Cheap Punch! Home Design Architectural Series 3000 (Software) (Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 2000) Price

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Customer Reviews of Punch! Home Design Architectural Series 3000

Terrific program
I'm really surprised by some of the other reviewer's negative comments regarding this product. I was given the Punch! 5-in-1 program as a Christmas present and then purchased the Punch! 3000 program a couple of years later. When I got the Punch! 5-in-1 I had never used a CAD program before and really had very pretty limited experience with using computers in general. I have not run into any of the difficulties or limitations that the other reviewers complained about so I suspect that they just haven't learned to use the program. <
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>Punch! 3000 is pretty complicated but that's because it has a LOT of tools. I'm actually glad I started with the much less "robust" 5-in-1 program because it didn't overwhelm me and 3000 might have. <
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>I am not an architect but am nevertheless currently in the process of actually building my dream home exactly as I designed it using Punch!3000. It is a 2 story, 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, with wraparound porch, backyard decks, and a complex roomline that includes dormers. I designed every piece of it down to the foundation, plumbing, HVAC, and sidewalks. Yes, I did take my Punch!3000 plans to a professional designer and engineer to prepare working blueprints because I wanted a professional to verify that what I had planned was actually buildable...that the "physics" would work. <
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>But, it turned out that the only changes recommended to my design were slight variations (inches) in the lenths of a couple of room so as to take advantage of stock sizes of building materials and some changes to the electrical wiring scheme so as to balance the anticipated electrical loads better (i.e., get all the big appliances OFF the same circuit.) My designer said he'd seen a lot of stock house plans with a whole lot more problems than my design had. <
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>I did get a bit frustrated with how slowly Punch 3000! prepared live view renditions when my design got complicated but I suspect that the slow rendition was more due to limitations in my computer's memory than anything inherent in the program. And, I didn't actually ever use the Animator tool (played around with it a little but didn't really feel the need to "make a movie" of my house plans.) <
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>All in all, I think Punch!3000 is a great program and, while I'm glad to be finally building my dream home, I'm kind of sorry that I will no longer have any excuse for spending hours-on-end playing with this program and tweaking my design! Then again, I haven't done anything yet with the landscaping tools and I'll have almost 3 acres to landscape when we get moved in ... ;) <
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Not even worth the 1 star. A real ripoff.
If you want to build a very plain house that is 4 walls and a box then this will do the job. Anything else and it will not handle the job. Don't expect it to handle anything like different size of external walls, or external wall types other than standard 8' walls. Major problems with wall and foundation design.

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Rather disappointing
While the program has a lot of features, it is in no way possible to create any sort of drawing that could be submitted to a zoning commision or regulating body. The 3-D view is difficult to control, and the perspective inside a structure is abysmal; it is only good for external views. Drawing a terraced home with rooms at different levels was not possible without having part of the home flying out in space or under ground. The landscape grading feature could not correct this problem. <
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>In all very disappointing. <
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