DavidJPotter

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

This is not a true statement, only you are responsible for any outcomes good or bad. When you have taken full responsibility for learning the software then you will have fewer problems that only you and your ignorance are causing. Please do not take this personally , all new users do as you have done. You will save yourself a lot of grief to not guess what to do but rather find out what to do and not do so the software then becomes an ally and you become competent with it. Part of the learning curve is finding out what the software can and can't do. DJP

Depending upon what software you have "Display Options" while in plan view DJP

Post a copy of your plan please, let others take a look. DJP

What software title and version are you using? What did you actually do to create the deck? Please post a copy of your troublesome plan file. DJP

You have the right idea, be sure your "save-as" name can be clearly understood later. DJP

"Home Designer" is too generalized to be useful as Eric pointed out. Home Designer Pro, Architectural and Suite all have the ability to "slope soffits". That ability is vital to arriving at the look of vaulted ceiling beams. If you do not have one of these programs you will have to upgrade in order to do as you wish. DJP

The auto roof planes generator first "reads" the ceiling height settings of each room specification dialog, so if you result in varying fascia heights the tool is reading varying ceiling heights, reacting accordingly. So if you are manually repairing this you first must make sure that adjoining roof planes match in their Roof plan Specification dialogs have matching values for " Fascia Top, Baseline height and pitch". When you have achieved in all adjacent roof planes you can then easily join them using the "Join Roof Planes tool". There are several video tutorials on my You Tube site demonstrating the above, look for them. DJP

Frances, You need to toggle up to the <A> or attic level and find the wall that is building short over the porch and manually extend its length to the left so it fills in properly, The software does this sort of thing all the time and it is up to you to then repair such short falls. DJP

No screen image was included. First thing you should do is learn how to use the software you bought (Read the Reference Manual and stop guessing please). What I would do is to turn off newel posts (set them to 1/16" on the newels and balusters tab). Then I would create and align a Terrain Plane to the house. Then I would place columns I wanted manually from the Library Browser. then I would use the click stairs tool which auto calculates how many treads are necessary to bridge from a porch or deck to the terrain plane. Lastly there are two ways to handle the deck or porch: 1. You can go to level zero (foundation) and manually draw stem walls under the front porch or 2. By way of the structure tab of the front porch you can thicken the front porch slab setting to be the thickness you desire. It is all in the Reference Manual sections. DJP

What I have had to do on remodel jobs like this is to take a similar material and make it look like asbestos siding. Since asbestos siding is no longer legal to buy is why no such materials exist in the library browser. You might search the web for siding images that you might then download and then import as custom materials also. DJP

You should carefully read the Reference Manual sections that address framing and the framing dialog. I think that is what you need to do and then practice what you learned. DJP

These Knowledge Base articles may help you: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=story+and+a+half DJP

I am sorry in that I made a video but the sound did not record for some reason. What I did was to add a room above the room where you wanted the 18' ceiling. I designated it "Open Below" so as to remove the floor. On the first floor I opened the dialog boxes for the kitchen and great room and unchecked "ceiling" making the second floor room the one that defines the ceiling for both spaces. I then added a cabinet soffit over the exposed section of the room common with the house. The edited file is attached below. DJP File DMA-E_08-26-16.plan