DavidJPotter

For general information on ADA: http://www.ada.gov/ Insulated panel construction type walls can be custom layered within Pro to emulate the thickness and layering of SIP and other specialized wall types (Default Settings - Walls - Define Walls dialog) DJP

In order to accurately address your question, it is necessary to know what title and software version you are using. That is because of the six different titles per version of software that Home Designer makes, they vary in how finely you can set dimension display. Once I know exactly what you have, I can then respond with a useful answer that will be true for your particular application. DJP

Only Chief Premier has a built-in schedule tool for windows, doors, cabinets, electrical, plumbing and a room finish schedule, no Home Designer titles have this built-in feature. DJP

Make sure "Object Snaps" is "ON" or line entities will not "snap" to each other. This is a generalized answer because you have not stated which "Title" of the 2015 version you have, they vary wildly in tools and abilities. DJP

The best advice I can give you is to carefully read and then practice using all the tools that are described in the Reference Manual (Help - Reference Manual). This takes time to do so do it a little at a time, using simple test plans to practice with, then when you have some confidence in your competence, apply that knowledge to your main plan. Confront, think through and set all your Defaults for a plan before you spend a lot of time doing things which you will have to correct or change later (double work). The software is a mechanical device, it does not think, have judgement or clairvoyance, you control it and its tools to a result always. DJP

You guide the roof generator to a desired result,sometimes by using temporary walls, always by settings in wall dialogs-roof tab, The software cannot read your mind so you have to take actions to tell it what you want. Without seeing your plan or at least a screen capture image, I cannot give you precise advice other than the above. DJP

Max, The only persons authorized to design foundations in the USA are State Licensed Structural Engineers, all other foundation designs are purely conceptual. So it is less important what sort of foundation the software draws since it will not be used for actual construction. The best way to use this software is to set ALL default settings before drawing the first wall, this way the software is programmed to assist your creative activity. I am not sure what you meant when you said "I lost all of my interior plans." That should have happened only on the Foundation level, Whether roofs or foundation when you order an automatic rebuild of roofs or foundaiton the entire group is redone and older work is lost. DJP

Look in the Library Browser of Home Designer Pro, and type "Bibb" in the "Search" input window and you will see two different hose bibb symbols you can use. Home Designer Pro has all the tools necessary to create a plumbing plan, electrical plan, elevations, HVAC plan,3D views, cross sections and details for construction documentation. DJP

Banks prefer a floor plan for each floor and four elevations commonly. Like Mick said "What program are you using?". I charge $75.00 per hour for such work, a small cottage, single story with relatively simple roofs should take me about four hours. If you want an electrical plan as well, that will take an additional hour. I also need to know what size paper your bank requires for the printed plans (I will deliver the plans to you in PDF format that you can then print to scale). DJP

Keith, I appreciate the lengths to which you have gone to succinctly state your observations and I understand your frustration. I do not work for Chief Architect Inc though I have in the past as a seminarist. Settings change when other values or settings cause them to. You should be able to make your SWT value stay unchanged by reseting it to your Default when it becomes un-checked. I too have seen this phenomenon from time to time without noticing how I caused it, so I just check and recheck such settings till they stay put. I think you should submit your concerns as a Tech Support Ticket submission for a termminatedly final solution since you may not want to adopt my "solution" of just insisting that the program comply with my repeated instructions. I have never been unable to make the software do what I want but it is true that sometimes it seems resistant to orders. DJP

Click where you want to open a room dialog and then hit the "Next" button or "Tab" key until just the object or room you want is selected, try that and see if that gets it done for you. DJP

Draw (enclose) your porch with walls, so you can get a "Room Specification Dialog". Then open the room dialog, go to the structure tab and un-check "Ceiling over this room" which will then make the bottom side of your roof planes, the "ceiling". You mentioned "perfected" well that takes a little more than dialog box settings but that will get you started, perfection is something you do by controlling the software and its tools through study followed by practice developing your own competence. DJP

Winder Stairs as shown in your posted image require Home Designer Pro ONLY and the two walls formed into a corner and then the stairs must be "checked "Winders" in their dialog box. If you have anything other than Pro you cannot easily do Winder Stairs. This video might or might not help you:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPkhywdw2w It depends upon WHICH software title and version you have which you should state when you post questions please. DJP

Yes, the new forum requires a sign in on each visit, one purpose is to keep down spammers so the forum is used just for what it is intended. DJP

In Pro and Chief Premier the plate height is controled by "Edit - Default Settings - Floor - Structure Tab - Ceiling Height" generally speaking. You can modify or make exceptions in local "Room Specification Dialogs - Structure Tab - Ceiling Height". These settings then determine the "Z" axis height of roof planes and plate height (roof planes determine where walls terminate in the "Z" axis). There are other settings in "Edit - Default Settings - Framing" (in Pro and Chief Premier only) that set floor platform thickness for multi story structures which direcely effect roof "Z" axis height but I think that is beyond the scope of your question. DJP

Keith, I use these tools all the time and it sounds like you have set things up correctly (set North Pointer relative to the "North-South" orientation of the plan file or in other words relative to the house), Go to "Edit - Preferences - Sun Angle" to set your Lat. and long. and Time Zone). Then place a "Sun Arrow" in the plan view from which you can then control the Sun Angle relative to the time of day that you set for each rendering. If you have done that you should get the expected results, if not, you will have to contact Tech Support to figure out why this is not working for you (perhaps you missed a step?). I have never had anything other than expected results in many versions of Chief Premier and Home Designer Pro (their tools are exactly the same). DJP

I rarely do landscaping or irrigation layouts using the irrigation library that comes with Chief Architect Permier, I looked in the Library Browser of Architectural 2014 and did a search for "watering" and there are landscape watering symbols there in an "Irrigation" section under the "Exteriors" section. Otherwise I am unfamiliar with "Rain Bird". If I were to need such specific objects, I would check "3D Warehouse" and then if no joy there I would then look at making them myself using Chief Architect Permier or Sketch Up. DJP

The advantage is the 64 bit version on a 64 bit PC or Mac will handle twice as much data per unit of time, especially important for larger, complex plan files. Of course one must learn how to properly create a plan file, a corrupt plan file that contains too many wrong guesses and paradoxical settings will not run well on any PC or Mac. So it is incumbent upon the end user to learn their tools and use the software as it is as opposed to how one might think it ought to be. This is more important than 32 bit or 64 bit. DJP

You might share a copy with us here sowe can then look, I so not have trouble with pony walls on my PC. DJP

1) Is it possible to put a site plan (dxf file) on its own layer and use it to build the initial terrain and foundation (ideally using this layer to snap to as well), and then remove the layer and continue on? Not on a custom or specific layer that you alone choose (can be done easily in Chief Architect Premier) 2) The site plan is in need of some repair (ie. perimeter is not a closed polygon) Does anyone have a recommendation on the Mac for software that I could use to fix the site plan. I think I need to remove a few layers, join line segments, etc. (Note: site plan is in dxf format). AutoCAD, Intellicad, Turbo CAD, Chief Architect Premier or Home Designer Pro (in a blank plan would be the easiest and then copy-paste into Pro once repaired) DJP

Empiric testing done in a simple test plan is what I recommend, a simple plan file with a single object of whatever type, create a materials list and view the results, I have never done this myself but if I cared to know in detail what it does that is how I would do it. From my own experience, I have only had a single client in the last twenty years who was willing to hire me to create a model (plan file) that would produce a materials list, His firm bid and constructed prefab housing. In order to create a precise materials list one has to make sure that all objects in the plan file precisely emulate the actual objects that are to be used in the actual construction. Materials assignments have to be done carefully with no 3D shortcuts one might use to simply produce construction documents.I would build framimg and then check every board, stud and rafter for precision manually editing the results, Concrete had to be set to precise thicknesses for foundations, grade beams had to be precisely created (I did that in concert with their State Licensed Structural Engineer as to specifications). Pavers had to be the exact same thickness as the actual pavers, underlain with the precise thickness of concrete or packed earth or other strata. What I knew going in is the materials list feature ONLY measures what you put in it and how you put it in the plan file, This requires a complete mastery of Home Designer and its tools. Your problem, as I see it is that this can only be done, in a fine tuned way with Home Designer Pro and also requires a professional's knowledge of building practices, (I have functioned as a Sub Contractor, Remodeling Designer-Salesperson, punch-out Man and Construction Supervisor having to deal with other building professionals including Building Inspectors and city plan checkers). This does not mean that you must have been these things to have the proper judgement, I am just saying I have a little more reality than most casual users in this field of activity. Professionals who do estimating for a living do NOT use the internal Materials List feature, they use the Chief Architect plan file for raw data, dimensions that they feed into a software program specifically designed for cost estimating. I am not saying that Home Designer software can not be used for a useful Materials list, what I am saying as my opinion that most persons who buy Home Designer software do not have the depth of dedication, understanding and knowledge to use Home Designer to create the necessary environment to produce one. You could be an exception of course. The reason I rarely get hired to produce a materials list is that it is cheaper to hire a professional estimater or lumber company to do one using industry established procedures than to make a perfect in every way, virtual model and then read its resulting Materials List. The above is my own opinion based upon my own experiences, I am not an employee of Chief Architect Inc nor is my word the "last word" on the subject, DJP.

KB, You will receive no arguments from me realative to this thread. People new to this forum come here because they cannot or will not thoroughly study anything's referrence manual (in most schools on Earth there is no proper "How to Study" technology taught in any school anywhere and so most people are completely ignorant of how to quickly learn anything to a point where "study" seems like punishment or a "condition" as opposed to this is how to increase usable knowledge. The fact of people assuming that what software they have, everyone has or just being unaware that there might be important information is just a symptom ignorance itself compounded by a lack of learned Study Technology. For now, I think the only possible, workable way is for Chief Architect Inc to require it as part of the sign up procedure because people in general are too irresponsible (or just plain stupid) to see the need and sensitivity to others who try to help them. It is a Human thing. DJP

With Home Designer Suite you can open a single wall's specification dialog- go to its Materials Tab and set that single wall's interior material to something other than its default. That works for that single wall, floor to ceiling. You can change the interior (or exterior) material of a room's walls from the Room Specification Dialog-Materials Tab which then effects all walls of that room. Architectural and Home Deigner Pro have an additional tab in both the Room Dialog and Wall Dialogs for "Wall Coverings" wich alows you to color specific horizontal strips of differing materials on a single wall or all the walls of a room. Suite does not have this feature. You mentioned using the "Wall Break Tool" and yes that would allow you to change the material settings of each vertical wall segment thus made by way of its individual wall dialog box allowing only vertical strips of differing materials assignment. Another way to overlay one material on a wall is to use the soffit tool (cabinet tools) creating 1/16" thick segments and then placing them on the surface of a wall. The soffit object will carry any material assigned to it and they can be resized vertically or horizontally. To find out about the full capabilities of your software you should carefully and methodically read your Reference Manual (found under the "Help" menu of your software), in that document is explained in detail all of the tools and procedures that your software is capable of. Read a little in it and then practice what you learned by opening your software to prove that you now actually understand what you read. Such a process will take you where you want to go quickly. DJP

KB, I have been using this forum since 2005 and no one has ever done so until they have posted several times and been asked directly to do so with no answer to thier question. If this gets enforced it will have to be us enforcing it on others. DJP

At least check these out as they are parsed especially for Home Designer titles (not all but most): http://3dlibrafarchitect.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=ry.chie At least you will have wider choices. DJP