DavidJPotter

You can adjust "Ambient Light". You can add light fixtures or light sources to brighten any camera view or elevation camera. You can also adjust materials to emit light (emmisive). Several things that you can do to lighten up a camera view of any type. DJP

Zoom in to gain greater control over just about anyting. DJP

You need to place the wall oven and then create an "open space" for the Micro Wave and then manually place the Micro Wave Oven in that created space. Here is a You Tube video of me doing the above in Suite 2017: https://youtu.be/ylaFVMKGwpg DJP

Make sure all of your Default Settings for "Floor, Roofing, wall framing and ceiling framing are correctly set and that your model is exactly as you want it before building framing. The software succeeds or fails on how well you set your defaults and then following proper procedure (see Users Guide). DJP

Wall heights are controlled by 1. the ceiling height you set per Room Dialog box - Structure Tab and 2. Between the set ceiling height and the ridge of the roof the software is programmed to auto-fill in with Attic Walls (Marked "No Locate, No Room Define and Attic Wall" found on their "General Tab". These walls will be visible on the "<A> or attic plan view level and in cross sections and isometric views). Where you have a clerestory situation you normally should NOT draw those walls in on the second floor but rather let the software auto-fill those in as it is programmed to do. So if you insist on manually drawing such walls on the second floor be sure and mark them "No Room Define" or name the enclosed space on the second floor as "Open Below". On the first floor of such clerestory rooms you would remove the ceiling by way of that room dialog box. The dormer can by way of its dialog be set to form a room which once done can be programmed to "Open Below" which then should give you a skylight appearance to the room below. DJP

This procedure has not changed in Chief Premier or Home Designer since the feature was first added several versions (years) ago. Look it up in your Reference Manual under Custom Materials where that is all explained in detail. DJP

Read the Reference Manual section on "Custom Materials" please. That should make it clearer. DJP

Elovia and most of the rest of us are NOT State Licensed Structural Engineers and as such if any of us answer any Engineering questions we could be fined for doing so. In Texas it is a $5,000.00 file levied by the State Architectural Board, such policies vary from state to state but anywhere in the USA, that is a 'NO-NO". Hire a real Engineer and them them as agents of your State do their jobs. DJP

In Suite, yes absolutely! Get the roof right by any means and then turn off Auto Rebuild Roofs and finish the design. DJP

You can also just make filler upper cabinets and base cabinets that are 3" wide and manually place them, before auto fillers were added several versions that was the only way it could be done and the old method still works. DJP

Home Designer Pro and Chief Premiers framing tools are virtually the same with a few exceptions. This video produced by Chief Inc should be helpful to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2C-VNGVsBw DJP

You get variations of finished ceiling height due to variations in floor finish thickness. This and other software is purely mechanical, controlled by settings that you make, fail to make or make wrongly. The software is not capable of judgement, prediction, logic rather it has some automaticities that are often helpful but not always. The main thing you must grasp is that it is up to you and only you to guide and control the software to a specific result. The software "knows" nothing and "does nothing" other than how it is programmed to work and your specific orders, good or bad. DJP

Here is an additional solution explained in this You Tube video done in Suite 2017 https://youtu.be/HS_XQLa9qH8 DJP

Make sure all exterior walls are aligned floor to floor, you also might try rebuilding roofs after you have aligned the walls. DJP

I believe you will find that "802" is actually 802 Square Feet which you can divide by the SF of the panels to obtain an estimate of how many panels. It is programmed to measure in liner feet for framing and trims and square feet for things like roofing, it is fully explained in your Reference Manual, take a look. DJP

There is no interior wall directly below the inner gable so the software, being completely mechanical, just does not automatically fill in the missing gable wall. All you need to do is to go to the Attic level (<A>), find the attic wall that is partially missing and manually draw it so it extends all the way across. DJP

Try importing this please. (See the attachment) DJP Utility.calibz

The main limitation of the dormer tool is that a dormer object cannot form across two roof planes, it has to reside fully within a single roof plane in order to form so, if you want it directly over the front door you will have to create a dormer manually, which is hard to do in terms of your "first time" doing so. DJP

The answer as Eric pointed out is to be found in your "Build Roof Specification Dialog - Roof Styles Tab" Take a look DJP

The steps necessary to import an image as a "custom material" are simple but non-forgiving of any missteps, something must have been not properly done with the importation process. Recheck the article and try again please. I do know it works, I have done it many times. DJP

With plot plans, the hard part is making sure that once imported, that the dxf or image file is properly scaled for tracing over. When a .dxf file is imported it must be scaled to 1' = 1' (the native plan view scale of Home Designer and Chief Architect). I was probably scaled to fit a particular piece of printed paper (scaled down to fit), the same is true of scanned images of plot plans which are commonly scaled down to fit a piece of printed paper (1" = 20", 1" = 50' etc.) DJP

I did a You Tube look over video I couldn't fit everything into the video and could not tell just from your posted photographs the following: 1. You did not carefully set Ceiling heights in "Edit Default settings per floor" that is why your initial try's at auto roof generation failed. 2. once you have preset all relevant Default Settings only then would you then start creating (drawing) the house model. 3. Presetting certain walls - roof tabs to guide the roof generator was probably not done or at least not done successfully You set your defaults, then draw the exterior walls, create the second floor and line up its exterior walls, floor to floor. Then check to make sure all room specification floor and ceiling settings are properly pre set, then all wall-roof tab settings are properly set for the outcome you want, only then would I autobuild roofs. The last step is to check over, evaluate what the auto roof generator did to see what you must then clean up manually. Roughly that is the sequence of events in creating any structure model. In order to figure out what roof pitches to use you really must climb on the roof and measure them to determine their pitch. Only true, accurate data applied to your model will get you a useable result. https://youtu.be/Ts-XVGBDmxE DJP

Here is a short You Tube video of me fixing your plan: https://youtu.be/Vu4ctdz9enQ DJP

I checked your claims in my copy of Home Designer Suite using the sofa you indicated. I found nothing at all wrong. You mentioned ".jpg and .gif swatches..." , were those custom materials that you imported? The standard Library Browser fabric materials work fine, so that must be a problem in how you imported, named and programmed your custom materials is what I think. What did you actually do, step by step? DJP

Post a copy of your problem plan (is this a problem in all plans or just this one?). Otherwise all we can do is guess and make suppositions. DJP