DavidJPotter

When you change the material settings for "Walls" in a Roof Specification Dialog - Materials Tab it changes all the walls irrespective of the wall type (glass in particular), so as the Doctor once said "Don't do that!". The Materials Eye Dropper and Materials Painter tools have limitations and you have found that limitation. So when you have glass walls do not use that method please. What you do is to set the material of individual wall surfaces by way of each wall's Materials Tab found in each wall's Specification Dilaog - Materials Tab. To control how much of a wall is changed you use the "Wall Break Tool" to isolate just the wall segment you want to change and then change it a wall segment at a time. The software is purely mechanical in nature so it is up to you to provide the control for finely defined results. DJP

Say what software title and version you are using and also post a copy of your plan please. Not much fun for us if we have to guess what you are trying to do and with what. DJP

Here is a You Tube video of what I think you might be wanting to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2XJSr2QRA&feature=youtu.be DJP

Not to my knowledge but this would make an excellent "Suggestion" or "Feature Request" for the future. DJP

You can use the "arrow keys" on your keyboard to move the camera and you can predefine a line or spline that the camera will move along as a path for animations. The smoothness or the lack there of is determined by the quality of your PC-video card and how you preset the walk-through in terms of fames per second. This is fully described in your Reference Manual and video tutorials. DJP

I have always used "Cute PDF" for years and prefer it but I have never tried to use the print model feature. Usually the best source of help you can access is your Reference Manual for any experienced problems. Thoroughly study the section that addresses the "Print Model" feature to make sure you understand how it is intended to work. DJP

Take a look at this You Tube video I made on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZXUi7r4S8k DJP

Only Home Designer Pro allows the direct editing of wall poly-lines but you can get part the way there by placing the outer wall just under the edge of the stair object and it will cut off the wall top or you can set the wall to a solid railing and place it half way into the edge to get a solid slanted railing along the stair object. You may be able to fake a slanted wall using a superimposed, slanted soffit to emulate a wall or portion of a wall. DJP

The thing about closed poly-lines is that they by default have edges. The line color and style can be varied but not done way with as far as I know. DJP

If your window and door dialogs have an "Arch" tab then you are all set, just place a window or door and then apply an "arch" to it. If you do not have an "arch" tab then you will need to upgrade to a software title that offers that choice. You can also just check you Library Browser and see if there are any arched door ways-doors-windows to serve your purposes by looking. DJP

Do you have Home Designer Pro or something else? DJP

Please read this response to a similar question here: http://hometalk.homedesignersoftware.com/showthread.php?14648-5-000-Sample-Plans DJP

Version 8 is rather old now, there have been five newer versions come out since then. You can try "Compatibility Settings" found under "Properties" by right-clicking on your Home Designer short cut icon, make sure your video card software drivers are up to date or if all else fails upgrade to the latest version of the software. Version 8 was designed to run in XP and Vista, no one can guarentee that it will continue to work properly since you decided to upgrade your PC's operating system. It is the way things are. DJP

Wall objects are by default cuto off by the undersides of roof planes. Where no roof planes are present then the software will try to fill in under roof planes. Where you want walls to appear under roof planes you must draw them. Whether roof planes are drawn manually or automatically their height is determined by the closest Room Specification Dialog box - Structure Tab - Ceilng Height setting or where no near by room exists, they follow that setting from "Edit Default Settings - Structure Tab - Ceiling Height" for that floor that the roof plane is created upon. DJP

Page #947 in the Refernce Manual states:"The Master List The Master List saves price, supplier, manufacturer, and other information about items in your Materials Lists and allows you to apply that information to items in future Materials Lists. Select Tools> Materials List> Master List to open the Master List. Home Designer Pro allows you to have more than one Master List. Only one can be active, however, and only the active list is updated with new information. You can specify which Master List is active in the Preferences dialog. See ee “Materials List Panel” on page 92." DJP

Upgrade to Chief Architect Premier, in that application such things are much easier and included. DJP

You can apply a molding profile (crown mold) to a soffitt,and resize it so only the crown mold shows and the copy-paste around the outside of you home provided you have either Architectural or Home Designer Pro that is, I do not think Suite, Essentials or Interior Designer will do this, take a look. DJP

As I demonstrate in my video above, I take it slow adding an elevation object at a time and then checking the results with camera views. Importing a lot of data all at once is not recommended (by me) due to the difficulty in sorting it out after the fact. Keep it simple and done gradiently so errors show up immediately and are corrected or edited one at a time, This makes the process more managable. It is a methodical, slow, plodding process but can speed up as you gain your own certainty of cause and effect. DJP

Imported symbols are created in third party software packages like Sketch Up etc. As such they are free to download but they are not pre-programmed to work "automatically" with Home Designer software but can be used and placed manually. Cooktops offered by Chief Architect Inc are pre-programmed to work with cabinet objects, that is the difference. DJP

Sloped soffit, carefully sized and placed. DJP

In the case of a PDF you can merely discard the copy with no real loss to your production. What scale do you have the drawing sheet set to (I wonder) and at what scale did you send the views to your layout? In such cases the cause will always trace back to an incorrect setting somewhere, and it is your job to find it and correct that errant setting, this generality works in all cases. DJP

You can use Google Drive or Dropbox for large file sharing, those services are free. DJP

Start with these free video tutorials please: (they explain simple, basic tools and functions by Home Designer title) http://video.homedesigner.chiefarchitect.com/?__utma=244573340.538720923.1405904918.1411080644.1411429161.16&__utmb=244573340.2.10.1411429161&__utmc=244573340&__utmx=-&__utmz=244573340.1411080644.15.8.utmcsr=Home%20Designer%20Pro%202015%20%0A|utmccn=Check%20for%20Update|utmcmd=software&__utmv=-&__utmk=220414107 DJP

In order to create such a particular look you would need a texture file (image) that emulates that look and appearance. You can create things like that using Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro or even Microsoft Paint. Once you have the image file you import it into Home Designer as a custom material which you can then apply to 3D surfaces in your plan. Here is a Google Page to tutorials on how to create seamless texture files:https://www.google.com/search?q=seamless+texture+tutorial&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS578US578&oq=seamless+texture+making&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.9970j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8 How to import them as custom materials in well covered in your Reference Manual. data found under "custom materials" there. DJP

A "Layout" file is separate from a plan file. The purpose of the layout file is for laying out views, scaled and otherwise up to 18" x 24" paper. Any Home Designer title can print views to scale or print render views but suite is limited in paper size (smaller than 18" x 24" natively, only Pro natively prints to that size paper). There are ways to print to larger paper sizes by having your initial print out scanned and blown up to a larger size using a print service. In all titles except Pro you can only print what is in a particular window directly from a plan file, If you want a large plan at a scale, natively you can print on several pages of smaller paper and then tape them together to make a larger, scaled print out. In the end, you get what you pay for and only you can decide what your time and money are worth in terms of time and end product. DJP