Silversprings

Eric and Dave, You sent me down the right track. I found a HD Pro training video regarding creating a custom template .PLAN file and saving it in the \Templates sub-folder under the Home Designer Pro 2015 Data folder. The idea, as you probably well know, is to create an empty .PLAN file that contains all the my customizations and new defaults including new Wall Types. To use this template, I would start HD Pro, select Open Plan, navigate to the \Templates sub-folder and select my custom template .PLAN file. The video also recommended immediately saving my plan under a new name to avoid adding drawing content or changing any of my new default and/or custome settings. I wanted to see if I could add my new Template to the drop down list of standard templates. I played around a bit more in the \Templates sub-folder and opened the “Home Style Templates.DAT” file with Windows Notepad. This file is a flat text file with rows of info corresponding to each of the eight Home Style Template choices. There are four fields in each row separated by semicolons. Each row contains 1) the file name for each template.PLAN file, 2) the drop down menu listing for this template entry, 3) a .JPG file containing the image that displays to the right, and 4)a blurb of text that briefly displays describing the style template. I created a LogCabin1.PLAN template file that contained my custom wall type definitions. I stashed this file in the \Templates sub-folder. I added the following line as a new entry in the “Home Style Templates.DAT” file: LogCabin1.plan;Log Cabin 1;Null.jpg;Log Cabin 1 - Log cabin with 8, 10, and 12 inch log walls. Now when I start up HD Pro and select New Plan, I get the Choose Template dialog box. My “Log Cabin 1” new template shows up in the drop down box under “Home Style Templates”, and when I cursor down to it, I see my description blurb show up at the bottom. When I select OK, HD Pro opens and I can see my customized wall types. I don’t think I screwed up anything, but kept a copy of the original .DAT file just in case. Hope this info helps others. Thanks again for getting me pointed in the right direction. John

Eric and Dave, Thanks for the response. I've done a word search through PDF copies of the User Guide and Reference manual for 'template'. The references I find discuss selecting one of the canned templates when you initially start a new plan. There are also references to templates in discussing layouts for printing. But I didn't find any mention of how to create a new template that would show up as an additional item in the list of Home Style Templates (e.g. Default Style, American Casual, etc.) Looking at the files in the Templates folder, I can see a scheme that includes .DAT and .PLAN files with content that corresponds to the Choose Template dialog. So I suppose I can manually add entries to the DAT files, but I'm not sure if that's what you both were suggesting. I suppose I could create and save a 'CabinDefault.Plan;' file setup with my custom wall types and whatnot. Whenever I would want to create a new Cabin plan, I could Open this Plan but immediately save it with a new name. Let me know what I'm missing. Thanks for your time!

I would like to create a custom wall type and save it for use with new project plans. I need to create a log cabin wall type and have determined how to do so, but according to everything I've read, the custom wall type is only saved with the current plan. Is there a way I can create a wall type and then have it be available when I start a new plan without having to re-create the wall type? Thanks! John