DavidJPotter

I commonly move the main roof plan on which the dormers will rest up a floor and only then place the dormer objects, so they do not clutter up the main floor. DJP

No but if it persists,contact Tech Support for help. DJP

make the treads of soffits or custom slabs (depending upon which software title you have) and then manually place them in a camera view. The had rail can be a sloped soffit if your software title has that tool. DJP

To back up Mick's rather through answer, I observed that you set your scale in "File - Print - Page Set UP" to a scale that is larger than your drawing sheet is set to. That is why it looks the way it does in your posted image. You use the tools available to find a scale which will fit on your maximum paper size (18" x 24" in your case), print it to PDF, Then take the results to a printer service and have them double the paper size, thus 18" x 24" can be blown up to 36" x 48" (Architectural "E") which is quite large whether in Imperial or Metric units. The presettings have to be in accord with each other in order to gain a useful product. Developing your own competence is often a frustrating job, I understand, I have spent many a failure filled hour until success was gained. DJP

I generally do not recommend creating a terrain plane with GPS data from a surveyor, not because the software cannot do this job, it can. But often what is then created cannot be then parsed per unit of time in terms of camera views afterwards. Most Surveyor's use specialized expensive software to create topography objects and they do not model them in 3D but only in 2D for site plans-plot plans. When you add the third dimension the amount of computer power rises exponentially and overwhelms most average PC's ability to create the tens of thousands of 3D faces that can make up a non-symmetric object like a terrain plane. When you convert basically 2D data into a modulated 3D terrain object it helps to "keep it as simple" as possible so your PC or Mac can then create camera views that can be quickly created and viewed per unit of time ( something so complex that you cannot even look at it is rather worthless). What I do is import a 2D image of a site plan or topo map, scale it and then trace over its elevation lines usually every ten feet or so and that will produce a terrain object that can be worked with without using all your computing power up just on the terrain. You will find that a house model with terrain tends to become slower and slower (harder to work on) the more complex it becomes and it is not hard to find the barrier past which your computer cannot go. This is a limitation of your hardware and not a limitation of Home Designer Software, to consistently acquire top performance you must have the limits removed that hardware inherently has by having better hardware. DJP

I suppose that you have the 2014 version (they discontinued it at that time)? It is not impossible, just difficult (I opened my copy of L & D 2014 and using the provided spline sidewalk or spline road tools, I was able to get some complicated curves and angles created using the "CTRL" or Control key to overcome the default tendency to snap along allowed angles. This sort of thing is easier to do in Pro due to the fact that you have more native CAD tools to make that job easier but you CAN do it in what you have. Impossible is only a barrier you have personally placed there where a little more persistence will get a usable product. DJP

Read and practice with one or more of these Knowledge Database Help articles. DJP

I disagree with Mick to the extent that if you cannot get your desired product after studying the offered Knowledge Base article and then implementing it afterwards. If you cannot get the expected results then there is something in the Knowledge Base article you have not yet fully understood. Go back and study it again until you get understood what you missed the first time (it is usually a word or symbol that you do not fully understand that perhaps you have one or two actual definitions for it but are missing the definition that applies the way the author intended in order to convey the correct understanding). That article IS how to do what you want to do. DJP

It sounds like you imported it as a custom material which is the wrong way to go, a satellite image should be imported simply as an image, then scaled to match as closely as possible the size of the terrain plane. You import the image, scale it using the provided scaling tools (select the image while in plan view and those tools will only appear in the "Edit Toolbar" while the image is selected). I am not saying this is a Science, it is not due the fact that Google supplies a "Graphic Scale" for getting the scale close in HD (the native scale in HD is 1' =1' or Real World scale), I have done the same as you many times and what I describe has work-ability, applying to the terrain plane as a custom material does not in terms of scaling. DJP

I am a twenty year user and no, never heard of such a problem. DJP

No Chief Architect or Home Designer title imports "Zip files" (compressed archives), you first decompress or un-zip the downloaded files and then IF those files are in a file format that the software does import you can then import and use those symbols (check the " File - Import Symbol" dialog for which files are acceptable. DJP

There us no "option" there is merely setting a rooms ceiling height and then the walls will build to that height, so set by you. DJP

The "Ceiling Height" setting controls wall heights per room dialog box. DJP

I rather like that particular behavior which is exactly the same in Chief Premier but to each his own. I always use arrow keys to pan the screen and when an object is selected you can then use arrow keys to move that selected object (Honestly, I cannot even remember how long ago this change was made in Premier, it was missing in HD Pro older versions). My advise is to move on, get used to the tools provided, change is often thought of with low affinity by those it is new to, there is and has been a "Pan tool", why don't you practice with that and see if you like how it works (I almost never use it but it is there and personal preference should rule your own operating procedures). DJP

You control the height of roof planes by the ceiling height set in the room dialog boxes over which they build: raise the ceiling height raises the roof planes, lower the ceiling height will lower the roof planes during the next "Build Roofs" command. Try it and see, it may take a few attempts to get exactly what you want but that is the route to take. DJP

I agree with Mick, your best source of help is Tech Support for this kind of question. I have had crashes due to corrupt or out of date mouse drivers, video card drivers, insufficient RAM ( or general poor maintenance of my PC which I no longer allow to occur) and it occasionally crashes for no apparent reason but considering that I use this software ten hours a day for the last twenty years, I do not consider that significant, I always get my work done. In the old days (earlier versions) some crashes actually lost accomplished work but now a days this never happens; all that is necessary is to restart the program and continue on where you left off. In order to have zero or close to zero crashes one would have to start out having already mastered how to get a product and most of us are not so situated, having to learn as we go. If you manually save (F3 or CTRL-S, Save All command) as you work this tends to be something that you can do to insure that your work is not lost while you work. Blaming software or computers for one's own failures cures nothing, being effective does. DJP

I never turn on "Show Line Weight" until I am making my layout ready for printing as a last visual quality control. It is not hard to accidentally turn that tool on and off (it has an icon as well as a drop-down menu control and shows in Preferences). That is probably all that happened, line weights cannot change themselves but that tool merely displays or not, comparative line weights only, it does not change their value settings. DJP

I would call it a concave wall, you might be able to use a shape that might do, or you can make such a custom shape in Sketch Up and import it to Pro. (that can be done natively in Chief Premier). A curved mirror might also be made the same way. DJP

Make sure your foundation walls align with the upper walls and then the roofs will not appear. DJP

Very well done indeed, the entire point of your efforts is to communicate your own creativity, your ideas to share with other building professionals and other interested individuals. In this you have succeeded. DJP

I cannot tell much from the images posted (elevation views would be more useful) Where you require flat terrain use terrain flat area, otherwise use elevation lines or splines for where you do not want it flat. Do not place differing value elevation objects too close together, space them out, they are programmed to create a gradient between differing value objects, trying to micromanage those gradients is not worthwhile to try. You use as few elevation objects as you can to get the effect you want. DJP

Without a posted image or a plan all we can do is guess what you want. DJP

Open the stair dialog after creating the stair object. Open the "Style" tab and change the "Tread Overhang" and "Tread Thickness" input box values to "zero" Uncheck the check box for "open Underneath" and "Open Risers" On the "Materials Tab" set various catagories to "Concrete" Done Here is a short You Tube video of me doing it: http://youtu.be/Cr0pXalRI2c DJP