In addition to all the great features found in Home Designer Architectural, Home Designer Professional includes several manual building tools and layout tools to create detailed construction drawings. Consider these added features:

Manual Framing Tools
Home Designer Pro automatically generates fully editable framing including joists, rafters, trusses, beams, posts, and more. Choose from multiple framing types such as lumber, steel, or engineered materials.

Manual Roof Tools
You can start with an automatic roof, then customize it to suit your needs or start from scratch and draw your own manual roof planes.

Manual Ceiling Planes
Ceilings are automatic in Home Designer. You can also draw your own custom ceiling planes for specialized designs.

Layout Sheets
Create scaled blueprint‑style layouts with 3D, CAD, cross‑section/elevation, and plan views.

Advanced Stair Tools
Home Designer Pro unlocks full control of your straight or curved staircase's shape, starter tread, tread width, and more.

Customize Wall Construction Methods
Customize the construction of walls, floor structures, platform heights, mudsills, framing, and more.

Advanced Cabinet Tools
Create horizontal and vertical layouts for doors, drawers, and appliances on any cabinet. Create entertainment centers and vanity cabinets with doors on one side and drawers on the other. Place objects and lighting inside of your cabinets and define multiple styles for doors, drawers, and hardware.

Cross-Section and Back-Clipped Cross Section Views
Create relevant details of the interior or exterior of your design for precise plan editing.

Advanced CAD Tools
Detail cross‑section views with insulation, cross‑boxes, blocking boxes, and more.

Advanced Dimensioning Tools
Includes angular and point‑to‑point dimensioning tools. Adjust your settings to quickly dimension to specific objects and locations.

Save Snapshot Materials Lists
Save snapshots of your materials list at different stages of the project to evaluate and compare cost differences. Add detail to each individual component and then store it to your master list for use in future projects.

Convert Polyline Tool
Create 3D objects (such as countertops, slabs, terrain features, and more) from 2D CAD shapes.

Custom Watermarks
Create watermarks and display them on your work. Control location, size, angle, and transparency. Add images to your watermark, such as your company logo for better branding.

North Pointer for Sun Angles
Create sun angles with accurate longitude, latitude, date, and time; use the North pointer as a bearing for the sun angle. Use multiple sun angles for different saved cameras.

In addition to all the great features found in Home Designer Suite, consider the following added features when you purchase Home Designer Architectural.

Cross-Sections & Elevations
Create detailed cross‑sections and elevations that include notes and dimensions.

Advanced 3D Rendering Techniques
In addition to Standard, Physically Based, and Glass House rendering techniques, Home Designer Architectural can create artistic views of your designs with Watercolor, Technical Illustration, and Vector techniques.

Record 3D Walkthroughs
Record your walkthroughs in stylized views with various rendering techniques.

Custom Wall Types
Create, copy, or delete wall types and define all the layers that make up their construction. All of your custom‑defined wall components are included in the materials list.

Custom Countertops
Create custom countertops with unique sizes, shapes and waterfall styles.

Custom Backsplash
Click the Custom Backsplash tool to generate a backsplash that automatically fits around cabinets, openings, and appliances.

Deck Designer™
Control the orientation and size of deck planking, including gap, width, overhang, direction, and border planks.

Custom Lighting
Define the shadows and intensity of your lighting. Locate lights by their name or room location in the Adjust Lights dialog.

Auto Place Corner Boards and Quoins
Automatically add or remove trim details to wall corners.

Patterns and Fill Styles
Patterns and fills are integrated into the Library. Apply these fills with the Fill Style Painter.

Import/Export DWG and Collada Files
Home Designer Architectural can import or export AutoCAD DWG and Collada DAE files.

Additional Library Items
An additional 2,300 library items are available to Home Designer Architectural over Home Designer Suite.

Stair and Ramp Tools
The stair and ramp tools support accessible design features that conform to ADA standards.

Design up to Five Levels
Use Home Designer Architectural to create up to five floors, including a basement and an attic level.

Multiple Wall Framing Layers
Create wall types with multiple framing layers and automatically generate framing for both layers; ideal for furred basement walls.

Plant Schedules
Generate a list of all the plants used in your design. Use different schedule callout shapes as reference labels for different plants in the design.

Home Designer Suite is our best‑selling home design software for DIY home enthusiasts. Watch the overview video and see why Home Designer Suite is a top‑selling and top‑rated app on Amazon.

Automated Building Tools
One of the most powerful features in all Home Designer products is accurate automatic building tools consistent with the home building industry. Most home design apps are published by vendors that are not in the housing industry. Home Designer is produced by the creators of Chief Architect; the same software professionals use. Home Designer's Automated Building Tools include:
• Automatic Roofs
Roofs are simple, accurate, and update as you make changes to your design. A variety of roof styles are available with simple step‑by‑step instructions. Roofs frame accurately for every style.
• Automatic Ceilings
Ceilings generate automatically for each room. Home Designer Suite offers several options for creating cathedral, shed, or vaulted ceilings. Ceiling heights can be adjusted easily room‑by‑room.
• Automatic Foundations
Foundations automatically generate with footings and update as the main floor plan changes.
• Automatic Floors
Floors and floor platforms generate automatically and include structural components and floor finishes. Floors can easily be raised or lowered.
• Automatic Framing
Home Designer Suite generates accurate framing automatically as you draw.

Cabinets are Smart Objects
Cabinets automatically conform to common kitchen and bath standards — e.g. when a cabinet is resized from 24" to 36", the door will become a double door. When you place cabinets in a corner, they automatically become corner cabinets. Cabinets are fully customizable with 24 door/drawer styles and can be edited in both 2D and 3D views. There is a wide variety of built‑in islands and pre‑designed kitchens that can be placed directly into your drawing from the Library.

Stairs are Smart Objects
Automatically connect floor‑to‑floor. Stairs have an auto stairwell tool that produces an opening with railing. Add L‑shaped, U‑shaped, and curved stairs with a single click. Customization of stairs allows you to create a variety of styles and options.

Doors & Windows are Smart Objects
When you place a door or window in a wall the program automatically frames that opening accurately — including the header. There are a wide variety of options and shapes that can easily be customized.

Deck Railings Automatically Generate
Auto‑generate the deck framing and roof over a deck. Flexible style options for planks, rails, and panels. Generate a complete materials list.

3D Models and 3D Renderings
3D navigation, rendering, and editing is a clear advantage with Home Designer. You can show reflections, ambient occlusion, and bloom; all of which greatly improve the overall rendering quality. 3D navigation is natural and easy. You can edit in both 3D and 2D simultaneously using a split screen view. See examples in the Home Designer sample gallery.

360° renders can be exported to the Chief Architect Cloud (free) and then viewed or shared with virtual reality goggles such as Google Cardboard.

Export 3D Viewer models to the Chief Architect Cloud (free) and then view on the web, or on your mobile device with virtual reality goggles such as Google Cardboard.