Home Designer Architect versions prior to 2026

[Fitch42]

Not sure if this is the right place to post.  I'm looking for a place to buy a HD Architect version between 2020 and 2025 - any insight were I could purchase a legitimate version.  I've been using HD since 2006 and currently have the 2019 version for my own small home renos (so I can see before I demo) so have zero ability to justify subscription.  Are there alternative programs that one would suggest if it's not possible to buy an older version?

[Rookie65]

I have a Home Designer Pro 2021 key that I could sell you, if Chief Architect will allow it to happen?

[DerekPedersen]

@Fitch42, Thank you for the question about purchasing an older version of Home Designer.  We do not have previous versions of Home Designer in our system to sell, and license transfers (buying a used license) is not permitted in our software license agreement for any of our products.  If you are using the software on an intermittent basis (only a project here and there throughout the year), you can consider the Home Designer 2026 monthly option at $79 per month.  You can turn the software on and off monthly as needed when a project arises.  Home Designer 2026 is based on our previous Home Designer Pro product with some additional features, including ray trace rendering, upgrades to new versions are free, and the online catalog content is also included for free.

 

Please feel free to reach out to Chief Architect Sales if you would like to discuss available options at 208-292-3400.

 

Kind regards,

 

Derek

Chief Architect Software

[Rookie65]

It's too bad that HD 2026 deleted a lot of the features that made the previous versions much better to use. I was hoping when I bought 2026 that it would be an upgrade to 2025, and not the big step backwards that it turned out to be. That's my 2 cents on it, yet in reading the forums, there are a lot of people not happy with the new subscription model, or the changes made to the software.

Edited 11 hours ago by Rookie65
change words

[Renerabbitt]

2 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

It's too bad that HD 2026 deleted a lot of the features that made the previous versions much better to use

you lost features?

[Rookie65]

Sure did. There are several changes and deleted features that are not included in 2026.

[Renerabbitt]

1 minute ago, Rookie65 said:

Sure did. There are several changes and deleted features that are not included in 2026.

can you tell me what they are. I am about to go on a live youtube looking at HDPro 2026

 

[Rookie65]

Not able to change material properties. No more watermark. Hopefully they have fixed how roof framing wouldn't change when defaults were changed. Changing bearing wall to selecting a wall, not using bearing lines,  etc.

Thought 2026 would be an upgrade, yet seemed to stumble backwards. 

[Renerabbitt]

12 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Not able to change material properties. No more watermark. Hopefully they have fixed how roof framing wouldn't change when defaults were changed. Changing bearing wall to selecting a wall, not using bearing lines,  etc.

Thought 2026 would be an upgrade, yet seemed to stumble backwards. 

define material tool is there, can you elaborate?

Roof Framing works, 

bearing wall is there:

For bearing you either use a foundation wall set to bearing or a framing member to designate a bearing line. a lil bit different but kind've takes an additional step out.
 

[Renerabbitt]

33 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Not able to change material properties. No more watermark. Hopefully they have fixed how roof framing wouldn't change when defaults were changed. Changing bearing wall to selecting a wall, not using bearing lines,  etc.

Thought 2026 would be an upgrade, yet seemed to stumble backwards. 

if you want to join:

 

 

[Rookie65]

No properties tab now. I thought I saw an update that they did fix the roof. Bearing was easier the other way, I think 

[Rookie65]

Not this time,  thank you 

[Rookie65]

Try making a screen that isn't one of their pre-loaded materials. Used to be able to set to your preferences, now it's only dark black and a lousy pattern. I've gone through a few of these things with support 

[Rookie65]

Look at the siding pattern you show. Used to be able to change exposure in the properties box.

[Renerabbitt]

2 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Look at the siding pattern you show. Used to be able to change exposure in the properties box.

Im not following, these aren't terms I am familiar with, properties panel? of a dialog box?. To my knowledge there is no exposure setting on a material. Making a screen? such as a porch screen? What "pattern" are you referring to?
i was able to make a screen material from something i imported:

[Rookie65]

Not all of us have a ton of our own materials. Here in Massachusetts we use a lot of vinyl siding, typically from the CertainTeed catalog. They would default at a 5" exposure. That's the spacing between the siding edges. Mostly it's used at a 4" exposure  and we could change it in the properties tab.  Look at HDP 2025 for reference 

[Rookie65]

There used to be a screen material that looked like insect screen for porches, etc. You could change the color, emissivity, and obscurity to make it look realistic. I've asked Chief before if they have any actual contractors that work there to give some insight into actual building, yet never got a response. 

[Renerabbitt]

3 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

Not all of us have a ton of our own materials. Here in Massachusetts we use a lot of vinyl siding, typically from the CertainTeed catalog. They would default at a 5" exposure. That's the spacing between the siding edges. Mostly it's used at a 4" exposure  and we could change it in the properties tab.  Look at HDP 2025 for reference 

Ah okay you were referring to brightness and shininess, and I can understand why they got rid of those settings as those settings don't directly correlate with the relevant setting that have to do with raytracing which is the new feature in the home designer line. So whereas you could directly effect those settings before, you cannot now. Instead you get access to the larger set of catalogs that do incorporate bump and normal maps even though you dont have direct access to them. And in order to take advantage of something that is shiny, you have to start creating a material from a material that is already classified as shiny. Also, you have access to the asset manager now, which gives you access to a large number of textures. 
For instance you can make a siding material that is actually glowing, haha

So you actually have a lot more capabilities in materials albeit you lost the ability to change shininess and brightness...which i get, and too bad, but you can start from a material that is already glossy for example

I'd be curious to see what people come up with as they navigate all of the raytrace materials
 

[Rookie65]

It's also transparency. As for the siding comment you quoted, that has nothing to do with shining or brightness. Raytracing likely doesn't matter when you just want to be able to adjust the difference between the horizontal lines in elevation drawings. 

[Renerabbitt]

19 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

It's also transparency. As for the siding comment you quoted, that has nothing to do with shining or brightness. Raytracing likely doesn't matter when you just want to be able to adjust the difference between the horizontal lines in elevation drawings. 

regarding spacing, that is done from the texture panel of the material dialog box and you still have the ability to change that

vector based rendering techniques would show pattern spacing and thats still available from the pattern panel

Edited 3 hours ago by Renerabbitt

[Rookie65]

If you don't know what the multiplier is to get to that number, then you're just guessing. 

[Renerabbitt]

27 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

If you don't know what the multiplier is to get to that number, then you're just guessing. 

No guessing necessary, for raster based images, its the number of planks in the preview window which shows the diffuse texture, in this case 4, then multiplied by the size of the plank, in your case 5", making it 20" for the texture I have shown

for vector based graphics, we just need to specify the grid spacing at 5" and a vertical offset if necessary, then check keep pattern and texture in sync