Heliotrope45

Eric, I just checked out the truss designs and they are not a scissor truss; the roof pitch and ceiling pitch are the same.

Eric and JoAnn, you continue to be awesome. The roof trusses have been designed but not ordered yet. JoAnn, that is amazing. Thanks. My builder had mentioned that having the angled roofline would allow for the triangular windows to get more light. I hadn't mentioned anything about roof pitches. I believe we were going to have 10/12 for the center pitch as well as the dormers (or whatever they're called). And 5/12 for the garage and side sections. I see you have a lower pitch on the dormers...that might be a good idea...what do you think? I was assuming it should match, but maybe the lower pitch softens the look and matches better with the window arches.

Still amazed at the amount of work y'all are doing to help me. Thanks so much. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, JoAnn. This thread has evolved from a question about HD software to you helping my design my house and I'm grateful and feel guilty. I'm currently liking JoAnn's original "Up Arrow" idea the best. I'm going to lay a bunch of details on you, JoAnn, to see if you come up with something. The side dormers have no breakout at the foundation. We'll just have to have white trim going straight down to create the illusion of a breakout. The side wall/ceiling height in the side areas is 9', and in the center great room the side walls are 10'. The top of the windows is going to be 92". In the bedrooms the bottom of the windows will be 38" off the floor. My builder says it would be possible to add a shallow arch atop them that could go up 15" or so to just under the ceiling height. It's possible, then, that a similar arch could be also used above the angled portions of the living room. (My contractor mentioned that one advantage of the FrontofHouseA style is that it would allow triangle/trapezoidal upper windows on those angled portions, which would allow in more light.) The lower living room windows will start 18" off the ground and go up to 92". Attaching pic of the siding color we are thinking.

Eric & Joanne, thank you SO much. Eric, my contractor told me we had 24" overhangs...I believe my software was defaulting to 18". Is there any way you could do a version of "FrontofHouse A" with a 24" overhang? Joanne, thanks for that idea. I wasn't planning to have any brickwork (despite the elevation view that I provided), so maybe that would change the look. Everything is on the table, however. Much gratitude, Joe

To follow up on more of solver’s questions, yes, there is an amazing view out the front. However, we’re happy with having the master bedroom in that front corner and the rest of the internal layout...we’ve hashed that out quite thoroughly. It is just the front roofline that that we need to decide on, and then window size and placement. I really need to have a 3D view so I can pan around and make this decision. We might be able to work with the truss designer to visualize this.

Thanks so much. I have screwed up and am under the gun. The forms are laid and the plumbers are here and the slab will be poured later this week. Winter is coming. Solver, could you make a picture of the roofline coming out to a square corner like your first pic but with the foundation like the second? Very grateful and humbled by your help so far. If there is any way to get this into my HD Program so I can pan the view that would help me greatly.

That's what I thought I wanted, but now that I see it I realize that maybe the roof should come out to a corner as you first had it. I'll need to talk to my people about what is actually on the plan. PM'd you.

Here is the front elevation pic that they gave me. HouseFrontElevation.pdf

Thanks again, Solver. I don't, however, know how you did that. I imagine the roofline should be cut along the diagonals, if you know what I mean, without changing the slope of the roof. I do have a basic blueprint of the house. My building center has it in their software, but can only show a straight front elevation, making it hard to visualize the windows on the angled portion. Attaching a pdf. DOC091319-09132019135945.pdf

Just to show you where I'm at now... I'm watching the roof tutorial now.

Home Designer Architectural 2018 19.3.0.49OSX Beginner. I realize I maybe pushing my luck, here, but any guidance or links to relevant tutorials is welcome. My ultimate goal is to visualize and decide window placement on the front of my soon-to-be built house. I succeeded in getting the angled shape of the front of my living room laid out, but that totally screws up the roofline, which should be a straight gable as if the living room front were squared off. I'm wondering if there is a way to lock in that roofline and have HD figure out the rest, which will create trapezoidal wall shapes for the angled sections. Please see attached plan to visualize what I'm talking about. Or if you want I can post a screenshot. FrontOfHouse.plan

My god, you're a genius. Thanks!!!! Now on to the next problem.

Home Designer Architectural, build 19.3.0.49OSX I am a beginner. When I'm trying to adjust the roof pitch of a full gable wall, it is grayed out and I can't change it. I can change the global roof pitch in the "Build Wall..." dialog, but I have different roof pitches on the different sections of my house. To oversimplify the house design, you can picture it like a "+" shape with gables on all ends of the plus sign and the peaks meeting in the middle. Except the wings going to either side are wider and must have a lower pitch to make the peak meet up in the middle. Thanks for any help you may give. This is just the beginning of my problems, because I then have to make angled walls, kind of like a partial octagon, on the front of my great room. I can't imagine how that will screw up the roof pitch.