Product Description

The Power of Professional Home Design Software and Master Landscape Software is fully Integrated into Punch! Professional Home Design Platinum!Punch! Professional Home Design Suite Platinum is a special two-for-one package loaded with incredible capabilities. You get all of the features of both industry-acclaimed Punch! Master Landscape design software and Punch! Professional Home Design Suite in this easy-to-use home and landscape design package.This updated home and landscape design software version is built on the same powerful platform as Punch! Architectural Series 4000 allowing you the flexibility to integrate Punch! PowerTools and much much more!Our PhotoView technology lets you import real-world photos into your home and landscape designs to create a truly realistic image of your home. You can import a photo of your own home add landscaping design or deck design and then view your work from any angle -- with realistic 3D perspective. Our LiveView window continually updates your home designs in real-time 3D as you draw. Interior and exterior 2D elevations are available with a single mouse click and the exclusive ClearView tool renders your design with a glass house effect. You can actually see through walls to maximize your design space. You will be amazed at our powerful 3D graphics engine that lets you create real-time walk or fly-throughs - for a Hollywood-style voyage through your new creation! This garden and landscape design software allows you to create multi-level or multi-story decks with 3D photo-realistic textures stairs railings object placement and color capabilities. Helpful deck design wizards walk you through railing baluster options and more. Choose a basic shape or create one from scratch and watch the program draft a beautiful 3D rendering of your new deck design. Your deck and landscaping designs come to life with photo-realistic 3D - complete with shadows - giving you a stunning true-to-life representation of your home design.Our Plant... ... Read more

Features

• Design the patio of your dreams with the materials of your choice
• Pre-designed patterns you can preview and try out to see if they've got the look you want
• PatioBot handles the calculations for you -- all you do is lay out your design and take a look
• Fully-rendered design view makes it simple to visualize your beautiful new patio

Reviews (2)

Don't waste your money!
This software is still based on the old Windows 3x format so the look & feel is definitely clunky. While it is not very difficult to learn (on-line tutorials available on their website), it is VERY limited in what it can do. (...)

The use of the word "Designer" for this software title is very misleading, because all you design is 1 dimensional patio flooring drawings that you could do faster by hand.

The use of "Patio" is used too freely for this software title as well. There is nothing that lets you design anything that remotely resembles a patio... no cover, no plants or shrubbery, no BBQ island, etc.

At best, use this application to estimate the amount of materials (cement, gravel, sand, bricks, etc.) that may be needed for your project as it appears to be able to calculate that fairly well.

Patio Designer is Terrible
I wasted my money on this software - don't make the same mistake. It's non-intuitive, inflexible, cumbersome, and does nothing that you can't do yourself in 15 minutes with a pencil and paper. Does not allow you to design a custom patio - only provides a very few options of pavers and patterns, and creating anything other than a rectangular patio is almost impossible. Big Hammer support admitted the problems, but offered no solution or help. ... Read more

Features

• Discover a world of virtual possibilities with the home renovation tools --create bathrooms, master bedrooms, dining areas, all with a mouse click
• Design a vibrant new look for your home before doing any work -- import photos of your home's interiors and work with them digitally
• More than 10,000 images of furniture, appliances, and housewares -- just pick what you like and add it
• Experiment with wallpaper and wall colors to bring out your sense of design

Reviews (1)

Impractical and clunky
The graphics are crude, the mobility features (to get around your room) are awkward, and the elements (e.g., furniture, wallpapers, etc.) are limited. You are much better off using a good old fashioned sheet of paper and your imagination than taking the time to figure out how to work this software. ... Read more

Product Description

Support all documents with unique swing arm.

Support all documents with unique swing arm.

Support all documents with unique swing arm.

Reviews (1)

Stanley the best
Best product ever I gave it as a gift and I got more than enoghugh thanks. Buy this and you are getting the best repair encylpedia for the computer. ... Read more

Features

• Produce comprehensive reports containing all of your Complete Home Journal information
• Import digital images of your home into Home Journal - it's a much easier way to keep records of your property by category
• Track details of your exterior home improvement projects -- Easily track the details of your home mechanical improvements such as your heating/cooling, plumbing and more
• Record important financial information about your property -Real estate agent, builder, financing and insurance
• Quickly attach digital images to your home journal and inventory entries -- organize your contacts into custom groups and print labels

Amazon.com Product Description

Home Improvement Deluxe is a five-CD-ROM set filled with printable projects, informative videos, and easy instructions on home planning and remodeling. Learn how to improve and maintain your home with easy visual instructions using Home Depot Home Improvement 1-2-3. Use EnergySmart as your step-by-step guide to helping you conserve energy and save money. FloorPlan Plus 3D lets you design your ideal home and workspace with 3-D visuals. Maintain your home with ready-to-use homeowner records and checklists in the Homeowner's Kit. And create harmony and balance in your home or work environment with Feng Shui. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

BUYER BEWARE!!!!!
LOOK CAREFULLY!! This is a 4 CD set not a 5 CD set as advertised. Look at a close-up of the picture of the box. It says 4 CD set. (I discovered this after I ordered it). It does not contain anything at all about Feng Shui. There are a ton of house plans (of varying quality) to look at but nowhere does it contain the functionality to design your own home or workspace. The advertised "FloorPlan Plus 3D" was not to be found. The HomeDepot Home Improvement 1-2-3 was very difficult to navigate and shallow in the information offered.

I called the phone number listed in the literature to discover they were a "contributor" and I would need to call the distributor of the software. They did NOT have a toll-free number. I called on my dime and was told by a recording to send an email. They no longer accept tech support calls. I sent an email question on 9/3. They responded on 9/11 saying they would try to help me find the functionality that was missing. It is November and I have yet to hear from them again. This purchase was a HUGE disappointment. I returned it and got my money back. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

This package includes two full software products on one CD-ROM. Test out your home design, renovation, or remodeling projects before investing a dime with Home Design 3D. Save time, money, and hours of frustration by creating the home of your dreams, right on your computer, in the comfort of your home or office. Intuitive drag-and-drop tools allow you to fully customize more than 100 sample plans and templates. Design with a selection of roof styles, gables, columns, and crown moldings. Simultaneous 2-D and 3-D views let you see your design as you work. You can even view your creations with real-time 3-D walkthroughs and flyovers from every angle. The program also includes a built-in cost calculator and loan planner.

With Landscape Design 3D you are able to create the perfect landscape and gardens for your home. Once you have placed all the trees, shrubs, and plants, you can take a walk through your fantasy landscape. You can drag and drop more than 60 photorealistic textures. Changes are made in both 2-D and 3-D automatically. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Too many bugs, too limited
Well, for $.. you shouldn't expect much. The biggest problem I had was with bugs. Trying too move walls ended up with zig-zag lines. Having the roof of my two story house ending up over the first floor. And, most frustrating of all, repeated crashing when trying to print out a design. I swapped an 11" x 17" pad of graph paper for this product and came out $.. ahead but I would have had better results with the graph paper.

Landscape Design was useless
I knew for 9.99 I shouldn't expect much but the landscape design portion of this package was useless. I couldn't get hardly anything out of it other than model pictures of certain types of gardens. Certainly that's not worth the money.

Difficult to use
I used the 1999 version for W95/98, which received an Editor's Choice award from Computer Times, however, I found this program difficult to use and lacking in flexibility. The 3-D features are nice, but getting a basic layout was very difficult to do, particularly since my lot is an odd shape. The help screens are not very helpful, especially in getting your basic design down. There were many pre-designed landscapes, but they didn't "fit" my situation. Limited selection of types and size of trees, shrubs, and flowers. I am an above average user of computers and software, but I don't have experience in design or drawing.

You get what you pay for!!
Purchased this for my wife, who is somewhat computer-inept. Decided to preview it myself, so I could offer her help with it later on; however, it was I who needed the help! Very difficult interface,with No "undo" feature, or "back" button for duffers to erase the inevitable mistakes.

This is an extremely maddening bit of software, which I am going to send back ASAP, and trade for something a bit more expensive, but hopefully, with a shorter leaning curve....

Did I mention that in addition to no printed docs (a real pet peeve of mine) there is no OPTION of printing the docs yourself; only an extremely unhelpful "help" file.

My advice? Forget this one!

Home Design 3D -a lot for the $
AutoCad or even Micrografx Designer it is not, but this little package provides quick almost painless floor plans and surprisingly useful 3D renderings. The learning curve is very short, particularly if you have some experience with other drawing software. Unlike some other very inexpensive software, this one gives you much, much more than you pay for. My biggest disappointment is the lack of flexibility and features found in the more powerful -and much more expensive- programs. Having a layers feature, for example, would greatly improve this program. Everything considered, this is a definite winner! ... Read more

Product Description

Instant Home Design 3.0 Win/Mac 2-CD-ROM software suite that lets you create customized before & after visuals of your home renovation in both photographic and CAD (Computer Aided Design) formats ... Read more

Features

• Import a photo of your house and add structures and accents to your home
• Draft house plans and blueprints with accurate, precise 2D drawings
• Import a picture of your own garden, then begin choosing location for your hedges, ornaments and more
• Detailed botanical reference guide helps you pick out plants & flowers for the perfect garden
• Zoom in & out of drawings, change scale and color, rotate, copy and mirror objects

Amazon.com Product Description

Black and Decker Everyday Home Repairs gives you the know-how you need to make home repairs on your own, quickly and easily. This comprehensive program covers door, window, wall, and ceiling repair; basic plumbing and electrical knowledge; and exterior home repairs. You'll save time and money by turning complex household problems into easy solutions! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Skimpy
Since I'm not particularly handy around the house, I had high hopes for this CD-ROM to help me as I maintain my older house. Unfortunately, this CD-ROM just scratches the surface of home repair, leaving out many scenarios I've encountered that I don't consider particularly exotic.

My wife, who *is* particularly handy around the house, browsed this CD-ROM as well, and told me that some of the instructions given were more complicated than necessary. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Constantly crashes on Win XP Pro
Started installation: Its full installation is ~1.5GB and takes a long long time.
Once started using: the user interface is quite good and reasonably easy to find things. However, I soon started to run into problems. Once walls become "fixed" they are very difficult to remove.
Biggest problem has been stability of the program, it constantly kept blue screening on my DELL Inspiron 4150 laptop (512MB RAM) running WinXP Pro. I have not had this problem with any other software I have installed on this machine.
This software has now been uninstalled and will not be using it again.

Lockups, Crashes, other major problems
Purchased version 6 in October of 2003 and had problems. Called company and after much discussion they sent me version 8. Did not notice any improvements from version 6 and had same problems. I was not trying to do anything spectacular, I was just recreating my existing home and trying to add an addition.I started more than a dozen plans from scratch and all the plans either locked up, would not load or would completely kick you out of the program and it would not always save the plan before crashing.The programs does not tell you when you have made an error in design ( ie walls not meeting, etc) and if you do get an error message it will be a generic message and does not tell you where the error is.The help line does try but they are slow and limited in knowledge- I have been trying to get a solution for my problems for 6 months.The last conversation I had with Tech support, they told me the software was not capable of doing what I was attempting to do!!!??? I have gone back to my 8 year Broderbund Home Architect. It doesn't have all the features advertised by Individual, but at least it works.

A improvement from Versions 6.0 and 7.0...
I have to admit I was getting fed up with all the work I would put into a project and then it would just disappear. This was working with versions 6.0 and 7.0. But, I did happen to find a corrupt file from version 6.0 which turned out to be a bad disk and so far NO problems with any of the versions. I do recommend that the user does take advantage of the "AUTO RESTORE" feature. You also have to be very patient with technical support but they are a big help. So, im giving version 8.0 3 stars. We'll see how it runs. The program offers basic home design. And what the box say's is what the program offers. Remember that for $ 40 bucks your not gonna get the bells and whistles that BH&G or PUNCH has. But, if your into interior decorating, lanscaping, etc this program is for you.

awful crash prone program
I have been working on computers since 1975.I have seen some awful programs, including some that I have written.This is the single most crash prone piece of software I have ever had the misfortune to use.No mater what you do, it WILL crash.It WILL corrupt HOURS of work and leave you with no option but to delete the file and start over again.

USE ANYTHING BUT THIS SOFTWARE ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Professional Home Design Platinum integrates 16 professional tools, including Cabinet Wizard for automatic cabinet design, Custom Texture Builder, the PlantFinder sortable database, and PhotoView for importing photos into your design. Other new tools for topographic excavation, 3-D cutaway elevations, and more are also included, giving you millions of design combinations.

Use 3D Home Exterior Design to view your home in thousands of subtle paint color choices, or design walk-out basements and split-level designs with the slope tool. The ClearView tool renders your design with a glass-house effect, giving you a wire-frame perspective of your topography without your landscape plantings. A user-definable database helps you find the right plantings for your planting zone based on your search criteria. More than 2,000 selections of flowers, shrubs, trees, ornamental grasses, ground cover, and more are featured.

Design the perfect deck for your home plan with Ultimate Deck. Multilevel or multistory decks with 3-D photorealistic textures, stairs, railings, object placement, and color capabilities give you the ability to design exactly the deck you want. Deck Wizards walk you through railings, baluster options, and more. And make sure everything is planned to perfection with tools for planning foundation, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. Even create custom cabinet designs with just a few simple mouse clicks with Cabinet Wizard. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Simple and limited
Punch Super Home Suite loaded easily and it was quick to learn to use. The help menu tells you which items to select but does not tell which pull-down menu to select them from! "Undo" is NEVER available.
The "Fly-around" tool does not work like the instructions say, does not work at all if you draw the house close to the edge of the lot, and works differently each time. If this feature worked, Punch would at least be useful for previewing interior and exterior decorating results and furniture placement.
If you are trying to do anything out of the ordinary (which is probably why you are looking at the software), Punch will just frustrate and annoy you. A "3-D Furniture Workshop" provides only a few basic furnishings and appliances. The library does not include basic fixtures such as toiltes, bathtubs, etc. The "CAD Tool" has an oval which only draws as a circle!
The Home Estimator feature is a VERY basic spreadsheet which misses part of the house when calcualting square footage. It does not do a complete materials takeoff.
The Auto Framer feature just provides a rough 3-D .bmp image to show what the framing will look like. It does not provide any useful drawings or dimensions.
When you print the 2-D floor plan, the first floor and second floor print superimposed... it is not possible to tell which walls are on each floor.
This is not serious software, and is not ready for publishing.
I will go back to the drawing board with an architect's scale and graph paper. There is a small medallion on the package which says "90 Money Back Guarantee" I'm going to try it but am not holding my breath!

Super Home Suite
Although not difficult to navigate and operate, I was very dissapointed to find that this product does not generate a material list! Also, this product does not have the ability to create any foundation plan.
Some basic "Important Features" somebody didn't think was needed.
Now I'm stuck with software I cant use.
Kind of like buying a car without a steering wheel!!! ... Read more

Product Description

VectorWorks MECHANICAL is specifically engineered for smart-sized design firms, machine shops, and fabricators who need an easy-to-use, easy-to-learn, drafting and 3D modeling solution. Currently the best selling CAD program on the Macintosh½, and an industry standard on Windows½, VectorWorks is used by more than 250,000 design professionals in over 80 countries-making it one of the world's most popular CAD programs. ... Read more

Product Description

VectorWorks MECHANICAL is specifically engineered for smart-sized design firms, machine shops, and fabricators who need an easy-to-use, easy-to-learn, drafting and 3D modeling solution. Currently the best selling CAD program on the Macintosh½, and an industry standard on Windows½, VectorWorks is used by more than 250,000 design professionals in over 80 countries-making it one of the world's most popular CAD programs. ... Read more