.co.uk Review

Punch Professional Home Design Suite does something very few home planning applications achieve: it brings together designing both the interior and the exterior--including the garden--of your home on one CD-ROM.

While the software is perhaps a bit complex to learn at first, the huge range of features on offer make this forgivable. You can start with a blank screen, work with a pre-drawn plan from the software's library or import scans of the existing floor plans of your home. Whichever option you choose simply clicking the on-screen tabs allows you to switch between working on the floor plans, electrical plans, the plumbing system, roofing arrangements, heating and air conditioning or external decking and landscaping.

Getting objects such as furniture into position on a plan is mostly a matter of drag and drop, while you can also use a Computer Aided Design feature to draw curves, arcs and other standard shapes. It is useful to be able to see a flat plan and a 3-D view side by side, and to walk through the 3-D view, or do a fly over. You can even change the light direction, intensity and brightness on the 3-D views to get as close to the real world as possible.

With several useful tools above and beyond the designer, Punch Professional Home Design Suite is a rounded application. The 3-D Furniture Workshop lets you edit the library of furniture objects or design your own from scratch. RealModel lets you turn a home plan into a template for making a scale model--you can even print textures onto paper for pasting to the building materials. HomeEstimator works out how much it will cost to build your project life-size, and how much of each type of material you will need. --Sandra Vogel

Manufacturer's Description

Building upon Super Home design suite this is the total solution to all your home design & building needs. Punch Professional Home Design Suite is equipped with exceptional functionality allowing you create your dream home. All programs are fully integrated giving you total flexibility. You have at your disposal the 3D home interior & exterior design program, a 3D landscape program, a decking section, a 3D furniture workshop allowing you to create customised furniture, the unique floorplan trace function, a home estimator, electrical planner, plumbing planner, HVAC planner, the unique clearview transparent viewer and the exceptional 3D RealModel which allows you to create a scale down model of your dream home before you commit to construction.