solver

Cannot be done in Home Designer and even the Chief Architect products have limited editing abilities. Best to find a 3rd party symbol like may be found in the 3D Warehouse (google it if not familiar).

What do you mean "convert to CAD"?

You are responsible for these things -- the program does not do them automatically. All the tools are there, you just need to learn how to use them.

You can discover what's available yourself by searching the Home Designer website.

Yes. Read/watch videos etc about Layout.

You set the ceiling height, not the stud height. Start a new plan. Draw a slab, change its top to be at 0". Draw 4 walls forming a room using the outline of the slab -- walls will snap to it. Open the room -- you will select the slab first, so tab again and watch the status bar to see what is selected. Set it as Open Below. You should now have your basic structure. Change walls to pony walls etc.

Pony Walls. I believe you can do them with Architectural.

Lots of videos on the Home Designer site, and the Chief Architect YouTube channel. Resources for self help: The built in Help System (always a good place to start) Getting Started Knowledge Base YouTube

Set your garage defaults and build the foundation. Instead of pressing Enter to exit a dialog, press Tab, check the values, then Enter. The software will adjust things that you do not see.

Here is a playlist with all the roof videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX_WqVPx9Dw&list=PL2B3hmDXZZU-vNNVOfjDwQ8BQx8XndtnM

New video with sound linked above.

OOPs Forgot to turn it on when recording. I'll see about a do over. The videos are quick enough, but the upload on my slow internet takes forever.

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/bHYW4gNibzI?hd=1

Roofs are not difficult, but they do take practice, and that practice is what everyone seems to skip. The goal should be to first learn the roof tools and not just to build a roof on a specific house. Start with a 1 room structure. Draw a hip roof, then change to a gable. Add an extension making it L shaped and draw new roofs over it, then connect these new roofs to the existing. Once you are comfortable and confident, apply your roof skills to an actual project. I have several roof videos on my YouTube channel as does David Potter. Attic walls. Sometimes you need to draw them in manually. Sometimes they are cut off by a lower roof plane. Gable roof tool is used for auto roofs, not manual. Manual roofs respond to roof and room settings just like auto roofs. If the porch has a higher ceiling and you draw a roof over it, the roof will align itself with the ceiling. Are you able to get this far with auto roofs? If so, do you see how to create the missing gable?

Learn manual roofs.

Selected both walls, set full auto return.

Quick test -- Pro 2020 Auto Return I'll download your plan and take a look.

That's the way manual returns look. Why are you not using an auto return?

Just a guess. You probably have an object far away from your structure. These are often difficult to locate. Suggest going back to your most recent save (or auto save), or copying what you have into a new plan (how depends on what software you are using and what you have drawn).

Turn off Auto Rebuild Roofs, raise the ceiling height on the 2nd floor. All the Home Designer products except Pro with its manual roofs require this, as they build the roof starting with the ceiling height.

Soffits, a truss, Custom Backsplash (draw against a wall in elevation, move it out from the wall in plan.

My comment above applies to someone using Pro. Suite is limited in many things and only has automatic fillers. I don't see what you are referring to in the Suite 2016 manual and I doubt this feature has been added in newer versions. You can create a cabinet that looks like a filler and use it as needed.

Are you using a symbol from Home Designer, or was it sourced somewhere else? You can always just shape something around the tub -- essentially creating your own hole.

Place a base cabinet size it and change the height to match the tub. Place tub in cabinet as you would a sink.