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the ~ means it is rounding the dimension number. so if it shows ~1'-2" it is not exact probably something like 14.02343234232323" Which if you just freehand the walls etc the dims will round everything and not be EXACT.

I am new to Home Designer, and I am not a professional. I'm merely using it for a project that I need to present to a group of investers next month. Yesterday, I updated to Build 28.2.0.62. Before the update, the program would display the dimension as I draw a wall. Also, the dimension for each wall was visible even if all the walls of a room are not drawn yet, or if I delete a wall from a completed room, the dimensions for the remaining walls are still visible. But after the update, all that changed. I no longer see the dimension as I draw walls, and they only appear once I finish drawing all walls. I would really like to see the dimension as I'm drawing so at least I can be more accurate. I know I can edit the wall dimensions after I finish drawing all the walls, but I prefer to do it as I go. That said, was this feature removed in the new update, or am I missing something in the settings?

Probably because you have "rounded value indicators" turned on. The check box tells you what you'll see. I don't see a menu like that in my version of HD Pro 2025? Please post questions in "Q&A." Tips and Techniques is where you post something you have discovered that may help others.

Anyone have any clues as to why sometimes the program (Home Designer Pro 2025) will put the ~ or +/- symbol in front of the dimension value while other/most of the times it does nothing. I've tried changes the size of the font thinking to allow more room in the "field" for extra characters, but to no avail. The pic below shows that I've changed my preference in the specification box but it did not change the dimension. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!!

make different wall types.

I'm wondering the same thing. I have a larger taller garage/workshop attached to my smaller, shorter two car garage. It's board and batten siding on the exterior, and so looking from the inside of the two car garage toward the attached shop, the divider wall is exterior siding. I can't figure how to make the interior portion drywall and the exterior stay board and batten. Tried trimming out a section of the wall, but that messes with the footings and other things.

Straight ChatGPT with graphic designer project instructions... I picked up a set of instructions for doing watercolor renders I've been meaning to explore also.

Prompt Cowboy + Google Gemini (Nano Banana 2)

The link your provided appears to be broken so I'm going to be guessing a bit here. What version of Home Designer are you using? If you have one of the newer versions (2026/2027) or Home Designer Pro you might be able to achieve what you're looking for using the techniques in this article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01958/creating-an-arched-parapet-wall.html You wont be able to do the curved roof plane that the article shows (It's a Chief Architect article) but if you're just going to have multiple elevations or a gable, using multiple roof planes would work for controlling the wall heights quickly If you need the curve you could have multiple roof planes like this article shows: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01187/creating-a-barrel-roof-in-home-designer.html Another technique you might use is to break the wall polylines and adjust the wall edge manually, which is sometimes faster sometimes slower depending on the shape. If you use the roof planes though you can use them for creating finished edges instead of leaving raw framing exposed. Hope this helps!

3d shapes? I did that once to show sloped garage floor and to simulate a sloped pool bottom. Do need to be creative and will not be exact but can make it look good. Another way is to make individual slabs and then go into sectional view and you can rotate them in the axis thru the screen like you would in plan view but along the x or y axis. Not a lot of commands/features for sloped things.

Did you try right clicking on the file in the project browser?

If you try it as 3 separate ones. Like an inverted bay window roof

You must be joking? Chief cant do a bidirectional sloping roofplane?

I have never tried it, yet could it be done with roof planes with a very low baseline and thin structure?

Anyone know how to do this in Pro 25? Should be pretty straight forward. Nope.

I deleted all the linked files from my layout. Why do I still see my Plan file in the project browser? How can I remove it?

The general category in the materials list is a high-level summary. You may find it helpful, or you may find it better to go to the details as you mentioned, for the siding, house wrap and other items

Thank you, missed that one !

Not harsh at all. If you’ve been using this software as long as I have (since 2011), you’d realize it’s an incapable CA program issue as opposed to a user issue. You can use points, lines, regions etc, it makes no difference. It’s not fussy, it’s stupid. You will get spikes, dips, abnormal behaviour for nearly everything you do. Chief can’t do a gentle straight-line slope from A to B. It will hump or dip in the middle. Why? Add more retaining walls perpendicular to other retaining walls, and the software will hang for about 3 mins while it “Interpolates terrain” (only using 6% of my computer resources btw) and generates unnecessary spikes as if it doesn’t know what it’s doing. I’m using CA HD Pro 25. The use of the word “Pro” stands for Professional. These “glitches” have not been fixed since 2017 and will never be fixed because Chief took away so many controls from HD Pro and rolled it all into an inferior 26 subscription version at double the price and now support for Pro 25 is unavailable.

Did you turn on roof trusses to be visible in those camera views?

I use Home Designer Pro 2021 on a Windows 11 PC, my question is . . . why don't trusses show up in Perspective Full Overview or even Full Camera view ? I have roof auto build, frame auto build all set up but they don't show. The design also has no ceiling. The whole idea is to have them (trusses) visible from inside. I've looked everywhere to find my answer but having no luck. TIA

I'm trying to use my materials list to generate a rough estimate/take off. I see the category of General. This just seems to be measurements of walls but not actually materials. I see items like siding, house wrap, etc. in other areas. I'm assuming for a material take off, I can disregard the General category or, by doing so, would I be making some mistake? If making a mistake, what would the problem be?

Home Designer does not have the symbol import that allows you to choose the symbol type like electrical lighting objects – see the example from Chief Architect Premier. So, what you might try – import the 3D model and place a light behind it so it appears to emit light.

good luck.

If you look at the top of that article, you will see where it applies to legacy products of Pro & Architectural, not Suite.