DavidJPotter

What software title and version are you using please? DJP

Take Eric's advice in terms of when asking a question it needs to be in the context of what software you have and use. Each Title and Version have its own set of skills, tools and limitations which tend to define the answers. Generally speaking you can do just about anything you can think of using Sketch Up to make custom applicques and objects, not native to Home Designer software and then import and use them. Native limitations exist and part of learning the software is learning what it natively can do and what must be done elsewhere to create just the needed-wanted effect. The only real limiter is the end user and their ideas of what is acceptable. DJP

Rather than some opinions you will get here, you might fare better asking Chief Architect Tech Support that specific question because it is rather technical in nature. DJP

Angled in plan view? Sure. (X-Y axis) Angled in the vertical plane, no. (Z- axis) There are ways to emulate slanted walls in the verticle but not easily in Home Designer Software. You can add custom objects to verticle walls so they looked slanted at least on one side. Freeform applications like Sketch Up can do this sort of thing but they are of course not object-oriented like Chief Inc software, it is hard to have both a totally free hand and fixed objects with preprogrammed attributes in one application. DJP

How to do all basic roof styles is explained in the software within the "Build Roof" dialog "Roof Styles" tab with pictures and text how to preset the software for a particular outcome or result. Your roof type is called a "shed roof" in that information. DJP

I never looked for a rotate handle while in any camera views because it is so much easier to control and locate such items while in plan view where all the handels do show when something is selected. Perfection in anything is not something I tend to expect or even wish for. I do appreciate workability and this software, though not perfect is very workable and fascile which is good enough for me. DJP

If you have Home Designer Pro you can manually-selectively raise and lower any roof plane using the "Transform-Replicate - Move" dialog. If you do not have Home Designer Pro then you must control roof baseline-plate heights by each "Room Specification dialog box - Structure tab-Ceiling Height" input box per space before rebuilding roofs.Most Home Designer software applications operate on presettings, either factory preset or manually set by your choice and needs. That is all it does so it depends upon you to then know where those settings are and what they are for. Study them, practice using them and then this software becomes the tool it was designed to be under your hands. DJP

You have already been given some workable advice by Eric and MIck. I just thought I would point out that roof derectives such as "Shed Roof, High Shed Gable, Gable Roof etc" are mainly for auto-roof generation and have no effect or little direct effect on manual roof editing or creation. "Roof Cuts wall at Bottom" is a manually important command whether editing manually (usually done manually) or automatically but has a very specicic purpose and effect. DJP

I answered your question already. If you choose to ignore its answer, well that is a personal choice for you to make. If you are unwilling to look, study and practice, then you do not deserve any further help from any one. Though others can do as they will. DJP

Kat is precisely correct (I missed that one because I NEVER use that tool, found in the Build Roof Dialog as a check box). I never bothered to use that tool and so often overlook it as a "cause" for roof problems. There is nothing "wrong" with that tool (Roof Baseline Poly-Lines) except hardly anyone bothers to study what it is exactly for or how to properly use it and being used anyway without study then just causes "Mysterious" unwanted results. There are enough tools and settings that exist in this software that if used without study, just make things worse. You should always know what you are doing and why no matter what area of one's Life we are talking about. It is a way to happiness (knowledge). DJP

How to achieve various specific outcomes using programs other than Pro or Chief one carefully studies the data found in the "Build Roof" Dialog - "Roof Styles" tab where how to set up for each roof style is explained. Generally speaking, all Chief Architect Inc software does what it does based upon either factory default settings or those settings that the end user sets to guide the software to wanted results. When you know where those settings are, what they are for and what they then do, you have the software mastered where it then becomes a tool, to do otherwise (guessing, trial and error or being "intuitive") just takes too long when all the answers are already resident in the Help Files, Reference Manual and in help videos. It just costs some of yout time and attention followed by practice of what was studied. DJP

It does have a "rotate handel", it is triagle shaped, look for it when it is selected. All such objects have triangular-rotate handels when selected DJP

In all titles and versions of Home Designer software the name "Deck" includes by default, no ceiling and no roof, so if you named the porch space "Deck" it will not have a ceiling or roof until those programming commands are removed in that space's room specification dialog - structure tab. The second reason you might not be getting a roof to form is when the walls are not fully connected so they form a closed space and thus a room specification dialog just for that space (unclosed spaces will not be roofed over by default, make sure the space is fully closed and properly programmed by you and you will then get a roof to form when ordered to do so). DJP

If you will uncheck "Flat Sides" check box in the "Toe Kick" catagory on the "Cabnet Specification Dialog" then that will allow the base mold to fill those gaps (I downloaded your plan and that is what I found to work). DJP

That is something you get with Chief Architect Premier only. DJP

Here are some Knowledge Base articles on this subject that you should study: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=walk+out+basement&submit.x=13&submit.y=5&default_tab=support&site=chief_architect&client=chief_architect&restrict=ChiefArchitect&proxystylesheet=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chiefarchitect.com%2Fsearch%2Fchiefsearch_stylesheet.xslt&output=xml_no_dtd DJP

I could not duplicate the results you are getting on my copy of Pro, can you post a copy of the plan here please? DJP

I suppose you are speaking of plan view "scroll Bars" being missing, are you using a PC or Mac please? In all my time using this software I cannot recall a time where the scroll bars disappeared. DJP

Dekade, here is a link to me working on your plan in X6 (its roof tools are exactly the same as in Home Designer Pro): http://youtu.be/M4_V8_1qFEY Hope this is helpful DJP

Dekade, the basic lesson people need to understand while learning this stuff is that the software only does what it is set to do per unit of time. The software doesn't "know" anything, it is a mechanical device and only responds to how it is set to respondand how it was designed to function. So if your results are unwanted then you can be certain that certain presettings whether set by default or my mistake are incorrect for the outcome you seek. The thing to do is to study and then practice with the settings observing outcomes so you then know with certainty which ones to use to gain the intended result. Much is explained generally in the Reference Manual and Help sections but trial and error practice takes the theory and helps you then have your own knowing judgement on what to use, when and why. You then discover what it does and does not do and at that point it just becomes a tool which is all it was designed to be. DJP

When you increase the ceiling height the floor level drops, that is what it is designed to do. It is programmed to use the level of the first floor as a orientation point from which the second and third floors rise from and the basement floor uses the zero of the first floor to build down from. To close those unwanted gaps between the ceiling and structural floor platform of the first floor, you just close the gaps manually adjusting the "Wall Poly-Lines" as necessary. It may be that some of your "Ceiling Structure" material value settings need adjusting (I cannot tell from what you posted alone). DJP

Read page 686, sub section of the Reference Manual: "Cross Section Slider" where how and when it works is described DJP

Adding screen capture images or a copy of your plan often help to clarify meanings and questions. The software automatically does some things that at first might seem odd but are actually default behaviors. For instance, attic walls (walls that reside in the upper level of the plan or "<A>" level in plan view (above the first floor in camera views) appear unless roof planes are present to cut off wall tops (Wall heights are auto-determined by either your ceiling height settings and the presence or absence of roof planes above walls. Without any visuals, all others can do is to generalize and guess what you might be using and what it might actually look like. DJP

What choices you have in Architectural 2015 are resident in the Wall Specification Dialog - Roof Tab - Roof Return section. How to use it is described in your Help files and Reference Manual found under "Help". Check it out please. DJP

Hit the "Delete Key" with nothing selected, once for each point or there is an icon under the "cad menu - points - delete points" DJP