DavidJPotter

First off software does not "understand" anything, it is a sophisticated but purely mechanical device which you must always guide or goad to a desired result. Stairs and all other objects in HD Pro have dialog boxes where you can control certain aspects of their appearance, take a look at the stair dialog to see. Please post a copy of your plan so others may then help in detail. DJP

Provided your pre settings are correct you should not loose the house roof when adding a garage unless of course the garage is attached to the house which then alter the overall design. If you were to provide a copy of your plan file and perhaps a sketch or description of the garage's roof, then something specific could then be offered as useful help. DJP

No, not in Home Designer Pro. It's layout files are one per page and only one page (layout file) at a time can be open at one time. In Chief Architect Premier its layout page file contains 1,000 potential pages in a single layout page file, so what you are looking for exists in Premier only. DJP

Read this please: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00048/downloading-library-catalogs.html DJP

Most of the answers you seek are in your Reference Manual, please read it. In terms of the sink, though it takes a few extra steps, one can download and import sinks from 3D Warehouse or other sources, take a look. DJP

By the way, I would not call the above "quick questions". DJP

This is a variable issue: when you are speaking of ceiling height the answer needs to be clearly stated, you can measure from the unfinished floor to the unfinished ceiling or you can measure from the finished floor to finished ceiling, which you will find are different dimensions. I set defaults by "Finished Ceiling-finished floor" because that is the most important outcome to the client or for your home. The actual finished thickness of floor coverings and ceiling coverings can vary by room. By controlling overall quality settings and by "frames per second" The software tries to emulate the real world which does not follow your desired behavior of the Sun. I think if you will carefully read the Reference Manual section on Sun Angle will help you understand what can and cannot be done. All Home Designer titles and versions use a lighting protocol called " Open GL or Open Graphic Language" as such it only allows the presence of "8 light sources per view per second". Interior views are per room, exterior views are 8 light sources per view.

Open your framing defaults and really stare at the dialog please DJP

These Knowledge Base Help articles may help: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=renderings+all+black DJP

Here is a You Tube video I made that might help: https://youtu.be/rA64F8ujLcM DJP

It is not completely clear what you do wish to achieve. Posting a copy of your plan helps but for any useful help to be offered it must be crystal clear what you wish to do. No one knows that better than you, so please make it clear first, post a copy of your plan so that others can then help with some certainty. DJP

With anything except Home Designer Pro, you must be utterly precise with presettings to guide the roof generator to a desired result. In order to do that you need to understand well how Home Designer is programmed to achieve results, guessing does not count and if fact just makes things harder than first finding out what to do by way of careful study of your Reference Manual found under "Help". You should also study "Roof types" found in the build roof dialog which explains the necessary pre settings for each roof type. Rather than trying to learn all you need to know as you go is almost impossible, so I recommend that you practice and learn on simple test plans until your grasp of the software is sufficient to then do what you want to do. DJP

Here is a You Tube video of me working on your file: https://youtu.be/QeFrBuOqRuI DJP

Au contrair, mon ami! I have Home Designer titles running just fine back to Version 10 running on my Windows 10 x 64 PC DJP

If the CAD details are in dxf format then yes, in other file formats then the answer is probably NO DJP

You should contact Chief Architect Inc Tech Support for such questions. They know how Chief is programmed to work, you get opinions here (not very useful really), call them and find out the Truth. A cloud based system might work but only ONE file can be used by a group and by only one user at a time not several users at once. Verify this with Tech Support please. DJP

If you mean, nut and bolt duplicate log home structures the answer is NO, if you mean emulate, look like and be useful to build log homes, the answer is yes. I know of no 3D modeling program anywhere that duplicates, log by log, a log home. I suppose Sketch UP could be used, making the logs one at a time, stacking them, then creating the windows and doors one at a time from scratch then adding roofs, well I say to you, no thank you, very much, ugh. DJP

The best that can be done is by adjusting lighting and adjusting material properties. That is not a "Science" but is rather an Art. You get good at those adjustments by hours and hours of trial and error tweaking. The ones that look the best probably took awhile to tweak-render-tweak-render until your level of quality control is reached. Secondarily, the quality of one's video card and monitor can be a limiting factor in Home Designer renders, the better the video card the better-quicker you get the best possible results. DJP

The key is to make the exterior wall thicker and then as LawB suggests use a thinner wall segment for the window to be in and to slant the sides, as LawB suggests. It is a bit of additional work to do so. How much you do is controlled by your desire to have it look right or not. DJP

Delete the "round window" and replace it with a default window which you can then control by way of its dialog box. The specialty windows from the Library Browser can be resized but not otherwise changed as to their character. DJP

In Home Designer titles and versions LawB's answer is correct, In Chief Architect Premier one can set images and objects on any layer or custom made layers and then turn them on or off at need but as I said, this is only possible in Premier. DJP

Sometimes the "dormer tool" is not the "answer", in such cases you create the dormer manually where you need-want it and you might have to roof it manually as well. In short, you do what the architectural situation requires, there is no wrote "right" answer. DJP

Architectural has no such ability, you will have to upgrade to Chief Premier to do as you wish, I am sorry to say. DJP

Your trusses were built before you manually created trusses, that is why they are sticking through the roof plane. Each truss must not be opened and marked "Force Truss rebuild" to correct the existing situation. This is controlled firstly by the ceiling height setting per room specification dialog or Edit - Default Settings - Floor - Ceiling Height setting per floor. There is an additional control for specific truss conditions in the "Build Roof Dialog - raise off plate input box" that is fully explained in your Reference Manual. In every State of the USA only Structural Engineers can design trusses and other structural instances, are you a State Licensed Structural Engineer? DJP

Since you are not being very specific, I would use 1" thick upper cabinets as appliques to emulate the wainscot, placing them by the stairs in an elevation camera. You would be limited to the current selection of cabinet fronts to apply that is what came to mind. DJP