WeebleSue

Has anyone modeled vertical blinds on sliding glass doors? I can add blinds to windows but not doors. Any suggestions? Thanks, Susan HDA 2015

Yours, regarding custom ceiling planes. Sorry, I didn't remember the name of the video and I didn't want to have to lose my post to search for it.

First of all, I am using Home Designer Architectural 2015. Yes, I know, but I lost my job this year and can't afford the upgrade. Second, I have watched and watched and watched the 11:02 video on using moldings instead of soffits (????). I cannot figure out what he's trying to do, and he never shows the crown molding complete in the final room. I cannot use the example file he provided in the post as it was created in a newer version than I have. I watched the tutorial video but it did not answer my question. I have searched and searched the help documents but they are not helpful. OK, so I have a vaulted ceiling that I created using two soffits, as described in the help and manuals. I cannot get the crown molding to show, no matter what I select. Here is what I'm trying to create: Here's what my model shows: Here's the Molding definition of either soffit. I have tried offsets of various heights, from 3" to -3", both from bottom and from top, and still nothing. I pan up to see the top of the soffit, and the molding doesn't appear there either. What am I missing? the help says that if I attach a soffit to a wall, it will take the molding pattern of the wall. These are attached to my room walls where the crown molding definition is set. I have an additional soffit for the beam across the living room and ITS crown molding is showing fine. I have attached a zipped version of my model file. Thank you, Susan SCannonPlan.zip

Well this pretty much ensures I will NOT be upgrading to the 2020 version. No Print Model, then no thanks. I'm using Architect 2014 now. I could upgrade to something newer, but apparently no newer than 2018. I have a couple of years to go before I can build my home, and I'm going to need models I can build to compare and show the hubby. Very sad to hear this. This was one of the best benefits of HDA.

Hey all - HD Architect CAN actually print to STL format!! I don't know why I thought that it didn't. I am SOOO thrilled! 3D printing here I come!!! Now I can print little models of the homes as well! Susan

I have searched the forums but nothing comes up for 3D printing. I have modeled a complicated mountainside terrain in my HDA program, and I'd like to be able to get a 3D printed model of it. I know it will not be big, and I know it won't be exact, but I'd like one anyway. Our local library has just announced that they have 3D printers available for public use! I know that they need an .stl file, and that HDA does not export to this format. I'm hoping someone out there might have some experience in 3D printing, and might offer some suggestions on how I could get my file converted to the .stl format. I have started investigating 3D print software (I already know about Sketchup), but haven't yet found anything that would import, say, a .dwg file and convert that. So, any suggestions? And yes, I'm hopping over to the "Suggestions for future development" forum to add a 3D printer export option to the program! Many thanks, Susan

Solved - "Thanks" does not come close. I couldn't open the other 2 plans as I just have HDA 2015, but now I understand the options for this complicated roof. I figure with the amount of time I've spent on this silly plan, if I put money towards my time, I have probably spent enough to justify the purchase of the Pro version! Fortunately I haven't yet run into another roof plan this difficult so I will hold off for a little bit longer. Gotta save all my pennies to build this monster!!

I use Adobe Acrobat 8, the "primo" PDF generator, and I get very bad results as well. I have a relatively simple ~2500 sq ft home with garage/workshop below - 3 total stories.I have no terrain (I tried using a model with terrain and got bad results, so I removed it thinking that might help. It did not.) I get only 90% of the walls of the 1st (main) floor, 3 small walls of the 2nd, and nothing of the foundation. I don't get all the roof pieces as well. I wonder what Support says about it.

I have a complex terrain that I copy to other plans to see how the structure would fit on that terrain. It is somewhat large and complex, built with many elevation lines. Here's how I am able to do it relatively easily: If you have structure etc. already built, turn off the display of everything except the terrain. I zoom out to see the whole thing, then select the entire terrain, making sure that all of my elevation lines are selected. Then I go down to the bottom toolbar and find the graphic that is a cube, and the tooltip is Make Architectural Block. I select that. This will put your entire terrain into one object that can be copied, moved, turned, etc. I copy from one plan and paste into another. Then in the new plan, select the thing you just pasted. From the bottom toolbar, select "explode architectural block." It is in the same location as the original one - the icons look like the cube is separated. This will paste your individual elevation lines (or points). CAUTION - you WILL have to redraw your terrain perimeter!! This copies ONLY the elevation data. But once you have redrawn your perimeter, you're all set! Good luck, Susan

There are plantation shutters available in the Sketchup 3D Warehouse. Do you know how to download the sketchup files and add them to your library? https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/ Search for "plantation shutter" and you'll find a few options. Here is the help on importing objects into your library: qthelp://chiefarchitect.com.chiefarchitect.architectural/doc/dy2493303.htm Susan

I have modeled terrains of just 5 acres and 10 acres. I used elevation lines spaced 5 ft apart, so that resulted in rather complex terrains - on purpose. I am an IT professional so I have a rather beefy computer and video card. While HD Architectural handles the rendering of the terrain itself okay, once I put a house on it, the rendering goes terribly wonky. And when I use the Perspective Full Overview, the whole terrain starts out as a teeny graphic and I have to zoom WAY in to see it. Even when I reduce the terrain, the initial overview ends up very small for some reason. I contacted HD Customer Service about it, and their response was that with such a large (!) terrain, there wasn't much that can be done. I tried some of the suggestions they gave but nothing helped. I even reduced the size of the terrain down to just about 1 acre, yet still when it renders with a home on it, the rendering just can't seem to handle all that data. So my initial impression of your question, considering the response I got about my 5 or 10 acre lot, is that yes, the lot of 490 acres is very large. I don't know how much Pro can handle more than Arch., but it still might be too much for the program. Good luck, Susan

Good advice - get the basic structure done, add the 2nd story, play with the roof, and THEN detail. At one point I actually did delete the 2nd story and start all over again, but not knowing fully what I was doing, my 2nd try didn't turn out so well either. The result is what you saw there. Eric - I will give this a try. Thanks. Solver - yes, that is what I am trying to do. But HD Architectural does not have manual roofs. Jo Ann and all - All i did was turn the 3D picture around and take another screen shot. I assure you all of the shots of the cottage are of the same exact model without any change in between. I included the model because i figured my explanation and the screen shots might not be sufficient. I guess my biggest question is that when you have this type of roof - whether the porch/deck is there or not, and the 2nd story is meant to have the full gable roof where it reaches down to the 1st floor, but the actual 2nd story footprint is smaller than the 1st story, do you still make the 2nd story external walls right on top of the 1st story external walls? For instance in this other plan, the 2nd story is much smaller than the first. Do i put the external walls of the 2nd story where I've marked in blue? NOTE - This is NOT the same plan as the file or pictures that I posted before! Love you guys! Thanks for the guidance. Susan

Select the railing that is parallel to the house, and make that a gable wall. Voila, gable porch! I just did this on a plan I'm working on right now. | house | | | +-----------+ +----------+ | porch | +---------+ <-- make this a gable wall even though it is a railing. I did this in HDA 2015. Good luck! Susan

This issue is similar to the Multiple Gable issue that was just recently posted. I'm not trying to follow an existing structure but I am trying to duplicate a house plan. That other plan (which I downloaded and tried to follow) did not have a porch or a section with a low pitch. I have spent quite a few hours now trying to straighten out this roof. I have gone through the help and this Forum and have used several of the ideas presented, which has gotten me this far. But I've hit some snags I cannot straighten out. I am using HDA 2015. The roof is supposed to be a full gable all the way down to the 1st floor, up to a point. The first floor porch and part of the master suite have a very low pitch (2/12). I have every wall on the 2nd floor set as a knee wall - and i get plenty of messages about them. I don't understand the messages or how to clear them. Looking at the front with the long wraparound porch, I cannot set the porch as a "Porch." If I do, the roof flattens out much more than I want. I have to set it as a Deck with no roof. There is an exterior wall on Floor 2 where the upper pitch is supposed to start, so I can't figure out why the low pitch gets extended into the house area. Looking at the back where the garage sticks out, no matter what I do, I cannot get a single flat roof to happen over the house area. Parts stick out here and there. I have changed room heights, set walls, etc., but can't figure them out. When I fix one, another gets worse! I had it working when I used "Extend slope downward" but then I couldn't set the wall as a knee wall. I'm so confused! The end opposite of the garage is all messed up. It is supposed to be a gable roof from crest to 1st floor, then flat roof like the porch should be. I can't get that room on the 2nd floor to work out. I've tried so many things! Where the garage meets the house, there should be 2 separate gable walls but they combine together into one very tall corner. The other plan separated the garage from the house to get it to work. But this garage is attached...is there no way to separate the roofs? I have added walls and deleted them and re-added. I have changed walls from internal to external and back again. I have changed walls to knee walls and removed it ad nauseum. Can someone help point me in the direction to what I'm doing wrong? Is what I'm looking for not possible in Architect? Cottage1 shows the rear with the bits jutting up here and there, and the end where it's completely messed up. Cottage2 shows a different view of the messed up end and the garage/house corner that joins into one tall gable instead of 2 separate ones. Cottage3 shows what happens when I set the porch as a "porch" with a 2/12 pitch. The rest of the roof flattens out over the house - which is set at default 10/12 pitch. Compare to the more correct Cottage2. This happens even if I add a roof to the Deck. How can I get a porch roof over ONLY the porch? Cottage_pic shows what I'm aiming for - just in reverse. Cottage_pic_rear is the sketch of the rear of the home. The left of this picture shows what is expected of the messed up end - how the gable goes down to the 1st floor and there is a portion that has the flat pitch. I'm also attaching my plan. TIA... Susan 67493.plan

I found this when I was searching for other stair help. I read the title, and wondered why you'd need help with "winders" around stairs. It's simple! You just go to the "Winder" button in the toolbar. It's right next to the Door button. You can select all different types of Winders. Regular winders, Bay winders, Box winders, even a Bow winder! Then you can add drapes or shades or blinds to pretty them up. Of course joining stair landing won't make any winders. Ha ha ha! I got a very nice laugh out of this. Happy Designing! Susan

This can only be done in the Pro version of the program. I have Home Design Architectural, and I am unable to make a double landing. If I'm not right, please let me know! Good luck, Susan

HD Architect has some limitations, and since other members opened the model in other versions and got the same results, I guess it is just a program issue. But I was able to open a Full Camera view and the model is rendering much better, even with my huge terrain. I found the other article from Feb 21 on the same topic, and that suggestion was in those responses. I thought I searched the forum first, but I guess i didn't use the right terms. But then I wasn't exactly experiencing "splotches of color" and didn't know about z-fighting. It is just a 5.6-acre lot... doesn't seem so huge to me. I think I'll go visit the Wish List page.... A huge THANK YOU !!!!!! to those who opened my model in other versions to confirm the behavior. LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Susan

I have a detailed terrain model that I constructed a home on. When I try to look at the 3D views, they look very bad! See pics. I have posted the model. I am able to open other models and render the 3D views and they look just fine. I checked all sorts of settings but haven't changed anything. I have other terrain models with other homes on them and they don't look this bad. What could be wrong? I have attached one Perspective Full Overview and one Doll House View of the 'bad' model, and one Perspective Full of another plan using the same computer, same HDA session, same settings. No issues with it. I have also posted my plan in case anyone can take a look at it. Maybe it renders okay on your machine? i am able to close and reopen it, and i still get the same bad rendering. BadRender Terrain Test House.plan

I will try the copy and paste method. It took me quite a few hours to manually enter 6 acres of topology using 5-ft spacing lines. Drawing again from scratch is not an option. It took too long! My house model is very detailed, and it took weeks of work to get it where it is. Thus I do not want to have to redo that again from scratch either. I'll let you know how it goes. I tried a "test house" on a copy of my terrain model just to see some basic placement, and somehow the model got corrupted so I had to redraw the test house all over again. Thanks!

Hey geniuses. I have searched both the Forum and the Help but cannot find an answer to this. Is there any way to merge 2 plans together? I built a complete plan using one terrain basis. It was based on one plot of land that we ended up not buying. I was able to delete the terrain from that plan. But then I built a new plan with only the terrain of the plot we did end up buying. We are trying to figure out where on the new plot the house might be best placed. I need to play around with the house plan based on the terrain of the new plot. Ultimately, we might not even use that particular home plan. So I did not want to build the new terrain in the old house plan model in case it isn't going to work. I created the terrain by drawing the terrain lines by hand, one by one, based on a 5-ft topo drawing that I used as a background image to trace over. This was based on suggestions by this very forum, rather than try to import any data. So I have a completed house in one plan, and a new terrain in another plan. I'd like to merge them together. It took hours to build the new terrain and rebuilding it from scratch in each home model I want to try out isn't an option. I have tried exporting Metafile and DXF data from the terrain plan and Importing into the house plan but that didn't work. I can find how to Export the house plan into DXF data but I can't find how to Import that into the terrain plan. What do you experienced geniuses suggest?

Hey y'all! I finally found the perfect solution to get my flat roofs on my porches!! It was buried in this solution: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01086/ Although the solution is for a one-story building and porch, the procedure worked perfectly for my building. My main roof is on the 2nd floor, but my porches are on the 1st. There is a disconnect between the roofs. But the procedure still works! I'm thriled. I had to "build roof" to get it to work so it messed up my 2nd story roof - it should be lower. But I know how to fix it, no worries. Add to wish list: A MUCH easier way to have an adjustable height "cape cod" roof!! It's going to take several steps to fix it. There has to be an easier way.

Guys, I wrote to ChiefArchitect support with my issue, and they suggested I get and use XVID codec. It worked LIKE A CHARM for me. I have Win64, Home Designer Architect. Good luck! Susan

I thought I had downloaded all of the Bonus free libraries, but I had indeed missed "Vehicles." I would have thought the bike would have been in the Recreation items, but it was in Vehicles. Thank you for all the replies and the great suggestions on how we can use objects that we don't find in the libraries. Maybe someone will add different types of bicycles!

Having this same exact problem. Windows 8.1, HDArch 2015. I downloaded the FFDS codec, installed it and rebooted, and then set that in my Render Preferences. I re-recorded my Walkthrough using the path that I had set, then viewed the video using Win Media Player. It looks dreadful. Was this ever posted to Tech Support? I think I will.