Punch! Ultimate Deck and Landscape

The software is not a CAD program, and it was probably never intended to be one. It will present you with an idea of what your project will look like ( a multi-tier deck in my case) and allow you to make multiple changes as your idea changes. Not difficult to use, it just takes a little patience.

Deck design allows design of will/might look good, not what it takes to construct. No place to select joist size/spacing; type of footing; size and placement of cross beam(s), cross blocking or size of decking boards. I'll find a WIN98 machine and use 3D-Deck instead.

I had low expectations to begin with but they were still too high. This program is just not up to the task - plain and simple. I spent several nights trying to get a two-tierred deck designed and have wasted my time struggling with this terrible product. If I hadn't borrowed this CD from a friend who also couldn't do any constructive work with it, I'd have demanded my money back. I beg someone to write a review who's HAS designed and built a deck with this toy; add a link so we can see what you actually accomplished. Its time to use something useful like AutoCad...

This is an inexpensive CAD program for home exterior, landscape, and deck design. I found it fun and relatively easy to use. In just a few hours I had a reasonable model of my home and it's decks entered. The walk-through feature works well and is great for viewing the plan in 3D easily from any angle. The instant 3D view as you change items on the plan is very nice for getting things like roof lines, railings, and windows set up and placed correctly. Landscape design options are pretty limited, like the small number of plant and fence options, but adequate to get a rough view of how something might look.

Overall, it does what one would expect from a $30 program and is useful if you aren't too picky about getting the result to look exactly like the finished product. Punch seems to have a whole range of products, and given that this one works pretty well for what it is, I am planning to upgrade to something from Punch with a bit more flexibility, assuming that it can input what I have created so far.

The program installed easily but does exhibit some kind of bug in that plants are not visible unless the walk-through is in motion. I e-mailed Punch about it and got a very rapid response on some things to try in adjusting my graphics card parameters. I'm impressed with the responsiveness of their support people.

Overall, I would recommend this program for someone who wants to try out the concept of computerized landscape design and needs only basic capability. If you are trying to do a detailed, complex project I would recommend going with a more fully featured product.

I worked with it without reading any directions, so for this I give it a thumbs up. I do however wish I could have drawn a little more accurate with it (I am an autocad design/drafter) so if it would have been more autocad friendly that would have been nice. The only thing else I wish I could have done with the program, that I was unable to do, was design a screened in porch. The system allowed me to design a deck and an all weather room, but I could not get the look of a screened area. Overall I felt it was easy to use, teach and quick to design/redesign. The files take up very little space. I give it 4 out of 5 stars but have no other deck design program to compare it to, it is the only one I have ever tried.