CarrieS

When you define the wall type you have to pay attention to the structural layers vs the finish layers. If you look in the wall type definition dialog you'll see a layer table that has headings of "Exterior Layers" "Main Layers" "Interior Layers" the main layers are the structural layers and the foundation typically aligns to the exterior side of that layer. This article outlines this in more detail: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00382/defining-a-wall-type-in-home-designer.html

You're right it does create an elevation spline. Elevation data needs to have contrasting information. if there is only one piece of elevation data it will always be flat. You'll need 2 pieces. If the majority of the lot is flat and you're jest adding a couple of mounds I would create a flat region that bends around the mounds at a lower elevation than that specified in the mounds.

You could take a kidney shaped garden bed and convert it to an elevation region using the Convert Polyline tool (its on the Edit Toolbar when you have a qualifying object selected).

@RecoveringArchA lot can be accomplished with Home Designer terrain but it can be a bit tricky at times. Do you have some pictures of what you're trying to do? I could give some insight as to if it is possible to do in Home Designer or some tips to get it done.

If you open the Deck Railing Specification is your Wall Type set to use "Deck Railing/Fence"? based on your image it makes me think you'll see something else there. Change it to Deck Railing/Fence and I should resolve.

Generally it is best to copy the plot into the plan with the house as there are less moving pieces to break. Your plot gets shaded in because it has a fill style applied. You're not seeing it in the plot plan because you have color turned off so it is showing up White. I would tackle this by: Selecting the Plot line, the Setback line, and the North Pointer from the Plot plan and clicking "Copy/Paste" Go into the Main House plan and click Edit> Paste> Paste (you can remove the fill style if you want to by opening the items and setting the Fill Stile to None on the Fill Style Panel) Move the lines into place Go into Edit> Default Settings> CAD> General CAD and set it to use Quadrant Bearing and Decimal Feet Go to Tools> Display Options, find the "CAD, Default" layer and set the Text Style to Plot Plan Text Style. Hope this helps!

Depends a bit on how you added the piers in plan. The Material List will only show what you have in the project. Did you build the foundation with piers? Did you add piers manually as shapes after the fact?

If you just want to view the plans. We do have a Chief Architect Viewer program that you can use to open the files. You can request the viewer here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/resources/viewerrequest.php If you are using Project Management in Home Designer 2026 you'll want to export your projects so that the viewer can open them. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-03212/exporting-projects-and-disconnected-files.html

Hi Kent, I'm sorry to hear that you wont be continuing with Home Designer 2026 but I can understand. Unfortunately, files are not backward compatible so you wont be able to just open the 2026 plan in 2025. Probably the best path forward for you would be to open an earlier version of the plan. One that wasn't saved in 2026 and recreate the changes since that point. Archives can be found in your documents folder. When you first imported the plan into 2026 it would have created a copy of the 2025 version into your Home Designer 2026 Data/Archives folder. If you go in there and look for the first archive of your file it should be the latest 2025 version before being converted to a 2026 version. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00099/accessing-your-archive-files.html Carrie

We've encountered and fixed similar scenarios in the past. If you are using an older version it might still have some behavior that has been fixed in later versions. If you are on a newer version you should send an example into Technical Support so we can report the problem to our developers. If you are on an older version it is likely you will need to patch it with a box shape as previously suggested. Carrie

It sounds like you might have turned off Temporary Dimensions. Click View> Temporary Dimensions I think the hotkey for Temporary Dimensions is "T" so it is quite easy to accidentally turn it off.

The link your provided appears to be broken so I'm going to be guessing a bit here. What version of Home Designer are you using? If you have one of the newer versions (2026/2027) or Home Designer Pro you might be able to achieve what you're looking for using the techniques in this article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01958/creating-an-arched-parapet-wall.html You wont be able to do the curved roof plane that the article shows (It's a Chief Architect article) but if you're just going to have multiple elevations or a gable, using multiple roof planes would work for controlling the wall heights quickly If you need the curve you could have multiple roof planes like this article shows: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01187/creating-a-barrel-roof-in-home-designer.html Another technique you might use is to break the wall polylines and adjust the wall edge manually, which is sometimes faster sometimes slower depending on the shape. If you use the roof planes though you can use them for creating finished edges instead of leaving raw framing exposed. Hope this helps!

Did you try right clicking on the file in the project browser?

Hi @Browneye The Cantilever underside only applies if your room overhangs the lower floor. You don't need to really worry about it unless you have that scenario. Though looking closer at it, we don't model actual geometry for that underside surface so it isn't included in the Material List. Carrie

Hi @KTBuilder Home Designer does not have the ability to tell a layout box to look at a different plan. You will need to delete the view from the layout page and send the view again from the new plan.

Perhaps these tutorials will help? https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01020/creating-multiple-shed-roofs.html https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00359/automatically-building-the-basic-roof-styles.html https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/videos/watch/2237/automatic-roofs.html

This article covers the Automatic Trusses of newer versions as well as Manual Trusses from earlier versions. Hope this helps! https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00981/creating-roof-trusses.html

As Rene mentioned the right elevation doesn't match the front so I can't make it "match" what you want but here's what I came up with using some manual manipulation.

I typically create a pie shaped stairwell. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00125/creating-moving-and-deleting-stairwells.html

It looks like something about this particular scenario prevents the "Match Roof" setting from detecting the roof slope. Placing a window in one of the outside walls, setting it to "Match Roof" and then copying it to the desired location would work since the pitches are the same. Or manually typing in the desired left and right heights in the Window Specification> Shape panel would also work. When you encounter scenarios like this, where it appears you've done everything correctly but the software is not working as expected don't forget that we have a Technical Support Team willing to help. They have a direct line to our developers and can report anomalous behavior so we can improve the software. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/ https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00717/using-the-technical-support-center.html Carrie

I'm not entirely certain what you're asking, but if the question is "how to control the material under the cantilevered area?" You can control what material displays on the underside by opening the Room Specification for the upper floor room and going to the Materials panel.

An easier way to do this in Home Designer Pro would be to: 1. Turn on the Origin Indicator for plan views (Preferences> Coordinate System) 2. Use the Edit Area All Floors tool to group select everything (Edit> Edit Area> Edit Area (All Floors)) 3. Use the Point to Point Move tool to pick a point in your selection to move to the Origin. This article outlines the part about Edit Area: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-03124/troubleshooting-origin-error-messages.html This article was created for Chief Architect but we have the Point to Point Move tool in Home Designer Pro. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00734/using-the-point-to-point-move-tool.html You'll still want to inspect your plan for anomalies since there are a lot of interactions between structural elements, but you shouldn't have many with this process. Carrie

Retaining walls typically slope with the terrain around them. This article's main image shows an example of this: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00990/creating-a-retaining-wall.html If you need to make the wall slope differently than the terrain, you could use the wall polyline to change the shape of the retaining wall if you have Home Designer Pro, like we show in this article: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01809/creating-a-stepped-foundation.html Carrie

Hi, That definitely seems like odd behavior. If you could send the plan with the problem into our Technical Support Center, we'd love to take a closer look for you. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00717/using-the-technical-support-center.html Carrie

We have updated Home Designer 2025 to resolve this without downloading the certificate manually. If you have a Home Designer 2025 product and updating to the latest version doesn't resolve it for you please give Technical Support a call. Thanks!