Design Flex

Pros: 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.

Cons: 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.

Overall: 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.

Pros: I recently had the opportunity to use a kitchen design software that impressed me greatly. This software was incredibly user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that made it easy to create and modify kitchen designs. From choosing the layout and dimensions of the kitchen to selecting the materials and finishes, this software offered a wide range of tools and options that made the design process both enjoyable and efficient.

Cons: There were some minor drawbacks to this software. For example, it could be a little slow to load some of the more complex designs, which could be frustrating at times. Additionally, the software's extensive library of materials and finishes could be overwhelming for some users, especially those who are new to design software.

Overall: Overall, I would rate this kitchen design software 5 stars. Its versatility, ease of use, and ability to generate precise measurements and bills of materials make it an excellent tool for any kitchen designer. While it may have some minor flaws, its benefits far outweigh its drawbacks. I would highly recommend this software to any designer looking to create beautiful, functional kitchen designs.

Pros: High quality renderings, ability to incorporate exact appliances/cabinets/finishes that clients will be using, the look on clients faces when they see the 320 renderings.

Cons: Designs crash more often than we would like if there are a lot of decorative items/customizations in them. The BAK files come in handy for this though. Pricing is ok, but we are only able to use it with one of our cabinet lines.

Overall: 2020 Design Live is a great program and we will continue using it. Excited to see what the future updates will bring us!

Pros: I love the program. It is easy to use, fast for a basic kitchen layout. My clients love to see their kitchen and they get so excited for the new project.

Cons: It's a little slow when you want to do a more impressive render. But most of the time you don't need that. I love it.

Overall: It's my main tool all day for my job, it's got good graphics to show your kitchen bath and closet projects.

Pros: It give the client enough visual information to design a project. Also has great Three D views. Like the amount of storage too.

Cons: Lags a quit a bit and crushes when under a lot of movement.

Overall: It's the best tool for design I think out there. I have used other brands and nothing compares to 2020.

Pros: Easy to use, accurate design, can whipping something up for my customer seems pretty easy, can show them the end result within a few hours.

Cons: Somewhat limited catalogs, would like to see more.

Overall: I really like using the software, but I have limited access, finding certain items can be difficult but the more you use it the easier it becomes.

Pros: Ability to show clients photo-realistic renderings to visualize their kitchen. Integrated options from cabinet manufacturers is priceless.

Cons: Some quirks, and some basic selections missing (such as lighting options, trending accessories, etc.)

Overall: Overall, an absolute great tool to have in the design industry. Especially kitchen cabinet design/pricing.

Pros: I think I like everything about the pros, the rendering options to adjust the saturation, white balance, shadows. I find it very easy and intuitive working with various manufactures brands.

Cons: The cloud portion most of the times logs me out. many times this initiates the program to shut down. I have more recovery layouts than I have ever had. I am not that happy with this upgrade.

Overall: Generally my experience I can say is good using 2020 Design. Apart from the need for few improvements, the general experience is good.

Pros: Makes it easy to show customers what their space will look like with the 3D imaging. Easy to incorporate the specific features they desire.

Cons: Loading catalogues can be difficult. Some catalogues are more difficult than others.

Overall: This is a very useful tool. When designing spaces for customers. More complete selections of visual attributes would be helpful.

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

Cons: 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.

Overall: 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).

Pros: It has the basic options needed to do a bathroom or kitchen design.

The black and white pictures under presentation are pretty decent.

Cons: Freezes and shuts down in the middle of a design.
Takes way too long to open when you first start.
The pictures under presentation come out too dark and the light feature doesn't work.
Too many extra unneeded dimensions show and you have to take the time to delete them.
The appliance options are very limited and many are very outdated - looks like appliances from maybe the 70s era?
way too expensive for the quality you're getting.

Overall: Not happy with the program overall.

It has the basics but thats about it and the price is completely outrageous for a program like this. They get away with charging it because they have a monopoly on this industry.

Pros: 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.

Cons: 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!

Overall: 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.

Pros: 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.

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

Overall: 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.

Pros: I like this software a lot, because it’s easy to use and the render quality is great. All my clients live the 3D renders.

Cons: I would like to have availability to make tile layouts in the elevations , using different shapes of tiles.

Overall: Very user friendly software with great customer support. The 3D render quality is great. One of the key benefits is that allows users to work with a wide range of tools and features to create precise, detailed designs, generates detailed quotes for cabinetry and and makes ordering process very simple and fast.

Pros: Communication with 2020 for help . Easy to work with. Still learning the product, but I like what I see so far.

Cons: Very bulky, so much not needed. Not a whole lot to complain about.

Overall: Still learning, but so far so good. Still on the free trial. Hopefully as i get better and faster.

Pros: 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).

Cons: 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.

Overall: 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.

Pros: 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.

Cons: 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.

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

Pros: 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.

Cons: 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.

Overall: 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.

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

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

Overall: 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.

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

Cons: 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.

Overall: 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.