jplee123

@ResQav8r - I love your use of the term nit-noid. That is exactly what this problem is for me. The terrain "dip" near the walls is probably inconsequential. And I tend to waste time trying to answer all the possible questions the viewer(s) (city engineers) might ask. I need to move on to the other layouts (floor, elevations, etc). Having said that, my father (structural engineer) does work with a development firm that has no architects - only draftsmen. He signs off on their A-sheet (Architectural) plans. All the structural detail and calculations he does in AutoCAD. We're taking a similar approach on this project (my home extension + new garage) with me using my amateur HD Pro 2020 skills to create A-sheets and my dad (SE) creating structural details in AutoCAD and calcs on good old fashions paper. He will stamp and sign my A-sheets. If the city starts asking for more architectural detail, I may rent Chief Premier for a month or two ($199/mo) to get them what they want. Visualizations is all I need for the A-sheets, but I do wish I had Layout Sets, the ability to create multiple layouts from one plan and symbol Legends. With HD Pro, I'm having to copy and modify a plan file per layout since I can only show 1 set of layers within a given .plan file. I did start my work with a professional architect who uses Chief Architect, but I got burned and ended up parting ways him - unfortunately after I had already made 80% of the scheduled payments. The .plan files posted here are entirely mine. This architect made copies and modified them, but added very little value in terms of design and planning with the City. He never even visited my site nor did he communicate with the City effectively. Like you, I'm envious of the Professionals here that use Chief Architect rather than Home Designer. But I can't justify spending thousands more in software for my one project. It has been fun to learn this software though, especially with folks like @DavidJPotter helping me with the difficult stuff! Thanks David! Jay.

Thanks Jo_Ann. Where would you put the french drains? Would you use more than one in the location of the sump pit I've got on my plan? See bottom of the below screenshot.

Hi David. You're hilarious while incredibly helpful. Your Texas humor made for a good morning laugh. Thank you! I should have clarified my goal. My goal with this grading plan is to communicate to my City Building/Engineering dept how I plan to drain storm water as we re-pave the driveway and back yard. While I wish I had a flat property that drained storm water gracefully to the street (I'm supposed to avoid draining to my neighbors' properties)... My property forms a slight but very large "pit" in the back yard where the low point is about 21 inches lower than the high point next to my porch. This causes storm water to collect and flood in that area. At the rear (left/west) is a retaining wall with the neighbor's terrain about 18" higher than mine. Towards the front (right/east) of my property is a high spot where you see the flat rectangular elevation area next to the porch. The city wants to know how I plan to drain storm water, so my dad (structural engineer) proposes a sump pit which I chose to place next to the garage, away from the huge Oak tree that sits near the current low point in our property. Currently, since storm water drains near the oak tree, this seems to be encouraging it to grow its roots into our driveway, creating some ugly breaks and undulations in the existing pavement. The elevation points and colorful CAD lines (existing structures) were imported from a topographical survey I had done (see attached, Topo...plan). I used these as reference/starting points, but... I've found that the survey points don't make for a very good terrain/grading plan in Home Designer Pro. I removed many of the survey points in the rear as I planned for the new grade. But since I'm not touching the front (this project is an extension of the house towards the rear and a replacement of the garage), I made the best of it by leaving most of the points as-is. With respect to the elevation data In the plan... Where you see -24" overlapping the of +22" The +22" is an Elevation Line (as expected) but... The -24" is a "Raised/Lowered region" which I pulled from Terrain -> Modifiers. i.e. I don't think it's an elevation region. I'm still learning to use these modifiers, but I had the impression that these are specified in relative heights, rather than absolute heights (as Elevation Lines would be). Also, I found that a narrow "Lowered Region" modifier doesn't actually modify the full specified height modification of -24... I had to set this extreme value to get the effect that I wanted, which is to mildly "dip" the pavement to route water behind (left of) the garage and towards the sump pit. The terrain "dips" that I'm trying to address are very subtle and only show in the few inches immediately adjacent to the garage wall. In your video, I do see the dips in your 3D Perspective view, ... at 15:31 ... ... at 15:39... ... you'd have to zoom way into the wall (like you're crawling on the ground carefully eyeballing where the wall meets the ground). I appreciate your coaching and expertise. If the city notices that the elevation contours take a dip near the garage walls, I'm resolved to simply explaining verbally to them that this is not the intended design, but a software issue that I can't seem to overcome. Thanks again David for your generosity, expertise, and humor! Jay. Topo-217ValleVistaAve.plan

Hi David. Long time. Hope you've been well. That's strange. I've found that the contours of the concrete terrain aren't super visible without messing around with the sunlight angles for the 3D perspective camera. Do you know if there's a better way to illustrate the contours in 3D perspective views? It would be nice to be able to impose a grid (like graph paper) over the terrain. I managed to correct most of the contours of the overall yard around the garage (see below)... But if I pull the terrain to cover the last few inches near the garage wall (under the swinging door entry), I get "the dip" again (see below)... I attached an updated ZIP/Grading plan. If you can't open it, no worries. I think the plan is "good enough" now. I'd love it if you could help me figure this out - It's just really bothering me. Thanks! Jay. ArchitecturalPlan07v1-Sheet-A-202-GradingPlan.zip

Hello. I've been working on the terrain elevations on my home plan and am running into a bit of strange behavior around my garage. I would like for the finished ground (concrete) around the garage structure to slope up slightly (about 2-4" vs surrounding ground) within the 8-12" area closest to the wall so as to divert water flow away from the foundation and away from the door openings. But for some reason, the concrete terrain keeps "dipping" down a few inches as it nears the stem wall. In the below perspective screenshot, the read outlined area is what I don't want. The green outlined area is what I do want. The below screenshot shows approximate intended storm water drainage flow in rough ugly blue arrows (mspaint - sorry) along with the approximate camera angle for the shot taken above. I've tried placing elevation lines, elevation regions, and raised regions a few inches higher than the surrounding ground along the wall in an attempt to force the terrain to slope up towards the wall, to no avail. Can somebody please help me figure out why my terrain keeps "dipping" as it nears the garage walls? Thank you! Jay Home Designer Pro 2020 ArchitecturalPlan07v1-Sheet-A-202-GradingPlan.zip

Got it. Thanks for explaining. In this case, it was my pure ignorance - not even knowing what questions to ask, other than to ask for a topographical + boundary survey - that got me into this situation.

Thank you Eric. - Signature updated. - The ChiefTalk folks had some useful feedback. - I'll check other forums as you suggested. - Not sure what you meant by: "Don't try to appear more knowledgeable than you are." Can you clarify? Jay.

Hello. Are contour lines and building (floor, roof) elevation data normally included in a topographical survey? I had expected this from my topo + boundary survey, but the surveyor does not appear to have provided these details in my survey deliverables (attached). I created the .plan from the .dwg, having imported all details using Home Designer Pro 2020). Did I do the import incorrectly? The vendor has become non-responsive. In case I'm unable to settle this via simple/friendly means, how would I submit and settle a dispute about this? Here is the text of the agreement, which doesn't specify one way or the other that contour lines & building elevations will be included, so I believe I'm left with standard & traditional service definitions of a Topographical survey. 2 additional pages of the agreement include only standard legal-ese (e.g. arbitration agreement), not any further definitions of services. All service descriptions are referenced back to the proposal shown above. As always, thank you! Jay. Topo-217ValleVistaAve.dwg Topo-217ValleVistaAve.zip Survey217ValleVistaAveModel.pdf

Thank you David. I may consider buying or renting HD Pro. I appreciate all your help!

Thank you Eric. That's a great idea.

Yes. Exactly!

Hello. I have a rough home design for which I'm nearing completion of external wall and roof design. However, the roof will not build correctly using the auto-rebuild feature. My goal roof design is simple - The front portion of the house (where porch is, towards the right) exists and is covered by a 10x12 pitch roof. The current ridgeline exists as it shows in the drawing. I'm adding to the rear (where the deck and garage are located, on the left of the plan), and would like a simple gabled roof with a shallower pitch (2 x 12) that should meet with the existing roof aft (to the rear) of the current roof's ridgeline in a clean "T". PROBLEMS: 1) for some reason the rear roof stops "gabling" just over the staircase, and appears to turn into a high shed style roof as it approaches the existing roof's ridgeline. 2) one wall appears to jut out the top of the existing roof like a shark's fin. 3) The existing roof appears to be split with the ridgeline not being continuous, but rather broken about 1/3 of the way through. I have been working on this problem for 2 full days and have tried manipulating just about every wall to correct this issue. I would appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you! Jay. I've uploaded both zipped and unzipped versions of my .plan file (same .plan file in the zip) for your downloading options. ArchitecturalPlan06b-2floor.zip ArchitecturalPlan06b-2floor.plan