Punch! Home and Landscape Design Suite

Last reviewed: 2009

Cost: About $90

System Requirements: Windows®98 or higher (more system requirements available on web site)

Our Comments:

This is the latest and greatest Punch! software. The best part about is a new Quick Start designer that gets you going in minutes. We really liked this tool. It was fast and efficient.

The Quick Start tool lets you drag and drop shapes or blocks on to the workspace to create the basic layout of your house. When finished, the program automatically adds the walls and roof for you. You then go into the blueprint or edit mode that lets you add windows, doors, etc.

Being able to lay out the house quickly is great because for designing a deck, all you really need to start with is to the basic shape of your house and the location of the doors onto the deck. It was so fast to get our basic house outline into the program.

To add a deck, there's a deck design mode that allows you to draw the deck shape you want, add straight or curved stairs, curved railings, and so on.

The 3D view mode is awesome for seeing the finished product. You can split the screen between edit mode and 3D view.

The online help comes with excellent videos for explaining how to use all the tools. Because it's a home and landscape designer, you can add plant material, beds and borders around your deck to get the real feel for the finished project.

We definitely recommend Punch! if you want an all in one tool.

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