SpeleoWorm

37 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Often when you create or open it up, there will be the library icon in the bottom of the window. That may let you add it and rename it, depending on what it is.

Thanks Keith!  I will look for what you are talking about, but I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "create or open it up"?  Is there a way to open up the custom materials from another place?  I included a screenshot of the available options, but "Copy" only creates a copy of it in the Plan Materials list, not in the User Catalog, and when I edit the material there don't appear to be any additional options available.

40 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Ideally if you have a master plan you start your projects with, then it would be available for every plan created from that.

That is a good point...if you open a plan and simply delete everything out of it you basically get your own template, and then the items in the Plan Materials list almost become a hidden user catalog.  Unfortunately my Plan Materials list seems to be a bit out-of-control at the moment (tons of duplicates and unnamed items - see screenshots below) so I was hoping to clean thing up in my next plan by not copying the current one (which is currently 75 MB in size).  The user catalog seems like it would be a good place to store and reuse things, but I just can't figure out how to export/copy/save my existing custom materials there.

9 minutes ago, solver said:

Just an FYI -- Chief / Home Designer doesn't monitor these forums, so you need to contact them directly.

 

There is a Chief_Content user that you could contact.

Thanks, but I wasn't looking for a response from the company, I was asking to see if I was missing something since this is one of those things that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and I thought that someone might know something that I don't.  I will reach out to them if I am unable to get help in the user forum.

16 minutes ago, solver said:

You cannot do these things because that's the way the program works, the program is not broken, and it's not a bug.

Eric, I am not sure what you are referring to...I didn't say that the product is broken or that there is a bug?  I said that I thought they may have "forgot to add a few of the materials that they expect all of their Home Designer users to use in any of their catalogs" because those materials are included in their default styles but not in their libraries.  Does it make sense to you?

16 minutes ago, solver said:

These are features that you can find in the Chief Architect products. 

I also don't understand your comment about Chief Architect since this has nothing to do with that product.  I am referring to materials that are included in the default style templates in Home Designer.

Does anyone know why the 90 catalogs listed below are not for sale for Home Designer software users?  Is our money no good?  There is no "SSA" for Home Designer, and even if you buy an upgrade to every release of their software each year you are still not able to access any of those catalogs.  I understand making some of them free and others for sale, but I don't understand blocking a good percentage of your users from even buying catalogs that you have already made.  I am guessing that many of the manufacturers are providing the symbol libraries for free, but they may not know that lots of users are blocked from being able to use them.  And the catalogs regarding things like plants (see screenshot below) don't seem like a "Chief Architect"-only type of feature...they are basic and simple and needed by home users and professional users, so why prevent all Home Designer users from being able to access them?  I can think of a lot of people who would drop a few bucks to buy a catalog that they need, but not a few thousand for a program they don't really need...in this situation they are not getting money in either case, so it doesn't make any sense.  Please let me know if I am missing something, and if there is a way to access the "SSA Only" catalogs as a Home Designer user.  Thanks!

1. 3D Moldings
2. 3D Plants
3. 3D Text
4. American Woodmark
5. Andersen® Windows
6. Arcways® Stairs
7. Aristokraft® Cabinetry
8. Armstrong®
9. Aspire Cabinetry™
10. Atlantis Outdoor Kitchens
11. Barker Cabinets
12. Beams
13. Bellmont Cabinet Co.
14. Bishop Cabinets
15. BMW
16. Bridgewood Custom Cabinetry
17. BROSCO®
18. Cabico® Custom Cabinetry
19. CAD Blocks and Details
20. Craft-Maid®
21. Crestwood
22. Crystal Cabinet Works
23. Custom Wood Products® - Visit...
24. Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitch...
25. Decor Cabinet Company
26. Decorá Cabinetry
27. Diamond®
28. Dura Supreme
29. Estate Custom Collection
30. Executive Cabinetry
31. Federal Brace
32. Fieldstone Cabinetry
33. Greenfield Cabinetry
34. Home Concepts
35. Homecrest® Cabinetry
36. HVAC No.2 Spiral Ducting
37. Image CAD Blocks
38. J & K Cabinetry ©
39. Kemper Cabinets
40. Kitchen Craft® Cabinetry
41. Kitchen Design Styles
42. KraftMaid®
43. Landscaping CAD Blocks
44. Legacy Crafted Cabinets
45. Log Truss Template
46. Mastercraft Cabinets
47. Medallion® Cabinetry
48. Merillat®
49. Mid Continent® Cabinetry
50. Mouser
51. Omega Cabinetry
52. Osborne Wood Products
53. Pella® Windows
54. Pennville Custom Cabinetry
55. Plants - Annuals
56. Plants - Aquatic
57. Plants - Bulbs
58. Plants - Cacti & Succulents
59. Plants - Climbers
60. Plants - Kitchen Garden
61. Plants - Perennials & Biennials
62. Plants - Shrubs
63. Plants - Trees
64. Plants - Tropical
65. Plato Woodwork, Inc.
66. Porch Millwork
67. Potted Plants
68. Quality Cabinets
69. Rev-A-Shelf
70. Ridge Caps
71. Schrock Cabinetry
72. Showplace Wood Products
73. Simpson® Strong Tie
74. Siteline™ Cabinetry
75. Sorrento Custom Cabinetry
76. Space Planning Blocks
77. StarMark Cabinetry
78. Style Palettes
79. Talora by Decor
80. Tedd Wood Fine Cabinetry
81. Timberlake Cabinetry
82. Wall Types
83. Waypoint Living Spaces
84. Wellborn Closets™
85. Wellborn®
86. White River Hardwoods
87. Wolf Home Products
88. Woodland Cabinetry
89. YesterTec® Kitchen Designs
90. Yorktowne™ Cabinetry

I find this very strange...if a material/symbol/profile is part of their "default" collection, why wouldn't it be included in any of their libraries?  And why can't you save materials from the Plan Materials list (including ones that you have custom created) to the User Catalog?  It sounds more plausible that they missed this minor detail and forgot to add a few of the materials that they expect all of their Home Design users to use in any of their catalogs.  I guess I will report this to support as well.

Thanks Eric & David!  Sounds like a bug to me since they allow you to change the sheathing but it doesn't respect the material depth dimension that you have selected.  If they didn't allow you to change the sheathing material I could see that it would be a feature request, but this just appears to be a broken feature.  I will open a support case to see if they can fix it.

I was able to change the roof sheathing material from the default "OSB Horizontal" to a custom 2" Zip System R-9 Insulated Panel (which I created by copying OSB and changing the thickness as well as the texture and color), but the depth is not updated in the list of components, and it is not reflected in a cross section/elevation.  Is this a bug in the software that doesn't update the depth of the roof sheathing when you select a thicker material?

FYI, I started a support case last Wednesday, but so far they have not been able to figure out why Home Designer is auto-creating different foundation structures on either side of the house.  Initially they thought it was an alignment issue, but we lined everything up and it still doesn't work.  I will let you know if they figure it out, or if it is a bug in the software.

I created a bunch of custom materials by copying existing materials and then changing their name, dimensions, color, texture, scale, etc., but now I am unable to reuse them since they only exist in the Plan Materials list, not in the User Catalog or any of the other libraries.  Is there a way to copy/save the custom materials which I created to the User Catalog so that I can use them in the future, or do I have to recreate all of those materials again?

I have found that some of the items used in the default plan styles provided by Home Designer are not included in the core, bonus or manufacturer catalogs.  For example, in the "Today's Traditional" style you can see that they are using the CA-32 crown molding as a default, but CA-32 doesn't exist in the library, so you can't use it in other places (either in another plan or even in the same plan since you are only allowed to select molding profiles from the library, not from the existing list of Plan Materials).  Why are these "default" materials/symbols/profiles not included in any of the libraries?  Is there a way to save them to the User Catalog so that you can reuse them in the future?

I understand...it is just a big pain when you have to do it 15 times and everything runs really slowly because the app doesn't do well with multi-home plans (any change can take 30-60 seconds, even with no 3D, limited items displayed, and things super optimized).

I started a support case and will see what they say.  Thanks again!

I was afraid of that, and hoping it wasn't the case...I have to copy this house 15 times onto a varied terrain plot, so there is a lot of adjusting when you have to place houses at different elevations, and it is easier to do with auto-foundations enabled.

What I thought was weird was that Home Designer auto generated a different size room for the porch on the foundation level (under the same size room on the 1st floor level).  I thought that might help me figure out why it was happening, but it just left me more confused.

Thanks for your help!

I had to zip it up because it is too big to post.

I think I would prefer no step so that there would be more room for the trash cans in the very small two car garage, but to be honest with you, I would be happy with it either way as long as I could get them to match 

I have spent a long time trying to figure this one out, but after recreating the walls, changing the room types, rebuilding the foundation, etc. many times, it still shows up different on one side of the building than the other.  This is a standard duplex layout with two garages in the center and entry porches on either side.  In one of the units it makes the wall between the porch and the garage flush, while on the other side it is stepped (see highlighted are below).  I am using auto-build foundations, and everything else is great.

Below is the same image with the reference display turned on so that you can see how it is lining up the walls.

In the image below you can see that the porches are the same size, but the auto-created rooms in the foundation level (above) are not the same size.

I know it is probably something tiny that I am missing, but I can't figure it out.  Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!