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@RenerabbittI know PBR isn’t a ray-trace. It was an example of how chief managed to bollox the implementation of an industry standard (PBR) in their HD products. I had concerns that chief would similarly do a half-arsed version of ray-trace. Now, while the ray-trace in 2026 is ok...is it worth the annual subscription they’re charging for it, given that other external engines are doing it better and cheaper? Absolutely not. The few other token-gesture improvements are negligible. I’ve been using the trial version and there’s nothing there that I’d be excitedly throwing my money at. Ill reply to you on my other post regarding the sill z-fighting when I get a chance. Unfortunately, your fix doesn’t fix it. I’ve sat with technical support for months regarding it, and if technical support can’t fix it, I doubt you can, but I’m willing to give it another shot because it drives me that insane!

I still haven’t received any further information on how to get the offered materials. So, never mind Rene, I don’t care to have them anymore.

@RenerabbittThanks for the attempt at help. I'm not sure if the version I'm using is different, but I don't see the options you are referring to. This is what I see when I try to do a File/Save As I don't see an option to save this as a template file. For the New Plan in Preferences, I only see a location to specify a folder location, not a file type. Not exactly sure what the issue is. As I mentioned, this is Home Designer Pro 2025. Any other thoughts?

this is a very old video and is modifying the core data files which I would not recommend. HD2025 I believe has the Save As Template option in your file menu. Also your default plan and layout files are set from preferences under the new plan panel

I couldn't tell from how this was worded but just to be clear PBR is not raytracing or pathtracing, its a raster based approximation based on screen space with global illumination. So you certainly wouldn't be getting any of the qualities of a raytrace engine that is using single or multi bounce path tracing and raytracing. That image I posted above is direct from Home designer with no edits. There are a few big features in the new version of Home Designer but in all honesty, I doubt many HD users will know how to capitalize on those features having limited knowledge of what features they are born from in the premiere line. The project browser and project management mode can drastically improve the condoc process with a few tricks, and mind you, I might be upset about it to, its a single line item with no context and no real example of why its such a powerful feature. Temporary dimensions in 3d views combined with select next side singlehandedly recouped the cost of the software for me this year and it's not even listed as a new feature but its there in HD2026. HD users had never had tab input move, so moving objects in 3d were relegated to the transform replicate tool which is clunky. Now you can move and resize objects in 3d using boolean operations with temp dimensions in a very very fast way. Get used to that feature and you would shave 30% off of your design time: Also please check the other post where you address me, I offered a potential fix for your z fighting issue. If you like you can schedule a free consult with me and I can show you a few things in HD2026 that would get you excited.

I've been struggling trying to add my own custom template file show up in the list when you start a new project. I've created the template I would like to use and have just been doing the save a copy as the new plan file. After accidently saving the file instead of "save as", I tried tackling this task. I watched the following video and I think I'm doing the same steps, but for the life of me it won't show up in the Create New Plan window. Also, is it possible to change the layout template that HDPro uses? Again, I've just been doing the "Save As" file creation but would rather just have it set. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance

As I mentioned earlier, these are joist direction lines causing the errors. If you drag your cursor over one of the warnings, there will be a comment showing what it is. Make your "bearing lines" visible, then you can delete them. Very simple.

You could place two cabinets opposing one another back-to-back. Take one of them, and remove the front face items leaving only an opening.

Material transparency was removed in Home Designer 2026. Many of the new materials now have material maps; and when there is a map, the transparency control did not override the map and make any change. So, that setting was removed in favor of using the new materials in ray trace views. If you feel strongly about it (I see you must with upper case in your post), let us know by sending an email, and we can relook at the feature - suggestions<at>chiefarchitect.com

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can, unless you previously purchased it. The HD pro range is no longer available.

@RenerabbittI’m glad you picked up on my tone because I’m absolutely fed up. I posted that question before I used the trial version of 2026. I’m well aware of how Ray-tracing works, (or is supposed to work). I was querying whether Chief would actually do that because their attempt at PBR in HD was so poor. I’m also aware that Chief Premier had ray-tracing long before TM etc and I have used the trail version. What I’m saying is, that Chief has long since been overtaken by the likes of other free or less expensive software, and in a world where AI can generate photo-real images in minutes, and of all the things they could’ve done to improve the HD software, they’ve chosen to offer ray-tracing and charge 4x the annual price. All the other technical glitches and issues of HD Pro 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 etc, still remain. There is absolutely no other benefit to 2026, other than ray-tracing, and raytracing can be done on an external engine for free (with less effort and better results imo, especially for exterior renders)

My dimes worth is that the exclamation marks are indicative of non-rectiiner wall angles. check ortho angles are 90 degrees apart and they should leave your workings. But I am a novice here.

What it means is that you should keep whatever version you have been using. Any update available now is only to home designer 26.

1950 - 1.plan

Try posting the plan

Still no way to remove the indications

Angie, I'm seriously considering reverting to Pro 2024. How would I do that? Thanks Eric Intel Core i5 11th-gen 1TB NVMe stick SSD 32GB DDR4 RAM Radeon RX 9070 XT 16G graphics

If you click on them, it'll tell you what the issue is. Often it's a framing thing, and if you display "bearing lines", you may see them to delete. Yes, I have been fortunate to have a good design business going. I have a great group of clients who keep me busy steadily.

Keith, I'm curious. In the last 13 years or 676 weeks, you indicated that you have completed over 1,075 residential projects. That's roughly 1 project every 35 hours. Yikes.

I did in fact click on them but they don't go away.

It's gone in 2026. One of many disappointments with the new version.

I saw another post asking the same question, and I user commented that Pro 2026 does not allow for material transparency adjustment. I reposted this under a more descriptive title, hoping to catch more attention and more answers. HOW CAN THIS BE??? Not able to adjust transparency of an object??? Customizing color and transparency of glass is very important to me. Had I known about this downgrade, I would have never "upgraded" to Pro 2026! But the 2026 User Reference Manual has a whole section about material transparency, at P.793: see blow MATERIAL DEFINITIONS Textures are graphic files that represent contoured surfaces of objects such as carpet, bricks, tile, and wood in rendered views. Textures are assigned to materials which in turn are assigned to objects. See Patterns and Textures on page 732. The display of materials in rendered views is controlled by settings on the TEXTURE and PROPERTIES panels of the Define Material dialog. See Define Material Dialog on page 748. Brightness, shininess and transparency control how light sources affect the display of surfaces in rendered views. See Lighting on page 794. If no texture is selected for a material, a solid color is used instead. MATERIAL TRANSPARENCY Most materials are opaque while some materials, such as glass, are partially transparent. Transparency can be set in the Define Material dialog. See Properties Panel. Transparency is supported in all Rendering Techniques. Most Rendering Techniques, however, have an Opaque Window Glass setting that, when checked, overrides the transparency of the Glass components of exterior doors, exterior windows, and interior windows. Interior doors with Glass components are unaffected. When this box is checked, Glass components display the Material Color assigned to their material. See Rendering Technique Options on page 814. SO SOMEONE PLEEEEEASE TELL ME the function has not gone away, just accessed differently than before? Thanks! Eric Desktop Intel i5 11th-gen; 1TB Nvme stick SSD 32MB DDR4 RAM AMD Radeon RX-9070 XT 16GB graphics Just "upgraded" to Pro2026

Click on them to see what they are. They could be in reference to some framing directions.

Does anyone know how to create a backless cabinet in HD Pro 2025? I normally drag the back of the cabinet partly through the wall behind it, but I now want one with a window behind the cabinet so it can't have a back at all. It sure would be nice if this was a feature of regular cabinet configuration, or if the back could be a separate material.

How do I remove the alerts?