[.ca] Punch! Master Landscape Pro and Home Design

• Design a dream landscape with survey, deck, and plant wizards
• New state-of-the-art animation and outdoor lighting
• Create property lines with surveyor tool; customizable plant editor
• Simple, complex, and multi-level deck templates
• PhotoView editor; file import/export options; dynamic user interface

Where's the Landscaping?????:
Ugh, Ugh, Ugh! the good comments on this software must have come from the software designers! I purchased this because of the "Plant Editor". Only way to upload plants are by gifs, pics are overlarge, DO not grow with age and looks nasty. Online support group guru (non-punch company related I think) mentioned that I should be happy with a plant that resembles what I want but I couldn't even get close to the plants I want (vegetables). Didn't have too much problem with functions but would love to have updates to plant db, would even pay for it. Still looking for that "GARDENING" software that will do what I want, in the meantime, graph paper and pen still works wonders :).

Junk, Junk, Junk......:
Having over 15 years of residential and commercial building experience in addition to 10 years of CAD experience, my wife wanted a simple program, yet comprehensive enough to draw some interesting landscape designs for our home. I can't say enough negative things about Punch! Software beginning with the lack of support, vague instructions in the User Manual, and poor design of their product. I gave it one star only because the rating system doesn't have negative numbers. On 3D mode, it constantly reboots the computer or freezes up (I know. The first thing someone would ask is if it's the computer. Let say it's a high-end, high-speed computer which far in exceeds their minimum requirements. If our computer can run AutoCad, it can run their stuff.) The design of their screens and location of tools is pathetic at best. No one with ANY design or building experience programed this product. Navigating in this product is cumbersome and some values on wall height and dimension cannot be changed or overridden. The snap feature for the walls "assumes" that wall cannot be different heights along the same plane. This is not true. For example, think of wall of a shed dormer intersecting the roof plane of a cathedral ceiling. This is a typical design in home which has a loft. It assumes the knee wall which supports the beams of the cathedral ceiling should be the same height as the shed dormer walls or vica versa. The list goes on and on... Bottom line: Unless you want to spend the money on a "true" CAD landscaping program, go to your surveyor's office and get a copy of your site survey for about $5 or $10. Next, go by the store for some colored pencils, paper & sissors and make cut-outs of your landscape design on the survey. It'll look better, be less stressful and your kids will think it's fun.

Horrible Technical Support:
I encourage anyone to think twice or more before buying this product. I purchased it and had great difficulty in installing it on a new Dell XP Professional system. My call to techncial support was both rude and unsuccessful. Technical support does not want to support the product until it is installed! This means you are on your own until you get it running. I finally gave up and trashed the product and will be looking for a replacement There are many others in the market which work and have valid technical support.

I tried, oh I really tried.:
I read and ignored the reviews bashing this product, but bought it anyway. I figured that all I had to do was read the instructions. The instruction manual is 2 inches thick, but I went through the important part for me, landscaping. Then the software was not very easy, though not very hard. But. There are no labels on the plants. When you click one, you don't know if it is a Sequoia or a fern. The other landscape design softwares are also rather simple minded. But for this kind of money and trouble, this should have been pretty and useful, but it was not that way for me.

Af ew hours Invested....:
You'll need to invest a few hours to make this program function as it is designed. A thick manual included but trial and error will get you to where you want to be. Not for the computer newbies (if there are people out there like that).