Design Flex Reviews

Summary: I use 2020 Design Live everyday at work but am frustrated that I need to re-create the same elevation package every time. and I'm not talking about Schemes. I wish that I could be hired as a consultant temporarily or part time to help 2020 design improve on real issues. The NKBA scheme isn't per NKBA graphics and it would really help if it were. I have so many suggestions all the way around.

Positive: The rendering quality in 2020 is excellent and after speaking to other kitchen designers, have found that even though they use AutoCAD and Revit, they prefer the rendering quality of 2020.

Negative: I've experienced years of new 2020 versions since 1992 and still there are some things that haven't been upgraded. I've requested many times for certain things to be upgraded and still have yet to see. The Electrical symbols are too large and are outdated and some new symbols are missing for new technology. 2020 spaces seems to put more emphasis on entering other phases of (Business Management) design rather than make significant improvements to the cad program itself to remain current for working drawings and be more user friendly to Kitchen & Bath Designers.

Summary: Okay, too expensive for the benefits. When I call for help I have been told I am not signed up for certain things. So what does my 1000.00 really get me.

Positive: Comfortable with it. You get use to somethings after a while using it for so long. But, for what it cost not worth the money.

Negative: My 20/20 program keeps closing without warning. I really was only impressed with 20/20 at the beginning. Now, not so much.

Summary: I love working on 2020. My biggest problem is the lighting not being up to industry standards. Using the Cloud to get appliances has been a big help but someone needs to fix the corrupt ones and the ones where the coloring isn't correct.

Positive: It's an easy program to learn to use. I have been using it for several years and they are always updating it!

The 2020 support is amazing. Very helpful and kind.

The Cloud has more items to use to make your designs come to life.

Negative: The lighting still is not up to par. It should be more like Chef Architect where the lighting is perfect and realistic every time.

Some of the appliances in the Cloud are corrupt and or don't show the correct coloring in the plans as they do in the Cloud when I select them.

Summary: Overall it's a good enough design program

Positive: I like the cloud configurations and the ease with which to use.

Negative: The program after using it for a while starts to lag and then you will lose your work.

Summary: As mentioned in Pro, I need to put more into learning the program. I have used Pro Kitchen, and found it more user friendly. I used to be a graphic designer on Mac, which is user-friendly. Quicker steps to get things done. This program is more rigid, but I personally need more time into it.

Positive: When I get more time with this, I see potential for good renderings if needed after I take time to set up preferences, mainly dimensions and schemes.

Negative: The elevations and floor plans should be side by side not stacked. Monitors are horizontal.

On floor plan, you can't hide a layer to reach a layer below. You have to move everything.

Moving groupings-- Suggest something like, hold shift key to select items to move, and let go. As is now, I have to select group, then right click >group, then move, then right click >ungroup. A lot of clicking if I don't want to keep group for long haul.

In Presentations, setting up title block, I'd like use different size fonts.

Would like use of ruler guides.

Summary: I have been working with 2020 since the very beginning and I have to say that the LIVE is not a benefit, I liked the proficiency of the old key. Sign in was never a problem.

Positive: Pricing kitchens and viewing options for clients are the best assets of 2020.
Also ordering in multiple colors is best in 2020, it is hard to make a mistake.
Ordering is also easy transferring to order processing.

Negative: My computer is fully capable and the storage is not full, I have IT and 20-20 always confirm it is up to date. It always crashes and won't let me sign back in.
Sometimes I am so frustrated I walk away and don't get pending work done.
Other times I call and get assistance from 2020, but I hate to do that because I have to reset all of my settings including taxes.

Summary: Like it just wish I could rely on it more. Wish something can be done about the crashing of the program and the corrupt files.

Positive: Ease of use nice images used to it by now have been using for over 10 years and overall happy with the product, the cloud is less my favorite thing liked it more before the cloud was much faster. Images from the cloud make the design too large to open In rendering hence slowing you down.

Negative: Crashes too many times I could be working on a new design and it will crash and lose my work or corrupt my file and have to use the back up file to open which sometimes is corrupt too, making me re-do the entire design. This can be a real problem, wish this was resolved.

Summary: It's a nice program to use for certain things, but in my field, this is not the only drawing program I use. I also use AutoCAD because there are just some things you cannot do efficiently/accurately in 2020. I feel like if 2020 added more features that put it more on par with CAD (certain features) I would be a lot happier with the subscription price. I'd also be a lot happier if the recovery feature worked ALL the time. I lost an entire drawing the other day and no recovery file was created. It's the first drawing I've lost in years, so it was disappointing.

Positive: Easy to use, drawings can look very nice almost realistic. I like that you've added more decorative items.

Negative: I can't stand how many times I have to force myself to logout (yes, I have the box selected to log me out upon exiting the program, but it rarely ever works as it should). I think we need more that 5 forced logouts. We need an unlimited amount of times we can have admin force us out since the issues continue to happen.

I use 3-4 different computers and I can't go from one PC to the next due to some "flexnet" errors that have been happening for the past few months. There needs to be better light fixture options within 2020 -- not on the cloud. It's not easy to modify lighting from the cloud, but the fixtures in the room furnishings catalog work fine (but they look straight out of the 90s). I've found that plumbing fixtures (Kohler/Moen) do not include a lot of their products or in the correct finishes.

I feel like the amount of money we pay for a subscription is not justified with the issues that occur and because the program isn't flexible (someday maybe we can import images and they can be sent to a diagonal without looking all weird) Also, would be nice to be able to draw shapes in elevations, copy and paste in elevations, etc. Again, it's a decent program, but for what we pay, it SHOULD be better.

Catalog manager needs to be able to install every single catalog we want, at one time. Every time I have to set up a new PC for a new employee it takes hours and hours to install all the catalogs we use. It's excessive.

Summary: I used to use this software all of the time, but have been having my team train elsewhere. Other softwares are just as robust regarding rendering and much more reliable with construction documents. Since that software does not price cabinets, I now only use 2020 only for the manufacturers we carry that still subscribe (down to 1 of 4 manufacturers).

Positive: Rendering Capabilities, Pricing of Cabinets (if manufacturer subscribes...as many are no longer subscribing)

Negative: Dimensions don't stay put, cannot use for construction docs. Inability to sign in/out for use on travelling computers (office/desktop vs client's-house/laptop) - end up having to go in as admin to release session and you only get to do this 5 times per year which is a joke. Inability to use if internet is not consistent. Crashes a lot - even with MORE than recommended requirements.

Summary: Reasonably good, could be better. Support has been reasonably good, though I've been hung up on a couple of times. ( is this enough text to select "next step?")

Positive: I've been using 2020 Since 2006. The rendering capability really helps the customer understand what our concept of their new kitchen is. It make it much easier for them to visualize and us to explain the redesign. I generally don't have the time to utilize some of features, like placing tile floors or backsplashes. It seems you have to remove then anyway of a customer wants a revision, or to edit an item.

Negative: The design field is ridiculously large. I've lost small designs. I estimate that it is about 750 meters across. I'm designing kitchens, not subdivisions. On a large layout for our new showroom, 30m x 30m the program lags behind in saving and takes a long time to render. I had to break it up into sections keep to avoid waiting for it update as I was working.

Far too many "Critical Errors", the program crashes and the history resets as if I'd never opened it that day. The program also freezes up. My CPU usage shows as being anywhere from 2% to 20%, but nothing is happening. This is especially bad when I have a customer here on a design review and we are watching an hourglass where the curser is. We purchased a new "gaming computer" in hopes that things would run smoother, but it hasn't improved.

Summary: I have issues with an undersized graphics card that may be the main reason for some of my other concerns, but overall the product is just ok. There are a lot of features that I think can be improved on. Help hotline and online support are also lacking.

Positive: It is nice for making quick 3D renderings of square spaces and showing off to client with accurate depiction of cabinetry.

Negative: You need to make it possible to show different floor levels. We have had a few jobs were a kitchen or bathroom has had a step down and that cannot be shown. Also, we have had a few jobs with round wall or ceilings. Your product needs a way to show this with out piecing together a bunch of small walls. Further more, cathedral ceilings or sloped ceiling don't show up right. They always have triangle pieces going to the wrong connection point. it makes it difficult to properly show renderings without having holes in the ceiling etc. Lastly, your wall cut though for the camera is a nice feature, but as soon as it hits the wall, the entire wall is gone. When looking down a long room, if the side walls are touched by the camera cut circle, the whole wall disappears leaving cabinets floating in the air. Having the wall only cut out where it is hit by the camera line would be better.
Finally better flooring options would be nice. the standard floors you have are only for solid or square tile.

Summary: I think 2020 has a huge potential to improve its product and bring it up to date with the industry and its commands. I have not used Chief Architect and ProKitchen Design, but I do hear from other professionals in the industry that they are better software to use. I prefer to stick with 2020 for I used it for a little over 7 years now. I know 2020 is up for the challenge.

Positive: I love the ease of the 2020 Design Live, and love the features and tools given in all aspects of the program. I love the cloud based items and catalogs, the EZ Render is absolutely fantastic. The textures in the default catalog, and the ease of generating quotes for each project.

Negative: The number one issue is the amount of crashing that happens per project. It's frustrating to loose data from crashing events, or corrupting the kit file after crashing. The buffering and processing data while selecting items from catalogs, or as simple as cut and paste which causes instant crashing, or as simple as going into the light properties of the light fixtures also causes instant crashing. The limited amount of decorative items in the basic 2020 generic catalogs, and the outdates items in it can really use some weeding and updating. When I can't find what I need for the design, I go to Sketchup to download what I can find, but that is also limited to what I can integrate into 2020.

Summary: It saves tons of time, but it's probably shortened my life with anger and blood pressure by the same amount. Why doesn't somebody fix it -- especially for the price -- should include 24hr customer service & include an anger management tutorial.

Positive: Rendering is great. Saves time with edits. Great tool for designing, presenting, pricing, and ordering.

Negative: Super glitchy and frustrating. Can't work for long if not signed in, but can be SUPER laggy ("hangs") when signed in. It was better before "Live".

Summary: It's just OK.

We use it everyday whole 8 hours for 2 computers planning to buy another account. But we wish could upgrade the items design more modern. All old design stuff in the cloud browser.

Positive: Offers designing colors.
More realistic design.
Can install factory catalogue.
Can use any other computer, no need stick.

Negative: Freezes and crashes a lot.
Cloud browser is not modern - floors, tile, countertop are ugly
Handles design poor/ no choices.
No cloud storage options.
Bad lighting options/ specially small areas.
Cloud sometimes not working.
On the live version took off all items from the main menu, that makes us uncomfortable when cloud items not working.

Summary: It's just ok. My company is using it so I have no other alternative to design in another program. I would recommend the team to do some upgrades.

Positive: Built in rendering feature, built in construction drawing set print outs, option to download catalogs, good for beginners, easy to learn.

Negative: Poor rendering quality, software freezes often, limited options when it comes to designing, outdated and not enough items in the cloud.