DavidJPotter

It may be that you are seeing merely the overall quality of your PC or MAC hardware as opposed to something else. Attached is a dollhouse image I made from your plan using "Standard Render", Water color and Technical Illustration camera types (see attached images), so there are other choices for you. DJP

You should be able to download older libraries, try and see. Older plan files can be opened in newer versions but older versions cannot open and edit newer version plan files, that is the way it has always been. DJP

I am sorry no one has acknowledged your post. The fact is that none of us can directly help you, even if we wanted to. Your problem is germane to your PC and as such, your best source of help will be Chief Architect Tech Support during their Pacific Time office hours, M-F. DJP

Welcome to the forum. In order to deliver help, helpers need to know what software you use and its version number. Home Designer software, each version has several differing titles and each title has differing abilities to get things done, very important. The first thing you need to do before any other thing is take the time to really learn how to use the software you bought, its settings and procedures. If you do not, you will merely create chaos and wasted time for yourself. Be kind to yourself and take the time to study and practice with what you have. whatever it is. DJP

Thank you, with Pro you can directly edit manually deck framing, alas this is not as easy to do in Architectural but you can emulate additional posts and footings using cabinet soffits and footing objects. DJP

And your question is? What? DJP

There is no Magic or tricks, just knowing your settings, tools and procedures as well as what the software can and cannot be made to do, the main limitation is your skill and knowledge only. DJP

You can set the door or window to "Recessed to sheathing" or "Recessed to the main layer" by way of the objects Specification Dialog - Frame Tab, that is what is available. DJP

Some of these articles may help you, please take a look: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=custom+material DJP

What Eric means is that how to create custom materials has been discussed here before. If you know how to create custom materails, you can do whatever you like with them within their barriers. Also read some these help articles: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=custom+material DJP

How to create precisely the kind of house you want is described in the "Build Roof specification dialog - Roof Styles - Barn Roof" , like Eric said, give it a shot and let us know how it turns out. DJP

All you will get from images is guesses, please post a copy of your plan file that others can evaluate and study. DJP

The various choices are due to who you are sharing the files or views with. Exporting 2D DXF or DWG views is for sharing with other 2D based CAD programs like AutoCAD, TurboCAD, IntelliCAD and others. 3DS file format is for posting 3D models for others to view, freely at Sketchfab.com or persons who have other 3D CAD programs like Lumion, Artlantis, Revit and others. For sharing with my clients I use Adobe PDF because the ability to print and view such files is almost universal I see from your images that you have Chief Architect Premier, as such you should, in the future post at Chief Talk, few persons here have Premier but rather have Home Designer titles. DJP

if you want to have a common rafter vaulted ceiling all you need do is to remove the second floor area where the vault is to be, its ceiling in its room specification dialog and then name the clerestory area "open below" to remove its floor. on the corresponding first floor space you remove its ceiling on the first floor room specification dialog - structure tab. If you want a scissor truss situation you draw the lower pitch of the ceiling using Custom Ceiling planes found under Roof Tools - Build menu. DJP

Yes, I looked. DJP

Not to my knowledge, I was making Electrical Legends myself as early as Chief Architect Premier Version 8 DJP

This software is controlled by a hierarchy of settings starting with Edit - Default Settings etc and then lower down the chain in Room Specification Dialog Settings mainly in the Structure Tab. Since I do not have your plan, I then have to guess what is the problem. My guess would be that you set room ceiling heights in your Room Dialog boxes but NOT in Edit - Default Settings - Floor. This is a good guess but merely a guess, you will get better answers when you also share your current plan file so we can then look and not guess. DJP

IF you mark the plan while open in Pro 2017 to " allow editing in other Home Designer products", if you did that then they can, if you did not, they can't. The setting is found in "Plan Defaults". I verified this in my copies of Pro and Suite 2017. DJP

In terms of roof tools there is NO difference between Chief Architect Premier and Home Designer Pro, none. DJP

There is a "Display Options" for plan view and for each camera type, check and see if "Walls Foundation" unchecked in the camera you are using. DJP

In Suite 2012 look in "Edit - Default Settings - Dimensions - Format Tab" found there is what you can and cannot do. DJP

Home Designer does not do "slanted or sloped floors" like garages commonly have. So to account for that I usually drop the floor level of a garage about 6" relative to the rest of the house. I mark the garage floor plan area "sloped floor". The idea is that the highest floor level is higher than minus 6 inches but does account for the sloped floor so the lowest point would per force be undeath the garage door's bottom. In thirty years of drafting I have found this workable. DJP

Too little actual data to reply with any help. How wide is "Wide" ? What software are you using? Not all software titles can print to particular sizes, what do you have? DJP

Elovia has a point relative to masonry fences, in that in the "real world" such things are stepped to follow changes in terrain. So a fence would follow the curvature of the terrain plane whereas a stone fence could follow terrain or as Elovia pointed out remain horizontal to the grade for sections. So in order to do this, I would use custom slabs that carry a CMU material. One could then copy paste and manually align the slabs one to another and relative to the changes in height of the terrain. Not a quick solution but rather a workable one. DJP

The most usual suspects are software drivers (mouse and video drivers). Update them both to the latest for each device. Secondly how full is your main hard drive (drive "C" on a PC), when a hard drive which contains the operating system becomes too full, it cannot be properly maintained (it becomes fragmented and cannot be defragmented due to lack of free space). Such a case is handled by removing unnecessary, unused applications which are merely "taking up space" and not actively contributing to your computing experience. This needs to be done carefully making sure that you know what each of the removed applications actually do being careful not to remove often unused but vitally important applications. The most obvious candidates would be in the category of "bloat ware": games you do not play or use, applications added to your hard drive by your PC maker when you purchased the machine (they do this to help defray the cost of making the machine, charging application makers "advertising money" offering "Free Trial Versions" of various applications and internet services. Finally one should by default take steps to protect one's PC or Mac from virus and malware, the most important steps are regular scanning for such objects and using common sense to not open suspicious e mails and not visiting questionable websites while browsing the internet. So the solution is adopting a new Lifestyle relative to using a computer and regularly then maintaining good sound, safe practices using it. DJP