solver

Is this an existing house you are adding to, or all new construction? Do you need construction documents or is this just for visualization? You already have a 2nd floor, so draw railing walls to define your deck -- just don't set the Room Type to Deck. Turn off the roof of the resulting rooms.

Why do you want to find the baseline? It's helpful to have an image (screen capture) showing the issue as often it will be enough to provide a suggestion, and eliminate the need to download and review a plan.

I think David may not have understood the problem. I've tried to show what I think you want with a darker gray door in a wall shown in the closed position, and the lighter gray shown open. If so, no Home Designer or Chief Architect product will do this using the included door and wall tools. With some work, you could model this, but it won't function as a door.

That's because of lighting. Open the wall in question and verify via the Materials panel that the color is correct.

There are several ways, what are you trying and what's not working?

It depends on what you are calling a deck. How will it be built? What will it look like?

Search the Home Designer website for cape. You will find articles and maybe a video on how to build a house like yours. Don't confuse your terminology with what the program uses as they may be different. In this case, you have a 2 story house, not a story and a half, and your 2nd floor is not in the attic. The program will always have an automatic Attic level, but there may not be anything on it. The key point is that you cannot define a room on the Attic level, you need a numbered level anytime you want a room on that level.

It's not.

It looks like the house has 2nd floor, and to get the roof to build correctly it needs to be created and at least one room defined there.

Is Auto Rebuild Roofs checked? If so, and it's still not working, attach the plan file after closing Suite.

You are trying to set the gable end to have a specific pitch, instead set the 2 walls that connect to the end wall to have a different pitch.

There is an Update from Master button just like the Update to Master button. I think the program does not know how to handle longer lengths. It works maybe up to 20' or so, but for longer lengths it just shows the actual length. Don't know -- never see this. I don't use the materials or master list, and you will probably get your best answers, especially about the decimal format by submitting a question to Home Designer/Chief support.

In Pro, use a Pony Wall to add a Wall Cap. Using a Cabinet with Countertop to stand in for a wall with Wall Cap. Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/fZ7AfAkpqtE?hd=1

No Home Designer software has it. You need to be looking at Home Designer articles -- the site is blue themed. The Chief Architect site is green themed. What are you wanting to accomplish?

Pro does not have the Wall Cap feature I show in the video. Try a Custom Countertop and shape it around the walls instead of using multiple pieces. You can add a molding to it if you want a profile on the edge. Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/otWAwX67SmM?hd=1

@DanielJay Best to start your own thread when you have a question, even when you have a similar problem. Please do so, and delete your comment above (click Options).

Google 3D Warehouse. It's a free source of symbols.

Help is often quite helpful

Nothing is supposed to happen. When you open the Structural Member Reporting dialog, click the Help button and read what comes up. You need to generate the materials list, export and clean it up in Excel as required. You have these options too.

@GTboys Best to start your own thread when you have a question. Please do so, and delete your comment above (click Options). Also tell us what's not working -- and adding a couple of images will help too.

I don't understand "I cannot get a list from any of the Structural Member Reports (Cut List, Total List, Buy List)". What's stopping you? What's not working?

It's best to keep your structure near the 0,0 location, which I showed in the video, although I was not clear about this. Centering the drawing sheet moves the sheet to your structure which may be located far away from 0,0.

https://accounts.chiefarchitect.com/digital-locker/

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/7K7lN7FhSgo?hd=1

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/Tw7pVGrt9ss?hd=1