Manually Installing Core Catalogs for Home Designer

QUESTION

I am unable to download the Core Catalog files for my Home Designer 2026 or 2027 software. How can I manually install them?   

ANSWER

If you continuously encounter an error when downloading the Core Catalogs while in your Home Designer program, you may need to follow the steps below to download the necessary library files to your computer and install them manually.

To download the necessary library files

1. One-by-one, right-click the following links and choose Save link as (or the appropriate counterpart for your web browser) to save the file to an easy to access location, such as to a new folder on your Desktop. 
   
   

   Note: You must be signed in to your Chief Architect online account to save/download the library files linked in this resource. 

   
   
2. Download and save these Core Libraries for Home Designer 2027:
   
   
   • CoreBackdrops.calib
   • CoreMaterials.calib
   • CorePatterns.calib
     
   • CoreShapes.calib
   • HDPACoreArchitectural.calib
   • HDPACoreMEP.calib
   • HDPAICoreInteriors.calib
   • HDPALCoreExteriors.calib
   • HDPALCorePlants.calib
     
   
   

Click here to go to the Core Libraries for Home Designer 2026.

To install the Core Catalogs

1. Open the Home Designer program if it's not already open. 
   
   
   
2. Navigate to Library> Import Library from the menu. 
   
   
   
3. In the Import Library Data dialog that opens, select the first catalog listed, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, select the last catalog listed to group select all of the files, then click Open. 
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once complete, an Information dialog will display stating "The Library Import has completed successfully. [NUMBER] items have been imported." Click OK.