BalutFX

Because, as you said, they seem to be purposefully ignoring 2025 and earlier customers in order to gather more rental customers. And if they happen to answer you with something about compatibility issues, I would argue that is BS.

Except once the 1 year rental (subscription) for HD 2026 runs out, the software becomes unusable and any plans created in HD 2026 cannot be opened in an earlier perpetual license version like HD 2025. So sure, you can stay on 2025 or older versions (although it appears that any new catalogs you release are only compatible with HD 2026) but if you choose to rent HD 2026, it’s only useful for a short period of time without paying another rental fee.

I thought I'd come back to this post to see if there was any interest or actual (successful) takers of this offer. Seems like nothing.

From what I’ve seen in the Chief Architect Premiere forums, the grandfathered perpetual license is still being offered as long as the SSA is being kept current.

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.

Thanks. I just forwarded the email to your Gmail account and will DM you my email address

Yes, as mentioned above, unless you continue to pay the rental fee for the software, you will no longer be able to access any of the plans that you create in HD 2026 once the rental period ends. The currently quoted 1 year rental cost is $495, with no guarantees that Chief Architect won't raise it by the time you have to make that decision. And if you design and save anything in HD 2026, you will no longer be able to open it in an older version, since they do not allow backward compatibility. But if it works out better for you, then great. Also, your signature says you have HD Pro 2025, so make sure you take advantage of their current rental upgrade cost through Jan 5th.

I sent both a DM and email requesting access to this offer, but have not yet received further instructions beyond the initial acknowledgment. Update: Crickets. I'm wondering if Rene's close relationship with the developers at Chief Architect and my criticism of their Home Designer line are the reason. I hope not.

Yeah, I think that’s what bugged me the most about the switch to subscription for the Home Designer line. No ability to grandfather in to the perpetual license (at least for the 2026 version) and no substantial discount, other than the limited Black Friday upgrade (which I did decide, for now, to use).

Did something change for Premier SSA subscribers? I thought CA was allowing SSA upgrades and perpetual licenses as long as the SSA was kept current.

Yep, got the "Upgrade" email yesterday, but won't be renting their software no matter what the discount. I'd caution anyone else from taking the "bait" in their bait-and-switch subscription tactic. Update: Well, I decided to take the "bait" after-all. Discounted upgrade was about what I was planning to spend on an upgrade to the 2026 version anyway, although now I only have a year to access any plans I create in 2026. I'll re-evaluate then, but may suck-up a monthly rental for the few times I want to make any changes.

I recently reformatted and reinstalled apps on my MacBook. I always download all the manufacturer and my purchased catalogs so I can use them if I don't have an internet connection. However, I noticed a banner on the purchased catalog webpage that I hadn't noticed before, about purchased catalogs not being available indefinitely. Maybe it was there for awhile, or maybe it's new. Regardless, if you have purchased catalogs from Chief, I recommend you download them, or risk losing access to purchased items if they decide to not host them anymore. I'm not sure why they would do that, but then again, I'm not sure why they switched Home Designer to a subscription vs perpetual license either.

Yep sorry that didn't work out for you. That is one of the bummer features in all the Chief Architect products - lack of backward compatibility. I hope you didn't put too much work into the 2026 versions.

Yes, 2025 and earlier versions of Home Designer are perpetual licenses and will continue to work, but likely won’t receive any further updates. What I was referring to is the lack of backwards capability in any of the Chief Architect products. If you open any of your HD 2025 (or earlier) plans in HD 2026 and save it (or create a plan in HD 2026) you will not be able to open it anymore in HD 2025. So you will only have the ability to access or modify plans saved in HD 2026 if you continue to pay the rental cost.

I agree 100%. The lack of backward compatibility essentially locks you into paying for Home Designer 2026 if you ever want to access your files again, once the subscription runs out. I also feel like referring to the discount pricing for current Home Designer users as an "upgrade" is not the right word anymore. A purchase of Home Designer 2026 and beyond is now only a RENTAL, plain and simple. I wouldn't rent Home Designer 2026 and beyond even if the discount was significantly less. Absolutely not worth it for me.

I selected Generated Sky as you suggested, and don't really see much improvement over the previous image I got with Home Designer 2026. I'm sure there are tweaks that can be done to improve the generated image in the subscription only Home Designer 2026, but I still would not pay the high upgrade cost for the RTRT feature that was added. Especially when there are free AI tools that can be used with legacy perpetual license Home Designer versions with much better results.

With the release of Home Designer 2026 (subscription only) and the inclusion of real time Ray Trace, I wanted to see how much of an upgrade that feature was. HD 2026 does provide a slight improvement to PBR in HDP 2025, but with tools such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion (which have a free tier), I don’t think the RTRT in Home Designer 2026 is worth the high upgrade price. For those of us with the legacy perpetual licenses, I’d recommend checking out the AI tools available. Here are some comparison images:

Yep. I downloaded the trial to see what was new, and also noticed that the additional features PDF was disappointingly very limited. Still can't import SKP objects as anything other than interior fixtures, so you will need a tedious workaround to place doorknobs and cabinet hardware for each instance. To me, this is a dumb and unnecessary restriction of the Home Designer line. Also, the "free" catalog items exclude cabinets. Another dumb restriction in my opinion. Why not just allow Home Designer users to purchase the catalogs that they want to use? The "upgrade" to Home Designer 2026 SUBSCRIPTION ONLY is definitely not worth the money, especially since the software dies as soon as you stop paying.

Yep. I downloaded the trial to see what was new, and also noticed that the additional features PDF was disappointingly very limited. Still can't import SKP objects as anything other than interior fixtures, so you will need a tedious workaround to place doorknobs and cabinet hardware for each instance. To me, this is a dumb and unnecessary restriction of the Home Designer line. Also, the "free" catalog items exclude cabinets. Another dumb restriction in my opinion. Why not just allow Home Designer users to purchase the catalogs that they want to use? The "upgrade" to Home Designer 2026 SUBSCRIPTION ONLY is definitely not worth the money, especially since the software dies as soon as you stop paying.

I saw that. Ray Trace and all catalog items included = $$$$. Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching

Chief Architect Premier X17 was released 25 June. What is the hold-up for Home Designer 2026?

I agree with you. The current monthly cost of renting Home Designer Pro 2025 is $59/month. That equates to $708/year. Sure, it is less to purchase HD Pro, but at least you get to keep using it as a perpetual license. I’m sure Chief Architect will set the subscription price much higher than I think it’s worth, but I also think they don’t really care about the Home user and are focusing their attention and pricing strategy on Chief Architect Premium and professional architects, who can afford the cost by passing it along to their clients. Home DIY folks are probably not enough of an income stream to matter. I used Home Designer (and then Chief Architect Premium) to help me design our kitchen cabinets and visualize our fixture/hardware, flooring and color selections. I didn't need or want to pay someone an hourly rate to go through the many changes my wife and I went through during the design and build process. It was something that I was happy to do myself with this software and made our build much easier and less stressful. But I can’t imagine someone with the same use case as me paying what will likely be a huge subscription cost rather than a 1-time purchase and probably at least 1 upgrade to get through the design and build process. It was almost 3 years from initial plans from our draftsman to the final decisions on what we put in the house. I guess we we all see how limited and expensive the Home Designer line becomes. Too bad for the non-professional DIY’r.

Fellow Home Designer users, hopefully you all know that there will no longer be an upgrade path to a perpetual license in the Home Designer product line. I have started several posts and replied to others recently in an attempt to summon opinions and support for additional features in the Home Designer line. I am very disappointed in Chief Architect for not offering one more opportunity to upgrade to a perpetual license, but that ship appears to have already sailed. But, with the release of the 2026 subscription version likely 2-3 weeks away, a few details of their plans have begun to appear. Previous users of the Home Designer line will apparently be offered a discount. That’s ok, but I hope it is significant, because once you stop paying for the subscription, your ability to use the software will die. Again, I have accepted that inevitability, but I hope Chief offers a decent discount. Second, as a former user of Chief Architect Premium (which I did to overcome the severe limitations of the Home Designer line), I can confidently say that the Home Designer line is simply the Chief Architect Premium software with several features disabled. I am ok with that approach, because as a DIY’r I don’t need, nor do I want to pay for the Premium features. However, I do think that the Home Designer line has many unnecessary restrictions. So, apparently the 2026 subscription model will include real time ray trace - it’s about time. But unless we make some noise, I don’t think Chief Architect will include other features in the Home Designer line, such as the ability to import 3D models as actual door/cabinet hardware, or lights, or the ability to purchase cabinet catalogs. These are just a few annoying restrictions that I believe the Home Designer line should include. What do you all think?

Based on the Chief Architect reply to a user's question in the "Sales Related" forum about his rent-to-own subscription, it doesn't look like Chief Architect will honor their free upgrade to the next version. Oh and none of us will get the same courtesy as the Chief Architect Premium customers to get a chance to be grandfathered in and upgrade at least to the 2026 version as a perpetual license, before they switch over to subscriptions. Sure, we aren't paying for SSA, but that was essentially paying for an upgrade every year, which I would do at the Home Designer level, for a software version that doesn't die at the end of my subscription.

Well, let me be the first to apologize for ranting when there was a solution to my problem. Although I probably wouldn't have figured that out on my own (especially since you have to do it in 3D view) and a search of this forum and the knowledge-base didn't reveal the answer (or maybe I just don't know how to search). Anyway, thank you and sorry Chief Architect for whining.