DavidJPotter

There is a 2D CAD "Electric and Audio Legend" that ships with Chief Premier. I do not see why you could not import that into Pro and use it. The only problem I have with it is that it is too extensive (That means that I often have to edit the symbols and text to fit my particular plan). For rather simple plans, I recommend the approach I used when I started using walls and symbols (some electrical symbols will not allow being inserted into anything but a wall, visible or invisible). Also attached is the 2D CAD legend I spoke of. Download the compressed archive to your hard drive, decompress the zip file and then import the .dfx file and add to your library if you like. DJP electric legend.zip

There are in drafting two ways to designate a material: 1. Assign a texture file to your framing so it looks as you expect 2. Using text annotations you specify what the appearance is intended to be Whether or not the texture is or is not actual, your construction notes define the actuality of the apparent material. What you annotate will be followed no matter what it looks like. No one is going to live in your virtual, digital model, its purpose is to guide other professionals to an intended result. DJP

Not meaning to sound snarky but if you are not a State Licensed Structural Engineer it hardly matters (trusses throughout the USA are by law to be designed by State Licensed Structural Engineers). So anything you draw is purely conceptual relative to structural matters). You would have to upgrade to Home Designer Pro to attain complete control over roofs and thus trusses (In this software the program fills the void between roof and ceiling structures with a truss object, so total control over those areas would be paramount to accurately portray trusses. DJP

You can change walls by shift-select, then their Materials Tab - interior- exterior but the best way is to open a single wall -Wall types tab and alter the entire wall type. That way all instances of that wall type are globally changed but you are always best served by changing your Exterior Wall Default settings first as opposed to making changes locally in the plan file. If you want to change the material on only one wall you use its dialog box-materials Tab exterior or interior material setting and it will effect only that one wall. DJP

The second floor is divided into three "rooms" (areas enclosed with walls). They are all set to have a ceiling height of 108". What this does is to force the side walls through the roof, they are trying to follow your orders which do not fit the geometry of the roof). I lowered the ceiling heights of the three rooms to 96" and that action seemed to solve the unwanted artifacts through the roof. DJP

In Architectural after you place a sink it is still resizable, you click on the sink object, hit the tab key to select just the sink object. When it is selected, it will display handles for resizing in terms of width and length. DJP

There are several ways to corrupt material settings, none of which can be determined without access to your plan. There are of course "Default Settings - Materials - Exterior Walls", Default Settings - Wall - Exterior Wall", you could have a problem changing the default material of your exterior walls using the Material Painter or Sprayer without first changing default settings for that wall type. There is also a specialized way to select the entire exterior of a structure and then setting its material using that tool without changing Default Settings - Exterior Walls or Default Settings - Materials - Exterior Walls. New users often just guess as to how to change materials without first studying how to properly use those tools and settings which of course then brings chaos and dismay. This is the most common new user problem. DJP

HD Pro has 2D CAD tools including text, lines, arc's, closed poly-lines, circle and ovoid tools. All other HD titles have fewer such tools. What exactly do you have (HD doesn't communicate very much since there are six or seven different titles per version. DJP

Were I you, I would create a new plan, name it "Electrical Legend" and then place invisible walls in two or more vertical rows and then place electrical objects on the invisible walls with text to the right of each symbol, defining what the symbol represents. Then send that plan view to layout, scaled to fit. Save that plan for future use in other plans. That is how I made my first electric legend back in 1995 and it still works. DJP

You can suggest that Bosch appliances be added as a feature request, that is how things happen or not. They respond to multiple requests. DJP

No, existing keyboard commands are fixed and listed to the "right" of the action in the drop down menus where they exist. In Chief Architect Premier you can create and change keyboard commands but not in any Home Designer title. DJP

Remove the unwanted appliances. Create a cavity in the target cabinet large enough to make room for the intended appliance. Using control Key-drag you then manually place the 3D warehouse appliance into the prepared cavity. Appliance objects that ship with Pro are programmed to interact with cabinets, 3D Warehouse objects are not so programmed so additional steps are necessary to use them. DJP

I would use two custom slabs one set to stainless steel and the other to glass, each set to exact thickness DJP

Read some of these Knowledge Base Help Articles for custom fireplaces: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=fireplace DJP

You draw the shed roof manually. Then in plan view align its ridge with the main ridge. Then open the dialog box of the main roof. Copy the "Ridge" value of the main roof to the Windows clipboard. Open the dialog of the shed roof. Paste the Ridge height value obtained from the main roof into the input box of the shed roof. When that is done both the shed and main roofs will have the same ridge height. You then set the pitch by placing the "Radio Button" beside the "Ridge" input box. This allows you to change the shed roof's pitch without changing its ridge height. This video may help with the above http://djpdesigns.com/roof-dialog.html DJP

Any Home Designer titles have a "half wall" tool, The more you pay the more you can do is the rule. DJP

You create a ".layout" file for each printed page (floor plan.layout, second floor.layout. Elevations.layout, Electrical Plan.layout etc) or as Kat brings up, you can upgrade to Chief Premier. That is the way it is designed to work. DJP

All the professional interior decorators I work with use Chief Premier Interiors due to its additional tools and choices. Chief Premier Interiors supports high resolution Ray Traced renderings for client presentation, Home Designer titles all have a lower resolution rendering capability. All Home Designer and Chief Premier have libraries of editable as to dimensions furniture and fixtures. If you need something beyond what ships with these titles (the more expensive, the more choices and tools) you can augment those selections using imports of symbols and constructs from "3D Warehouse" and other on line resources. Free trial versions of all Home Designer and Chief Premier can be downloaded and tried out before purchase. DJP

The attic ceiling height like any other space is controlled by the ceiling height of the room specification dialog. Like Eric said to facilitate having a room specification dialog you must have a "floor" (if your space is programmed to be specifically "attic" no "rooms" are then possible. Follow the instructions offered in KB-00358 to understand the overall concept of what you intend and then apply what you have learned. DJP

As has been suggested you take an existing wall type from what the program has and edit it to emulate the thickness of the intended container wall, the outer most layer would be assigned a texture file that looks like ribbed steel ( you will have to search the net for such a texture or make it yourself and bring it in as a custom material). In order to emulate the steel ceiling you will need to program the container "room" to have "No ceiling over this room" and emulate the ceiling with a sized soffit the right thickness with your exterior texture applied to it and another soffit under it to emulate the interior ceiling (these two soffits would be sandwiched, one on top of the other so inside you could see finished ceiling and outside you see metal finish. You are right in that a drawing board, pencil and eraser might be easier, it is up to you. DJP

It is not advised procedure to ever move the house ever, you move the terrain plane and its terrain objects to the house always. DJP

The double lines you mention look like walls that you made invisible. Upgrading will not fix your lack of understanding of how to properly use the software. All I see is a plan file created by a new user who has not well studied and understood how the software is designed to work. That is the main purpose of the Reference Manual to answer the questions of How do I get a particular result and why. Do some studying not some upgrading. DJP

Part of the new versions are changes in where things are, they are still there but some things have been moved. DJP

Have you set the default exterior wall to what you are using in your plan? Have you opened the dialog box for each dormer and changed the material of the wall using the dormer's material tab? The solution to materials assignments is first setting defaults in Edit-Default Settings-Materials and also Edit-Default Settings- Wall. You will have fewer problems if you set your defaults first and use the materials panter and eye-dropper less. DJP

Probably more like "unwanted" as opposed to "Strange". You can vary the ceiling heights in various areas until you get a more acceptable result or you can upgrade to Home Designer Pro where you can manually edit and create roofs not dependant only upon settings as in Architectural, your choice. DJP