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Great tips here! Along with getting multiple bids from contractors, using a Construction Cost Calculator online can also help you get a rough estimate before approaching any GC. It saves time and helps you understand if the bids you're receiving are reasonable or not. Really helpful for first-time builders.

@RenerabbittRenerabbitt Posted December 1, 2025. "…Share a few thoughts from the perspective of someone who develops products in this space…" Do you, or don’t you have a vested interest in CA? Are you deriving any monetary or financial benefit from them in exchange for promoting their software, including the use of “free” software or any other kick-backs? If you are, you really should make that clear here, because your opinions about this software are incredibly biased, and I can’t fathom why any intelligent professional would endorse this move from HD 2025 to HD 2026 like you have. Secondly, you stated, in justification of this subscription model, that “the risk of under-delivering on annual features becomes very real”. Sorry, but Chief always underdelivered on their annual features so your entire point is moot. Steady updates isn’t something Chief is renowned for and they have fallen way behind anyway. "For those considering canceling services: You would be genuinely hard-pressed to find a software package comparable to the Home Designer line for anything near the annual cost. The value per dollar is still extremely strong." This made me laugh so hard. Thank you. You failed to mention that CA has removed certain functions from HD Pro 2025, but I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that either. "For those planning to use their final perpetual version forever: Just keep hardware and OS compatibility in mind. The relationship goes both ways — new graphics cards and new operating systems eventually drop support for older applications. We’ve literally seen this happen recently with Intel-based Macs losing compatibility with Chief Architect X17 because newer drivers no longer support the old architecture. It’s not about Chief “forcing” you to upgrade — it’s the cost of frozen software running on evolving hardware." This made me laugh even harder. That makes zero sense. Intel-based Macs? "frozen software running on evolving hardware"... are you for real? Not sure what CA technical is telling you but that sounds like the sort of BS they'd come up with. I can run home designer suite 9 on my RTX 4080. About HD Pro 2026 specifically: The catalog downloads alone justify a big chunk of the cost. Nope. The entire Wayfair catalogue, for example, is littered with badly drawn objects with holes that came from Sketchup. Not fixed since its release. There is literally nothing that CA offers in the library that: 1) can’t be quickly drawn in SketchUp online or 2) most objects are “dumb” anyway. CA’s library is dismal. Still got the same stupid chairs and lights from 1970. The only upgrade I found in 2026 was rope lights and ray-tracing.

Did you figure this out? I'd love to know how as well

See if this Clerestory how-to article helps https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00492/building-a-clerestory-skillion-roof.html

Take your "as-built" plan and save it as your "remodel" plan. Then, do your remodeling - adding/removing walls etc.

Hoping that someone will be my HERO and help me with getting the roof I am trying to create to correctly render! Attached are 2 files: "Roof.plan" and "House Roof.png" Although I can get a shed roof to render correctly with just a rectangle structure, I cannot with the porch/double-roof config I am going for with this design. I am sure that it has something to do with how I created the combination of railing and exterior walls, but I was not sure another way to draw my intention. The PNG should describe exactly what I am looking for and has measurements but if you are willing to help and something is unclear, PLEASE ask! I will take typed instructions, someone editing the file for me, link to video instruction... ANYTHING. Tried working using ChatGPT, but it is not as good with Home Designer Suite as it is with some other things! Ha! Thanks [in advance] to my "Hero"... now, fingers crossed this post finds them! :-) -Robbie Roof.plan

I have a loose idea for a renovation. I've modelled my as-built house. It is full of artifacts of my amateur user status (small gaps in walls, random bits of railing around my staircase) but that's sort of in the noise that I don't need to fix at the moment. What I'd like to do is hide a handful of interior walls and doors, and put in new walls and doors. I was expecting to be able to assign some walls and doors to a layer (like "as-built remove") and add a layer with "renovation add" and sort of be able to switch between them. Does that functionality exist? Do I need to create a full copy of my layout? I was hoping to avoid that so that as I learn, and fix the random mistakes, I wouldn't have to track those changes across 2 different layouts. I come from SolidWorks product design, where I would switch between configurations of similar designs. I may be looking for a feature that isn't there. I don't want to derail this narrow topic too much, but if someone would like to clean this project up a bit, I am interested to know your rates. I'm looking for dozens of dollars not thousands. For thousands, I'll just keep it looking amateur. High on the list: roof planes are all manual, and funky. Can't get 2nd floor to snap to reference 1st floor. Random holes in walls, probably because I don't know how to build the walls/roof correctly? Using Win 11, Home Designer 2026. Link to a copy of my project file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V_bf9ia4x7ozGTN-zPN5Oy2Trqqe5nKJ/view?usp=sharing

Draw the deck, go to the structure tab, and set floor height to a -6

Is there a simple way to raise or lower a deck? I need to drop the deck down approximately 7" below the door frame.

>Something has to give as that 7.25" versus 5.5" rafter difference has to be somewhere.. It's in the birdsmouth cut - it's deeper in the 2X8 vs the 2X6 and then the rafter tail is trimmed down to 2X6 size.

or make them all 2x6 and then add ceiling plan in vaulted room to bring ceiling lower than underside of rafters. This does not make sense - is this vaulted room outside Hip wall inline and same ceiling top plate height? Something has to be lower or higher, Not sure how you can have the same top plate height, ridge height, roof pitch, overhang, soffit face height, etc With different roof Rafter lumber sizes. Something has to give as that 7.25" versus 5.5" rafter difference has to be somewhere... PS most rafters are made from 2x10 in my area and supported in attic to keep free span to spec.

The only option to purchase now is Home Designer 2026. The other versions are now gone, and everything is rolled into Home Designer 2026

Find a new selection of cast iron cookware for your kitchen, storage, and cooking scenes. Download online from the 3D Library, or use the Library Browser search features to download it directly.

Open your stair specification drop box. Under the "section heights" area, check "top tread" only and set it to "lock top". Then you can adjust the materials, etc. as needed. You should update your signature with the program version and type so everyone knows what you're working with

Rafter depth changes at the walls of the foyer. That's the only area where the vaulted ceiling is. I thought of a solution... 1) Create the roof with 2X8s rafters over the entire side of the roof. 2) Go back and manually edit rafters that aren't in the foyer to be 2X6s. 3) Shorten 2X8 rafter so they won't stick through the facia. 4) Create 2X6 rafter tail in Sketchup and attach to the end of shortened 2X8s.

so the rafter depth changes in the middle of a room or at the walls? maybe post actual pictures of what you have.

might not be able to in the HD series. Unless try making a landing at the top the sane size as your top step and then the stairs can come off of it... might look right. HD just not setup to build the extra top tread when the top level will suffice... I hate to say it but might be easier in long run to change the way you build them and save some $ on the cost of that last tread

What's the better alternative then as an option? Is there one? How else does the software stay alive today. I commented here earlier - subscription gives security in use of the latest version for all - imo. It's all about cost to consumers it would seem - if you like using the software - use it.(buy it..) Its great software - but for me, I'm happy to work with HDPro2024. Home Designer has grown up it seems. Think about the features it has that one doesn't use. Think about the support, the library items available free, and/or for minimal purchase cost. It's a commercial decision buying software - it's a business/budgetary decision. Can you work without it? Happy modeling.

Manual roofs. I'm coming to the conclusion that I can't get exactly what I want, so I'll have to decide what's most important and let the rest go.

Are you doing manual or auto roofs? The reason you're seeing the tail is that likely you have roof framing showing in that view. You could also adjust the size of your eave trim. You can't edit just the rafter tails

Just for clarity, here is the example plan I used to illustrate the problem in the original post.

Keith, yes, I could do that, but that isn't correct. The roof on the one side of the house is made up of 3 sections, all on the same plane. Two of the sections are 2X6s, One is 2X8s. (See the original sample roof I drew). You can see three sections of roof. (There is a line in the shingles where the roof sections are drawn). Drawing the roof all with 2X8s also runs into the rafter tail issue I show above. I've attached the actual plan. Only the Foyer has 2X8s. The rest of the roof on that side is 2X6s.

As I mentioned, build the roof at all 2x8. Then once built, change just the side that needs to be 2x6. Keep the ridge height the same for both roofs

Also, changing to 2X8s results in the following. I was hoping I could change a section of the roof (just the rafter tails area back to 2X6s), but that runs into the issue where I can't join roof sections again.

Keith, no, that isn't what I'm trying to do. Changing the entire roof plane to 2X8s would work, but that doesn't model the existing house. Only the section of the roof where the vaulted ceiling is has 2X8s. The rest of the roof is 2X6s.