Design Flex Reviews

Summary: It gets easier the more I use it. I am glad that I had this set up for me. Without the training all I was able to do was just the basics. Now I am exploring more and more.

Positive: I like the entire set up. It has been challenging but with the training that I have used it seemed to help a lot. Overall the more I do the easier it becomes.

Negative: Nothing there is nothing that I have disliked. All of the training has been the best thing to help me understand.

Summary: I have to be very careful of my budgeting for my freelance work with this program as it is definitely not an inexpensive piece of software. However, possessing the ability to know this program in-depth after being allowed to pull it apart and press every button as a beginner, I wouldn't change it for anything else.

It does what I need it to do and with some extra steps I can put together a wonderful presentation set the wows my clients, contractors and homeowners alike.

It is definitely worth the purchase if you are specializing in cabinetry.

Positive: It goes without saying that the resources available in the full version are extremely important to have access to, from the readily-available manufacturers for plumbing and appliances in the Cloud to even the lighting catalog and countertops. It's a given that the cabinetry catalogs that are so meticulously put together by the manufacturers and 2020 is the reason this program are invaluable.

It was very easy for me to pick up 5 years ago as a newcomer to the kitchen design space, with a easy-to-understand UI. I've only continued improving from there as clicking through all the buttons and functions is not intimidating and doesn't really leave a risk of messing something up without not knowing how to return it back to its original state.

I find this program worth every penny, from the program itself to the customer support (absolutely one and only).

Negative: There are some UI features that feel like they have not been revisited or altered in what feels like 2 decades. There are many odd design choices in the UI that I feel hold back the program at times, in my specific example, the dimensioning tool. You must go into display settings to attempt to find what details you actually want dimensioned, but the most difficult one to achieve without deleting and redoing the elevation is the plumbing centerlines. It seems automatic but once it's erased there is virtually no way of retrieving that piece of information.

A rework of the UX/UI would be interesting to see, what they could "standardize" within 2020 to what other industry programs can do. Seeing presets available for the non-cabinetry finishes would also be a major plus.

It's also easy to make the program crash randomly doing some pretty mundane things like altering a countertop outline. If there's a catalog with an error in one of the assets, that also causes random crashes. I'm not a developer or programmer so I'm not fully sure how to approach these issues.

The most off-putting con at the end of the day is the poor optimization with larger files. I personally have a very top-of-the-line PC for my work and I run into issues with a chugging .kit file, which is disappointing.

Summary: I enjoy working with 2020 Design Live and for the most part it makes my job easier and much more enjoyable.

Positive: 2020 Design Live gives me the ability to provide my customers with a realistic rendering of what they can expect when the company I work for installs our product.

Negative: I would really enjoy being able to set a default countertop color. The lighting is a bit tricky to work with sometimes, and The Countertop Wizard is difficult to use and causes the program to crash if you try to modify a counter.

Summary: Overall, 2020 is a good program. It's easy, especially for a company like us that puts out a high volume. Efficiency is key. I do like how you can integrate SketchUp and the cloud catalogs are a nice feature. But sometimes renderings can be a little funky and presenting them to clients that are paying premium prices for upper tier cabinetry can be off putting. But, I would recommend 2020 for anyone starting out because of its ease of use.

Positive: 2020 is easy for anyone to pick up and use with a little bit of training, the catalog compatibility with our vendors is nice, and pricing material is easy. Overall, I am happy with using this program for our needs.

Negative: My biggest issues with 2020 are the renderings. For a lost of our cabinet lines the rendering finishes are way off and it's difficult to present this to customers especially ones that are virtual only. This can also be said for lighting in the renderings - tweaking it is glitchy and can make the renderings look unnatural.

Summary: Very helpful tool but user experience could be improved. It has the potential to be a go-to program, but it is very frustrating to complete simple layout tasks.

Positive: Allows for very detailed and accurate cabinet layouts.
Great for pricing out cabinets.
Limits error during install process.

Negative: Not super user friendly with moving/placing cabinets.

Summary: Being able to create cabinet orders is great, however, it is a little clunky with the inability to switch out cabinet and cabinet styles easier.

Positive: I like that I am able to set up my cabinet orders with the exact order and have a nice rendering.

Negative: I wish we could switch out cabinets with a replacement option and the same thing with the style of cabinet. I think a great feature would be to have the option of switching the cabinet style without having to replace the entire cabinet.

Summary: It was easy to learn the basics but anything advanced, the training courses are needed. Customer service has been wonderful to work with and are available both by chat and phone to answer questions. The interface/processing of the program could be updated but overall, when you know how to use the program to its full potential it creates beautiful designs and renderings.

Positive: I am new to the industry and using 2020 has made it possible to design like others who have been in the industry for years. The basics of the software was easy to learn and understand. Customer service is always available to answer any questions big and small. The training courses have been very knowledgeable and has allowed me to take my designs to the next level.

Negative: To use the software to its full potential you need to utilize the training courses. The internal processing of the program could be updated to handle the advanced rendering more smoothly. Even with the best equipment, the program can crash. As a beginner in design software, I wish the menus and preferences were more easily understandable. Importing catalogs can be time consuming. It would be nice to access catalogs over the web in place of uploading them with the catalog manager.

Summary: The program is easy to use and helps show customers what the finished product is going to look like.

Positive: Ease of use.
Rendering quality.
The amount of appliances they have.
You can transfer drawings in from SketchUp.

Negative: Glitches.
Program randomly shutting down.
Fatal errors.

Summary: Overall it was a new experience, I liked it and hoping to use it more in the future. I would love to explore more on this software.

Positive: It has a lot of choices in terms of cabinet design and door options. Also materials selection is wide.

Negative: I think its not user friendly as you need to navigate into some of the options. Sometime it got me confuse on where to locate the icons or commands.

Summary: Learning every day! There are lots of options that I still need to dive into. I am happy to see what my creative side is going to be able to bring out.

Positive: I enjoyed working with 2020 Design Live and touching on some of the basics. I am fairly new to the system so it is hard for me to determine what I like and what I don't like. I do like the 3D design option to see views in different head spaces.

Negative: I may be looking in the wrong places for this, but it would be nice to have more training videos made available.

Summary: It's still the best template program out there. Until it isn't. I believe it won't take long for another company to surpass the frustrations accompanied by this program.

Positive: I've been using it for so long I've learned to navigate around some its shortcomings. They finally allow "docking" of walls and items so the cursor doesn't accidentally select and move them!

Negative: The "Cloud browser" items aren't labeled in any sensible order. Some of the basic items are just ridiculous....who designed these?

Summary: See above.

Positive: The best things about 2020 are the ways it lets designers customize elements to showcase real items.

Negative: Faults- surface tool needs textures 2 be adjustable.

Summary: Overall, I've really enjoyed learning how to use this program and I look forward to becoming more efficient with 2020 Design!

Positive: I am brand new to interior design. I have learned a lot through this program. I've really enjoyed playing around with 2020 Design and being able to help my coworker come up with my first few designs for clients. I love that there is a training video section. It has been very beneficial for me.

Negative: The only thing I have had troubles with is that the program tends to freeze up on me and kick me out. It may just be my computer but I'm unsure at the time. It gets frustrating, so I tend to save my designs multiple times because the program locks up on me so many times throughout the day.

Summary: I enjoy coming to work when I know I have several designs to create or update. I love the flexibility and versatility that 2020 allows me to have.

Positive: The ease of use. I like that it takes me (literally) seconds to make changes or additions when dealing with indecisive clients- Including entire colour/ style changes.

Negative: The accuracy of some of the catalogue prices- Some quotes end up being $10K more than they should because one or two items aren't priced properly.

Summary: Overall I'd say the ease of use and helpful videos make this product very user friendly. There aren't any questions I haven't been able to get answered.

Positive: I liked the videos and chat help I received. It made learning the program much easier. Returning to design is easy with the help of 2020 Live.

Negative: I don't like the speed of loading some options and a few items that are very hard to correct.