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Designer is mainly for the DIY. The pros should be using Chief Architect to get the things you want.

Imagine you're in the shady part of town, on that one street everyone tells you not to go down at night unless you have a purpose there. Sweet and innocent, you have no real reason to be there on that street at night, but there you are. There's a man on the corner, looks shady as hell but you ask for directions. Instead of guiding you out of that place you have no business being at, he asks you, real smooth-like... "You need some Architect, man?" You say no, you try to run away, but the bad man says, as if offended, "aww well, how about some of this Home Designer, man? It's cheap." You hesitate. You've heard the rumors about Architect and what it will cost you, and the rumors about how much cheaper Home Designer is. "Cheap?" you ask, curiosity getting the better of you. "Oh yea!, man," the street corner man says to you, excited now, as if you're best friends. "The cheapest! I tell you what, you try this Designer and you won't even think about that Architect no more." That sounds good. Warm and fuzzy, like a hug from mom. "Is it subscription-based?" You ask, sensing danger. The sketchy character starts shucking and jiving, like he's listening to some internal music no one else can hear. "Aw man, yea, no, you see - it wasn't but then it was, and now it is what it is, you dig?" Now you're wary, fight or flight is on deck now. "You mean, like Chief Architect?" The nefarious gangster suddenly eyes you appraisingly, as if seeing you for the first time and not liking what he sees. "Hey man, you a snitch or something?" Now he seems offended, as if you've impugned upon his character. "Perhaps Designer is too much app for you, youknowwhatImsaying? Like, some people just can't handle their renders, you know?" He turns away, feigning disinterest as he watches you from the corner of his eye. "No, wait," you say, leaning in and tugging at his shirt sleeve. "I can handle it, seriously, I can." He turns back to you, warm and fuzzy again, like a hug from mom. "That will be $79 a month, my man" He grins a toothy grin, knowing you'll be back for the good stuff soon enough... This has been another in the series of Designer tales by The Mad Cadder. All rights reserved and indemnified by ancient spirits that will render legal assistance upon commencement of a proper summoning event of level 3 or higher. Infringement of these rights may result in spiritual legal action notwithstanding acts of God or other religious deities the plaintiff is capable of calling to their defense.

I’m confused about Home Designer’s intended audience. It’s marketed as a tool for home and interior designers to create realistic representations of their ideas, yet many of the controls needed to achieve that are unavailable. I can model detailed wall assemblies and construction layers, but I have limited control over materials, lighting, and especially reflections. For interior design and communicating an aesthetic, those visual controls are central to the work. The new rope lighting for LED strips is one example. Limited control over light direction and spill makes it difficult to represent a strip inside a channel with a diffuser without creating a blinding surface. You’re promoting this feature without giving us enough control over how the light behaves. Combined with limited surface controls, this makes realistic rendering frustrating. I can control the sun, but not how light interacts with a countertop? A few of the other frustrations include: Moulding: Why can’t I import a basic DXF profile or create and edit a custom moulding shape, as I can in Chief Architect? Imported models with lighting: Why can’t imported fixtures retain their lighting data, as they can in Chief Architect? Why should I spend hours recreating lighting that was already defined? Materials and surfaces: Basic color and texture changes are available, but the finer controls offered in Chief Architect are missing. I understand that Home Designer is a separate product from Chief Architect, but these limitations affect fundamental design tasks. Why provide extensive construction tools while restricting the tools designers need to visualize the finished space? I’d appreciate clarification on the intended audience and whether there are plans to improve these capabilities. I want to love this product, but I constantly end up exporting my work or using other software to get the results I need.

No, still interacts, and creates the unwanted angles or facing. I really wish they would allow you to terminate interactions between walls, if you do not want them.

I don't know if this will work or not but... Would a pony wall work by setting the upper portion of wall to glass or invisible?

quick fix is to either apply either a 3d shape (box), soffit or Vertical panel under cabinets. Make width that of wall from out to out. Thickness that of your sheetrock (1/2" normally) then locate it in place and "PAINT" it wall color.

I run into a similar issue with half walls when they connect to a corner formed by two full walls.The only way I can create a wall that does not go up the ceiling is to use a half wall and adjust the railing height. If I have stairs going up one floor and I want part of the upper hallway to overlook the lower floor I use solid half wall. When that half wall ends at a corner formed by two full walls, the drywall layer above the top of the half wall is eliminated and all that shows is the framing layer. The half wall must connect to the the the framing layer to maintain the boundaries of all rooms so it is not an option to use a soffit or solid shape to fill a gap between the half wall and the full wall (support's suggestion). I cannot show these corners with exposed framing layers and using the eyedropper does not work for the exposed framing material. Also have a small "fragment" of a half wall I cannot eliminate (pic). Any thoughts?

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Thanks @Rookie65 I did realize that, but couldn't find a page that referred to Suite for the same purpose, so hoped someone had a solution. Cheers, Shawn

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?