2020 Design Live Reviews

Nice to use 20/20 with out it crashing. Again, in previous versions, almost every time you are doing a complex design, it would crash.

Have not seen a single "hiccup" like on previous versions of 20/20. So far it looks like they have worked out all the bugs!

Have not seen anything wrong so far, and hopefully in more complex designs, it stays this way.

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.

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.

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 The Electrical symbols are too large and are outdated and some new symbols are missing for new technology. 2020 spaces seems to put more emphasis on entering other phases of (Business Management) design rather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.

Great overall experience, good product and the 3D renderings sell certain colors and brands for me. The help guide is extremely helpful, and I am often times able to just google an issue I'm having and self-teach through YouTube videos.

Multiple color options, door styles, granite edge types, flooring details. My clients love the 3D renderings, and it sells jobs for me!
Downloading new catalogs is incredibly easy and I really appreciate that.

I need an updated natural stone catalog. I feel as if there aren't many options for granite or quartz that are aesthetically pleasing.

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.

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.

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.

I've looked at most competing design software companies and 2020 offers the most features in an easy to use package at a great price that puts them at the top of the list.

2020 is a very intuitive software that produces accurate renderings for clients and installers. Most manufacturer catalogs are available for use in design work. Great product for the price.

Software can become glitchy when lots of detailed graphics are involved.

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.

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).

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

It is a fun and overall easy tool that makes my daily work life much easier. There are tons of options and I am looking forward to seeing future improvements.

2020 Design Live is user friendly and offers a ton of different options to improve the look and feel your design. I have gotten ton of comments since upgrading that the overall look of the design has improved.

The cloud items can slow do the program causing it to crash on occasion.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Glitches.
Program randomly shutting down.
Fatal errors.

I have only had a couple of weeks of experience with the software but in that time I have enjoyed using it and gotten used to all of the features.

- Very easy to draw with and create layouts
- Intuitive UI that helps beginners learn how to use the software

- Found it difficult to find a couple menus to change doorstyles/specific details

Very pleased with this program and have been using it for the past 6 years. It's so helpful to give my customers a visual and I can make installation drawings without having to put everything in a completely different program. Customer service has always been so great!

Easy to Use - Varied Catalogs for cabinets, appliances, bath fixtures, etc. - Auto Dimensions opening, cabinets, and centerlines and lets you add your own dimensions - Automatically makes elevations - Renderings are Decent Quality - Automatically makes counter plan - Can add images for specialty finishes not available thru Cloud - Great Customer Service! - Most of the catalogs will not let you design a cabinet modification that the brand doesn't offer - The program will let you know if there is a collision and there's not enough dimension for what you're trying to put in - You can add notes to every work area.

The automatic renderings are almost too bright after the most recent program updates. They take a lot more time to tweak and make just right. The counters and 3D shapes have started disappearing if you've positioned the camera to be over them which is kind of frustrating to get just the right angle of rendering sometimes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Somewhat limited catalogs, would like to see more.

I find using 2020 Design Live more frustrating than enjoyable and user friendly. Your support team is excellent though and do help out. However for the past week your phone lines have been down to Support so that has been frustrating. I feel your product overall has too many limitations and cannot handle larger designs. Such as kitchens that are 12' x 15'.

I feel the programs pros are that my cabinet manufacturers have library's here. It makes creating a design for my customers easier having access to the manufacturer's catalogs that we carry.

I use your support team often and find them for the most part excellent at helping me problem solve.

I don't like how the program shuts down when I am doing mid size to large kitchen designs once I go into perspective renderings. The program seems to get overwhelmed with the content and this is just with cabinetry in the design. If I add accessories and furniture to my designs to make it look better and more relatable to the customer, the program crashes usually. I do continually save my work but this is very annoying. Also, sometimes the program functions just don't work when I am doing larger designs. For example, moving a piece of cabinetry using the placement tool just doesn't work. And I have to shut down the program and start it up again for the feature to work again. I also have a gaming computer that has an excellent graphics card and don't find these problems with other software programs on it like Chief Architect for example. Generally speaking, I do find your program very frustrating most days.

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

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

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

Excellent experience, continue to use this and the customer service daily. I can't believe how easy it is and the directions are clearly spelt out. If I do not understand how to do something or want to do something better the database of answers is so easy!

Friendly service, quick and effective responses. You can tell the customer service people were trained to help and enjoy their jobs!

Intimidating at first but once I got talking to someone, everything went smooth!

It's good, but crashes a lot in perspective view and using sketch up. Work on that. I like that you can bring in appliances.

I like that you can design quickly and easily and everything is intuitive. Great support and great product.

Support is great when they are available, but often there are days where no one answers the phone or chat. Need to work on that, especially for the price.