Renerabbitt

FYI my templates come pre-packaged with 6 different title block styles in various sheet sizes and include different color washes for the first page 
Non traditional title blocks still have an information block at the rightmost roll-edge

(To the negative reaction. Not sure why I earned that, my name was used to describe a layout style that does go against the typical standard, and I have many different styles, of which are designed and offered up here for free for reference... show some love, same team!)

7 hours ago, deaconjj said:

I collaborate a lot with consultants, and I couldn't understand how to trust that I'd be picking up on the latest plan file or not. and the file sizes are monstrous.

file sizes are monstrous because it pulls in all of the textures for your files. Please note, if Chief does introduce their cloud management system in X18 it will rely on managed mode, so it might be a good time to switch over in a few months to start getting used to it  FYI you can pull those assets out of the calibz file with a winzip utility
Theoretically we will be able to authorize another account holder for any project of our choosing from within managed mode.
In terms of knowing what to send..think of "Export" as "Save As" which then requires one more step..deleting your project from project management since your exported copy is the most up-to-date

28 minutes ago, PitMan71 said:

Thanks for the response, but I am not following. Thanks.

A style palette will only save as default if the setting you’re trying to store in the style palette is currently set as the active default.

To make this work correctly:

1. Change the sill on your window to something different.

2. Set that window to default.

3. Change the sill back to your brick option.

4. Then save it to the style palette.

This ensures the style palette recognizes the updated setting as the new default.

1 hour ago, Brady33 said:

I still can't get the Angle information into a schedule unless it's on a 2D Symbol. 

You can use notes, they publish their xy position, then interpolate length and angle with macros

15 minutes ago, PitMan71 said:

Anyway, having the pallete is huge time saver when doing brick homes. Would like to nail down what's going on and fix it.

change your window default, so that when you change to your brick sill, it isnt default.

14 hours ago, meanwhile said:

I don't want to keep paying an expensive month-by-month fee for the random uses here and there that are called for after 95% of the work of the design is done. It's too expensive and doesn't make sense.

If I had to venture a guess from Chief’s perspective... and I realize this may not be what people want to hear... they likely assume that a perpetually licensed, older version of Home Designer is sufficient for the typical hobbyist user.

To put it in practical terms, when you’re designing your own project, you’re potentially saving several thousand dollars in professional design fees. In the broader context of a construction or renovation budget, those fees are often one of the smaller line items. For example, I recently spent $24,000 on drainage work and concrete steps alone. In that scenario, $600 for software is arguably one of the least expensive components of the overall investment. Hell I spent $600 on the materials for 6' of redwood fence the other day.

When viewed against the total cost of a project, the software expense becomes relatively minor... especially considering the level of control and savings it can provide over the life of the build.
If I were to guess, I am sure ai and cheaper e-design services are not helping the hobbyist cause.

6 hours ago, LCDesign said:

Thank you!!!! I forgot that I had renamed columns a long time ago.  Thanks to you I opened my schedule and added every logical column to see what's what.  I found it.  I changed "Label" to "Item".

Also FYI you can rename your Column To Include to

%"Label";"Item"%

 so that the schedule prints Item but reminds you that its from the label

2 hours ago, deaconjj said:

anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

are you using managed mode?

41 minutes ago, SHCanada2 said:

would that mean everyone has to do this at the top of stairs?

I would think typically people use the automatic stair opening tool in the edit toolbar

11 minutes ago, PitMan71 said:

@Renerabbitt For some reason the video won't play. Says 00:00 long.

has to be your browser, works on chrome. 

1 hour ago, PitMan71 said:

Anyone know how to have chief fill in the cladding on this parapet wall on the rear where the roof knee wall intersects? Or is there a better way to draw this condition? File linked attached. Even zipped this is larger than 14 MB.

 

      https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bbeynauuhmng7gv37hmiy/24-250025-Connell-X17.plan.zip?rlkey=d5dkdubygrh49bs2qjgxpsrjs&dl=0

2 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

why do I have to? 

because the most common reason for such a change is that you want your interior wall type to create a structure and surface at the exterior of whatever discrepancy there is between rooms...i.e. drywall over framing when a floor is sunken.
It's not specifically reverting to interior-4, it is reverting to your default interior wall

2 hours ago, Doug_N said:

I tried to duplicate what you did Rene, and it does work for the plan view, but when you look at a camera view, nothing has changed, the roof still has a straight edge.  Did I miss something?

Select the roof plane and use the union tool. You may have selected the polyline and used the union tool

3 hours ago, JonathanK said:

It seems like there could be functionality there to merge times or something like that.

You can edit the entries
you can also adjust the timeout parameters:

I tend to think 5 min is too tight as i may lookup some reference info for 10-15 minutes and I am still actively working but not moving the mouse.

Just now, CharlesVolz said:

 

Yes, in order to keep your fascia level (if that is your goal).

yup this is what I would do

37 minutes ago, winterdd said:

Thanks guys I was hoping this tool would work after adding a break on the mid span of the roof overhang. I love this tool but aren't having any luck.

 

 

I understand the desire for more frequent patches under a subscription model, but I don’t think that expectation aligns with how this software—or this company—actually operates.

Chief isn’t a lightweight or modular app where features can be pushed live with minimal downstream impact. It’s a professional production tool built on nearly 30 years of accumulated code, with an ecosystem that’s tightly coupled to documentation, training, and support. Every feature change or behavioral adjustment ripples far beyond just the executable.

Frequent incremental patches would require:

• Updating Help documentation and knowledge-base articles continuously

• Retraining support staff so they can correctly diagnose issues per patch version

• Updating internal training materials and SSA workflows

• Preparing trainers for live classes, webinars, and year-round training events

• Managing version fragmentation across users on different patch levels

That kind of cadence would almost certainly increase confusion, not reduce it. Support would be flooded with “what changed?” calls, trainees would be following outdated instructions, and users collaborating across offices would constantly be out of sync. For a company whose business model is support-centric, that’s a serious risk.

On top of that, it’s easy to forget that every change to the professional product must also be evaluated, segmented, and deliberately restricted across the Home Designer product line. Features can’t simply be “turned on” everywhere. They have to be gated, versioned, documented, and supported differently depending on the SKU. That alone adds significant overhead to every single update.

There’s also the reality of cross-team development. Many features don’t live in isolation—they depend on work being done in other development areas. You can’t safely release Feature A if it’s meant to integrate with Feature B, when the team responsible for Feature B hasn’t completed or stabilized their code for the next major version yet. Releasing partial integrations mid-cycle is a recipe for instability and technical debt.

Chief’s development model is regimented for a reason. Features are bundled, documented, trained, and supported as cohesive units—not dripped out in isolation. That discipline is what allows them to support an enormous range of users with consistency and reliability. Breaking that rhythm just to satisfy a “faster updates” expectation would undermine the very thing people rely on Chief for: stability.

Comparisons to AI software or modern SaaS tools also miss the mark. Most of those platforms are cloud-native, modular, and not burdened by decades of legacy workflows—or real-world production liability. Chief operates in a completely different category. The cost of instability here isn’t a bad UI tweak—it’s lost time, broken workflows, and real-world consequences.

Subscription doesn’t automatically mean “ship everything immediately.” In this case, it means predictable funding for long-term development, structured releases, and a support ecosystem that actually knows what it’s supporting. That’s not falling behind the future—that’s respecting the complexity of the present.

If anything, I’m far more impressed that Chief manages to evolve at all while maintaining a system this disciplined, with documentation, training, and support moving in lockstep. That’s something very few software companies—AI-driven or otherwise—are capable of doing well.
BTW Chief, if you are reading this, despite my grandstanding brand ambassador post here, its about dang time for that X18 Beta...you can see we are all getting a bit twitchy?

Man, I am tired of this topic, but I’ve seen it come up a lot—and I do browse the boards regularly. I find these posts deeply lacking in both understanding and compassion. For those of us whose careers Chief has quite literally enabled, we are SO GRATEFUL. For anyone here, the subscription model has been around for years, so this person likely meant to post in the Home Talk forum which just changed to subscription for the HD 2026 software version.
Also, grass isn't greener:
 

• Autodesk Revit — subscription-only

• AutoCAD / AutoCAD Architecture — subscription-only

• SketchUp Pro (current versions) — subscription-only

• SoftPlan Professional (current versions) — subscription-only

• Cedreo — subscription-only

• RoomSketcher Pro — subscription-only

• Coohom Professional — subscription-only

• Planner 5D Professional — subscription-only

• Archicad--Subscription only

Imagine picking a vendor over 10 years ago and praying they stay relevant over the years—no, over the decades. I get it: you want your developer to survive by taking a thousand chances that the fleeting consumer will buy into the next version, constantly gambling on how much development budget they can allocate so you won’t complain that the feature set isn’t exactly what you wanted. What a miserable experience it must be to have such ungrateful customers—customers who apparently don’t want you to eat.
 

I challenge any consumer making these claims about the subscription model to go develop a product for a consumer base and then try to guess the magic number needed to fund the next iteration. I dumped roughly $108K into development of my next product this year, and it was frightening—just guessing what numbers you might realistically hit.
 

There is a reason Vail Resorts constantly raises day-ticket prices while keeping season passes comparatively low: it’s far easier to budget for planned improvements when you have fixed, predictable numbers. This isn’t a cash grab or corporate bullying—it’s necessary. They are in their fourth year of trying to develop a cloud service for us customers, while doing everything they can to keep SSA costs low, all while dodging a million cloud-computing copyrights and trademarks.

And speaking of inflation—to those who think it’s worth mentioning—think back for a second and answer me this: has the price of this product tracked with inflation over the years?

Not even close.

Also, last I checked, subscriptions are fully deductible, while purchased-to-own software is a capital expense that typically requires depreciation. It’s literally a write-off—so why is anyone complaining?

This whole debate reminds me of how difficult it is to promote a professional product on Amazon, where you can’t qualify the customer and someone trashes your product with a bad review because the delivery driver dented the box.

I have consistently saved more in efficiency from each version’s feature set than I have paid in SSA, year over year, for the last 10 years, and my prices have gone up at a rate greater than the cost of this software.
Historical data from X17 alone showed roughly a 20% efficiency improvement for me. Keep going, Chief—I owe you.

7 hours ago, EmmaCox said:

Is there a way to show 2 seperate wall tags for a pony wall? 

 

For example, on the wall schedule I am wanting to show exterior wall W1 framed wall with siding and W2 with stone, as the entire home does not have pony wall / stone skirting. So in the areas with the pony wall I could just have 2 tags rather than creating W3 with both siding and stone.

 

Another example is I have a portion of the foundation wall that is a daylight basement, so there would be say W4 foundation wall and W2 framed wall with stone (same as above). 

You would need a pretty custom macro that to examine upper and lower wall layers and text label or you would need a custom macro and 2 schedules. Where 1 schedule ignores schedule- callouts of the other as to avoid duplications
This video is paywalled but you are doing something similar in that you want a schedule-callout from each schedule but you dont want the callout to populate numbers from both

Alternatively, I am curious if simply using a callout with a detail would work better. In terms of it being a plan-set to build from, the builder will need to see a detail for your pony wall connections and relative heights anyways, so you could just drop a callout on each wall:

 

13 hours ago, Drew-PRH said:

One can not achieve a Drawer with a Flush/Smooth or Flat Top Surface beyond 1" thick.

Yes you can
Any mesh can be converted into a millwork/fixture/furniture/hardware symbol category, and any of those symbol categories can be used as a drawer box:

This is from my paywalled member section, 16 Min video, I set it to public for today only Jan 20, 2026

On 1/10/2026 at 6:26 PM, mtldesigns said:

Dang.....................  some steps there for sure.

1 hour ago, SC_drafting said:

I've been looking all over trying to find a simple way of finding wall area for use in ordering interior siding material. There seem to be a lot of methods and workarounds, but no simple, standardized way to find it. Why isn't this something you can just add to a wall schedule? Am I missing something? And if not, why hasn't Chief added a way to do this, and is there a way to request an upgrade like this?

 

Thanks

Why not just use the material lists?
Otherwise macros..the all encompassing conditional macro would be worth charging for.
The simple macro that you use at risk of your own peril is 
%upper_layers[0].area.ceil.round%
keep in mind this wont report correctly for gable ends unless you have it set to balloon frame

25 minutes ago, DonnaMarie said:

I am creating a wall with 3 hidden doors, and want to add molding to the wall and on the doors to give the illusion of a wall without doors.   I am using CA x16. 

a photo of what you are trying to achieve would be helpful

19 minutes ago, Evolution said:

Rene did it, but I couldn't get your way to work for me Rene. 

is your signature up to date? I might make it more clear that you are on X12 if that's the case