In our testing, we found that Punch Home Design Studio for Mac is a great tool for designing landscape projects. With a sizeable selection of plants and trees as well as growth simulation and lighting recreations, you get a clear idea of how each tree, bush and hedge would look now and far into the future.
Removing barriers to DevOps in the cloud
Teams developing software for Apple devices have limited options when migrating to the cloud. Because such apps must be built on Macs, and because there are few cloud-hosted Mac offerings, many teams are forced to provide their own Mac hardware for CI/CD while the rest of their DevOps are hosted in the cloud. This adds cost, maintenance, and integration burdens that weigh down teams.
Today, Microsoft announces free, cloud-hosted CI/CD agents on macOS as part of Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). Available in preview, VSTS now supports building and releasing Apple apps in the cloud (including iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS), eliminating the need for providing and maintaining your own dedicated Mac hardware. Now that VSTS offers hosted CI/CD agents running on Linux, macOS, and Windows, it is a cloud DevOps solution for all client and web developers and teams of any size.
Transitioning to cloud-hosted CI/CD on macOS
Our story on the VSTS CI team
Our story on the VSTS CI team
While most of our team’s DevOps assets and processes were in the cloud, we needed two on-premises Mac minis to build and release our open source JetBrains IDE plugin and Visual Studio Code extension. These Mac minis connected to VSTS and performed any of our builds that targeted macOS. We kept these Macs in a corner of our team room.
Most of the time, these Macs sat idle. We had to remember to regularly update them with macOS revisions, security patches, and new versions of tools and SDKs needed by our CI and CD. These were an administrative burden for our team when compared to the low maintenance of cloud-hosted Linux and Windows build agents.
Last month, we rerouted our builds to the new VSTS cloud-hosted Mac agents. Since then, we haven’t had to think about the Mac minis. Our Mac builds run smoothly in the cloud and we have access to the same logs, build artifacts, and machine capabilities that we had on-premises. Best of all, Microsoft keeps the OS, security patches, tools, and SDKs updated for us. All of this lets us deliver software faster.
How to use VSTS cloud-hosted Mac agents for CI/CD
To use the VSTS cloud-hosted Mac agents, it only takes one click. Simply select Hosted macOS Preview for your build or release pipeline.
The agents’ list of installed software can be found here. The macOS image is shared by VSTS and Visual Studio App Center. It always includes recent versions of Xcode, CocoaPods, and fastlane, along with Android and Xamarin SDKs. If needed, you can install additional software with a script or a package management tool.
What do you think?
Cloud-hosted Mac agents have freed our team from administering dedicated Macs, allowing us to deliver software faster, and we anticipate them doing the same for you. To get started, check out the VSTS quick starts for Xcode and Xamarin. The VSTS extension for the Apple App Store can be installed from the Visual Studio Marketplace. If you encounter any issues or have feedback, please tell us on the Visual Studio Developer Community. We would appreciate hearing what you think.
VSTS Mac agents are free for limited use. If you need more build time than supplied for free, or if you want concurrent builds, you can find pricing here.
Please be aware that during this preview, our Mac hardware is hosted in third party datacenters in the United States and your build and release data could cross geopolitical lines. After each build completes, its macOS VM is reimaged, leaving no trace of your data on the agent. For more information, see where VSTS data is stored. Our Mac datacenters will expand to other geographies soon.
![Pool Pool](/uploads/1/2/6/8/126870596/185069132.jpg)
We hope that VSTS cloud-hosted Mac agents will help your team. Thank you for trying them out.
Today's best Punch Home Design Studio for Mac 19 deals
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In our testing, we found that Punch Home Design Studio for Mac is a great tool for designing landscape projects. With a sizeable selection of plants and trees as well as growth simulation and lighting recreations, you get a clear idea of how each tree, bush and hedge would look now and far into the future. It’s the most comprehensive Mac landscaping software we reviewed, but it’s also the most expensive.
This landscape software for Mac has so many tools and features, including indoor and outdoor design elements, that it can be a little intimidating to learn. However, once you familiarize yourself with its tools and capabilities, you’ll be comfortable maneuvering your way through the landscape designing process.
Pool Studio For Mac
Once learned, navigating this software is simple since there are only a few buttons to use. The setup is quite direct with the various types of views on the right pane and the tools on the left, and you can easily toggle between 2D and 3D viewing modes.
You can get your digital yard going with the software’s topography tools. Once you establish where all the hills and dips are in your yard, you can start to examine what objects – benches, garden beds, patios and so on – you want to incorporate and where they should go.
Advanced tools like a cost estimator help you know what sort of investment you will need to make to carry out your plan. This software keeps a running list of materials you will need for whatever you add to your design and provides estimates for material costs. Though the numbers are not exact, it is helpful to know approximately what to budget for trees, pavers and other elements you want.
You can design your new landscape in 3D mode, which lets you add objects and preview what your design looks like from several angles. You can also go into more detail with your design in 2D, and you need to use this mode for your design tasks except dragging and dropping objects. When you use the 3D view, you can only add objects and preview the design from various angles.
This software includes thousands of different trees, flowers and shrubs that you can drag and drop into your plan. You can use a search window to help find exactly the right plant for each spot in the yard. If you are stuck for ideas, you can always use the included sample designs as a basis for your own garden bed, hedgerow or other landscape features, or you can use a sample to get your creativity to kick into high gear and then create your own yard design.
You also get vital information about each plant and tree you want to incorporate into your landscaping plan. For example, you can find out whether a particular plant can thrive in your climate zone. A growth simulation tool shows you how your trees and flowers will look in 10, 15 or 20 years. Lighting simulation features show you where shadows from each tree fall, during different times of the day and year.
This software is far more than just landscaping, it’s a full home design toolkit, so it costs a lot – almost $150. If you’re looking for a more focused landscaping solution, this program’s little sister, Punch Landscape Design for Mac, is worth considering. And it costs about $90 less.
Summary
Whether you are ready to add something big and splashy such as a full outdoor kitchen or if you are simply in the mood to put in a few new flower beds, Punch Home Design Studio is a great place to start. This software lets you plan a backyard oasis or a front yard showpiece that you can enjoy for years.
Whether you are ready to add something big and splashy such as a full outdoor kitchen or if you are simply in the mood to put in a few new flower beds, Punch Home Design Studio is a great place to start. This software lets you plan a backyard oasis or a front yard showpiece that you can enjoy for years.
Today's best Punch Home Design Studio for Mac 19 deals
We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices