solver

The Home Designer website is full of articles and videos.

Using a Custom Backsplash will probably be easiest for you if you are just going for looks. Lots of how to articles and videos on the Home Designer website, and the Chief Architect YouTube channel (look for the Home Designer ones). Much new to learn when doing exteriors.

No. A brick wall is thicker than one with siding. You could also try a Custom Backsplash.

What are you trying?

Set your Floor defaults. Edit>Reset To Defaults Choose All Floors, Floor and Ceiling heights. Raise the non default ceilings on the 2nd floor. The structure sounds correct. You want Ceiling Finish to have a correct material. Attach the plan file if problems persist.

See the options under File>Import You will probably need to follow his roof design, but I don't believe it will transfer into the program, so you will need to use the tools in the software to create the roof. There are articles on plot plans that might help. See the links I posted above. What about elevations?

Showing how using a molding attached to a Soffit can be used to create custom ceiling planes in Suite and Architectural. Download and install (drag it into an open program window) this file: Ceiling Plane.calibz Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/_u9SXzoc8Ws?hd=1

Suite is limited so here is a way -- maybe not the best way, to cover things. Place a soffit with a molding along the wall. Adjust the molding so it becomes the ceiling surface. A bit tedious, but it seems to work.

Change the Terrain height in relation to the structure.

Experiment with these settings to fix the problem in the upper right, then adjust the pitch to align the ridge. You can do math to calculate the pitch, or just guess like I did. Probably took 4 or 5 iterations to get close enough.

I spent some time working on this problem when it was first posted and did not find a solution. Suggest sending in to support. I tried using different wall definitions, Room Divider walls etc and none of the Home Designer capable tricks worked. Chief has a tool that lets you edit these difficult wall intersections manually, but it's not available in HD.

Pitch is set in the 2 other walls.

If Auto Rebuild Roofs is off.

Extend your walls out to form a rectangle. Set 2 walls like this. Adjust pitch via the wall specification to align the ridge.

Draw in your own ceiling plane and uncheck the option shown.

Look at the various wall types -- their names might give you an idea.

For problems like this, it's helpful to have the plan file. Close the software before attaching.

Delete the 2nd floor walls on the garage.

See if this helps.

Remove the Framing Reference and experiment with these settings.

Try deleting the problem wall.

Make sure you are not clipping framing. When things do not display as expected, start with Layer Display Options.

That does not usually happen. Attach your plan file (close Architectural first) and I'll have a look.

Once your terrain is in place, you will want to group select it and all its features and rotate them so the house remains drawn square with the screen. Group select the house -- this is easier if you draw the terrain and house so they do not overlap, then move it on to the terrain. You can place a Point on the terrain and use Point-to-point move. read about Edit Area for use in selecting the house. Once the house is in place, open the terrain and adjust the Z position of the terrain relative to the house.