MichaelScott

Hello - I dragged this sink out of the counter in the background. You can see it is floating in the middle of the kitchen. I am in my second hour of trying to select it and drag it back. It will not select, I only can select the room underneath and open it, It will not select using select next object. I closed and opened the program a dozen times, rebooted a couple of times. I can close the program and go back to an earlier version and lose a day's work. It doesn't select in 3D either. Any ideas, thanks, Michael Lowery

I use this forum or twice every few years which is when I use the program. I use 25 other programs with 25 other forums, Q&A formats, which all have their quirks and ambiguities. I would not be posting here unless I reached a point in the design where I am absolutely unable to go forward after reviewing the videos, the tutorials on Youtube and the reference guide. If I were not days or hours behind schedule, I could view a tutorial on how to the Q&A format. When and if I can retire in a couple of hundred years, I expect I will have the time to come back and click the correct button. Thank you in advance for understanding. M.

So in this example, I draw an actual deck and a sample deck on the 2nd floor plan, as in the tutorial, with straight deck railings under "Build Deck Railings." I check to make sure it is a deck in the room specification, and it is. The structure and height are correct as below. Auto rebuild deck framing is ON. I go to the layer panel and reset all layers to "checked." Default auto rebuild framing doesn't have any effect. The deck and any sample decks build but display as in the tutorial video. Any help appreciated. Thanks, Michael 6745 Working Plan1-1-2023.zip

Great. Thanks, updated my signature also. Michael

Good Morning - This is a two-story rebuild after a lightning strike and the second floor burned and removed. The first floor exterior walls are 8" block at 8' plus top plate. There is first floor interior framing to remain. I am redesigning the second floor and roof. I set the ceiling/floor platform at 16" to later draw in floor/ceiling trusses. I have 16" ILAM placeholders in autoframing to set that depth on the first floor ceiling and position the floor of the 2nd floor. The roof planes draw OK. The framing and exterior block sits on a 4" slab, footer underneath, no stem wall. I arranged the first and second floor structure on the default panel as shown, which by measurement is correct. The room structures are checked to be the same as the default. The issue is that there is nothing I can do in the structure panel (or floor settings) to get the proper height of the first floor rough ceiling, it is one stud (96 + 1.5 + 1.5 = 99) including the sill and the top plate. Selecting a stud from the 3D first floor framing, (any) I cannot get the stud to 96". The best I can get is 93", which tells me the ceiling height is incorrect. It would be a huge help for HD to create an extensive video on the many cases of structure/platform on existing slabs or platforms that are common in renovations. The build-from-scratch videos are very clear, but one has to work backward from several downloaded template designs to interpret how structure should be set in a renovation. There are a lot of ambiguities such as a no-stem wall, and it would be handy to have a tree chart to see which structure to set first, and which settings are affected by other settings. It is in the text but it is not clear. Maybe I am an idiot, but I have followed all the help menus and watched a lot of David's videos and still I am stuck here. Thank you, Michael Scott HD Pro 2023 Build 24.03.0.84 6745 Working Plan12-26.zip

Yes, good suggestions. That problem actually fixed itself, I am on to the framing and the roofs and having a lot of fun getting the floors and structure set correctly. Thanks for your help, Michael

Thanks, will do. Michael

Hello - So I have a house in Florida on a simple 4" slab, under that a footer that extends 12" deep around the perimeter with an 18" flat supporting that is 6" thick, and a patio that is a simple 4" slab. There are no stem walls anywhere in the construction. In defaults and room settings and all other locations I have the stem wall set to zero. I have auto rebuild foundations turned off. Selecting room by room, or just selecting the patio foundation and room settings, I am unable to turn off the stem wall, I am now unable to get the footer to build, other than what you see below. I also must allow for various parts of the main slab at 0, -2.5, -3.5 and the patio at -6, I am attempting to do this by drawing foundations under the rooms that must be adjusted, although the garage set itself correctly relative to room zero. As you can see below, I am now unable to get a patio less than about 8" thick. The walkway slabs are setting thickness as one would expect. Thank you, Michael Scott

Thank you, that was the fix. Michael

Sorry for the newbie issues. HDP 2023. See the pic, this view is on the A - attic level. When I rebuild auto roof, it sets deep in the wall instead of top of the wall, I can manually set the height of the roof, but then can't use auto rebuild again, and manual mode changes the slope and takes a long time to get everything back to the desired height and pitch. The second issue as you see, I set the relevant walls to full gable and nothing happens. The third issue is the single roof fails to attach to the wall, no matter how the snap is set, and no matter how much time is spent dragging the roof plane into the wall, it either cuts the wall surface or doesn't connect. Thank you, Michael

I don't even ask anymore.

Thanks, I started several new fences on the same terrain, set up exactly like your video, no change in outcome. Not a critical drawing, just a reference for the retaining wall contractors. Have several theories but no time at the moment. Thanks again,. M. Will post if found.

Hello, Here we are back with an issue that some hours of research and tinkering has not been able to solve. Here is a straight line fence following exactly the procedure on https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01204. That would be specifying the fence as a chain link fence under newels and balusters. There are no videos I have been able to find on YouTube or other sources that specify fence specification to this level. No adjustments in any of the fence inputs makes any difference. Other than starting from scratch and drawing the fence first, I am out of ideas. Any suggestions appreciated. Michael Lowery Colorado Springs, CO

OK, thanks very much, that was the procedure I was lacking. I expected a list to come up like the full materials list and didn't know the shortcut to get the specific framing. Otherwise I am making good progress. Michael

I have the file opened, I see the plan, I see the frame in 3d next to it. So I want to send the structural member list out to the frame crew for a bid, export the list to Excel. So I click on tools, click on Materials, click on Structural Member Reporting, click on any of the reports, and nothing happens. Same when I select cut list, linear length or buy list. I click the selection, no list is generated. Then I click on the full materials list, and that list appears on the screen next to the plan, with all the framing members on that list, along with everything else. I am sure it is a simple mistake, but I am not finding it. Thanks.

Working in HD Pro 2021. I have a preliminary design which is generating framing. The full Material List is generating with no problem, see all the items including framing. I cannot get a list from any of the Structural Member Reports (Cut List, Total List, Buy List). Been through the Default and Tools dialogue many times. Thanks for any guidance. Michael

Thanks for the guidance, will try your suggestions. Michael

Thank you, I will check out your YouTube videos. Michael

Hello - Thanks for your reply. I did add my signature, I am using Home Designer 2021. Thank you for you YouTube post, it is very helpful. I have extensively viewed HD videos, checked the Knowledge Base, I am not finding any wall or roof videos or user replies that deal with this multi-floor issue, I would not be posting unless I had already spent the better part of two days using all the help functions to solve the problem. All of the help videos I am watching for HD do not show constructing a multi-floor example. They show it in the picture but not in the video. There is something I am missing in the complex interaction between auto roof, auto walls, default roof, auto roof, manual roof, manual walls. Trial-and-error has 10x possible combinations. I show the issues below where items are coming up through the roof and some walls are not connecting to the roof. The walls on the 2nd and 3rd floor are set to "Shed Roof/Gable Roof." Any guidance appreciated. Thank you, M.

Hello - My first drawing. Works great but one 2nd floor wall is automatically generating an extension to the third floor. I know it is this wall because the extension goes away when I delete the wall below it. I have set and reset the default floor dimensions about a dozen times to no effect. I have a roof set over the second floor and the third floor, toggling that does not change the extension. Thank you! Michael