Home Designer Suite

I love it! But, patience is a must! You are not going to hammer out a house plan in a week, unless your a professional. Which I am not.

Easy to use, easy to learn, shows the materials list, changes to design are easy, it is a fantastic program

Tried buying this again, assuming/hoping it would now be the up-to-date version. But, alas, no. It was the 2021 version again. And, it doesnt matter if you buy this as a download or on a USB stick; itll be the 2021 version either way.

A lot of reviewers had or have concerns about the steep learning curve of Home Designer software. I didnt. Yes I would have liked to see a more basic training video as the current one starts off fast. However, like all programs of this type you have to work with the various icons to see how they work. Within a couple of hours I had completed the layout of a new addition that I am considering. Was able to work with dimensions, moving walls, labeling, put on various door styles and everything that I needed. The information you need is somewhere and usually easy to understand.

After my computer crash I ordered this new version of my 10year old previous Home Designer Suite. Surprised to find very little difference from the old one. Easy to use for on the spot designing, great features, and great value for the price. No complaints but hate the fact that you now have to click an icon to move the design. Great design program for quick, easy layouts.

As the other reviews say, this software is difficult to learn and use. It is more cumbersome than many other softwares, but that is not the reason for the low score. They do offer many videos and step by step guides on how to use and once you get started learning it, it starts to flow easier. You just need more experience in home building to be able to use this. The reason for the lower review is that everything I read said you can install this software on multiple computers at once, which is true. But what they dont tell you until after you buy it, is that while you can INSTALL it, you can only activate it on one computer at a time. Every time you want to use it on another computer, you have to deactivate the key and activate it on the other computer. If you want to use the software on 2 computers without deactivating, you have to have another key, which will cost you another $100. But no where in their advertising does it say this.

I received the product about two weeks ago to begin designing a house. First, I have no design software experience as I only surf the internet and use Microsoft Windows /Excel/PowerPoint from time to time.

I have been looking around for months for a decent program for design work for a home remodel. This program does a fairly decent job of that with some small exceptions. One thing some of the other programs I have tried out allow for locking of dimensions so you can set the length of a wall and have it keep that length when you add in other sections to build out a room. This one I have been unable to find any such feature so each time you add in something it would keep altering all the other dimensions around it to different sizes. While I can see it as a good thing to auto adjust for sizes, sometime you want a length to remain the size you set it at while you are still adding in additions. The biggest issue I have found was with the library, there are so very few options in there it makes it almost not worth it. Using the browse feature to find new libraries is super cumbersome, they are all broken out into different packages some free but most have a fee which ranges from low to high. Within those extra libraries though, you only get 5-8 objects where 1 is good and all the rest are just trash objects. These really should be modified to just get all of them for X price, or categories where you get everything for X price instead of Bathroom 1, bathroom 2, bathroom fixtures... etc. Trying to find a particular item in the catalogs is next to impossible and is either not available or buried inside something else. Then when you find the one you need, every time it is only available in the more costly version and not available in this version. Kind of poor setup for consumers since most people dont need the bells and whistles the more costly ones have because we arent architects, and if you get the cheaper version you cannot even buy the additional catalogs.

Not as user friendly as an older model that I used.

I dont like giving negative reviews, but I was very disappointed in this product. I am a homeowner doing a remodel that requires submitting drawings to my HOA for review and approval. Im using a bunch of Anderson windows and Chief Architect doesnt tell you that you only have access to the Anderson window library in the premium product about 5 times more expensive. The windows in the library for this product cannot be modified to match the Anderson window profiles and have oversized frames for some types. I contacted their customer service and all they did was quote me list price for their better programs, and a rental for a level that still doesnt have access to the library that I need (Anderson). Bottom line for me: lost time and money with no usable drawings.