Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium 20 Review

Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium has a fine set of features to help you virtually create your dream home as well as keep tabs on the cost of materials during the process.

Top Ten Reviews Verdict

Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium is great for most remodeling and redecorating projects and offers the bonus of outdoor space planning tools as well.

Pros

  • +

    It is compatible with CAD software, so you can send your designs to an architect or contractor.

Cons

  • -

    You need to spend time learning how to use this software before you start creating.

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Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium has a fine set of features to help you virtually create your dream home as well as keep tabs on the cost of materials during the process. There is a learning curve to using this interior design software, but you’re not completely on your own thanks to its helpful support materials.

You can draw on Punch's generous object library to help you envision your remodel. It’s filled with more than 4,700 objects, including a substantial selection of bathroom fixtures, appliances, doors, windows, light fixtures, furniture and more, all in a wide range of styles. That’s is enough to get you by, but if you want a comprehensive selection, consider our top pick, Virtual Architect Ultimate – it has more than 7,500 objects in its library.

It’s easy to position objects in your plan with the application's drag-and-drop feature. And if you don’t like what you chose, it’s just as easy to edit the item out and replace it with something else.

Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium makes it easy to rebuild too. It has designers for items like windows, floors, cabinets, fireplaces and more. You can also create a QuickPalette filled with all the colors and materials you might want to use, from flooring to ceiling paint. You then apply them to the room with just a mouse click.

As a nice bonus, the software includes landscaping tools. While we looked specifically at interior design programs, most folks consider their decks and porches extensions of their homes. As such, it makes sense to get a program that allows you to plan both your indoor and outdoor living spaces. Even if you currently only plan on revamping your home’s interior, you may want to redo the landscaping later on – something that’s worth considering as you choose a program.

Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium has some brand-name object in its library but not as many as some of its competitors. Not every project requires brand-name paint or flooring, though, and usually elements in an interior design project can be replicated in many different brands.

The QuickStart option helps you create a floor plan fast, and you can also start with the sample house plans that come with the software. In addition, you can scan in floor plans you have sketched out and trace them in the program. As you draw or resize rooms, the automatic dimensioning tool gives you exact measurements that evolve as you move walls, windows and doors so your end design is precise.

You can trace a blueprint or floor plan but not an image. When you import an image, it remains as a background in 3D mode. Images are helpful as references in 2D mode if you want to recreate their look. However, you must recreate the image manually. Some home interior design applications can do so automatically, which requires fewer steps.

Your project may be as simple as switching out wall and floor coverings, but we like that Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium can help with more difficult projects, too. For example, you can incorporate electrical wiring if you plan to move a wall. You can even generate new stairways and create curved walls to add flair to your new room.

Once you recreate a room, you can view it in 2D and 3D as well as virtually walk through it. You can also look at the 2D and 3D views at the same time. In addition, there is a dollhouse view that doesn’t display the roof and wireframe and glass views, where the walls are transparent.

The software’s helpful estimation tool calculates the cost of all the materials you use in your design. As such, it can help you keep to your budget and gives you a reasonably good idea of how much your project will cost before you start tearing down walls. Once you finish your design, you can export it in DXE and DWG file formats – CAD software formats professional architects and contractors can use to help you make your design a reality.

While it will take time to learn to use the program, but Punch Home & Landscape Design Premium has helpful training videos, and its website features a FAQs section and user forums where you can troubleshoot and learn from other users. Customer service representatives are available by phone in case you can’t find the answers you need elsewhere.

J.D. Chadwick
Contributor

J.D. Chadwick started writing articles for Top Ten Reviews 2008 and, after filling the role of Multimedia Editor, the keen video creator and expert in software was one of the most prolific members of the TTR team, authoring articles on things like antivirus software, video editing apps, and more.