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From:Punch Software , Punch! Software ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#6779 |
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 Could it be any worse?, 2007-08-07
I have experience with CAD drawing and other engineering drawing programs. While they all require a learning period before they are easy to use, this program never achieves that status. It is as if they took a bunch of different modules, each with different commands and vocabulary and slapped them together in a package.
Examples: The "Landscape" editor insists on slapping the landscape clean through buildings with basements. Roof pitch is a compound series of menus hidden in different parts of the program. There is no "Grab and move" feature to allow control of the roof line. It's nearly impossible for you to get interior walls to meet the inside of a roof without projecting through or missing entirely.
Common door styles are missing and if you want to update any inventory items you get to download a 176MB file hoping that what you want is in there. Walls don't snap square. The video "Help" is primitive and never completely covers a topic. The help index is missing almost everything you need help with.
In short... a huge waste of time and money. Do it with a ruler before you buy this program.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
Worthless, 2007-03-13
This is total garbage. The object library is pathetic! No base corner cabinet? No problem, draw your own. Do not buy this. I can't overemphasize how bad this sucks.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 My first CAD experience, 2006-04-15
My "significant other" gave my this program as a Christmas present 5 years ago because I was ALWAYS sketching out my "dream house" plans on graph paper...best Christmas gift I ever got!!!
I'm not an architect and, being on the south side of 50, was not particularly computer literate (had never even played computer games and, at the time, was even still a bit leery of using email!) It took me awhile - maybe 10 or 20 hours of experimenting with the program - to get the hang of using all the tools provided but I had a blast doing it. And the program certainly helped me to more clearly visualize the home I wanted to build. Being able to "walk through" the plan, put colors and textures on the walls, put furniture in the rooms, see the rooms from all angles, etc. was so helpful!
Yes, the 5-in-1 program is limited in some ways but that is to be expected with such an inexpensive CAD. There is a Punch! user's group online that is VERY helpful about suggesting work-arounds for some of the program's limitations. Plus, they'll help you solve any problems you run into. For example, the Punch! user's group taught me how to import textures when the specific ones I wanted (a metal roof texture and a particular pattern of wallpaper) weren't provided; they taught me how to "build" the kinds of doors I wanted using the furniture workshop tool, etc. Plus, they have a humongous number of user-made objects (indoor and outdoor furniture, household funishings, etc) that you can import from their website to use in your "house" if the object library provided in the software is too limiting and you don't want to take the time to "build" the item you want using furniture workshop.
(By the way, as a side benefit to using the 5-in-1 program and interacting with the punch user's group, I became much more computer savvy!)
Eventually though, I decided to move up to the Punch! 3000 program which, until recently, was Punch's top of the line program. Punch!3000 has a lot more features than 5-in-1 and I used it to design the house that I'm in the process of actually building today! (2 story, 3200 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, wrap-around porch, backyard decks, complex roof-line with gables, dormer, and hip roof sections, etc.) I don't think I would have ever gotten the hang of using Punch! 3000 if I'd started with it first though. Punch! 3000 has so many tools, I suspect I would have been overwhelmed and would have just given it up and gone back to my graph paper. Starting with the 5-in-1 program tho, I learned the basics and gained confidence in what I could do.
I've recommended the program to a number of my friends and recommend it highly. I've never used any of the other CAD programs available but I'd be really surprised to find a program that was easier to use or more versatile that Punch! for anything near the same price.
8 of 9 customers found the following review helpful:
Punch, Indeed!, 2003-12-13
This product ensures that I will not purchase any other Punch product. Can't even remove partial walls, a basic requirement to drawing anything but a square or rectangular outside wall. Didn't even get as far as the home interior, due to problems with the exterior. Thought having home design and landscape together would be a great idea. I thought wrong. My old Sierra Custom Home worked far better, "help" was more helpful, and I will look for similar again.
11 of 11 customers found the following review helpful:
5in1=waste of money, 2003-02-09
This product does not only fail to meet the minimum expectations, it is deceptive in its advertising. For example, the programs of this type I've owned in the past all had a photo import feature so you didn't have to spend hours drawing something you could have a digital picture of. Secondly, the landscape section is extremely limited. I would never recommend this product.
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