TominOhio

I’m having an issue with a material list in Home Designer Architectural 2019. I have an existing house design that has lap siding on the exterior. I would like to look at the possibility of changing it to a brick exterior. When I drew the initial layout of our house, I had the default set at Siding-6. I changed the exterior of the house by going to the library and selecting the brick I wanted to use. I made sure the material painter for the entire plan was selected and clicked on an exterior wall in perspective view. All the exterior walls were changed to the brick I selected, which is what I would expect. When I generated a materials list from the plan view (“Calculate materials for all floors”), the siding shows as lap siding, not brick. According to the reference manual, “A Materials List is like a snapshot of the current plan at the time that the list is made” (pg 586). I fully expected to see the brick show up in the materials list, but instead the lap siding still shows. I know if I start with brick as the default material, brick will show up in the materials list, but this would require me to redraw the entire house outline with correct dimensions again. My question is: What is the best way to get the materials list to show the exterior material in the plan at the time the list is generated? Thanks, Tom

Eric, Thanks very much! My that was an easy one - I never thought about putting a second door in and just swinging it the other way. I appreciate your quick response. Tom

In Home Designer Architectural, is it possible to add a storm/screen door as a second door on an exterior entrance in addition to the entrance door? I would like to have a storm door opening out and the main door opening into the house. This is not a must-have for me, but it would be nice if I could add it. Thanks. Tom

David, I downloaded it from Chief Architect's 3D Library. When I download a file, my WinZip opens and asks if I want to save the file or unzip it. I was unzipping it, which didn't work. When I just saved it and then imported it using the Library\Import Library command, it worked fine. Problem solved. Thanks for your response. Tom

Well, I figured out my problem. I was unzipping the file before importing it to HDA. When I downloaded and saved the file and then imported it to the HDA library, everything worked fine.

I have had success downloading additional 3D content from various sites on the internet. Recently I downloaded some files from the 3D Library (specifically, from DalTile). After I imported the file into the Home Designer Architectural library, I received a message that 1317 items were successfully imported. However, when I open up the DalTile file in the library (e.g. , DalTile\Ceramic\Brixton), I get a listing of the different tiles with each one indicating the texture is missing. I was able to import other files successfully without getting the “Texture Missing” note, but this has happened on a couple of files I imported lately. Is there a step that typically causes the “Texture Missing” note that I have failed to do? I'm hoping someone can just say, "You get that message when you ..." (fingers crossed).

JoAnn, thank you very much. In the knowledge base, I found a great article on how to modify materials - specifically how to rotate them. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00863/rotating-the-direction-of-a-material.html) There are a lot of other aspects of a given material that can be changed. I didn't know we had that much flexibility on the materials. This is great and it opens up all sorts of possibilities. I'm glad you steered me to the knowledge base. Thanks again. Tom

I am using HD Architectural 2019 and am interested in what determines the direction of planking in interior wood flooring. I have scoured the videos, reference manual, and user guide and haven't found any information on this. When I select wood flooring as the floor material in my design, it applies an east-west direction of the wood planks and I would like the orientation to be north-south. Is this something that can be changed in HD Architectural? If it cannot be changed in Architectural, is this feature offered in HD Pro? Thanks in advance for any help.

Thank you JoAnn.

David, I realize some of the steps you took to make the roof joists can probably only be done in HD Pro. However, I am wondering if once the roof joists are present (i.e., roof built), it is possible to expose the roof joists in HD Architectural by simply unchecking “Ceiling surfaces”? Or is this a feature that is limited to HD Pro? I have roof joists shown in the “Framing overview” view of my house but unchecking “Ceiling surfaces” doesn’t expose the joists when I use a full camera within a room. I want to know if I need to dig deeper to find out why it isn’t doing what I want it to do or if I can stop beating myself up because it isn’t offered in Architectural. You mentioned in your video that there are several reasons why one might not be able to see joists in a plan when unchecking the “Ceiling surfaces”. Where would I find such a list? So that there is no ambiguity with what I am looking for, my questions are: 1. In HD Architectural, can I expose roof joists by simply unchecking “Ceiling surfaces”? 2. Is there a list (or logic flow chart) that shows what would override one’s ability to see roof joists (assuming they are present) by unchecking “Ceiling surfaces”? Thanks, Tom

David, I am sorry you spent so much time trying to replicate my problem with the new garage. I should have made it clearer I was having trouble in the old garage. I thought I was doing something wrong with generating the wall that didn't completely cover the wall behind it. I can certainly work with the soffit to fix it. Thanks for your good insights and suggestion. Tom

So sorry! I posted the wrong format. I hope this one works... Den floor elevation issue.plan Tom

I am modeling our raised ranch home using Home Designer Architectural 2019. I am having some difficulties with room elevations that I’m hoping someone can help me with. The original home had a single car garage on the south side of the house as shown in the plan view in the first screenshot. When I drew this original house outline, all the walls shown were drawn as exterior walls. I believe the elevation of the original garage (on a slab) was about 24” below that of the main floor of the house. This shows up correctly in the camera view of the original garage before I made any modifications (second screenshot). With the original garage, there was a step down from the landing to the garage floor. The original house was modified by converting the original garage into a den and adding a new 2-car garage next to the original garage as shown in the plan view in the third screenshot. When the original garage was converted to a den, the step between the landing and the garage floor was removed and stringers were placed on the slab (I believe they were 2x6s laid on edge) to support the new subfloor and floor that would be added. The finished den floor is currently 19” below that of the main floor of the house. The current configuration is as follows: there is a landing leading to the den with an elevation drop of 10” from the main house floor level. Then there is a 9” step down from the landing to the den. This is shown in the fourth screenshot. It seems I should keep the room specification of the new den as “Garage” or “Slab” so the program knows to keep this room sunken relative to the main house? If I change the room type to “Office”, for example, Home Designer changes this room to one that has a full basement, and the floor is at 0” (same as main house). I wanted to change the north interior wall of the den (original garage) to drywall, but because a portion of this wall is still an exterior wall of the house, I had to break the wall as shown in the fifth screenshot. Then I changed the north wall of the den to drywall. I assume this didn’t have any negative effect on getting the floor elevation right. On the “Room Specification” page, under “Structure”, I’m not quite sure what I should enter for the “Floor Finish” value. The room has a 90” finished ceiling height relative to the finished floor in this room. The absolute finished ceiling height should be 71”. I feel like I may have gotten myself all twisted up by changing some of the values on the “Structures” page. I changed the relative finished ceiling height to 90” and removed the garage door. As you can see in the sixth screenshot, part of the stem wall is showing at the base of the den wall (at least I think that’s what it is). When I try to add base molding to this room, it shows up on every wall except where the concrete is showing at the base of the north wall (screenshot #7). Clearly, I have done something wrong. I’m looking for any help to get this room right. For the values I want, what should I change on the “Structures” page? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Have I made this harder than it actually is? Den Floor Issue.dxf

The ceilings look fine. However, when I add lights in the plan view, the lights are floating in 3D. I recall seeing a thread about how to add lights to a soffit for the top of a cabinet, but I haven't been able to find it recently. Could someone please head me in the right direction or suggest a way I can add recessed lights in these cathedral ceilings? Thank you. Also, I wanted to let Eric know I updated my signature and turned it on. Thanks for your suggestions on the Help System. I have been watching videos and reading the articles for hours. I'm afraid I know just enough to be dangerous. If I want to add screenshots in a post, what is the best way to do that after I have the screenshot saved on my computer?

I should have said that I tried to use the Edit Area tool, but it didn't work.

RobinD, did you ever have any success copying an entire room from one file to another? I am using Home Designer Architectural 2019 and haven’t figured out how to do this yet. Any help would be appreciated.

DavidJPotter, Thank you for taking the time to put together the great video. That was exactly what I was looking for. Your help is very much appreciated!

In Home Designer Architectural, is there a way to make two side-by-side rooms, each with its own cathedral ceiling, under a single roof?