My "significant other" gave my this program as a Christmas present 5 years ago because I was ALWAYS sketching out my "dream house" plans on graph paper...best Christmas gift I ever got!!!
I'm not an architect and, being on the south side of 50, was not particularly computer literate (had never even played computer games and, at the time, was even still a bit leery of using email!) It took me awhile - maybe 10 or 20 hours of experimenting with the program - to get the hang of using all the tools provided but I had a blast doing it. And the program certainly helped me to more clearly visualize the home I wanted to build. Being able to "walk through" the plan, put colors and textures on the walls, put furniture in the rooms, see the rooms from all angles, etc. was so helpful!
Yes, the 5-in-1 program is limited in some ways but that is to be expected with such an inexpensive CAD. There is a Punch! user's group online that is VERY helpful about suggesting work-arounds for some of the program's limitations. Plus, they'll help you solve any problems you run into. For example, the Punch! user's group taught me how to import textures when the specific ones I wanted (a metal roof texture and a particular pattern of wallpaper) weren't provided; they taught me how to "build" the kinds of doors I wanted using the furniture workshop tool, etc. Plus, they have a humongous number of user-made objects (indoor and outdoor furniture, household funishings, etc) that you can import from their website to use in your "house" if the object library provided in the software is too limiting and you don't want to take the time to "build" the item you want using furniture workshop.
(By the way, as a side benefit to using the 5-in-1 program and interacting with the punch user's group, I became much more computer savvy!)
Eventually though, I decided to move up to the Punch! 3000 program which, until recently, was Punch's top of the line program. Punch!3000 has a lot more features than 5-in-1 and I used it to design the house that I'm in the process of actually building today! (2 story, 3200 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, wrap-around porch, backyard decks, complex roof-line with gables, dormer, and hip roof sections, etc.) I don't think I would have ever gotten the hang of using Punch! 3000 if I'd started with it first though. Punch! 3000 has so many tools, I suspect I would have been overwhelmed and would have just given it up and gone back to my graph paper. Starting with the 5-in-1 program tho, I learned the basics and gained confidence in what I could do.
I've recommended the program to a number of my friends and recommend it highly. I've never used any of the other CAD programs available but I'd be really surprised to find a program that was easier to use or more versatile that Punch! for anything near the same price.
Greg Bruce