solver

Without Pro, my version won't do you any good. Some people here are really good at getting the program to auto build roofs -- I'm not. You might wait and see if anyone else tackles this before deciding to upgrade. my_plan (eric).zip

Was there a question in there?

I'd say it must be. This will be an interesting project to do with automatic roofs.

This one is all auto roof. Looking at your elevations, I must assume the closet area over the garage has a low slope roof. I moved the exterior 2 walls of this space in a foot or two. Added an upper/lower pitch to the right hand garage wall starting 8' in from the baseline. The gable above the garage doors is an Auto Floating Dormer adjusted to look more like your drawings. An automatic dormer is not going to work at the rear on the upper floor because it needs to span 2 roof planes. Getting the gable above and left of the flat roof over the closet will also be an interesting exercise.

I'm guessing your floor structure needs to sit inside the foundation walls and not on top. But we need a better understanding of how the structure needs to be.

You said the deck works in a new plan. Have you tried simply copying your structure into a new plan? Use Edit>Edit Area (All Floors) if available, or Copy then Paste Hold Position for each floor.

What your uploaded plan shows.

Review your Deck Room Defaults. You need a deck surface as part of the structure.

You might post your plan file. Make sure it's not open in the program. Look in your library for Inverted Wedge. If you have it, it could be used to fill in the space.

Then try drawing a Ceiling Plane instead of a Slab for the ceiling.

Give your patio a Room Type of Porch. Check Ceiling Over This Room. Place lights.

This is what I see.

Do you want to hire someone? New or existing house? If existing, posting several good pictures will help someone decide if this might be a good project for them. What is your time frame? Where are you located? What software do you have?

I checked out your website -- suggest getting rid of the music.

hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/2559-pier-and-curtain-foundation/ Everything is mostly explained in this thread. Draw a pier and apply material to make it look like you want, and then, if needed, a footing. I used the Slab Tool, but other things will also work. Select them both and Make Architectural Block so you can move them together. Move as required in plan and elevation views. Transform/Replicate is an easy way to space them if they are evenly spaced. You can also draw CAD lines, positioning them precisely. Use them as your centers to place the piers.

I played with this a bit and was able to reproduce what you are seeing. Suggest you open a support case with Chief.

I think this is more of SketchUp question than a Home Designer question. You cannot modify these imported items in Home Designer, so you will need to do the modeling in SketchUp and import.

The bottom chord of a truss is built at the Ceiling Height -- you don't need a ceiling, just the dimension set. Ceiling planes must be in place if the bottom chord is not level, like a scissor truss.

If you are trying to model a SIP wall, then I might call the insulation showing a bug -- but it depends on how the panels are installed.

You are comparing apples and oranges. Different operating systems and 64 vs 32 bit. I don't know what previous upgrade problems you had, but would not hesitate to install the new version. If you find issues, you can always uninstall and then install 2016.

Think about a Chief built car transmission. Shifting into reverse and having the car go forward is a bug. Not having reverse is is simply an unimplemented feature.

Best to start a new thread, but to answer, I believe it will do what you want. Do you have the Upper Pitch option?