Punch! Home Design Studio for Mac ships
updated 11:30 am EDT, Mon October 16, 2006
Punch! Home Design Studio
Punch! Software has released Punch! Home Design Studio for Mac OS X, an application for designing custom homes with realistic lighting effects, plant growth, and 3D views offering a controllable sun angle and shadows. Unique PowerTools allow design as well as editing from within the application, and logically-presented toolsets keep users' workspace free of clutter while working. Key Punch! Home design Studio features include a "Cabinet Assistant" to customize cabinet designs; "Landscape Tools" for property lines, paths, pools, slopes, fencing, and growth; a "Roofing Assistant" to automatically create roofing with pitch, soffit, and trim; and "Deck Design" allowing users to plan a new custom deck. Punch! Home Design Studio requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and is available for $150 as a digital download.
Further Punch! Home Design Studio features include pre-drawn editable room templates, a "PlantFinder" that automatically chooses selections based on specified climate or other criteria, and an automatic growth tool to show plant growth over time. An automatic planting tool enables users to specify multiple plantings that follow lines or curves drawn in a design document, and millions of colors allow users to virtually paint designed structures as desired. The application also offers an extensive drag-and-drop object library for drapes, blinds, furniture, wall accessories, and more.
Numerous brand name designer products are built into Punch! Home Design Studio such as faux finishes, flooring, paint, tile, and others. Deck templates offer pre-drawn, editable designs to get users started quickly on customized decks. A "Precision Light Planner" supports design with lighting effects for interior or exteriors, while "PhotoView" can add any scanned or photographed object to a design.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
At last!
I cannot remember when was the last time a 3D home design application was available on the Mac (it was in System 9 days). Punch has good reputation on the dark side. It will be popular by default, since Broderbund and others are staying with Windows. Looks like somebody is recognising iMac's traction in the home market. This is one less reason to run Parallels (or BootCamp). Let's hope they keep coming.