Home Designer Architectural

Using the product to remodel and expand a 1940s era home. The training videos are really well done and are absolutely helpful in becoming familiar with all of the various things one can do with this awesome planning tool. I am really having fun both learning the tool and creating meaningful plans for my vision for our house. A++ in my book.

First of all it takes quite some time and effort to learn. I would say there is very little that is intuitive. You get a lot of fluff options such as kitchen gadgets and light fixtures. However REAL features such as two different roof pitches is not possible. You also cannot change defaults on roof types. I hope you want a hip roof because that is the only default roof there is. Again really? a simple gable roof is not a choice as default auto build roof? I made the mistake of buying this twice, learn from my experience, and dont buy once.

Software works great but of course you have to purchase the highest version of the product to be able to really do any customization to the roofs. If you want to work on anything other than a very basic plan this product isnt for you unless you willing to pay for the $500 version of the software.

Were remodeling or home now since all of our kids have left the nest. My wife has a hard time visualizing our concept and I have a strong CAD background- this was a perfect software package for us. I modeled our home with great accuracy which will benefit us moving forward. I downloaded many optional catalogs which allowed me to provide conceptual layouts for both my wife and our contractor. I can easily print material lists for the entire project or separate rooms for reference. I have great faith that our project will turn out exactly as we hope because this software made our project come to life on our computer screen.

Chief Architect Home Designer packages are great, started with most economical package and then upgraded to next level. Easy to use and you can just layout your fantasy homes or work on serious designs and remolding. Now retired I enjoy drawing with it and it won’t break the bank like some drawing packages.

Crashed my computer

My husband loved the older version (a few years ago) because it used words; the newer versions use unintelligible pictures and he is at a loss as to how to decipher them, so he gave up on this $200 program and went back to the older one.

I have had program for 5 months. It is difficult to change a plan once you start it. If you spend considerable time on a house plan but then want to modify it such as change terrain, modify walls, delete a basement etc it is a very cumbersome process and often easier to start over. Modifying stair riser height is not available so matching stairs to lofts is difficult. Having said that there are many great features in the program.

I have used AutoCAD for several years at work and it is over priced & can be not user friendly from time to time. Im retired now & wanted something to design houses. I couldnt believe how many features this software has for the price. Plus the help files & videos do a good job providing the inexperienced cad designer with good software instructions.

Overall, I really like this software. For the money, it is a bargain. The one thing that you should do is be prepared for a bit of a learning curve...itll likely take a few hours of studying, primarily watching videos to get started. Additionally, make sure your computer meets at least the minimum requirements to run the program.