Paladine

Yep, that's what DavidJPotter suggested as well and that's pretty easy to do. And it works, although it's pretty difficult to select the soffit again in 3D once I have pulled the soffit down so that the pass-through is open, because clicking mouse either selects the opening or the wall after that, not sure how I can find the soffit in 3D anymore after that. Or, in 2D either for that matter...

Yeah, I don't think a feature change or addition is needed, I was just wondering if there was some hidden option somewhere that I was not aware of, where I could force a pocket door (for example) placed sideways on a wall so that it would open vertically instead of horizontally, as I could have used that to emulate this "in-room window with door". But seems like Home Designer do not allow it as no-one would in real life place a door that way in the wall. It doesn't seem to support out-of-the-box thinking in that sense Thank you anyway!

Wow, didn't thought a sort of hatch in the wall that you can open and close is such a rare thing, but apparently it is! I had already thought about having to custom-make it, with whatever suitable piece of wood etc that would go up and down when button is pressed, and thought that I would use linear actuators to push the "door" up and down, you know, the same things that some use with floor hatch to cellar, for example. Hmm, seems like custom slab object or cabinet soffit are not dynamic, so I cannot open and close them in Home Designer 3D view, like I can with drawers and doors for example. My native language is Finnish, but I thought if I knew what that kind of system that I am looking for is in english, then I would probably find pictures etc of real-life solutions with google and then I will get an idea what that is called in Finnish at least by showing that to some local constructor Or whatever it is called, then it doesn't matter anymore if constructor gets the idea what needs to be built But of course what you say is right, as I would show pictures of it open, closed and maybe half-open, and that would be enough, but it would just be nice to show to my wife for example in Home Designer how that thing actually works when I show her the house in 3D view EDIT: Oh, I guess I got now what you meant by adding a custom slab object for example. I guess you mean I would place it inside a wall and then while looking at the wall in 3D, I could just drag it larger or smaller, so it looks like the opening is open, closed or half-open depending on how I drag the one side of that slab object?

Hello! I have been planning an office room for my new house, and a solution that I don't know how to call it even in my native language, let alone english so I don't know if this is even remotely common or not :) The plan is, that this office room would be located next to living room, just behind the couch, so as I normally work at home, I could watch TV at the same time if I want to (TV is located just across that sofa on the other side of living room). As you can see from the picture, there's a hole in the wall. But there are situations when family is at home and is making noise, and in that situation I need to close the door of my office room AND close this hole in the wall. So I have planned some sort of system that works by pressing a button, and that button pulls up a "pocket door" from the floor and all the way up unti that hole is closed. Another button then lowers the door again to the floor (here in the plan the hole is 80cm high, and there is also 80 cm from the floor to the bottom of that frame, so it should fit inside the wall there). So, I have basically two questions. One is: what an earth this kind of system is called in english? :D So I could google some existing solutions... Second, How can I visualize this in Home Designer Pro 2020? Pocket doors open only horizontally, and I cannot use that solution because the hole is wider than available wall on either side, so when I open the "door", it has to open either above or below the hole. I am thinking it might be safer if it opens below in case something goes wrong, so that the door doesn't just fall down on me if I peek my head through the hole there :) I have tried (just for visualization) to use garage doors with door style as a slab, and it sort of works so that in 3D I can see it either opened or closed, but would be nicer if I could set the percentage as how open it acually is, like with pocket doors.

Thank you BrewerDesign, it looks more or less just right! Too bad I cannot show them open/closed in 3D view, but then again that's what I feared. I wish you could use self-made dynamic components in Home Designer, for example at simplest I could make an architectural block where those accordion doors are open, and then another where the doors are closed, and then in 3D view I could just switch between those two I guess I just have to make two version of my plan to show them open and closed for my better half (and to myself)...

Hello! I am going to make an "office corner" in my living room, and I need to get some privacy (or silence!) every now and then, so I am planning to install two accordion doors at those red squares on my plan: In case of term "accordion door" is unknown (or some other word is used here ), here is the picture of the door: So, when the doors are open, they are pretty much compressed at those two red squares, and when I want to close them, I pull them together, so it works like this: As in that picture, the system doesn't need any columns in the corner, the doors just click together. My problem is that I don't know how to draw those in Home Designer, so that I could actually see them opened or closed in 3D view! Also, there is "bi-fold doors" option in Home Designer, but that door type just defaults the opening in the middle, so that doesn't work in my case. Is there any way I could do this in Home Designer?

TominOhio, Thank you a lot for detailed instructions! In fact, I had already figured out everything else except replacing standard drawer for something out of library! It amazed me how this was possible with Home Designer, because that Utility Shelf (tall) is about 52,5cm wide if I remember right, AND it's a free standing object, and my rollout pantry is only 30cm wide, but the software made it fit there just fine!

That looks great! How did you manage to do that? For me it would be enough to see it open but empty (and close it as well), as I can always imagine it full

Thank you David! Too bad terrain features are not polished as well as other features in Home Designer are, as to me ability to shape terrain is maybe even more important than modelling the house, because my house will be built on steep(ish) terrain and I want to plan out my whole garden as well. In fact, before Home Designer I had my house more or less planned with Sweet Home 3D but it didn't have proper terrain editing tools. Then I tried to find whatever software had both architectural and terrain planning tools, and then I found Home Designer. Not only this software has amazing interior designing tools, to me it seems it also had the best terrain editing tools compared to other software. Hopefully the programmers focus on terrain a bit more, at least those bulldozer / sculpting tools would be much appreciated! Or, at least an ability to modify/delete those secondary contours that Home Designer creates in odd places. However, I managed to fix my greenhouse using that Terrain Break -tool, although I didn't get that to work with my root cellar. But with that I did like I did earlier when I tried to place my cellar elsewhere, and that was just that "Hole" in terrain. Yesterday in my frustration I just couldn't find that tool anymore, but that was in Terrain-->Feature menu So, I made a hole, and then I placed walls around it and two slabs: one as a floor, and one as a roof, and that did the trick. I guess I can just paint that roof slab with grass or something, and I can further model my cellar, add a door etc... That reminded me of another problem I have: How to model a lake/seashore? I mean, it's easy to add pools or other water features where the bottom is on level, but how about if bottom slopes (the water becomes deeper when you go further, as in normal)? Now, I have just placed a big "pool" there: But was wondering, if it was possible to model it so that for example 15 meters from the shore, water is 1,5 meters deep. I tried to put a contour lines there, but that made the water level go down as well, which didn't look right at all

Hello everyone, I am slowly learning Home Designer but terrain is giving me a headache, as it just does what it wants and doesn't allow me to shape it as I want :/ Now I am trying to figure out how to model a root cellar (or a hobbit hole, if you prefer ) in Home Designer Pro 2020, that would be underground except for the entry side. Like this: I have tried drawing retaining walls, flat terrain regions, normal walls etc but terrain either goes through them or creates odd spikes or valleys. I even tried draw it using slabs as I read that terrain does not go through slabs, but in my case, it does... However, when I use "clean plan", those retaining walls cut the terrain as they should. Not sure what in my plan causes terrain to act wonky though. And it's too bad that we cannot edit those auto-created primary or secondary contours :/ So, here's my yard without the cellar. Everything looks quite okay still, except for that terrain going through my greenhouse... Now here's what it looks like when I added retaining walls where I want my cellar, and then a flat terrain region on top of that: I have no idea what causes these problems. Or, I guess it's because things are too close with each other, but that's where I want them to be :/ This software clearly needs a some kind of terrain sculpting tool or a bulldozer tool I guess I will attach my plan (I emptied the house just to make the plan a bit lighter) here. There are some other oddness there as well, with pathways and bumpy terrain here and there. Maybe this is because my contour lines are not straight but curved? Then again, that's how they are in real life :/ terraintest2.zip

Roll out pantry, yes, that's it Yeah, I couldn't figure it out how to make one in Home Designer, but thought that it's just because I don't know all the fine tricks yet. And yes, I would like to show it open as it would be easier to show my plans to my better half if she can see it open / closed. And, because all other kitchen cabins can be opened and closed, I thought if I could somehow create realistic roll out pantry as well... For now I have created a simple full height cabinet with 5 drawers, and I guess that has to do then. Maybe this kind of cabinet will be added in Home Designer later, or at least some way to create one

All right, fairly new user here so apologies if I ask stupid questions My problem is that I cannot figure out, how to make full height pullout cabinet that has one big drawer door with many wire baskets attached to it. There's language barrier here, as I am not sure what is this cabin called in english (see the picture)... In Finnish it would be "pharmacist's cabinet" but I cannot find anything in Home Designer catalogs with that search phrase (or with anything else I tried). Anyway, I am planning to add one in my kitchen that I am now modelling. It's easy to create a cabinet with multiple drawers but I want only one tall and thin drawer with many open shelves behind that. Is that possible to create somehow in Home Designer?