DavidJPotter

Delete the lights and then place them again in a new unit of time. When I set up for a vaulted ceiling first, my pendant lights hung perpendicular to the floor as espected. DJP

Dimensions have dimension points between which they measure distances. You can preprogram such intended dimension points and you can manually move them where and as you wish. DJP

Edit - Default Settings - Floors and Rooms - Floor One - Structure Tab - Uncheck "Ceiling over this room" to eliminate the flat ceilings to then have a common rafter vault situation. If you simply wish to have a single room with a common rafter vault just open that room's Specification Dialog - Structure Tab and there turn off that room's "Flat Ceiling Over this room" check box. DJP

I assume that you have Home Designer Pro, so what you can do is to manually edit the roof planes and wall polylines to get close to your desired look. There are tools in Pro sufficient to get this done but ONLY you and your persistence and competence will cause it to happen. DJP

I cannot tell from what you posted what you wish the outcome to look like. Chief Premier has what you want (a wall cap tab in the wall specification dialog) but Home Designer Pro does not. However you can use a soffit, reshaped and located to emulate what you are after or perhaps a custom slab. Also soffits can have molding profiles applied to them to add more creative choices. What you came up with is quite creative as well. DJP

Whoever does then plans will need from you: 1. The site plan of your intended building site showing its property lines, set backs and easements. Depending upon where in Texas the house is to be built you may also need to engage a State Licensed Structural Engineer to design the foundation and to call out structural elements. What you need is an Architectural Draftsperson, Architects generally will not take an others design and work it into plans, rather they tend to like to be more in control from start to finish. Being an Architect, in Texas they can design foundations up to around 2K SF, past that you will need an Engineer. Whoever you go with will need to know what version of Home Design you have (2023, 2022, 2021 etc.) Once I know more about your project I can then give you a reasonable estimate. DJP

To underline Eric's advice the software is preprogrammed to do what it does but that DOES NOT MEAN that it is or will become programmed to support what you wish to do. That you, as Eric said, have to step in and treat the software like you would a sophisticated wrench or other tool. It is a robot that requires YOUR orders and settings to perform. DJP

The way to avoid problems is to have ALL Default Settings and other settings correct before creating the model (.plan file). But that knowledge takes time to obtain. My best advice is to start and end with looking for settings that are "wrong" that cause visual anomalies, fix those and then manually fix the wall polyline and other visual problems. Just start with Default Settings, per floor and then out from there. DJP

The upper room names are not just names in the dialog rather they are programming commands that directly effect the room so named as you have seen. Proper naming of spaces is a fundamental place to start along with Default Settings catagories. DJP

Name it a "Balcony" then. DJP

Your attached document is too small to communicate anything useful, sorry. DJP

I commonly use a drawer and resize it to the full height of the base cabinet and then using the Door-Drawer tab - Drawer Handel controls to place a center drawer pull and using the "Distance from Top" input box to determine its height on the cabinet. As far as I know there is no such thing as a "Trash Pull-out" cabinet, but only powered trash compactor symbols. DJP

They are to be found in the Library Browser - Architeectural - Fences and Railings - Gates, have a look please. DJP

Using the "break line" tool you can make them appear to join, let that be good enough visually. DJP

Commonly when I do a remodeling project I first make a relationally correct copy of the home as it is, the save-as a copy for use of adding the proposed remodeling or additions. DJP

Jeff, my main point is that although they look the same, they are not the same in function. I have seen many posts here and elsewhere by confused users who simply do not know this datum. I think pointing it out is enough, to get people to look and think. DJP

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I always do mine using a "vector view" camera; anyway you use dimension tools to dimension what you wish to display dimensions of. Sometimes placing a "CAD Line" makes that job easier as 2D objects are easier for dimensions to detect; you place the CAD lines where you wish the dimensions to measure to and then draw the dimension lines. You can "save" such cameras that you have customized (if you do not save the work when you are done, it WILL be lost and have to be redone. This is a lot easier to do with Home Designer Pro but can be done in Architectural. DJP

With Suite you build/design your first floor when when finished you go to the "Build" Menu, select "Build Foundation". Suite does not allow one to specify "ICF" foundation walls. It is preprogrammed to only build concrete foundation walls. So what you do is to just use the default walls. Then once there you can change their material so they then look like ICF walls. Unless you are a State Licensed Structural Engineer you cannot legally specify a foundation type, only they are allowed by law to specify such things. DJP

Garage Door Specification Dialog - Arch Tab - Drop-down menu of different Arch Types- select and set angle. This is also the case for windows and doors via their dialog boxes. DJP

Vaulted ceilings are done in one of two ways: 1. simply turn off the "Flat Ceiling over this room" on the "Structure Tab" of the room you wish to vault. This gives you a "Common Rafter Vault" where the underside of the roof planes become the "ceiling". or 2. You turn off the flat ceiling and then add "Ceiling Planes" that you can manually adjust to emulate the interior vault (found under "Build - Roof - Ceiling Plane" "3. Some of the exterior walls extend bricked into the Attic. I redrew them but can't get it to stop doing that." The software is programmed to add attic walls you can delete them but the program will merely add them back, or you can make them invisible as you wish "4. On the roof over the front of the house which faces south, I will be installing Solar Panels which will be used to power the house. I plan on using LiFePo4 Batteries and wanted an on grade slab floor room behind the Auxiliary Garage. But I couldn't figure out how to put a 3 sided room against the back wall of the Aux Garage. " There are solar panel symbols available from the Home Designer Website for downloading and application. "5. I grew up in a house in California in the 50's that was built built in the 30's that had a stepped ceiling with 2 steps around the outside of the ceilings of the rooms. only for the rooms that are not vaulted. I would like to do the same but haven't got a clue how to accomplish this." Home Designer software has no trey ceiling tool like Chief Premier does so such a condition is created manually using the tools you do have. You use invisible railing walls to create a room within a room, each with differing ceiling heights to achieve the trey ceiling appearance. DJP

DJP without knowing what software you have we do not know what capabilities what you have, has.

With Suite and Architectural, all the instructions you need are to be found in the "Main Toolbar - Build - Build Roof - Roof Styles Tab" where how to preprogram the walls-Roof Tab and Build Roof Dialog to then obtain the type of roof Suite is capable of building, please take a careful look, study and then practice. DJP