Trying to design a new home for my wife and I.
Just purchased the Home Designer Suite. I am the Author of Modern Masonry textbook. Trying to use Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) for the house and foundation. Found out last night that I cannot draw ICF for the foundation. But can use ICF for the walls. This does not make any sense to me.
Enjoying relearning the program. Used it 10 year ago. I like the program but some problems.
Great for developing a plan
Great for developing a plan for your future home or helping friends to design theirs
Best company to deal with,
Best company to deal with, always there for us, nothing seems to be a problem.
We use Premier and Home Designer Pro, both fabulous programs in their own right, certainly value for money
Easy to use, start today
With a few minutes of video instruction you will be seeing your ideas come to view. you should try it today.
Won’t go back to any other program!
I love Home Designer Pro! It’s quick to learn if you’ve used other CAD programs and honestly I can’t think of another program I’d rather use! My clients love to come in and sit at the computer with me as I walk them through their design. Its very user friendly and I get so many compliments on my 3D renders, which take no time at all!
Plot Terrain
I have not actually used the home designing feature of this program yet. I have mostly used the terrain feature so far and have been fairly frustrated with there behaver. My take is if you take a home design and add simple elevation terrain data with retaining walls and elevation line this program can do that pretty well. I have a topographical map with elevation lines ever 2 feet of elevation change. When retaining walls are added to make a flat spot for the house that does not work when the retaining wall crosses one of the elevation lines. When an elevation feature like a retaining wall crosses an elevation line all kind of strange thing start happen to the terrain. They is no issue with the retaining wall crossing a contour line. Also have not found an easy way of rotation plot information without rotation the house information. I have found a way to rotate an imported PDF plot map with entering the degrees to rotation. I have not found this capability for the plot terrain information.
Review and suggestions
I have enjoyed using Chief Architect for several years. Without exception, it has enabled me to expand my design skills. During this time, I have used the software to further expand its inert capabilities as I have added to its basic design elements. They are now house in my User Library. One item I wish would be included in one of the Home Designer libraries is a Dutch Door. I have one in my personal library but it is somewhat less than what I wish it to be. Thank you again.
Love this design software
As and Interior Designer, I have used both Autocad and Sketchup but I have chosen Home Designer Pro because it’s easy to use and my designs go together beautifully. It’s easy to show my clients what their whole house designs will look like. I’ve even used if for commercial work showing fire departments what their kitchens will look like or businesses what furniture to put into their conference/training centers. It’s been a valuable tool and I would highly recommend it to anyone who does Interior Design.
Highly capable software but may be a bit overwhelming for beginners.
I have just started out with this software to create designs for my own home and help with planning repair and other projects.
It does so much that the learning curve initially is a bit steep. That said there are many references online from the company and from various user groups:
– you have to pay attention to what exact version includes a given function as your version may not have it.
– the information about differences between versions is a bit hard to find on the site but is there.
– the software runs very well on my Macbook Air M2 – even with rendered camera views
– architecture terminology is vast and I spend half my time looking up terms to I am not familiar with – some of the Help references are obtuse and confusing because of this – online video instructional aids are best.
It would be great if you could use a Flight Sim Joystick as a means of navigating through a model and be able to record this and control sensitivity of motion.
Overall – if you can put the effort in to get over the “hump” it can give you great results. This is “professional” grade software.
Great Product
Like any software program you need to dive in and use it but it is very easy to get started and the videos help with fine tuning harder topics.
I designed my own home, homes for friends and relatives.
I love the product and I think you will too.
Home Designer Suite is a
Home Designer Suite is a very simple program to operate, and makes designing projects so easy! The different camera views and 3D views are a huge help for visualizing the finished product.
Awesome program
I bought this program to help design our house. It has been amazing to work with and to fine tune the dimensions.
Full of bugs and problems
Failed to import settings and library from previous version. Library now has no way to display an entire folder, only 1 item at a time. Export from the previous version crashes repeatedly so the only way to move my user library from the previous version is in very small groups of items which takes for ever; library manipulation is as slow or slower than previous versions. If I can ever get the thing set up with my library I may know if the upgrade was actually worth it, it appears they have at least fixed the item view when editing placed items.
Fast development and change cycle
It is easy enough to use and quite functional for relatively rapid development of concepts. The software is very Americentric in it’s construction techniques and styles, some of them are not easy to avoid / turn off. The software crashes occasionally and I only mention it as few other programs do that anymore. For me one of the most unpleasant parts is the sale of 3D objects, in addition to the healthy fee you pay for the software. Additional catalogues of a handful of often, dated looking fixtures, fittings or accessories will set you back four USD at a time. That seems a little over the top to me, about time they made these free downloads and charged only for the most recent additions.
I still recommend the software, but feel the Chief architect group of softwares need to move into the current era. Graphically it still feels the same as it was 10 years ago, despite having upgraded twice in that time.
Great Software for Small business
The software is easy to operate and allows you to bring to life customers ideas through plans and 3-D pictures.
It also gives you the ability to apply for building permits of small Like for Like projects.
Will do basic things well, but lacks a few nice-to-have features
I’ve been using HDPro for many years now to design, build, and modify my house and have been VERY satisfied! My builder, plumber, pool installer, and HVAC trades are amazed at the renderings I can produce, not to mention I now know where things are in all the walls for any future renovations I may undertake. I’ve noticed a few features that would be really nice to have.
1. On opening, have an option to open the last-opened plan. Preferences>General>File Management might be a good place to start with a checkbox for Open Last Saved Plan.
2. It would be nice to have a fence option for horizontal slats in which I have the ability to adjust the number and dimension of slats (e.g., 2 horizontal 2x10s between posts). I have several custom fences that require this over uneven terrain.
3. I often have to create my own equipment, as the Library is fairly limited. Thank you for the ability to rotate cylinders, so now I can replicate my HVAC ducting, sprinkler pipes, wiring, equipment, etc.!! It would be nice to have a quarter torus Shape (90deg) to better depict system parts.
Keep up the great work!
Powerful program
I’m still a novice but have been able to do 2 sets of plans for submission to building dept. Tons on of online instructions when you can’t figure out how to something or just to get started.
Program is powerful and you can download lots of libraries to make very professional looking also can do walk throughs
Won’t Use Anything Else
I have used this software for 18 years and nothing can beat it. It is by far the most thought out and easy to use home design software you can buy. I like the ability to buy additional catalog items is great. The support is fantastic and free training videos are very nice. If you are looking for the perfect design software for homes and small commercial projects, great for remodeling projects, then get this product. There is none better for the money.
Great Features – BIG Learning Curve
I use, test, adopt, and teach on a lot of technologies every day. I have to say this system is one of the most robust. The only real challenge with Chief Architect is learning how and when to use all of the different features. And know at what subscription level, each comes into play.
I recommend committing yourself time to a course for training up on each feature as you begin to use this software. But once you master it, you will be creating professional designs at a top tier level.
Good Product – One Flaw
2024 Operates very well on the Apple Silicon. All the slowness disappears and the application is easy to use. The only gripe I have is that if you use a PDF file as a background, the system loads it as the CAD Layer. Turning off CAD makes your background disappear. A PDF is not a CAD object.
