Home designer 2026

[jpfahl]

New features states:

Physically Based Real Time Ray Tracing. Use the Real Time Ray Tracing rendering technique to create scenes with realistic lighting, shadows, reflections, and metallic effects.

 

Is this any different than the Physically based rendering we had in 2025?

 

Library Catalog Downloads. Included with subscription, access hundreds of Bonus and Manufacturer Catalogs at no additional charge.

 

Do we have access to more than we had in 2025?

 

2.5 to 5 times the upgrade cost seems steep even for Pro users like me.

 

 

[DerekPedersen]

Hello,

Thank you for the question.  We added a new feature on top of the Physically Based rendering technique that you have in the HD 2025 version.  The feature is called Real-Time Raytracing and it offers the highest quality, photorealistic rendering.  This is the same rendering technology that is offered in our Chief Architect Premier product.

 

You no longer have to pay for catalog content if you have a Home Designer subscription.  There is still a select group of catalogs that are only compatible with the Chief Architect Premier product, but all of the content you see on the 3D library for Home Designer are included at no additional charge now.  

 

You can also see a summary of what's new in 2026.  Here is a link in case you didn't see it already.  What's New | Home Designer

 

Please feel free to reach out to sales at 208-292-3400 with any questions.

 

Kind regards,

 

Derek 

Chief Architect Software

[Angie15]

On 8/22/2025 at 9:09 PM, jpfahl said:

New features states:

Physically Based Real Time Ray Tracing. Use the Real Time Ray Tracing rendering technique to create scenes with realistic lighting, shadows, reflections, and metallic effects.

Is this any different than the Physically based rendering we had in 2025?

I sincerely hope so, because PBR was ultimately crap and completely uncontrollable and unrealistic. Metals never reflected correctly, the backdrop over-exposed, it was an disaster.

 

"The feature is called Real-Time Raytracing and it offers the highest quality, photorealistic rendering."

 

Laughable and almost ridiculous, About 4 years behind on all your competitors there, and I doubt it will be anywhere near what TwinMotion or Simlab can do for free.

Will it render only what it sees, or will it still over-light the backdrop and other "objects" exposed to the exterior like chimneys, slabs and soffits? Will the trees (images) cast shadows? Will I still have to "set it up as a photoshoot"  and add a hundred lights to make it work?

[Robborito]

In a more positive mood - I for one user found that the PBR (2025) images were and still are for my work great to issue and provide for clients;

It's not trying to do things at a higher level it is what it is, and fr me- its great.

I have spend some time tweaking the available instruction and have great results.

Real time raytracing means a new computer/graphics.

Happy with PBR.

 

 

[Renerabbitt]

On 9/1/2025 at 10:53 AM, Angie15 said:

About 4 years behind on all your competitors there, and I doubt it will be anywhere near what TwinMotion or Simlab can do for free.

Will it render only what it sees, or will it still over-light the backdrop and other "objects" exposed to the exterior like chimneys, slabs and soffits? Will the trees (images) cast shadows? Will I still have to "set it up as a photoshoot"  and add a hundred lights to make it work?

I feel like you may chop my head off for saying this given your tone but the premiere line got physically based ray path-tracing 6 months before Twinmotion lumion and D5 did.  Hats off to Ryan and Dan on that one.

• The path tracer evaluates all geometry enabled in the active camera’s layer set, not just objects directly visible in the frame.
  Any mesh that is turned on in the scene participates in light transport, meaning it can contribute indirect light bounces, reflections, occlusion, and shadowing, even if it is outside the camera’s view.
• Backdrops are HDRI capable now, they have a radiance channel if you choose the right one, and you can choose to turn off the sun and choose use the radiance from the backdrop for some really cool tonal qualities
• The anomaly with the chimneys etc.  is no longer an issue as long as you trace for more than a single bounce. OOTB it is set to 3
• tree images do not cast shadows, but they added a very large library of sharp looking optimized 3d trees most of which were built in SpeedTree which will cast shadows as well as translucency
• I have not used the add light tool since Chief introduced pathtraced realtime raytracing

Here is a kitchen rendered in Home Designer 2026

[Angie15]

@RenerabbittI’m glad you picked up on my tone because I’m absolutely fed up. I posted that question before I used the trial version of 2026. I’m well aware of how Ray-tracing works, (or is supposed to work). I was querying whether Chief would actually do that because their attempt at PBR in HD was so poor. 
I’m also aware that Chief Premier had ray-tracing long before TM etc and I have used the trail version. What I’m saying is, that Chief has long since been overtaken by the likes of other free or less expensive software, and in a world where AI can generate photo-real images in minutes, and of all the things they could’ve done to improve the HD software, they’ve chosen to offer ray-tracing and charge 4x the annual price. All the other technical glitches and issues of HD Pro 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 etc, still remain. There is absolutely no other benefit to 2026, other than ray-tracing, and raytracing can be done on an external engine for free (with less effort and better results imo, especially for exterior renders)

[Renerabbitt]

18 hours ago, Angie15 said:

that because their attempt at PBR in HD was so poor. 

I couldn't tell from how this was worded but just to be clear PBR is not raytracing or pathtracing, its a raster based approximation based on screen space with global illumination. So you certainly wouldn't be getting any of the qualities of a raytrace engine that is using single or multi bounce path tracing and raytracing. That image I posted above is direct from Home designer with no edits. 
There are a few big features in the new version of Home Designer but in all honesty, I doubt many HD users will know how to capitalize on those features having limited knowledge of what features they are born from in the premiere line. The project browser and project management mode can drastically improve the condoc process with a few tricks, and mind you, I might be upset about it to, its a single line item with no context and no real example of why its such a powerful feature. 
Temporary dimensions in 3d views combined with select next side singlehandedly recouped the cost of the software for me this year and it's not even listed as a new feature but its there in HD2026. HD users had never had tab input move, so moving objects in 3d were relegated to the transform replicate tool which is clunky. Now you can move and resize objects in 3d using boolean operations with temp dimensions in a very very fast way. Get used to that feature and you would shave 30% off of your design time:

Also please check the other post where you address me, I offered a potential fix for your z fighting issue.
If you like you can schedule a free consult with me and I can show you a few things in HD2026 that would get you excited. 

[Angie15]

@RenerabbittI know PBR isn’t a ray-trace. It was an example of how chief managed to bollox the implementation of an industry standard (PBR) in their HD products. I had concerns that chief would similarly do a half-arsed version of ray-trace. Now, while the ray-trace in 2026 is ok...is it worth the annual subscription they’re charging for it, given that other external engines are doing it better and cheaper? Absolutely not. The few other token-gesture improvements are negligible. I’ve been using the trial version and there’s nothing there that I’d be excitedly throwing my money at.
Ill reply to you on my other post regarding the sill z-fighting when I get a chance. Unfortunately, your fix doesn’t fix it. I’ve sat with technical support for months regarding it, and if technical support can’t fix it, I doubt you can, but I’m willing to give it another shot because it drives me that insane!