ethanjsmith82

I had no idea it was not aligned. Is there a command and/or simple way to do this? When I turn on reference lines it definitely seems lined up to me. And thanks for the note about the attic space. Right now it is a finished attic with knee walls, but I'm not super concerned about the windows being there other than I am trying to accurately portray how the home appears right now.

I can't figure out why the roof on this bungalow plan keeps getting auto-changed to a hip design on one side of the house. It should be gabled on both sides. You'll see what I mean in the attached plan. I think I had it correct at one point but I am not sure how I got it that way and don't know how it got messed up. I am sure I am missing something obvious but I haven't found it so far. Any ideas? Pre-Reno.plan

Maybe I am doing something wrong, but when I select a room within my foundation and choose "calculate materials for room", it doesn't list any of the foundation-related items, such as concrete, rebar, etc. It only lists those items when I choose "calculate for all rooms". But, I am doing an addition project, so I don't need to know concete quantities to build the whole house. I just need it for a certain section of the house. Am I doing something wrong or is this just a limitation?

When you say "it" is ignored which value are you referring to? the "floor structure" of the 2nd floor?

Why does the software allow me to set the "ceiling structure" of floor 1 to a different value from the "floor structure" of floor 2? Does it just ignore one of the values? The way it is displayed in the dialogs makes it look like, by default, you'd have a 2x6 ceiling and then a separate/additional 2x6 floor above that.

Is there a way to choose "floor truss" as the "structure type" when setting the floor defaults? I am assuming no because of the way that trusses seem to be handled by the software.

"They really don't want you using Pro for doing ConDocs but there are people doing it , one sheet at a time." Is there a technical reason (like something wrong with plans that it would create)? Or are you just saying that CA figures if you're printing construction docs you should be paying them thousands of dollars and not hundreds?

First, disclaimer, I HAVE read the support article on how to create a manual dormer. When I got to the step where it says to click and drag to do a skylight, it doesn't give me the actual box where I am clicking. Only when I move back in towards the interior of the home (out of the newly created area) will it change the icon to the box and let me drag to create. I am sure I did something wrong but no idea what. So, as a result I've been stuck trying to use the auto dormer tool. This is a 2 story bungalow design. Basically, a regular full gable two story home, but I am trying to make the front of the house look like a typical 1.5 story bungalow, albeit with a slightly extended upward roof. So, the pitch of the roof for the front porch (7 feet deep) is 4 in 12, then the remaining front of the roof is maybe 8 in 12, and then the back side of the house is "squared off" to a 4 in 12. And so obvously the rooms on the 2nd floor at the front of the house will have sloped ceilings. I have mostly been able to achieve this look manually, but now I want to add a large dormer to the front 2nd floor. I am going for a full gable dormer, 6 or 8 inch pitch, 19' feet wide, centered, with its base as close to the transition between front roof pitches as possible. Whenever I do this, I run into a few possible problems: error about the walls hitting existing walls (stairway). I thought the whole point of a "floating dormer" is that you can put it wherever you want? anyways, I can get around that by deleting the stairway and then adding it after the dormer gets created. But any further attempts at editing the dormer bring the error back. I can get around THAT by "exploding" the dormer parts after creation but then I'm in full manual mode. If I place the dormer closer than a foot from the point at which the two front roof pitches meet, I get the error about the dormer "not meeting the base of the roof". Ideally I would like the bottom of the dormer (from the outside) to be even with the point at which the roof pitch changes. This is not a huge problem, but something I noticed. By default the auto dormer seems to be creating one without any exterior walls on the front. So, for both the attic portion and the windowed area it's completely seethrough. My transition point (where the porch roof meets the main roof) is not completely smooth, and I don't know how to fix it. When doing an internal 3D view of the front of the home on the 2nd floor you can see bare wood at what must be near the transition point, so I know something is wrong there. I think I am comfortable creating manual roof planes, it just seems like every time I do it I am left with bare wood spots, places where the exterior walls don't automatically "fill in", and various joints not snapping into place with adjacent areas, and other similar issues. I feel like must be missing a major step. Anyways, attached is the plan if that helps at all. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have! Proposed Plan - Seth's layout - bungalow.plan

Existing 1 story home with 6 foot high basement. Looking to add an entire 2nd floor. Questionable framing/support for existing floor, so I was thinking of doing a steel beam above floor 1 ceiling, to support floor 2 and attic above it. It would run down the length of the house in the middle (home is 30 feet wide by 56 feet deep) and be supported with 4 steel columns evenly spaced. I've already done the load calculations. The issue though is that I drew the columns while on floor 1 (hid them inside wall bumpouts). I figured out how to extend them downwards below the floor so that when in framing view I can see them extend down into the basement, but when I'm in plan view on the foundation level it doesn't even show that they are there. Even with reference lines turned on they don't show up. So, similar to chimneys, is there a way to have posts/columns extend through a floor above/below?

I guess I should have addressed my question differently. Does 2015 even support any 3D mice?

Does anyone know if Pro 2016 has support for a 3D mouse? I was specifically thinking of the ones from 3DConnexion, but I know there are other brands as well. It would REALLY make navigating the 3D views a lot easier.

Sorry, I just answered my own question. It's easy enough to just create a single bearing line down the middle of my home, then on both sides of that line do the "joist direction" tool but just draw the lines in the same direction.

Just FYI it appears they've already released an update for 2016. I was just prompted to download/install when I launched the program today. I have no idea what issues it addresses though.

I am doing a remodel of an existing home whose existing floor joists run 90 degrees to what the software is automatically entering in. In order to accurately reflect the existing structure, I need to change these in my plan. I know I can use the "bearing line" tool (http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02932/) to "change direction" of the joists, but is there a way to just change the entire floor?

Are there any general guidelines/recommendations for using Pro 2015 for renovation/addition purposes (vs new construction)? I started with Suite using rough measurements of our existing 1920s home, just to kind of see what might be possible give the size of our plot of land. I have since upgraded to Pro 2015. Now I am getting ready to take real, accurate measurements of just about everything (because Pro supports customizing so many of these aspects.). This will include size and number of the existing structural framing in the basement, etc.. The goal is to end up with plans that I can actually present to contractors to get price estimates. Before going for permits I will have an architect/engineer check them and stamp them. I thought I read something somewhere on here about the importance of setting the "default settings", particularly related to dimensioning. Since I am measuring existing space should I definitely use the "measure from wall surface" option or does using that create other problems down the line? It definitely does seem like the program overall is geared more towards new construction than renovation but I think I can still make it work for my needs. I am thinking I will draw up a full replica of the existing home, then copy and paste that into a completely separate file and put all my additions/changes on there. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Just an FYI, I just upgraded to Pro (had been using Suite before) and there are TONS of additional columns in my library now, including several different tapered/Craftsman style ones. So, I must have just been having issues because of Suite's limited library.

Update: it looks like certain cooktops in the library will automatically span overtop the continuous countertop even if it overlaps the base that it's in. I think my problem was I was choosing a "rangetop" design. I retried it with the "extra large gas cooktop" and it worked fine.

Thanks, I think that's good enough for now. Only issue is that it makes the area underneath the grates of the burners the same color as the countertop but I can live with that for now.

Is there a way to put a cooktop in between two base cabinets? I am trying to build an island wide enough to house two wall ovens underneath the countertop, side by side. But I want to have a cooktop centered on the island. Basically, it's the same thing as having a range except I get two full size ovens underneath, side by side, and the uninterrupted countertop that a cooktop allows. The only way I've found to get the cooktop centered is to make the entire island one big base cabinet. When I do that, the wall oven I place underneath gets centered as well but I am limited to just a single oven for the single base cabinet. Or, if I split the island into two cabinets, I can place the ovens side by side as desired, but the cooktop only gets inserted into the left or right side cabinet. Disclaimer: I have Suite, perhaps this is a limitation that would be overcome with the Pro version?

Sorry to hijack the thread. Thanks for the reply and the suggestion to do the trial. I may just do that. I am definitely leaning towards the Pro 2015 version. Regarding the columns, it looks like there are only a few very basic ones in the Home Designer library. Online there are a bunch (including Craftsman style columns) but they are only compatible with Chief Architect Premier. http://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/772 I guess perhaps I could try and make my own custom object?

My wife got me Home Designer Suite 2015 for Christmas. We are planning a major addition/remodel of our 1920s bungalow. I love the program/edition we purchased, but am strongly considering upgrading to Pro 2015 due to the ability to do custom framing and some other things that Suite is just limiting me on. I like the idea of being able to cut out the architect except for final approval (i.e. print my own plans for permits and contractor bids, etc). The ability to do all of that seems very limited in Suite. BUT I just looked at the comparison PDF for Pro 2015 vs Premier and it's saying that you cannot do custom roofs that have exposed rafters with Pro? Exposed rafters is a very common craftsman design element, so it is fairly important to our plans. I was very confused because the sample image on the product page on the website for the Pro 2015 version specifically shows a bungalow style home with exposed rafters. I saw that image and thought hey, they must be showing me a picture of plans that were created using the software they're describing, right? But then I see that PDF chart and now I don't know. Can someone confirm? My other craftsman style item that I'd like to include is tapered porch columns (again, typical craftsman style). Anyone know if Pro 2015 can do those?