structure. The ability to draw the plan easily and see it in 3D every step of the way made it quite easy. And, I've tried all the competitors. The only product that lets you show the 3D view (with shadows from lights and sun) without grueling waiting and finger tapping is Punch.. its blazing fast.
Changing the plan was just as easy! You drag a wall and dimensions display showing you were you are. Move a window or door and you instantly see the results in the 3D view. When I wanted to knock down a dividing wall between the great room and kitchen, it was a couple of mouse clicks and poof, gone. This was huge in determining how open the plan would be and if this part of the remodeling was worth it.
When it comes time to landscape, this was way cool. You can customize your yard and its a blast. With a few mouse clicks you can add hills/berms to your yard, I even used the excavation tool and dug a hole for a swimming pool(now if I could just really have it :) The picket fence I added even conformed to the changed landscape. And.. then I added plants. Tons of plants and I even used their tool to select only plants in my area. Then.. to top it off..with a click of the mouse I could grow the entire landscape to see how it would look when the trees grew.
As for learning.. you'll love it. You can be drawing in minutes.. but if you need some help there are videos that walk you through how to use each tool. Very cool.1 stars (Wish I'd Read The Reviews First!) - Like a fool I purchased this software based on the cool pictures on the box and the long list of features. Unfortunately, the pictures turn out to be not actual screenshots, and the features are, as Bart pointed out, little more than limited templates. A couple cases in point -- there is apparently NO WAY to create dormers, although they're featured prominently on the cover. The palette of textures is nowhere near as extensive or impressive as those shown on the cover. The lighting effects displayed on the box are not possible with the basic software. To me this is deceptive advertising!The MOST ANNOYING feature is the 3D fly-through. You have two choices: buzz around in dizzying circles like a drunken bee, unable to stop or slow down. Or zoom into the geographic center of your drawing, always ending up one inch off the floor. After hours and hours of tedious construction and experimentation, I never did figure out how to view the second floor interior....In short what you get is about $15 worth of cartoonish rendering, and a really cool $100 box. My advice would be to AVOID all the Punch products (of which there are about six variants of the same product).1 stars (Lies, Lies, Lies!) - If someone can figure out how to reproduce the screenshots they show on the box, they are better than me, and I am pretty competent with this kind of software. This thing is worth about $15 on a good day. I will definitely take my business elsewhere.
![Punch- Home Design Architectural Series 3000 screenshot [Click to enlarge]](http://godmoon.com/S/Punch--Home-Design-Architectural-Series-3000.gif)
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