ishoultz

@Renerabbitt Thanks for looking. I'm sure there's ways around this, gonna have to keep digging. I have been using the "save as" for both plan and layout files. It would just be faster & more convenient to be able to select them from the pop up menu. This is the craziest software I've used to date. I've watched videos on older versions of the software as there aren't that many specifically on HDPro 2025. To see that certain features were available previously, but then they take stuff away later. Trying to follow along with tutorials & Tips/Tricks videos is almost impossible when things are removed. As awesome as this software is & could be, it's frustrating (I'm assuming on purpose) to to know there are things that are so simple that have just been disabled to make things harder. PS: I watched your comparison video and it looks like you've poked around in HDPro2025 a little bit. It was awesome to see what someone that has tons of CA experience can still be impressed with the functionality offered by the cheap version of the software. Maybe one of these years I can afford Chief, but until then I'll just keep playing around in this version as it's pretty much paid for.

@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?

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

I think what a lot of users are disappointed in is the lack of "bang for the buck" that this new subscription model comes with. Most of the new "features" are really just things that (I would guess) were as easy as turning 0's into 1's in the software. Allowing access to certain features that I would guess were already built-in but not allowed to be accessed. Most of the thousands of library models are supplied by the manufacturers, so I'm not exactly sure why they didn't allow all users access to those in the first place. The ray-tracing is a nice feature for people who actually need it. I think a lot of users like to make those realistic images, but I don't think that was a deal breaker for the majority of HDP users. I'm guessing most of us don't have capable enough computers to fully utilize this feature anyway. I still think they could have kept the perpetual license aspect and just allowed access to these (and other) features as a subscription based add-on to the software. Allow users to "Ala Carte" the software features that they specifically need for their purposes. If they were looking for additional revenue sources, I would think building off of your existing customer base would've been a much safer bet. Regarding the subscription based license, I'm sure there will be a lot of hobbyist type people who try out the new subscription model for a few months, then just let it lapse. I'm also sure there will be some that pay for the full year at once. Those will be the true test for CA. Year 2 subscription numbers would be interesting to see compared with average yearly update numbers. I only found this software last year, so I'm not planning on switching to a subscription based license. I plan on using my license as long as my computer allows, then I'll be looking for a different software solution. It's easier to walk away when you don't have years of time invested, or thousands of dollars invested. There are still other software solutions that offer perpetual licenses, so I plan on investigating all available options when it's required. I just hope that this decision won't be the final straw for all of the non-professional/semi-professional users that have been using the software for years. That would truly be a loss. This was a relatively easy software to learn the basics of and be productive quickly. The user forum seems to be pretty active, and most users offer tips and tricks to get you out of a jamb.

I hope they don't treat this as just recurring revenue opportunity. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that they are switching to a SaaS model, but only offering 2 different options. I think they are blowing a major opportunity for both increasing revenue and to expand the opportunities for the users. I have a feeling if they continue down the path they are heading, they will actually end up losing money instead of increasing revenue. I believe that if they offered monthly access to additional features such as rendering, larger number of drawing sheets, drawing blocks, etc. (for a fee of course) Ability to download the other libraries and use them? Maybe offer different tiers of the software for different rates that offer more than what the current offerings? I think they could actually make this a good thing if they approach it from the customer perspective. I know everyone is getting super tired of having to pay monthly subscription fees for things we used to be able to own outright, but if they actually increase the value to the users instead of just trying to increase revenue, I think this could be a win-win.

I think what a lot of us are wondering is if we do decide to purchase the 2026 license occasionally, will we still be able to keep accessing our 2025 perpetual license? Will they be treated as 2 separate licenses, or if we do purchase the 2026 license will we lose access to our perpetual 2025 license? I think that's why @barthmv mentioned a stand-alone license. Or would we have to have 2 different licenses? Log-in as 2 different users? I am also very interested to see the monthly fee for this version of the software. Thanks in advance for the clarification.

Quick question.........Will it still be possible to finish monthly payments (4 of 12) for purchasing Home Designer Pro 2025 license WITHOUT having to update to the 2026 subscription based license? If so...........I'm assuming at that point, no updates for perpetual licenses ever again without monthly subscription payments?