Punch!, like GM, publishes a new version of its software just about yearly. In general each version is built upon its predecessor, using the features that it has and adding new ones to the growing list. In addition, there are irregular updates, in some cases updates which apply to more than one version. When these occur, all the applicable software is brought up to the same version number.
Version numbers describe the compatibility of the Punch! output file format, rather than a commonality of features. This is a description of the versions that have come to pass.
Punch! maintains three "tracks" for its software: a general home design track, an exterior, deck and landscaping track, and lately, an interiors track. In general all the features of the landscape and interior tracks are repeated in following full design offerings, but, of course, the reverse is not true.
(For a more direct feature comparison of the Punch! versions, see Punch!'s own version comparison.)
| Approximate Date | Version Number | Full Name | Nickname | New or Changed Features | Cross-version Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 2.0.0 | Home Design Complete | Complete | Details about early programs (before 3.5.1) not available. | The earliest Punch!'s; not very suitable for other than single floor, "saltbox" designs, though some have used them to great effect, particularly interiors. Cannot easily build basements, attic space, non-symmetrical roofs, realistic floors (with thickness). Roofs include ceilings and gable ends; walls are rectangular. Real Model. |
| Mar 1999 | 3.0.0, 3.1.0 | Super Home Design | Super | Estimator, Framer, Floorplan Trace | |
| Oct 1999 | 3.5.0 | 5-in-1 Home Design | 5-in-1 | ||
| 3.5.1 | Ultimate Deck and Landscape | Ultimate | The first offering in the Landscape track. | ||
| 3.5.1, 3.5.2 | Complete, Super, 5-in-1 | This update brought all the packages up to their current version level. General limitations of all version 3.5.x versions of Punch!, relative to what came later, include the inability to handle below-ground features, rectangular-only shaped walls, bookroofs only, and floors of zero thickness. In general, these versions seemed to be designed to handle, primarily, simple one story residences ("saltboxes" in the vernacular). | |||
| Feb 2000 | 4.0.0 | Professional Home Design Suite | Pro | Walls with odd shapes, thickness and autoflooring, freehand roof tool, floor cutout, stairs, window/door styles, elevation slider, Floorplan Trace, AutoFraming, Estimator, Foundation, Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC plans, ClearView, basements, greatly expanded object selection. | Fixes many of the problems in easrlier versions. Framer and Estimator is borrowed more or less intact from earlier, and do not "do" floor joists or roof rafters; roofs and floors are simply sheathed over. |
| Feb 2001 | 4.0.1 | Bug fixes. | |||
| June 2001 | 4.1.0 | Master Landscape & Home Design | Master | Second offering in the Landscape track. Greatly expanded plant selection, PlantFinder, PhotoView, cutaways. | |
| Nov 2001 | 4.5.0 | Professional Home Design Suite - Platinum | Platinum | Autosave and universal undo, VRML export, plan rotate/flip/move, texture customizer, wall break, curved walls, excavation tool, multi-slope tool, 3- and 4-point roof tools, wainscot, cabinet wizard, open staircases. | |
| Feb-Apr 2002 | 4.5.1 | Pro, Master, Platinum | Added Tool Guides, PlantFinder, new 3D for objects (pocket door, etc), bug fixes. | ||
| Oct 2002 | 6.0.0 | Architectural Series 18 | AS18 | The first PowerTool-Enabled version. Converted the 3D Workshop, PhotoView, Framing Editor, Estimator, Cabinet Wizard to PowerTools. New snap features, CAD shape conversions, log cabin objects, lighting glows, help videos. Improved metric conversions, text support, framing editor and estimator. New PowerTools: DXF Import and Export, Elevation Editor, Layout Manager. | PowerTool enablement |
| Feb 2003 | 6.0.1 | Bug fixes to AS18. | |||
| June 2003 | 6.0.1b, 6.0.1R1 | Bug fixes for PowerTools. R1 upgraded some of the Microsoft libraries; no changes to Punch! itself. | |||
| Oct 2003 | 7.0.0 | Architectural Series 3000 | AS3000 | Improved consolidated menu for objects, textures, plants, PowerTools and object properties; enhanced object defaults, dxf import, sun control and shadows, LiveView control, more lighting styles and shadows. New ToolTips, room templates and title blocks, object organizer, plant perimeter and fills. New PowerTools: Photo Editor, Animator, Fireplace Wizard. | |
| Feb 2004 | 7.5.0 | Master Landscape Pro | MLP | Third Landscape track program. New plant organizer. Added PowerTools: Surveyor, Deck Designer, Plant Editor. | |
| Oct 2004 | 8.0.0 | Architectural Series 4000 | AS4000 | Many new powertools; custom textures, trims, doors, windows, 2D symbols, fences. Custom organizers, Wall accessories. See this page for more detail. | |
| Jan 2005 | 8.0.0 | Professional Home Design Suite - Platinum 8 | Platinum8 | Let's call it AS3595. AS4000 functionality nearly all there, just missing some of the AS series PowerTools. Moves PowerTool Enablement back to within reach of Platinum users. See this page for more detail. | Custom objects |
| April 2005 | 8.0.0 | Architectural Series 18-8, Master Landscape Pro 8 | AS18-8, Master8 | Brings Master Pro and AS18 up to 8.0 compatibility, with Terrain Designer and other AS4000 features. | |
| Oct 2005 | 10.0.0 | Professional Home Design Suite - Interiors | Interiors | First offering in the Interior track, limited to Foundation, Floor, Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC and Detail tabs. New features are the Room Designer, roof holes and skylights, and units of dimensions specifications. New objects and textures. See this page for more detail. | Version 10 adds a few new features and expands on old ones. Liveview is enhanced with Palettes and views. New menufacturer (and Punch!) supplied content. |
| Dec 2005 | 10.0.0 | Architectural Series 3000 | AS3000-10 | "Master Landscape Pro plus Interiors". Doesn't hAve all the PowerTools that AS4000 does, but nearly. | |
| Mar 2006 | 10.0.0 | Architectural Series 4000 | AS4000-10 | All AS4000-8's tools, plus Interiors new features. Much new content, and content for templates and the Sectional Designer. Content updater. | |
| Feb 2006 | 10.5.0 | Master Landscape Pro-10.5 | MLP_10.5 | Brings Landscape Series up to 10, plus some new features. | 1200 new flower and pot selections. |
PowerTools also have their own versions, and in this fact may come conflict. The PowerTools, in fact, have three version numbers: their own version, which tracks their contents and functionality (in Punch!, this version mirrors the Punch! versions they are released under), and a minimum and maximum code version, which tells what version of Punch! "PXF" code they accept. There are, so far, four PXF code versions: 5.0, which corresponds to AS18 and AS3000 levels, 7.5 (MLP), 8.0 (AS4000-Platinum8) and 10.0 (Interiors).
Incompatibility between Punch! and it's PowerTools can have many possible results. Before AS4000 these were unlikely because all the previous PowerTools were updated and present in subsequent versions. With Platinum 8, however, all the previous PowerTools aren't included. Punch! is careful to send the right version of PXF code to any PowerTool that needs it, however, doing that has consequences as well. For example, suppose someone were to upgrade from AS18 to Platinum 8, and decides to take the PowerTools in AS18. These tools have version 5.0, and so Punch! sends them level 5.0 PXF data when they need it. Such data cannot contain the new 8.0 features in Platinum 8, such as custom wall trim, so if the PowerTool were to modify the wall and send it back to replace the old wall, the trim would effectively disappear from the wall.
In the table below are listed all the known versions of PowerTools and the min and max accepted PXF (in parentheses).
| Punch! Version | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PowerTool | 6.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 | 8.0 AS4000 | 8.0 Platinum | 10.0 | 10.5 | Notes |
| Animator | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5-8) | 10.0.1 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | Note 7 | ||
| Cabinet Wizard | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 8.0 (8) | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (5-10) | Note 3 | ||
| Custom Workshop | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5) | 8.0 (8) | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | Note 1. |
| Deck Designer | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5-8) | 8.0 (5-8) | 10.0 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | Note 4. | ||
| Door Designer | 8.0 (8) | 8.0 (5-7.5) | 10.0 (8) | Note 3 | ||||
| DXF Exporter | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5) | 10.0.1 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | |
| DXF Importer | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5) | ? | 10.0 (5-5) | 10.5 (5-10) | |
| Elevation Editor | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 8.0 (5-8) | 8.0 (5-8) | 10.0 (5-10) | Note 3, 4 | ||
| Estimator | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5-8) | 8.0 (5-8) | 10.0.1 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | |
| Fence Designer | 8.0 (8) | 10.5 (8) | Note 4. | |||||
| Fireplace Wizard | 7.0 (5) | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (8-10) | Note 3, 7 | ||||
| Framing Editor | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0 (5-8) | 8.0 (5-8) | 10.0.1 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | |
| Global Sun Positioning | 10.5 (9) | |||||||
| Layout Editor | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5-7.5) | 8.0,8.01 (5-8) | 10.0.1 (5-10) | 10.5 (5-10) | Note 6 | |
| Material Painter | 8.0 (5) | 10.5 (5) | Note 2. | |||||
| Material Workshop | 8.0 (5) | 10.0 (5) | Note 5 | |||||
| Photo Editor | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 10.0 (5) | 10.5 (5) | Note 7 | ||
| PhotoView | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 7.5 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 10.0 (5) | 10.5 (5-5) | |
| Plant Editor | 7.5 (7.5) | 8.0 (7.5) | 10.0 (7.5) | 10.5 (7.5-7.5) | Note 7 | |||
| Pool Designer | 10.5 (10-10) | Note 4. | ||||||
| Real Model | 5.0 (5) | 7.0 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 10.0 (5) | Note 3, 4. | ||
| Roof Wizard | 8.0 (8) | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (10) | 10.5 (10) | ||||
| Room Wizard | 10.0 (5-10) | Note 3 | ||||||
| Section Detailer | 8.0 (5-7.5) | Note 5. | ||||||
| Site Planner | 7.5 (5) | 8.0 (5) | 10.5 (5) | Note 4, 7 | ||||
| Symbol Editor | 8.0 (5-7.5) | Note 5. | ||||||
| Topographic Designer | 8.0 (8) | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (8-10) | Note 4 | ||||
| Trim Designer | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (8) | Note 3 | |||||
| Window Designer | 8.0 (8) | 10.0 (8) | Note 3 | |||||
| TKE PowerTools | ||||||||
| BreakAll | 1.0-2.1.5 (5-7.5) | 2.2.0-3.1.9(5-8) | 3.2.0 up (5-10) | |||||
| From the Ground Up | 1.0-2.1.3 (5-7.5) | 2.2.0 up (5-8) | ||||||
| HighRise | up to 2.2.9 (5-8) | 2.3.0 up (5-10) | ||||||
| PlansPlus | 1.0-2.0.7 (5-7.5) | 2.1.0-2.3.9 (5-8) | 2.4.0 up (5-10) | |||||
| VRML Export Expert | up to 1.1.5 (5-7.5) | |||||||
* - All available in Platinum8; some not available in Master8 (those involving interiors).
Note 1: The object format changed with version 8, so objects created in AS4000 or Platinum 8 are not backwards compatible.
Note 2: The Material Painter is a PowerTool for modifying textures that already exist within Punch! by modifying the sizing and the tint of the existing texture. It is a feature in AS18-MLP, and was replaced by the Materials Workshop in AS4000 which can prepare new textures from scanned pictures or photographs. Punch! apparently decided to make the Painter a PowerTool to place into Platinum8 so that the Materials Workshop could be kept as an add-on feature.
Note 3: This PowerTool doesn't normally appear in exterior track packages.
Note 4: This PowerTool doesn't normally appear in Interior track packages.
Note 5: An AS4000 PowerTool, doesn't appear in Platinum, AS18, MLP or AS3000.
Note 6: A post-Platinum PowerTool, doesn't appear in Platinum.
Note 7: A post-AS18 tool, doesn't appear in Platinum or AS18.
This table says, for example:
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This page last updated on Sat Oct 07 2006 |