DavidJPotter

Say which title of the software you have please and also post some screen captures so we can better understand your delima. Too much verbage and not enough "show me".

DJP

I am guesing that you are using a laptop and as such there is little you can do other than eventually upgrade to a more modern, expensive PC or Mac. The problem with most laptops is shared memory for the video card. For best performance you need a video card with 2-3 Gb of VRAM built into the video card (not shared as you currently have).

I realize that the above is not very useful in terms of a solution but it probably the truth of the matter.

DJP

An elevator is basically an "Open Below" room that is aligned floor to floor and on each floor the opening has a sliding door. Otherwise a pre-fabed object to go inside that space can be had as above.

DJP

The easiest way to share plan views is by printing to PDF or some image format, though a lot of plan sharing does not actually make a lot of sense except to illustrate a problem or problems you may be experiencing (why would you share a personal residence plan with strangers except to get help?)

Be that as it may, Chief Architect Inc does run design contests from time to time and any and all users are welcome to make submissions. This is more a forum for help in using the software as opposed to a design sharing activity (as I said those usually tend to be personal and private).

That does not mean that you or others cannot share or discuss anything relevant to the use of Home Designer software, the above is merely my opinion.

DJP 

The proximity of walls to the stair object will often bring about the condition you show in your image. You can try what Mick (Kbird1) suggested but if you keep having that unwanted result I would make the offending walls "invisible" and use a custom slab, reshaped soffit or reshaped cabinet to emulate the non-workable walls.

A lot of functionality is pre-programmed into the software and sometimes that programming is not appropriate for all instances or situations (like now) and so you just do what you must to get the results you need and then move on.

3-D modeling is more about appearances than "virtual actualities" anyway.

DJP

The software has no ability to differentiate between individual buildings so instead of using the "Create New Floor from floor below..." default command you use the "Create Blank Floor" command which creates the virtual floor but nothing else. You then manually draw in the walls of the new floor where you need-want them using the "Reference Display" to be able to see where you need to draw them in alignment with the walls below.

What you need to understand is that the software is not capable of reading your mind or other intuitive actions, you must tell or guide the software to a result always, so it the results are not what is needed and wanted, you are up against not knowing what settings, dialog's or procedures are required for a successful outcome.

Almost all answers are to be found in the video tutorials, Help files and Reference Manual so along with your creative activity you should balance that with applied study followed by practice in a methodical manner so you are then able to better control and guide the software.

DJP

The common remedy for this is to take the existing material (that is running the "wrong" way) and open that material in "Plan Materials", select that material, the "copy" (make a copy of the material - it will by default be named "Copy of xx-material name" at which time you can edit the copied material and turn it however you need it to go it is "Define Material Dialog Box - pattern and texture tabs". Each material is defined commonly as a "vector pattern" (for black and white line plus color views) and a 'texture" for "Standard Render" views.

The above description works in Home Designer Pro and in Chief Architect Premier but if you are using something other than that you choices may be a little more limited or cumbersome. What software are you using?

DJP

Keep in mind that many things can be emulated, represented or 3D modeled using combinations of objects and tools that may not on first look be "intuitive" or labeled as what you need and want. Really learning how to do whatever you need and want is a large part of learning this software, this takes thinking out of the box and just using the tools and resources you have at hand, looking past simple settings and dialog box settings. Just because there might not be a particular named object in the Library Browser does not mean that you cannot portray it or perhaps download-import it from 3-D Warehouse to get your work done.

DJP

Architectural does  have a slab tool which can be used creatively to do what you want, a custom spa can also be constructed of soffits (cabinet tools) or of cabinets creatively  sized and programmed to emulate lots of things. These objects can be made thick or think, wide or skinny and carry any material appearance. This is also true of terrain tools but these are limited to being somewhere within the boundary of a terrain plane.

DJP

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

 

 

I must say I'm a bit dismayed to realise the bay walls in my plan aren't aligned, and that two seem to overlap!  I suspect I'll struggle to figure out how to correct this.

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