Customer Reviews

Punch! Home Design Studio Pro (Mac) [Old Version]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am sorely disappointed. Let me first say that I am a graphics professional, with image, video, and 3D modeling and animation background. So I did not expect incredible quality or even an easy to use program. But this thing is ridiculous.

First off YOU CANNOT IMPORT YOUR OWN TEXTURES. We are doing our kitchen and I was hoping to visualize materials, but even with a pretty extensive library of materials (I found the granite we wanted to use for counters), I could not import our tile options for the backsplash, and other things. Don't get me wrong you can import image files...as image planes, but not as textures!

Object library is stupid. 3 types of cabinets, categorized under lt cabinets and dk cabinets. Funny though not all cabinet shapes and sizes are there in all 3 colors. For example there may be a dark raised panel base cabinet, but not a light colored one. So then I use the custom workshop pro, where you can place any material on any object, and I think cool I can just texture each size and shape I need as needed. Yeah if you want to manually drag the texture to each shape (about 30) that make up each cabinet. Then I try the cabinet assistant, this should work for me right...wrong. The assistant has 4 steps, 1 pick cabinet type, 2 pick the direction the cabinet should face, 3 pick sizes and door style (shaker or raised panel) and your done! What about wood type and color? What about the other 10-20 styles of cabinet doors? Sure I can manually "paint" each cabinet but it seems to me that you should be able to layout the basic cabinets in your layout, and then globally choose a style/color for the entire kitchen.

moving in 3d "live view" is difficult at best.

you cannot move objects in a 3d view, only over head

measuring is by default done by measuring to the center of walls, not how I would measure my real space (wall to wall)

lighting and shadowing in rendered scenes is not even close to accurate (based on how objects are drawn from what I can tell)

I haven't even began to try and use any of the other "features" but I'm sure most of the program is as obtuse as the features I did try.

perhaps the pc version is better but overall this product sucks

i had read many reviews about this software before deciding to purchase it, and honestly i was a bit reluctant to do so. however, given that it was the only software out there that was reasonably priced i ignored all the negativity i had encountered about it and threw the money down like i was at caesar's. when it arrived i was actually quite shocked by the amount of instruction that it was apparently going to take before actually dabbing in the programs. after about two hours of reviewing the overall functions, terms, familiarizing myself with the icons, and just simply reading instruction i said to hell with it. i loaded the software and simply began a 'project'. it was then when i realized that the best way to learn the software is to actually use it, while keeping the manual along side the applications for reference. because truth be told, everything i reviewed or read didn't make any sense until i was implementing it within the program. i think i can safely suggest that after about an hour of actually using the software i was already familiar with its format, etc. how would i rate it? personally, i love it, and i think it's actually very versatile. though, there are some things that i will admit i don't like about it (certain limitations), just as there are things that one would expect to dislike about any type of software. however, i think the more i work with the software the more i will find ways around my issues. all in all, i gave it four stars because it's functional, practical, and versatile... and for the money you really can't do better. still, i don't believe that this is intended for the professional. it's rather limited when it comes to 'details'. i've noticed some suggesting that the hvac, or estimator, or electrical, or even the measurements are inaccurate. but really, these are aspects of the program that you really have to lend attention to and learn thoroughly. yes, it's an inconvenience, while expecting that the program should just do the work for you. nonetheless, it's still a good program to use for the non-professional (once you've gotten past the novice stage).

Home Design Studio Pro is a very complex design package. It has a steep up-front learning curve that will take hours and hours to get over. Once you're past that curve, you can create some really good designs. However, be aware that the curve for novices might be too steep. Even for the seasoned computer user, the learning curve to create your first design will be tough. I still have not gotten to the vast majority of the features but I have confidence that once I learn how to do some of the more complex steps, the package will be everything I wanted. Check back in several months to see if I made it over the curve!

Punch Home Design Studio Pro for the Mac is not Mac software, it is amateurish PC software that has been written to operate on a Mac. If you have used graphics software on a Mac, you will be disappointed. The product is not intuitive and the instruction manual and help functions are woefully inadequate. As a consequence, the learning curve is lengthy and requires a lot of trial and error. Jon Erickson, Liberty, MO

I bought this @ Macworld after seeing a nice demo and chatting with the pleasant company rep. It looked like it might be very useful as I designed my house, trying different structures or ideas. No, it wasn't.

As others have noted, it's clearly not Mac-native.
It's absolutely not intuitive, and I frequently find myself getting frustrated with having to learn its arcane language. Simply trying to move some windows around is tedious and difficult. Shouldn't be.
Finding a simple black color took work. And then it was nigh impossible to go find that exact same color again to make a modification.
And, I couldn't do something as simple as import my specific textures that I wanted to "see" on some surfaces.

Then I realized that I was using 12.0.1 - which came out in 2007. Certainly I'd missed some important updates that would address a few of these issues. Nope. Still on version 12.0.1 for a $200+ program labelled PRO.

I'm ashamed that I fell for this.

So the quick ability to visualize what you're working with is what attracts one to this package. If you are remodeling a kitchen and want to play games with placing cabinets, etc. this product should be ok. What I thought I might get, but didn't was the ability to plan my electrical loads for each of the circuits in the house. No can do. The best one can do is show the locations of the electrical outlets. There are symbols that show 240 V outlets as well. What I also wanted to do but can't show is a plan to re-pipe my house with copper. Haven't found a way to show hot and cold water piping runs plus drain lines. I suspect there is no way of showing sprinkler piping either. This is sort of basic stuff that needs to work if a remodeled house is to be worth anything. I'm guessing that the Architectural package 5000 will allow for plumbing, electrical and placement of studs and joists. Only trouble is it only works on a PC and not a Mac.

I have been using this design program for many years and switched to the MAC version 12 a year ago. My hobby is designing home plans and changing existing plans and I use it 4-5 times a week. I use the "trace" part of the design program extensively. I just upgraded to Version 15 of this program and there was no discount for the upgrade, so I purchased the new product for $249. The graphics looked much better in the new program, but to my horror when I loaded a trace plan and completed the outer walls, the complete underlying trace inside the walls, disappeared. In other words, after drawing the outside walls and completing them, you can't see any more of the inside areas to trace like walls, closets, bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, etc. This is a huge mistake for the program designers and I told them so in my many emails to them. Unfortunately you will be dealing with a large company and phone and email reps that really don't care. Their comment was to return the product for a refund. Can you imaging completely destroying a good product and then not listening to your customers. My advice is to stay away from V15 until they correct the mistake (if they do). If you don't and use one of the drawings you used in V12 with V15, you can't get the V12 back as it changes the file to V15.

I bought this to visualize a remodel I'm doing. It looked like good product, especially since there are very few home design apps for mac (almost none that will let you do a landscape). It is very intuitive for the floor plan part, but when ever I needed the 3-D window (need for all colorization, flooring, etc) it would take over 3 minute per change. this made it impossible to use. I am still involved with customer support to solve the issue, but after three weeks, not only do I not have a solution, but not even a suggestion to try. They claim they need to reproduce the problem. I would return the product, but unless there is a "gold seal" on the box, they will not take it back... I have never written such a negative review of any product but I think people need to know this information before they make the same mistake I made.

My ease of use is somewhat tainted as I use CAD at work for certain tasks. I found the program not difficult to use, however was disappointed in feature content. You can't do much with electrical, plumbing or heating for that matter. It tries to apply design guidelines to help you, but I found it frustrating to complete certain tasks as the program does not want to let you.

Really disappointed in printing options. They need to provide a pdf format option while saving. Such a feature would definitely make quoting contractors easier as you could email them drawing and everyone has Adobe.

I use it because it is cheap.

The ease of use is phenomenal! It is incredibly easy to get started, design, and see the final product. I wish the Pro Series had more features and tools. It does take a little longer to learn more intricate functions, but all around it's very simple.
The CAD tools that come with it are BS. If they added a few more features this would be a slam dunk!!