Barnyardo

Bernard McPhillips Monday, Sep 09, 2019 - 06:08 PM PDT Hello I always have a problem creating a stairway through a doorway. In this instance, I have an entry way to a house that has an arch. The stairs break almost in the middle of the arch. Whenever i place the stairs, anything above the treads disappears. In this case, the arch is no longer visible. Please see the pics of my drawing and the actual arched entrance way, I am trying to replicate. This is also the case when going from a one floor to the other floor of a split level. Takes a lot of finagling to work around. Thanks for any tips you may have. Bernard

Hello again Well I went hunting and found the place to edit the saved materials list folder. Since I didn't find any videos or info online, here is the steps I took to change the tab name. I closed out any material lists and went up to the Tools tab / then to the Material Lists in the drop down / next down to the Material list management tab. There is an option to Edit or Rename the tab. Voila. Hope this helps any other newbies. Thanks, Bernard

Hello Everyone I created 5 plans essentially of the same room but different layouts. I also created a material list for each one of them and named them relative to the layouts. Unfortunately one of them was named wrong. I can't seem to figure out how to rename the material list tab. It only offers a "save", but not a "save as". I figured I could delete it and create another one with the proper name but does anyone know of a more straight forward way. Okay, Thanks for any input. Bernard

Hi Solver Thanks for the video and the tips. Sorry I didn't notice this before. I will give her a try when I get freed up. Do you see a problem with my putting the "basement/Great room on the 1st floor as opposed to the foundation level. Would I get the same attributes Ie. pony wall, framing, finished floor, dropped ceiling, and the deck over a room as in this plan? Does it make a difference when manipulating platform heights? Or are there other considerations to worry about? Thanks again for the video. Bernard

Hello LawB10 Yes this is a plan I am working on. You are correct there is no basement to speak of. If I had known when I was still a newbie, I might have drawn that floor on the foundation level. Initially I had everything on the same level then split the building down the middle and raised one side up. As per the split level video on HdPro site. Added a second floor and stepped it as the first floor. I also tried drawing each level of the split on different floors. Ie. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. But that was a total disaster. The "open below" was to create a landing at the bottom of the stairs and this in turn is how you would get from bedroom 1 through to the great room. I am not sure what you are referring to about going through the garage but this is not the case. although there is a door that goes from bedroom 1 through the closet then into a potential bathroom space and then to the garage. We were looking to maximize the versatility of separate spaces for perhaps a small apartment. Bedroom 1 actually gets re-purposed to a study in real life and the stairs joins the kitchen upstairs with bedroom 1/now "study" and then through to the basement. The pony walls was my attempt to draw the building as it is built, as the addition will also continue with the same construction. Ie 6" stem wall on a footing and framed up to the 2nd floor. It seemed simpler doing it this way as opposed to creating a basement below the kitchen, dining room and living room. Apart from of course, if it creates problems reverting the platform height to the 82 1/4". The existing as built structure has been expanded to create "arthur's main thoroughfare half spiral plan". The issues you are referring to may not reflect the copious amounts of time I have spent trying to iron out little incongruities from ground zero. Ground zero being never having worked with Home designer Pro or chief architect for that matter, to learning a whole new language. I drew six different plans in Sketchup free version, learning curve included, in half the time it took to draw this one in HDPro. Some programs are more intuitive than others. But if you see issues other than the ones I think you may be referring to, I would appreciate you clarifying. Thanks for the input in any case. BTW here is a work in progress plan of the as built existing floor plan. Again, the "basement" is on the first floor elevation. You will note the unfinished ceiling height is...... you guessed it, 82 1/4' bernard catheryn and curtis' existing to addition remodel_auto_save_bak.plan

Hi david yes i did watch that video back when i drew this plan. And also again when this latest modification came up. So i’m pretty sure that i tried to follow this philosophy to a T bu like i intimated, a split level is different beast and had to deviate from the defaults on the bedroom 1 as it had a lower floor than the garage. My question is does this philosophy/ order of build, allow for modification after the fact? Solver seems to indicate yes. You have remained non- committed to recommending a fix but more intimate that i should have drawn it according how the program was designed to work as in the instructions in this video. Jo-ann is still gathering facts. I am merely trying to determine whether it is actually possible to modify/salvage this plan, and if so may be a little pointer in that direction. Seems a shame to start all over just because of this inability to modify what is now “set in stone”. Okay maybe a little bit dramatic. By the way, i have looked for the radial button “make same type” and can’t find it in hdpro. Does it exist? Other than chief. Dshall had an interesting video on how to create a room within a room. Using in this case perhaps a third story but placed on the basement/ great room i am trying to modify. Perhaps i can replace it with this method? It was a chief video so not sure if hdpro has the same capabilities. Thanks for thinking of me anyway. I won’t be able to work on this till the weekend as i have to do some real work but i will try all that’s been suggested Bernard

hi Jo-Ann The actual building has an 82 1/4" basement. For the remodelling drawing the whole structure was raised to allow for a full 8' 7 1/2' + 2 1/2" for flooring and 3" for a soundproofed ceiling.This was drawn as the first floor and called the "great room". Upon further consideration we decided to not raise the house, not finish the basement ie (turn it in to a great room. So basically revert the drawing to reflect a basement. As I had already drawn it on the 1st floor, I figured I could just raise the floor back to the 82 1/4", minus the floor finish and ceiling sound proofing. I won't bore you with the math.The flush part was not bedroom 1 being flush with the now reverted basement, but the foundation of the great room and the foundation of the bedroom 1 being flush or at the same elevation. so that 44" you mentioned would diminish by 28 1/4" to 15.75 which technically would put the foundation even along that back wall. So basically i'm trying to undo the great room and return it to an unfinished basement. Incidentally that whole side including the utility room, open space and great room which are all at 82 1/4". The other side where bedroom one and the closet is, is also on floor one. The garage floor elevation (also on floor one) is roughly 13 1/2" (can't remember) above the bedroom/closet. all those floors as well as the second storey floors should remain relatively the same in relationship to each other.It is only the lower floor "basement side that will raise along with the foundation under bedroom 1 in order to make the foundation the same elevation along that back wall. That's a lot of words for basically raising the great room 28 1/4" but I hope it is a little clearer. thanks for your input. bernard

Hello solver thanks also for your reply. Thanks for the tips also in rectifying the drawing. I agree the question is pretty convoluted. I was hoping the uploaded drawing would elucidate. Basically i am trying to make the great room an 82 1/4” unfinished basement. The complication arises because the foundation is all one level (apart from the garage jump up) as built so i am trying to raise bedroom 1’s foundation walls the 28 1/4” to make it flush with the great room’s foundation. Pretty simple in theory. All of the other rooms remain at their current elevations. I will try your suggestions to see if i can make head nor tails of it. To be honest the time it takes to rectify this might be longer than if i just started from scratch. But i feel it helps in my understanding how the program works. However unintuitive it seems to me. ( not a dig) okay, thanks again. Bernard ps. When i get back to my desktop i will upload two elevation drawings to illustrate what i want.

Hi david, thanks for the reply. When i started to build this structure, i did use defaults and as the structure developed in order to get the necessary platform height on the bedroom 1 in relation to the garage and also one side of the split levels in relation to the other i deviated from some defaults. So i tried to follow somewhat the so called building norm for the program. I am assuming that not every buliding is preconceived in every detail and that modifications are in order as relationships are discovered. But it sounds like the way you describe it, is that any deviation from the prescribed order of construction, tolerated by the program creates a situation where it is not possible absorb any changes, at least in this case, to the platform heights. And that the only remedy is to continually rebuild from scratch, when you have discovered relationships in platform heights that are unaccepable. This seems a little extreme to me and part of me refuses to believe that the program is so infexible. Ie. I’m sure there are many instances where remodelling projects require the necessity for trial and error manipulations. Since you haven’t offered a different remedy, is this really so? Even if i could figure out how change the basement (great room) back to 82 1/4”, i would be very happy to muddle through and apply the same logic to the other rooms. Okay thanks for your time. Bernard

hi there I designed a two story split level house in HDPro, After a plan change based on cost savings decided to keep the basement as built ceiling height of 82 1/4". I only want to change the first floor which considsts of, a great room, bath, utility and open/crawl space below area back to ceiling heights of 82.25 on one side of the split. On the other i want to raise the floors by 28 1/4" in the bedroom 1 and closet on the other side of the split. this 28 1/4' reflects the difference between the current height minus the 82 1/4". except the other/upper side room of the first floor are full varying height rooms. a walk through of the uploaded plan will clarify what i am trying to explain. Initially I had it drawn as such and then edited in the current platform elevations. it is quite apparent that going the oposite way is far more tricky. Since the first floor contains different ceiling heights, I over rode the defaults. the 2nd floor roomson both upper and lower sides are all 8' 7 1/2" (i think?). Any tips as to how this can be done without changing the 2nd floor attributes would be greatly appreciated. Yes I should have copied the original before manipulating. (I think I did but might have deleted it in a moment of blindness or confusion around HDPro's save system) Thanks, Bernard arthur's stairs main thoroughfare half spiral final.plan

Hi Eric Sorry , I don't mean to be a bonehead and apologize if I seem ungrateful. I do hope that my mistakes inform others just as much as your responses. I thought I had exhausted all of the resources short of posting my question. So I didn't feel like going through the help section all over again. As I sort of said before, I missed that vital piece of information and probably half a day looking for it (i.e. the second display option button) and thought I had ruled out the obvious areas. When David pointed it out, of course I realized what I had missed. I'll take a video or a diagram any day over a list. Thanks for the responses though, I do appreciate them. Bernard

Thanks for the reply David and Eric That was simple. Eric, just so you know, I have been incredibly diligent in looking through all the various resources, help included and online and all the usual places before I call tech support and post on Hometalk. I even opened the display options but missed the other button. But after talking with tech support, believing the program was being buggy,they told me to post the plan. So, what is the difference between standard area and interior area? Thanks again for the replies. Bernard

Hi there Here are my plans, which are a work in progress. I will also include two jpegs of examples from the 1st floor but I notice this occurs on all the rooms where I've checked the "show room label" box. I am not so concerned with the accuracy per se, but the fact that the labels are showing two area dimensions. Seems rather cluttered and confusing and not normal to me or anyone else viewing the plans. I would rather have only one area dimension showing so as to look somewhat professional without having to turn the label off. Since I'm assuming the program is supposed to show only one or the other. (On a side note. It would be nice to know whether one of them is coming from the center or from the exterior reference. I know the interior walls measure from center and the exterior measure form exterior, but what about when an interior meets and exterior wall? (But please don't be sidetracked.)) I would rather have only one area dimension showing so as to look somewhat professional without having to turn the label off. Since I'm assuming the program is supposed to show only one or the other. Bernard back up only plan two storey addition..zip

Hello everyone,I finally was able to create a split level structure. Although I haven't attempted to do the roof, who's ridges go with the length of the building, instead of perpendicular as in the tutorial. I did notice a couple of discrepancies in the framing. On the 2nd storey where the ceiling joists tie in to the wall, the rim joist just butts against it. Of course i would prefer they bear on that wall (probably with blocking). The other is the 1st floor wall that divides the garage and a room behind it. It shows a small cripple wall and a space before the bottom plate of the actual wall. (The elevation difference should be 13") I am not sure if this is a glitch or due to the split level. I would prefer that wall came down as one piece. Can anyone tell me what might have happened around these two conditions. I checked the alignment of the 2nd storey wall and it seems okay. I could get rid of the rim joist on the 2nd floor ceiling joist ceiling and stretch the ceiling joists through the wall and then add joist blocking below the joists? This is how it would happen in real life. So i'm not sure if this is a glitch or if HDPro is capable of doing this and i have done something "wrong" or not done something that I should have. Once again the tutorials are of no use in this a seemingly specialized circumstance. On the wall between the garage and the bedroom, I could delete the fussy little bits, move the plate down and stretch the studs to that plate. But once again would like to know if this is something I missed or did to create this condition. Apart from that, I am very happy to have created this umpteenth version of a split level structure. Of course now I'll have to reconstruct just to see if I remember how I did it. I will attach the plan file and a couple of screen shots to help you understand the problem.Thanks for any help you can provide. Bernard creating a split level structure.plan

Hi David I'm glad I struck a chord of synchronicity. Sometimes I see a teacher in things that I do and that which I create. Sometimes I'm in such a hurry and forget to honor the ones that helped along the way. So here's to the generosity of those folks (you included),who not only do the job, but also have the time to film, edit and upload articles and video's so that others can partake in. On that note! Back to the drawing board! Still trying to create a side split, multi level house and maintain the bottom of the foundation footings at the same elevation while raising various rooms within each side of the split. Thanks again, Bernard

Hi there Thanks for the clarification Eric. You are correct about my being new to Home designer pro and not Chief Architect. Not so sure about needing to stick with the home designer site though. If I had done that, I would have learned a lot less about home designer pro. I have found a lot of important tips, through the chief architect articles and videos. Hat's off to David Jefferson Potter (Thank you David) for the youtube videos I have thoroughly enjoyed these last few days. Those have contained older versions of both Chief architect and the Home Designer products, all with invaluable tips and clarifications. Also some of the technical support folks at HDpro have recommended checking the chief architect tutorials. When searching with specific phrases, I found very little relative information. When i put chief architect in the phrase, there is a lot more pertinent content. Yes I do have to correlate and compare with the HDPro format but still very insightful. The "Understanding Platforms" video, on youtube by Dan Bauman, is from 2010 and was instrumental in shifting my perspective of the ceiling and floor elevation nightmare I was in. So I'm beginning to understand the relationship between floor platforms and defaults. Most importantly the HDPro room specification dialogue windows. Okay I admit I haven't read the entire user manual as yet, and to tell you the truth, I probably never will. Has anybody? In answer to my own question.....While Home Designer Pro offers "static and dynamic defaults", it does not have the wrench with the red check mark. So, something to learn more about tomorrow. First I will study those pesky "room specification/structure" dialogues. Nevertheless, I appreciate both of your feedback and look forward to learning lots more in the future. Thanks, Bernard

Hi there everyone, I am new to Chief Architect. A lot different than AutoCad and Sketchup. I have been working through the Default Settings tutorials online, which I think are for Chief Architect and not specifically for Home Designer Pro per se. On one of them it shows a "set default" button (wrench with a red check mark) on the lower bar. I looked in the set custom tools but haven't found it. Does anyone know if HDPro 2019 has it. I wanted to redesign a cabinet as per the tutorial and easily set as default, but instead had to go to the wrench without the red check mark and work my way through the dialogue boxes.