DavidJPotter

In Home Designer Pro you can alter the terrain skirt thickness to block out the foundation and or when you send an elevation to your layout file you can edit how much of a view shows on that layout using the side-handles to adjust how much shows and what does not show in the view. If you have something other than Home Designer Pro your choices are more limited, what do you have? DJP

That commonly happens when you draw anything using any tool with "Angle Snaps" off (it is very difficult to draw anything straight with angle snaps off, so learning when to make sure they are on or off is part of the learning curve). The basic most fundamental "understanding" one must have while using this software is that "settings" in Default Settings and other dialogs (radio button positions, input box values and other end user choices) control whatever results you are getting and so only the appropriate settings will affect a successful outcome. The software is purely mechanical and requires just the right control of the end user to gain a successful outcome. Learning all of that takes time and experience viewing a lot of wrong guesses along the way so with time you become more and more efficient and competent. DJP

Not sure what happened but I cannot download your attachment and I could find no attached image. When working with curved walls it helps to temporarily turn off "Angle Snaps", in any case it takes practice to learn how to extrude and control curved walls (you probably already know this by now)/ DJP

The number of poles (Newels) is controlled in the "Wall Specification Dialog - Newels and Balusters Tab - OC Spacing" in HD Pro. If you cannot get the spacing you need and want by way of that setting then I recommend that you: Set the "Newel width" to 1/16" (this setting makes them virtually invisible) and then place pole symbols from the Library Browser that you can control the spacing of. Either way works and you use the method which gets the spacing the way you need the quickest way. DJP

Jo Ann, you are correct, I spoke out of turn. Architectural does have a pony-wall tool bit unlike Pro and Premier those segments can only be raised or lowered, not shaped as they can in Pro and Premier. I checked to make sure Architectural had pony walls without also checking to see if the wall poly-lines can then be shaped (they can be adjusted up or down by not otherwise, except in HD Pro or Chief Premier, sorry) DJP

You need to use the "Pony-Wall" tool for this particular application. It allows you to select two different wall types to display within the same wall (the upper wall's exterior can be siding and the lower wall can then display just sheet rock or drywall and the wall is then split into two distinct wall-poly-lines that you can adjust the edges of in an elevation camera view to get it looking just right. This video at You Tube may help demonstrate what I am suggesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQXGX_3k88 DJP

Turn off auto-rebuild roofs, once roofs are where you need them to be. With auto-rebuild roofs "on" the software assumes you are not finished and treats all new spaces as new rooms. Where you intend to add living space under existing roof planes that is how it is done unless you redo the roofs which is very expensive to do, filling in under existing roofs is less expensive so you have to control the software so it does just what you need and want. DJP

There are, under the "Dimension Tools" area several types of different dimensioning tools: As you mentioned your have the "Auto Exterior Dimension Tool" but also you have a Manual Dimension Tool that when selected follows your mouse movements to create dimension-able points and a dimension string that connects them. I think the one you want to use for showing interior dimensions between parallel walls is called the "Interior Dimension" tool, when that tool is selected you drag your cursor between two parallel walls and then a dimension line will display between the walls thus marked Later versions also have a "Tape Measure" tool for quick, task bar measurements but I do not believe that was available in version 7 titles. You should pick the right tool for the job to be done. DJP You might like to view this You Tube tutorial that you may find helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5smDg7bbtBs

Chief Architect Version 6 files can only be opened by Chief Architect Version 6, 7 or 8 (Chief Architect Version 9 and later are not capable of reading or opening such old files, that is why I still maintain a working version of Chief Architect Version 7 for such antique files). I am not sure what you mean by "Home Designer Version 5", to my knowledge there never was such a version released actually using that name (There was 3D Home Architect that was sold by Broderbund for Chief Architect inc released as version 2 and 3 but that association ended with version 3). The first Home Designer version actually called "Home Designer" was version 6 and sold directly by Chief Architect Inc (then known as Advanced Relational Technologies or ART). I am not the last word on such matters but I have been an avid user of their software since Chief Architect Version 4 (I started actually with 3D Home Architect Version 2 in 1994). Can you be a little more specific as to exactly what you have please? Starting with Version 10 of Chief Architect they added the ability to that application and each version since then to open and program Home Designer plan and layout files so that they could be opened and edited in Home Designer titles (mainly Home Designer Pro but to a lessor degree all Home Designer titles starting with the "Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Line" and then all Home Designer versions since that time can be manually marked so that they can be opened and edited in Home Designer titles after being so programmed with in a corresponding Chief Architect Premier version. Older files require older software applications and hardware to support their opening and editing, Older versions of Home Designer and Chief Architect Premier will not even install or run on or within Windows 7, 8 or even Vista. All my old antique applications I run with in Windows XP x32. DJP

You should first think of the baseline heights of the roof planes. They structurally bare on exterior walls so you adjust your ceiling heights knowing that the roof generator will follow those stated heights and adjust the base line heights per room dialog box based upon those settings. If you want all roofs at the same baseline height then leave all room dialogs at "Default" until after the roofs are built, otherwise as aforementioned you will get varying baseline heights that follow room dialog box-ceiling height settings per room dialog box. It is a matter of what you intend to have. I usually build the roofs and only then change room dialog box-ceiling heights for the sake of symmetry and uniformity. In the end it is up to you to control. DJP

If a camera view is active (open) its icon cannot be turned off via Display Options. Close the view and if the layers "Camera and Camera Labels" are unchecked then no camera labels or icons will show until they are reactivated by you. DJP

I think you are tending to place too much significance or importance than this matter actually should have. If you are having the home's walls stick built (framing put together by carpenters on your building site as opposed to factory pre-manufactured walls) on site then the carpenters will frame the windows and doors according to your plans and the manufacturer's rough-opening specifications. If your window salesperson was really intending to help you they can take your generalized "virtual" sizes and correlate them to their own specific sizes and get your quote done efficiently. It sounds like to me that the person helping you with the window quote does not know his or her business, you should find a firm that is a little more service orientated is my advice. You can turn on the "Window Labels" layer in plan view and any competent window sales person should be able to give you a lucid quote from just that, per floor. No need to reinvent the wheel for some dull, lazy salespersons. DJP

You can get such a visual with a "Floor Camera" as opposed to a "Full Camera" tool where the floor camera would exclude the ceiling. You can have the ceiling surface material thickness set to "zero" inches in thickness which adds up to no ceiling in terms of a visual appearance. Make sure of your settings and camera tool choice before making generalized assumptions based upon partially understood situations. DJP

I opened my copy of Suite 2015 and the Window Specification Dialog is limited in terms of customized choices (I also checked the same tool in Architectural 2015 and in terms of window customization they are sadly and equally limited). In order to more easily emulate the Marvin Windows you intend you will need to have the additional functionality of Home Designer Pro or just do without those adjustments (Suite and Architectural are less expensive than Pro for palpable reasons). DJP

What software title and version do you have please? (it makes a difference since different titles have different tool choices and functionality). Much can be implemented just using the basic "Window Specification Dialog" and its settings, input boxes and tabs. A careful study of that dialog box with the help of the Reference Manual and Help files will help you a lot after you begin to understand what those settings allow you to do (there is much to learn there!). Tell me what software you have and I can then offer specific advice. DJP

I know you said you checked for bad wall connections but there can be no other reason to cause what you are showing. My advice is to check again and again until you find the bad wall connection and repair it. There can be no other cause for the phenomena that you seeing-showing. It is unfortunate that you have so many walls to check but there are a finite number of wall connections and it is one or more of them. Check also for any walls that are marked "No Room Define" on the "General Tab" of the "Wall Dialog box" per wall. BTW it is Saturday here in Texas. DJP

Define "better" first. Seriously, you are doing fine, the software does a lot of things automatically and well but as you have seen, it sometimes leave things for you to do. In this case it is missing the attic walls, which you merely draw in manually after the fact and adjust their bottom reveals manually. In many cases the software is facile enough to allow for more than one "right" way to do something so it can become a matter of which route to solution you choose as opposed to "right" or "wrong". DJP

Here is a new You Tube video tutorial on how and why to use the "Send to Layout" dialog and layout sheet: http://youtu.be/RZXUi7r4S8k DJP

Here is a You Tube video created in Home Designer Pro 2015 on how and when to use the layout file with the plan file to obtain printed views: http://youtu.be/RZXUi7r4S8k DJP

It is unclear exactly what you hope to achieve by doing what you are doing. Edit Area is for the use of moving-rotating, copying or deleting an existing area that is within the "Marquee Selection" area of that tool. Using any tool you are unfamiliar with should be done with a copy of your plan in case things go "South" so you can begin again without loss. Practice is essential in terms of learning new tools and actions but should be done conservatively so such adventures do not become undo punishment. The edit area tool does not set aside the basic rule that "two solid objects cannot occupy the same exact X,Y Z location or space" when this is done then something is lost by the action. The tool (edit area) is mostly used for duplicating a series of similar constructs like apartment blocks or duplexes, copying one floor to the next stacking them vertically for an apartment building etc. What were you trying to do and what did you expect to happen by using that tool, I wonder? DJP

Here are some females:

Here are a few:

They used to have "people and animals" available in the Library Browser but they no longer offer those (I do not know why) but there is a website that offers entire libraries of these and other custom items: http://avaxsearch.net/?q=Imagecels%20people DJP PS: if I can find some images I have collected, I will share them here in a little while

If you require a high ceiling in any sort of room you go to that Room Dialog box-Structure tab and set the finished ceiling to the height you require, you then place the garage door or doors and re-size them to suit your purposes using the door dialog box DJP

I created a short You Tube video showing how to create a breezeway automatically and then manually (in case you have Home Designer Pro with it's manual roof tools) either way will work in any Home Designer title or version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af3maYqOZIY&feature=youtu.be DJP