ChiefArchitect

We have just posted an update for Home Designer 2016. You can read the release notes here: Release Notes

Portfolio Contest We want to see more of your designs! This is your opportunity to promote your skills with our Social Media communities. And one talented Chief Architect customer will be highlighted on our website, win Chief Gear and a Leica Disto Measuring Device. Enter: We will create an album for each Portfolio Submission, so you can send in multiple image or PDF files of your designs. Feel free to include renderings, plan sets, brochures, etc. We can even add a link to your YouTube Channel if you have created walk-throughs. Please answer the following: Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Your name, company and title A little bit about your company Where you are located How long have you been using Chief Architect and what influenced your decision to purchase Chief Architect over other software? Do you have a success story about Chief Architect that you can share? Send submission to submissions@chiefarchitect.com Winner: Entries will be posted as photo albums on Chief Architect’s Facebook page. Chief Architect will declare the winner December 16, 2015. facebook.com/ChiefArchitect Prizes: Leica Disto E7500i ($149 value) 8 GB USB drive Chief Water bottle Chief T-shirt Featured Customer Rules: Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. Chief Architect reserves the right to refuse any contest entry. Entry Deadline is December 14, 2015 Questions? Send inquiries to submissions@chiefarchitect.com

Hello, Thank you for the question. Home Designer Architectural and below are not eligible for a license transfer. The list of Home Designer (HD) products specifically excluded from license transfers are HD Architectural, HD Suite, HD Essentials, HD Interiors, HD Landscape and Deck, HD Deluxe and Picture Painter. Home Designer Professional is the only Home Designer product that is eligible for a license transfer as long as it meets the other transfer criteria. You can contact our Customer Service for more information. customerservice@chiefarchitect.com or call 208-292-3400 Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

The quality of our products and services is very important to us. Please complete a brief survey so that we may better serve you in the future. Thank You!

Design Contest – Remodel/Addition! The Chief Architect Design Contest is a fun way to share your work and win great prizes. Share your Remodeling project or Addition for a chance to win Chief Gear! Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. Enter: Submit a single image file of your design to submissions@chiefarchitect.com This can be an image of the single view or a collage (before and after’s are encouraged). Include your name, company information, the software you used and a description about the design. Winner: Entries will be posted in a photo album on Chief Architect’s Facebook page. Fans of Chief Architect will be asked to “Like” their favorite entry. The entry with the most “Likes” will be declared the winner. Share with your friends to earn their votes! facebook.com/ChiefArchitect Prizes: 1-hour personal online training 8 GB USB drive Chief Water bottle Chief T-shirt Design Contest – Featured Customer Rules: Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. One submission/image file per person (can be single view or collage) Chief Architect reserves the right to refuse any contest entry. Your free hour of training must be redeemed within 60 days. Entry Deadline is October 19, 2015 Questions? Send inquiries to submissions@chiefarchitect.com

View the Home Designer 2016 Change Log that was released March 25, 2015. This is a list of the fixes and improvements to existing tools introduced in Home Designer 2016.

View the Home Designer 2016 Change Log that was released March 25, 2015. This is a list of the fixes and improvements to existing tools introduced in Home Designer 2016.

Hello, Thank you for the question. All Home Designer 2016 products are compatible with Windows 10. This is already listed on our System Requirements page at this location. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/system-requirements.html Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

Hello and thank you for the question. I am sorry that your email bounced. We may have a competitive offer depending on the product you have. Please email me directly at derek@chiefarchitect.com or call our sales department at 208-292-3400 for details. Be sure to put "Chief Architect" in the subject line of the email to ensure it gets through our email system. Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

Congratulations to Barb Preston of Pinto Design LLC for winning the Design Contest – Rustic Design! Learn more about Pinto Designs here:www.pintodesignllc.com The prize package includes a Chief Architect water bottle, 8 GB USB drive, t-shirt, and one free hour of online training with a certified Chief Architect trainer. Thank you to all who entered and shared your great designs! View all the designs here: http://bit.ly/1gOUYDj

Hello Adam, Thank you for the question and for your interest in Home Designer Software. When you create a metric plan in Home Designer, values displayed in dialog boxes, dimensions, etc. will change over to metric units. The materials list is a database that is generated by the software. It will include a full list and quantity of the materials in your plan. We do not supply your regional pricing, but you can plug in a price for a given item and the software will do the math for you. For example, if you have 4 windows in your plan that are the same, you can plug in the price of that window and the software will calculate the total cost for you. I have attached a screenshot image of what this looks like. As mentioned above, we do have a trial version and as well as a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

Hello, Thank you for your purchase of Home Designer. If you have the current 2016 version of Home Designer Architectural, you can download and install the free trial version (see link below). When you install the Trial Version, you will be prompted to enter your product key. Use the product key that you received with your disk purchase instead of the trial version product key you received. This will activate the full version rather than trial mode. You can also contact our Customer Service and we can set up a digital locker for you to download your software. Thank you for choosing Home Designer and enjoy your new software. Free Trial Download: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/trial.html Customer Service: customerservice@chiefarchitect.com or 208-292-3400 Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

Try the Menu: '3D' --> 'Toggle Textures' to see if that fixes the textures.

Hello Michael, Thank you for the question and for your interest in Home Designer. You can import a 2D .dxf file into Home Designer Pro. Once the CAD file is imported you can then trace over the floor plan to recreate it in Home Designer. Here is a bit of information from our help manual about .dxf files. Importing 2D Drawings 2D drawings are imported by reading entities from a.dxf file and creating the equivalent CAD objects in Home Designer Pro. Home Designer Pro 2016can import 2D.dxf files compatible with AutoCAD through version 2014. A .dxf file can be imported into floor plan view, a Wall Elevation or Cross Section/Elevation view. Only drawings created in AutoCAD’s Model Space can be imported into Home Designer Pro. Entities drawn in Paper Space are not recognized. External references (xrefs) are not recognized by Home Designer Pro, either. In general, all Z coordinates are mapped to zero. If an entity in an imported drawing has thickness, Home Designer Pro ignores it.

Congratulations to Shawn Sawatzky for winning the Design Contest – Sunroom/Solarium! It’s great seeing the different view of the design. Awesome job! Shawn won a Chief Architect water bottle, 8 GB USB drive, t-shirt, and one free hour of online training with a certified Chief Architect trainer. Thank you to all who entered and shared your great designs! Visit Facebook to see all the designs.

Design Contest – Rustic Design! The Chief Architect Design Contest is a fun way to share your work and win great prizes. Share the Rustic spaces you’ve created, interior or exterior, for a chance to win some Chief Gear! Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. Enter: Submit a single image file of your design to submissions@chiefarchitect.com This can be an image of the single view or a collage. Include your name, company information, the software you used and a brief description about the design. Winner: Entries will be posted in a photo album on Chief Architect’s Facebook page. Fans of Chief Architect will be asked to “Like” their favorite entry. The entry with the most “Likes” will be declared the winner. Share with your friends to earn their votes! facebook.com/ChiefArchitect Prizes: 1-hour personal online training 8 GB USB drive Chief Water bottle Chief T-shirt Design Contest – Featured Customer Rules: Rustic Design – Interior or Exterior lodge, cabin, or mountain home style. Rustic style highlights naturally rugged beauty. Here's even more guidance on Rustic Design: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1338162/list/so-your-style-is-rustic Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. One submission/image file per person (can be single view or collage) Chief Architect reserves the right to refuse any contest entry. Your free hour of training must be redeemed within 60 days. Submission deadline is July 20, 2015 Questions? Send inquiries to submissions@chiefarchitect.com

Quickly angle your windows to follow your roof within our Home Designer Pro 2016 design software. Find more about Editing the Shape of a Window here: www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01024

Learn how to create a loft within our Home Designer Pro 2016 design software. Find more about creating a loft here: www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00210

Hello, Thank you for your interest in Home Designer. As you move up the product line you get more custom design options, a larger library catalog of items to choose from and finally tools that make the design process easier. I would recommend our Home Designer Suite as many people find that the feature set in the Essentials version too limited. Here is a link to a detailed comparison matrix. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/product-chooser.html You can also give our sales department a call to discuss your needs and to help guide you into the right product. We can be reached at 208-292-3400. Kind regards, Derek Chief Architect Sales

Design Contest – Sunroom/Solarium! The Chief Architect Design Contest is a fun way to share your work and win great prizes. This month is all about Sunroom and Solarium design. Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. Enter: Submit a single image file of your design to submissions@chiefarchitect.com This can be an image of the single view or a collage. Include your name, company information, the software you used and a brief description about the design. Winner: Entries will be posted in a photo album on Chief Architect’s Facebook page. Fans of Chief Architect will be asked to “Like” their favorite entry. The entry with the most “Likes” will be declared the winner. Share with your friends to earn their votes! facebook.com/ChiefArchitect Prizes: 1-hour personal online training 8 GB USB drive Chief Water bottle Chief T-shirt Feature through our social channels Combined value of $184 Rules: Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. Submissions must be entered by the deadline – May 18, 2015 One submission/image file per person (can be single view or collage) Chief Architect reserves the right to refuse any contest entry. Your free hour of training must be redeemed within 60 days. Questions? Send inquiries to submissions@chiefarchitect.com

Congratulations to LaVor Haynie for winning the Design Contest – Tiny House Design! He received over 280 votes! The prize package includes a Chief Architect water bottle, 8 GB USB drive, t-shirt, and one free hour of online training with a certified Chief Architect trainer. Thank you to all who entered and shared your great designs! View all the amazing entries: http://bit.ly/1HB7hMR

Kat is correct in her post above. The non-editable sample plans were removed in Home Designer 2016 - because the plans were quite old, they were non-editable (which frustrated people) and you can find sample plans online quite easily. We have added more editable sample plans on the website.

Hi! If you're installing Pro 2016 on the same computer as HDA 2014 then during the installation process you'll be asked by Pro 2016 whether you want to associate existing files it has found with the new version. No problem deleting remnants of previous installs, just make sure not to delete plans or other files you want to associate with Pro 2016.

Thanks Alan for sharing your comment!!

It does not currently run on that OS.