All Activity

I drew the plans initially about five years ago. I remember having to use some tricks with invisible walls to get the roof how I wanted it which explains the over the deck without any support but I don't remember how precisely the roof over the bay window was achieved. We built the house during Covid and did without a lot of things we wanted due to material and labor shortages; so now, we're doing an addition/renovation to get to the house of our dreams. Knocking out the bay window and adding onto the MBR is part of that. I don't need the drawing to be precise, I'm just trying to get something that I can present to the HOA.

How did you "draw" your roof lines to begin with?

Try going up a floor? I'd be more worried about that roof to the left of that over the deck.

Thanks, but the roof doesn't show up on the floor plan and I've removed all the walls on each plane.

Our next contest is Kitchen, Bath and Interiors! Share one of your designs for a chance to win Chief Gear. Use any Chief Architect software product to create your original design. You have the chance to win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in this contest. Discover how to enter and more through our blog: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/blog/design-contest/ The entry deadline is October 14.

If they show up in the floor plan view, you should be able to delete each plane. I don't know what Suite will let you make for changes

The results are in! Congratulations to our 3 winners in the Remodel/Addition Design Contest. 1st Place – Prayer Sanders 2nd Place – Jorge Arreola of Greymark Construction Co. 3rd Place – Pam Barrientos of Golden Rule Builders View all of the great submissions: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=ChiefArchitect&set=a.1451867990310680 We enjoyed viewing everyone’s design and want to thank you all for sharing with us and our community! Varying prize packages will be awarded.

I have a bay window that I want to remove from my plan. The bay window has a roof over it. I've removed all of the walls for the bay window (even the foundation), but the roof over it remains. Is there any way to remove this roof other than using "Auto Rebuild Roofs" which will remove the bay window roof but messes up all kinds of other roof lines in the process. I'm using Home Designer Suite 2022 - Build 23.4.1.8x64 - April 21, 2022

if that is case then they need a file cleaner aka soemthing to delete the junk not used.

Sounds like you need the big brother Chief Architect Professional version - not, Home Designer. As a DYI use version - 5 pages are great. (Plus '0') It used to be 1 page. 1 big page. Happy printing.

Ohh, that's a bit harsh isn't it? True the elevation points have their interoperability issues (spikes etc.) - However I have been told by Support to use the elevation lines for better results. The terrain tools are a bit fussy imo and one would expect these glitches to be fixed. Before a new release happens. Or, get CA to demo the tool at a working level - not a sales level. (I have had paid one-on-one CA training) Remembering that Home Designer is marketed to DYI - not Professional use.(According to Website) Happy terraining!

I created a 15 page layout similar to how Rookie65 describes. It's not fun, but doable. just create 3 separate layouts (1-5 perspective and elevations) (6-10 Floor Plans, Framing Plans etc) (11-15 Kitchen and Bath renderings or elevations, anything else you want) Export said layouts to 3 separate .pdf's Take 3 said separate .pdf's and merge them using Adobe Pro or one of many 3rd party applications There you have a 15 page Layout in Home Designer

Of 145 .plan files currently in my reserve, the largest is 46mb and the smallest is around 5.5mb. because of meta data, it isn't necessarily how much detail is in the plan or how many items per se', as it is how cleanly was it drawn. If you have revised the same plan 15 times, even if nothing was added (just moving cabinets and walls) all that data is still saved into your file, therefore making it a much larger file than your first revision. It is my impression that behind the scenes, the software operates as such: (not exactly, but you get the idea) draw exterior wall wall is 120" in length wall is 96" high wall materials are XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXXX delete wall note wall was deleted undo redraw wall draw exterior wall wall is 86" in length wall is 96" high wall materials are XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXXX because we have the "UNDO" function, the software essentially will note every single click you make, BUT Undoing or Deleting doesn't make information disappear (if anything it will add MORE information) it is still embedded in the file, therefore making it larger. OR AT LEAST ... that's my take on how the software works.

In my opinion, terrain controls in HD are dismal. I usually have to manually enter elevation data points (sometimes over 200 for the type of map you've shown) and even then it doesnt slope/level correctly and I also get distorted geometery and spikes. What youre asking for there, is way beyond this softwares capability. You'll also reach a point where the software is "unable" to calculate the terrain data, and EVERY change you make will result in a pop-up saying "Interopolating/calculating terrain" for about 15 seconds. (even if you just change the colour of something, and regardless of your PC specifications.

New user here. Summary When attempting to model a multi-tiered retaining wall system on a steep 30° slope (base elevation around 7110') in Home Designer, the software overrides manual elevation and height controls for both walls. Additionally, attempting to level the area between the walls creates unintended conical terrain anomalies, and existing contour lines cannot be properly broken or modified to integrate with the new wall structures. Detailed Symptoms & Technical Challenges Loss of Wall Elevation Control: The software automatically snaps or assigns wall heights and top/bottom elevations rather than respecting the desired 7110' baseline and intended wall dimensions. Secondary walls placed 5 feet away and designed to be 10 feet high do not maintain correct relative positioning or height parameters. Terrain Deformation (Coning): Using terrain modification tools (such as terrain leveling or flat regions) between the two retaining walls results in distorted geometry (a "cone" effect with erratic elevation points). Contour Line Conflicts: Pre-existing contour lines intersect the newly placed retaining walls incorrectly. Attempts to break, edit, or disconnect the contour lines to resolve the conflict have been unsuccessful. Desired Outcome Successfully place and control the exact top and bottom elevations of a tiered retaining wall system on a 30° slope, create a stable and flat level bench between the walls without terrain distortion, and properly manage contour lines so the terrain accurately reflects the proposed design. Any guidance would be really appreciated. Thanks! This is the actual drawing I am trying to get into Home Designer. At least reasonable close :-)

Fortunately for me, I realized I did want all 3 of the lower corners higher and I was able to lay out the sails in a way I like.

I came up with an arrangement with the provided shapes that I like; no rotating necessary.

I tried importing the newer versions without luck

thank you both, I’v gotten a little further with this. Someone pointed out the library and although it only lists versions for 2023 and later I was able to use the 2023 version in my 2019 software. Using the kite version of the sail in that library I was able to get something resembling what I want into the design. It’s not perfect but it was good enough to be able to define the post locations. I don’t think rotating the sail will do what I need. With the library I’m working with you can pick from a few different versions of rectangular sails and then adjust the “height” so the shape of the sail is set by your choice out of the library and the height setting which basically adjusts the difference between the highest and lowest point of the sail. Here are some snippets from where I’m at now. I have two identical sails both connected to the same high point on the house which is the correct point where I actually want it. Going straight out from that connecting point the corners of the two sails connect together to a cable that goes out to a post at the property line. That single post is at the vector of if each sail had its own post straight out from a line drawn through the center of each sail to the corners opposite of these corners. Each sail has its own post at the property line for the other far corner. The rear sail has a mounting point into the poured concrete between the 1st and 2nd floor. The front sail has a post at the front corner of the garage. I want the 2nd corner of each sail next to the house to be higher. The correct attachment points are there in the design now. If I were to rotate the sail to get the corner there I would end up with one of the other corners out of place. I don’t think this can be done without being able to select a corner of the model and adjust the shape of the sail. Maybe this is a feature in one of the later versions of the library?

I know if you open any of the Elevation views, one can rotate objects looking at them. So how you place camera matters. Select it by clicking with mouse and you get the EDIT doohickeys. Grab the triangle one and you can rotate things in that view which then carry over to the model. I did it once to make a satellite dish from a 3d shape. See screen shot below - just a random thing I did to show you. So may take looking at object and thinking of your end result. Would be nice if the program had rotate objects about XYZ axis but this works just takes practice to get your end result.

Have a look at this discussion; There are numerous other discussions and library items. Jeff.

Solved the issue myself. The problem was the video driver. Even though updates were telling me that I had the latest and best driver, this was not the case. I went to NVIDIA and manually downloaded the latest driver. The black screen and what I thought were arrows that I saw, was part of an NVIDIA backdrop. Once I installed new driver, everything was fine.

As far as I've found the shape you select to start with is the shape you get. No matter the shape you choose you only get to adjust the height of the object and the height of either the top or bottom in relation to ground so you can adjust a single angle but that's it. So I can almost get the 1st sail the way I want but not quite. I'd like the front corner next to the house to be higher.

and I should say property line instead of fence. In real life there is a fence. In the design there's just the property line. Either way the ideal is to keep the poles out of the way. I'm intending to go with 5" schedule 40 steel set with cement in a 12"x4 foot drilled hole