Design Flex Reviews

Summary: I have never used anything but 20/20 so I cannot compare it to other programs. I think because I have used it awhile and am older change is hard. Going to 20/20 live was easy but it is more technical and I am not of that “techno” age group in which it comes easy.

Positive: Easy to design with as far as creating floor plans, elevations and perspectives. Easy to access the help center and support.

Negative: I have trouble when creating the color perspectives. Depending on the colors in the design the EZ Render sometimes works great…but with lighter colors it seems everything gets washed out. It seems that you have to add lighting or manipulate the design in other ways to get it to look right.

Summary: I use 2020 because I have a lot of time invested in using it. If 2020 could be made to be the one program that I could use and not have to invest in multiple programs to do my job, 2020 would be priceless and the "go-to" software for everyone in the industry.

Positive: It is familiar, I've been using 2020 for over 20 years, drawing walls, windows and doors is easier than auto cad, and some other programs. The cabinetry is vender specific which makes it easy to draw cabinetry-drag and drop.

Negative: This is cabinetry specific software. Cabinetry for kitchens belong in kitchen remodels but this program requires secondary programs to create realistic plans due to lack of symbols, design elements and textures. But the more decorations the slower the program no matter how good your computer is because of the program. I thought it was a computer issue and spent several thousand dollars getting a computer build and it still performs this way. 2020 has always been glitchy. They always work on fixing the cool "sellable" features but don't fix the small glitchy issues the users have to deal with on a daily basis.

Summary: I use 2020 Design Live every day. It's an invaluable tool for Kitchen Designers. After you get the hang of the program it is an efficient and wonderful way to design a space.

Positive: The rendering capabilities enable designers to show clients a clear picture of what their space could be.
The symbols available are useful for making almost all schematics.
The tools are clearly laid out and very intuitive.
The program and objects available within allow you to create almost any structure in 3D that a client could want to see.

Negative: There are limited additional items available in the Cloud. The items that are available, are not always able to be manipulated into the desired format.
I dislike being unable to use these features when disconnected to the internet.

Summary: Overall happy w/ 2020. Learning new tools is time consuming and for me not intuitive. I have used the learning center and added to my tool chest - but I find my self returning to the features that are ingrained when the work load piles up.

Positive: I have used 2020 for years. I appreciate the live version with its added features - online browser, freedom to use the program where I am - no key, and faster rendering.

Negative: Right hand corner with close the page and close the program X so close together - it is my habit to go there to close the page and it is easy to hit the close the program X. Easy to move too fast and cause the program to shut down.

Summary: Great convenience in designing and pricing cabinetry products. 2020 has many great features to aid in the design process, but it is important to be aware of its capabilities and not expect too much further from it.

Positive: Convenience of directly dragging and dropping cabinetry products, the ease of editing them, and exporting pricing all from one program cannot be done in other programs.

Negative: Cannot copy and paste items within an elevation view. When creating tagged/numbered notes in multiple elevation views, the tags become incorrect often and out of order. Calculations of moldings often do not add up and price correctly. Program will crash often without a warning. The symbol, countertop, appliance, and other buttons within the ITEMS category are practically useless since they pause the entire program for minutes each time they are clicked, sometimes causing it to crash entirely. The cloud browser is not set up in a convenient searching manner and could be improved greatly.

Summary: It is a good product, but I do get frustrated when it decides to shut off on me before I have a chance to save my work. Time wasted. It says auto save, but not if something goes wonky...then you loose everything.

Positive: It is easy to use. Would be nice to see more window and door choices. It is hard to see a lot of detail in the darker wood colors.

Negative: I think the coloration could improve, especially on the countertops and room paint.
I also feel you should update the countertop, tile floor and wood floor color options.

Summary: We use this product on a daily basis and have our patterns of work. Again, I am sure there are many things that we could be doing better, but the cost is too much for the right training.

Positive: Simple to use, Customer service is great, and many features and benefits that suit our needs and electronic catalogs.

Negative: LOTS of options, but not enough time to learn everything. The cost of training is expensive for small companies.

Summary: Overall, I think it's a great program. It has come a long way. But I still think that the construction details are lacking. The floorplans and elevations need to be cleaner and easy enough for the installers to read. The mechanicals need to be better (plumbing, electrical). Would be nice to have the ability to do custom tile designs and show the actual sizes and shapes of tile on the plans.

Positive: Fast Renderings. Cabinet pricing makes estimating quick and easy. Easy for the client to visualize their space.

Negative: Lack of Detail. Difficult to work with dimensions on plans. Mechanical placement issues (not detailed enough for installers).

Summary: Over pleased as its a functional solution for designing, quoting and ordering cabinetry from all suppliers. As well as countertop calculating.

Positive: 2020 Design Live offers very customizable designs and all the solutions to go with pricing, ordering, etc.

Negative: While there's a variety of trainings offered the human support lacks. There is also no consistency from one issue to another whether it be sales or IT issues. The service could use a LOT of help. Their technology regarding licenses is inefficient. While the concept is fine the execution is poor which regularly equates to us being unable to use software we own the licenses for.

Summary: Overall I do love the 2020 Design and enjoy doing all of the layouts for our company. Just wish the renderings didn't take so long to render when capturing a picture.

Positive: I love that there are a lot of designs to add to the layouts. Wondering if there are extra catalogs that can be downloaded to enhance that.

Negative: I am not happy with how the lighting renders. It is a pain to have to draw other walls and add windows in them just so the image is not dark.

Summary: I have enjoyed using 2020 Design Live so far and will continue to use it for future projects. It helps my customers visualize what could/will be!

Positive: Countertop & Trim Wizard.
Lighting Wizard.
Ease of Use.
Pretty realistic renderings.
Cloud Browser - Decorative Items!

Negative: Pop-Ups.
Fatal Errors.
Slow Renderings.
Recovery Files that don't save correctly.

Summary: It has helped learn and see details that you may miss.
Gives customers the look that helps them make decisions on what they want their kitchen or bathroom to look like.

Positive: I like the detail you can put into your design.
The option to put in specific brand of appliances to give the customer.
a better idea of the design in their space.

Negative: Takes a while to learn all the ins and outs of the program.
Countertop layout could easier to layout.

Summary: Overall, 2020 is great for putting together quick models of K&Bs and providing fast turn-arounds on cabinet estimates. It should be paired with another software if the goal is total interior design due to how slow the program becomes once you begin to add light fixtures, sink & faucets, etc.

Positive: - Quick pricing & access to more catalogs of real products (cabinets, appliances, etc.) than other programs
- Color renderings & texture matching better than expected
- Easy to pick up; about 1 month before I felt proficient in 2020

Negative: - Software begins to lag/flicker when too much put into one file
- Export to PDF; can't mix & match where pages go

Summary: Overall a very good program. I am able to design and show intricate details and give more accurate renditions to my customers as well as the installers who will be installing the kitchen I design.

Positive: I like the amount and variety of appliances available on the cloud.
I don't normally do too many color renditions because of my work load doesn't permit me the time, but when I do, I like the ease of adjustment to lighting and color.

Negative: This program crashes often without warning forcing me to save often. The problem is when I hit save, it takes pretty long to save which wastes my time. The previous versions without the cloud were able to save almost instantly.

Summary: Worth the price of admission. Wouldn't dream of doing my job without it! I've been using 2020 design for 10 years, and know its design capabilities very well, but there's still so much the program can offer.

Positive: Fantastic for kitchen design, and generally intuitive. It's great with quickly and easily generating cabinet design/pricing. Creating countertop templates for quoting, the surface tool also calculated square footage's if you sell tile or flooring, not to mention the 3D renderings are a great selling tool to help clients understand what they are getting. Also, their tech support is AMAZING! If I ever have a question or issue they are generally very easy to get through to , and they also virtually connect to you computer to assess the issue directly on your computer, which is great. That part is a big selling point, and worth the extra money spent.

Negative: The program is powerful so it need a powerful computer to run it efficiently. It can be glitchy at times, and I still haven't been able to get the 3D walk through tour to work, but if I take the time to call customer support, I'm sure it would be easily navigated.
One thing I wish they would fix is if you have an elevation wall, and if you have a 1/2 wall or anything, it breaks up the 2 elevations sides. You can create a custom elevation wall bit it leaves out details from the drawings. Please address!