DavidJPotter

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

You can set you your layout file, in Pro 2015 for 18x24 or 11x17 and then print that to PDF, take the results to a print service for up-sizing to 24x36 or 36x48 by just planning your content ahead accordingly.

Home Designer Pro has the basic tools, it just takes additional steps to do what Chief Architect Premier does natively.

DJP

You use a layout sheet (file) to format and layout your plan views. Each layout sheet should be set up to emulate a particular printed paper sheet.

You then send views to that sheet to communicate the part of your project you are highlighting. Views sent to an open layout file can be placed there at scales of your choice showing as much or as little as you wish to emphasize what you are communicating.

You use the "Send to Layout" dialog to set the scale taking into consideration how much of the printed sheet such views will require.

Each layout file can then represent a printed sheet of plans so you have as many layout files as you have intended printed sheets.

Those are the basics, the particulars are all very well described in your Help Files and reference Manual (found under the "Help" menu.

DJP 

 

 

How do I pull a specific section of a overall house plan, such as a kitchen, and develop a new sheet specifically for the kitchen?

In order to answer your question I would need to know exactly what software you are using.

Home Designer Pro is designed to do professional grade, scaled planned sheets, other titles can also produce scaled plan and other views (each title has a Reference Manual that tells you how to get these jobs done in each title and version).

Basically you use the tools you have to do this, more specific advice can be offered once we know what you are using.

DJP

A set of plans is what Home Designer Pro is designed to assist one in creating. As others have pointed out, one would have to know what is locally required by the plan checking-permitting authority in order to properly define what is required by that authority.

So your first step is a visit to their website or office to see what their requirements are.

Then you learn how to use the software in order to create and format such required plans.

There is no single source of training that would "fit all" possible requirements  other than your Reference Manual and its chapters that describe how to create construction documents using the provided tools.

Basically you find out what is needed and wanted  by your local building permit authority and then using Home Designer Pro to create those documents.

It is easier to state what is required than it is to then by study and practice developing the competence to then do those actions. You already have the raw materials and documentation. There are many video tutorials that break down the various jobs and tools to do what needs doing, so just start at the beginning and carry through based upon knowing what you need to present.

DJP

 

 

Anyone else seen this?

Not on a PC, I do not currently own a Mac. (twenty year user on PC's)

DJP

Generally speaking, I use as few elevation objects as possible to get terrain appearance correct. I NEVER use elevation points, ever, they concentrically alter the terrain and afterwards it is easy to forget where they are and what values you have set them to. Their use just makes a hard job impossible to edit.

I use lines, splines and regions only, much simpler to deal with. Keep it simple and learn how to adjust them against the other to get the desired effect by small tweaks checking each change with a camera view.

DJP

Say what software version and title you have so others can then know what you can and cannot do with it please. There are lots of titles and versions being used and they vary in terms of ability and procedure.

DJP

They do what they do. 

Have you availed yourself of the library catalogs available here yet:

http://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/library&search=&x=0&y=0&x=true&soft_family_2=2&hid_soft_family_2=2&utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=

There is also a lot of useful free symbols here for download and use:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?redirect=1

DJP

A new feature has been added to indicate unwanted or just to communicate that certain conditions are currently happening. When you see a circle on a wall or on your cursor that means that you have an unconnected wall connection (you fix the wall connection and the cursor indication will then go away).

When you have turned off "Angle Snaps" a symbol appears on your cursor until the condition is corrected. There are several other such conditions that are now built in to remind the end user that certain conditions are currently active.

There is much to learn and it is all useful to know.

DJP

It would have to be a corresponding version of Chief Premier which does have the ability to edit plan files and then share with Home Designer Users but the exact VERSION MUST be known beforehand as it is version sensitive.

DJP

Architectural, unlike Home Designer Pro does not allow fine adjustment of floor platform thickness. The only adjustments you can make are in the "Ceiling and floor finish" input boxes but you can make such adjustments and thus emulate thicker floor platform thicknesses by altering those values, just not as finely as in HD Pro or Chief Premier.

DJP

I am sure one of the Knowledge Base Help articles will help you:

http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=custom+material&submit.x=8&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

You can place a soffit object where you want the wall extension and set the material to whatever you require. Walls are necessary but they do have some built in limitations as you have seen.It is hard to make walls do what they are not programmed to do.

DJP