DavidJPotter

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

View these You Tube videos about dimensioning please: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5smDg7bbtBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAKCOXkznIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKqTM_0Cguk http://video.homedesigner.chiefarchitect.com/?search=dimensions DJP

There is a "Display Options" dialog just for the "Reference Display" that controls what layers show in reference that you can control. Also that is a floor toggle just for the Reference floor tool where you can choose which floor is referenced. This is all clearly explained in the Reference Manual under the subject of "Reference Floors". The Reference Manual can be found under the "Help" menu when you open HD Pro. DJP

Select the objects you want to reverse, making sure they are actually selected and then use the "Transform-Replicate" tool to "Reverse Horizontal" the selected objects. This works better than the "Reverse plan" command for as you have seen it does not reverse all objects. Terrain was added in 1999 as a feature and to this day it is still treated as separate from other "Architectural" objects. Rather than being a "bug" per se and it in my opinion an oversight which you have to take into account when reversing a plan. DJP

If the two floors have different dimensions, then they are not "identical" by the usual deffinition of that word. If these are in fact two floors of the same plan you can compare them using the "Reference Floors Tool" floor to floor. If you mean that you have two copies of the same plan (theyare obviously not "identical" are they) the you fix one or the other to match the other after you decide which dimensions are "correct" and make them agree. With dimension strings, I would also make sure that they are measuring from the exact-same dimension points in each floor or instance as part of the check over, zoomed out they can easily look the "same" and actually be measuring from different physical dimension points in the plan. DJP

You should be able to open the "Help" files section in a provided "Window" which you can drag around and resize as you require. The same should be true for the Refernce Manual which opens in a browser window as a PDF file when summoned under the "Help" menu. DJP

That setting will be found in "Edit - Default Settings - Floor - Moldings Tab" which controls defaults for an entire floor. Divergence can be made in local, individual Room Specification Dialog Boxes - Moldings Tab where you might want something different so you set the majority moldings in Default Settings and exceptions in Room Dialog Box - Moldings Tabs. DJP

Sorry Robyna, No image was attached to your post. DJP

Create an elevation camera view and while in that view open "Display Options" dialog and turn off all visible layers except the ones you need to see like "Walls, Normal". Plan view, elevation cameras, overview cameras all camera types have their own individual "Display Options" independant of of other views for customizing what shows. DJP

Jo_Ann has a workable idea from the standpoint of creating images that display numbers or other imagery, such images can then be imported as a "new custom material" and applied to a "soffit" for placing in a plan as house numbers or even signs or bill boards. It is not fully 3D as in my original answer to your post but will be visible and realistic looking in camera views. Thanks Jo_Ann! DJP

You can download additional such objects from 3D Warehouse and then import and manually place them or you can upgrade to Chief Architect Premier where such choices are intregal and require no download-importing. DJP

The update is for Home Designer 2015 products, so if you have one of those titles and had that problem updating one of those you should contact Chief Architect Inc Tech support so they can help you. DJP

Have you downloaded "Core Content" yet? You have to manually download that, the command is under "Library - Download Core Content". When that is done you will be able to sellect objects from your "Library Browser" to place in your plan and view with "Camera Tools". There is no substitute for learning the tools and settings for your new software FIRST so things are then less mysterious and frustrating. DJP

If a floor plan is all you need you can download "Room Planner" free from ITunes and install it as an app in I Phone or you can get Home Designer Essentials for under $75.00 if you have no I Phone. DJP

I tried to import into Suite 2014 a library parsed for Chief Architect Premier X5 of letters and numbers (I also tried to import that same library into Home Designer Pro) with NO success, the import failed in each case. You can try a search at 3D Warehouse for numbers and letters, download them and see if they work in Suite but that is for you to try and find out please. You can change the fascia color within the materials tab of the "Build Roof Dialog" or just use the "Material Painter or Materials Eyedropper AFTER studying how to use those tool properly in the Reference Manual first (you can cause a lot of grief for yourself if you use those tools without knowing how they are programmed to work). DJP

Here is a You Tube Video Tutorial on what you can do along that line in Home Designer Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXvYP5sXxlw&feature=youtu.be DJP

Stair objects have a solid white "fill" which will tend to obscure other objects in plan view. Open each stair object and remove the "fill" making them "transparent" and that should solve your visual plan view problem. DJP

The "High Shed/Gable Roof." command is designed to do exactly what is shown in image #2 (that is what it is specifically for). To get image #3 you just set the ceilng height a little lower than the rooms to the left and right or make that room narrower and that will force the roofs lower. My advice is to just set the ceilng height a little lower until you get the look you want. "High Shed Gable " command is for creating a shed roof and nothiing else. It is very easy to miss your point with limited information and if I have done so, I am sorry but based on just what you said and showed and I am guessing that you want image #3 as a result. DJP

Jo Ann, that is terrific! Heck I would be interested in seeing a video of how you did that especially since I already pronounced it "impossible",very well done indeed! The only limited thing here was my certainty of what can and cannot be done outside of Pro and Premier. DJP

Such matters are subjective and opinion driven. I am a professional computer drafts person and so I have taken to bulding my own computers since 1999. Each PC or Mac is different, especially Windows PC's, so actual performance can vary. I suppose they advised you to make sure you have the latest software drivers for your card. Most professional Chief Premier users use NVIDIA based cards (not ATI), I always buy PNY brand video cards (I have had poor performance from anything other than PNY brand NVIDIA cards). My current card has 2 Gb of internal memory (my old card was similar to yours at 1 Gb VRAM), any PC that uses shared video RAM will suffer from poor performance (like most laptops for instance), you really need a dedicated video card with its own RAM internally. The latest-greatest video cards are very expensive and are fancy but not necessary (my current card I bought for under $200.00 and it works great). If you can afford better, do so. Generally speaking the more you spend the more performance you get provided the card's architecture fits Home Designer well (that is why I stick with PNY brand cards). DJP

That particular tool is confined to placing piers only along foundation stem walls-footings and will not place them outside of the confines of such drawn walls. The software is merely stating that fact to you. Other than that I am not sure what you want to accomplish, I mean it looks like you have piers in place, so what exactly do you want to do that you cannot aparently do please? This software is full of cryptic "error messages" that are worded in a way that is often hard to understand by end users (they are worded in programmer Geek-Speak mostly). Trying to understand them is often a waste of time and the important issue is "getting your creative work done" as opposed to becomming fluent in "Geek Speak". Those messages are mainly for the software developers. They are parsed and created by software developers for their own use. In other words such messages are well understood by those persons but were not written with us, specifically in mind. I rarely read such "Error Messages" having seen them all multiple times and only worry about getting things done, that is my advice to you about such things. DJP

Dear Lady, respectfully a statement such as "The training video instructions do not work." is just another way to say in fact that the steps shown in the training video were either not successfully taken and or not fully understood and implemented. Please keep that in mind. Steps successfully taken always equal desired results, so look for the setting or step not implemented and you will then have a success. A room named "Deck" by default will have no roof possible (open the Room Dialog Box - Structure Tab" of any "Deck" room and you will see that "Roof over this Room" will be unchecked by default due to the naming convention choosen. Place a "check mark" by "Roof over this Room" in the Room Specification Dialog and then when a roof is ordered built and you properly set the directives in each of the germane Wall Specification Dialog box - Roof Tabs then a shed roof will then and only then appear. I am not a mean-spirited person but do mean you well by the above words, my intent is to help you. DJP

New users most common error is not setting "Edit -Default Settings - Floor" and other germane default settings before starting to create walls etc. When settings are incorrect and not planned out from the beginning you always get chaos and unnecessary wierd results. The software must be guided to a desired result, it is a mechanical device and "knows" nothing other than what you set it to "know". Take the time to study and practice using the Reference Manual as your guide and then apply that competence to your project. Otherwise you then learn by trial and error only, wasting your time unnecessarily. Learn to use your tools and then and only then, use them is my advice. DJP