Kbird1

yes I would get it from the horse's mouth so to speak , use the 1-800 sales number and I think they Skype now too. there is this KB article http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00516/ which makes it sound like you can but AFAIK though you can only view plans made in the same year's product ie X6>2015 and editing is very limited even in Pro and moving walls isn't an option , maybe just colors that type of thing. ***correction see below , test plan was not HD enabled http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/company/contact.html

funny long time since I heard someone refer to a wotsit try page 593 of your manual , but usually with the material def. tool , you can click and open the material and change attributes in the DBX. I have the issue posted at chieftalk ,and don't don't feel bad ,even the gurus there can't figure it out ....128 views ,12 downloads and 2 answers , one being Eric (solver) ,but have a look here ,Scott may have a possible solution , he thinks the land rail must be different from the stair railing so they don't auto join and go all crazy . I was going to post it up to TS too , so if we both do maybe they will work on it. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/3483-landing-rails-falling-too/

your roof doesn't cut through the dbld wall Kyle like Snow's does along the front wall. try not to use the material painter unless you need to it is always better to define the wall properly especially if you plan on using the materials list at all. they might not align properly if you drew them in reverse and the outer layers are on the inside , when you select a wall you will get a edit handle along what side the program considers the exterior side ( as well as the ends etc.) for some reason Snow I can't get your pics to load but Kyle's was fine....

this should help...... if HDA has the same options as Pro ?

Pro has many more features but there is no way to know what you will use or not , if you are going to try for a building Permit ? Pro maybe easier ,maybe necessary for elevations and cross sections ,CAD Details etc , though you could hand your plans of to an Arch. to complete , there are several Designer's that use Pro for ConDocs. Its 5-6 years since I had HDA so I don't truly remember what limits it had. M.

Hi Jo , yes I deleted everything of your rail , but was only 1/2 done redoing when I did the pic , see below , my personal preference is to have a 1/2 post ( or full) at the wall , I don't like the Railing just screwed into the wall , there is no "sense" of structure/strength. I didn't realise HDA didn't have the ability to turn off wall rails so the "embedding" makes sense..... Another one for your HDA Tip and Workaround Book Careful with that experimenting in other plans , you might want to upgrade ! actually it is the experimenting/helping here that has taught me tonnes as I don't always have a project of my own to learn on , so I tacke an interest problem here and try and figure it out.... got to go back and play in the newer version now since in Pro10 I got it to work..... M.

Yep nice as usual Jo Ok I see now that you used the Staircase's built in Railings , I should of noticed there was no bottom rail , which you get with a Railing Wall and they do work with Landings . I see you used Soffits for the glass and posts too... so you were very busy always amazing me what you do with this software.... is there a reason you have the staircases partially in the wall no#1 in pic , looks like you have a wrinkel too , in the plan no#2 need to delve deeper I guess , I just got it to work in Pro 10 in Jo's Plan after turning off the default rails.....strange M.

you may need to go into the plan material and purge every now again to get rid of now unused materials. posted over on chieftalk about the falling rails and nobody can work it out...... well nobody but you Jo_Ann

can you post your plan please Jo so I can look at the settings , I am wondering if there is a bug in newer versions , as the landing rail just falls to the ground... thanks it is a Castle , but there is no Moat ...or Swimming Pool ,must of run out of money

Yes certainly download the Pro Trial,open the plan and see the difference (only, you can't save in trial) , it may come down too how much you enjoy fiddling and using workarounds like soffits to "get it done" but it can be time consuming ,but on a hobby level that may not be an issue. with HDA , Pro is another $300 so a good step up in the $$$ but it may pay for itself if say you are a Remodelling Contractor ,6-8 hours of workarounds to show a Client (and you can't charge for it) , makes $300 maybe worth it? M.

you were looking at the exterior sill material not the interior sill colour/material in the pic above , in 2014 and older you have to click the radio button for interior exterior sides. have deleted your stairs and started rebuilding but still fiddling with the rail/landing issue..... M.

your reply may provide a clue or two I had not noticed your Railing was in fact a Deck Railing , I though you had designated the area as a "Deck" for some reason. You should be using the Wall>Straight Railing Tool not the Deck>Straight Railing Tool since it is not a deck. The upper Railing along the hall is also a Deck Railing which is causing the Hall way to be a "deck" too , Delete it and replace with a straight Railing and you get the drywall back there, you may need to designate the Hallway as a Hall again , it tries to stay a deck which screws up the ceiling and adds a deck beam otherwise. you want the stairwell side of its walls to be the "exterior" side of the walls in most cases so that things align properly , there is a mix around the stair well due to the direction they were drawn in is my guess, This correction and realignment should fix the edge of the floor showing .Fixing the upper railing ( as above) should fix it above the stone wall but you need to make the material of the Railing's exterior Wall the stone too otherwise it will show drywall there. I also needed to manually adjust the dimension off the upper railing wall to match the wall below , it was 10mm out and was showing the drywall ceiling through the wall , the usually wall align too did not "see" the misalignment for some reason. the concrete showing at the top of the stairs is cos you stopped that upper wall to make the opening instead of continuing it to the outer wall and then using a "Doorway" with no casing to cut the hole in the wall I believe, this wall needs it's layers reversed so you may need to change materials per side. the concrete showing at the floor on the opposite side has something to do with your "Castle interior wall" type, if I change the wall type to "interior" the drywall covers the concrete. I had deleted the invisible wall and didn't see any changes , which is why I asked about it , just tried again and the ceiling stayed white etc, whole in the floor didn't change, Are you really having white window sills > the rest of the window appears to be Oak? that should keep you busy for an hour or 3 ...it did me .... the staircase next.... M.

Took far too long but it is doable , in the end I drew my own plan same shape as yours to eliminate any unusual conditons and got the same flair up , and in the end the issue is you NEED the rail along the house to get a room definition which is needed to do the parapet roof , but if you align it over the existing wall below it causes the gable wall not to build ,so as seen in the pic I moved the walls (#2) outside but against the Gable wall and side of the house and set them invisible, this works but you get an error saying the roof overhang is protruding through a wall ( or something similar) so I set the parapet "room" as a balcony (#1) which fixed that. Haven't tried this in your plan Snowman , very late here now , give it a try and see how it goes..... M. not sure you can open this but Eric will be able too check my "Fix" for me. SnowManFix 1.plan

Pics help , see my sig for instructions but I would of thought a soffit would do the bar top? not sure why you cant make a beam either from a soffit or library shape? Do you have the beam tool under Framing? or no framing tools? sorry I use Pro now and don't remember what Suite has. might want to add your info to your sig too , I think you are going to have more questions and it will save time..... M.

And there you have your answer good luck. if you decide you need Pro , and can wait , I think the new version may be out this summer as I heard today Chief X7 Beta will come out in later this month and usually the HD Titles get there new versions 3-4 months after Chief's RC comes out. M.

Are the house and garage ceiling (room) heights correct ? asI think the Software is smarter than I thought that "flair" is the only way you would get water out of that corner at the current roof elevations , should the garage be lower perhaps eg a standard 8' stud height ? is the current 25 " difference in floor height correct ? is this a real house you are doing the As-Builts for ? M.

well you must know you are about to upgrade to Pro anyday now for manual roofs ....but wait till the new version comes out in May or June probably if you can..... will download plan and take a peek M.

there is a link in my sig. to a thread on How to post Pics you can use the same method to post the .plan file here so we can look at it. you can also add your version info etc to YOUR sig. in your Profile so you only need to do it once thanks M.

I thought HDA had that option along with Pro , it is always best if possible to attach your .plan file just like you do pics so we can look at the particular issue as different versions have different features which is why it is good to add you version no# and title to you profile sig. as I have so you don't need to type it in every time you post. M. Jo_Ann still has HDA so hopefully she'll duck into this thread soon.....

in the Wall's DBX (dialog box) try the "lower wall type if split by butting roof" setting on the Roof tab , if HDA 2015 has it? M.

just to confirm that the Paint programs does work for adding text to pics The Snipping Tool is also part of Win7 in the Accessories if you don't have Office and don't need text it will allow highlighting and has Pens if you write well with a mouse or have a Pen Tablet like a Wacom Bamboo. M.

draw a CAD circle 1st , as a guide , the countertop should "snap" to it I think , then use break line tool to adjust 3/4 shape.......sorry no time to tinker right now....

post the new plan looks like you need to adjust the width of the parapet walls to the same as the lower walls too ...think I see a gap or something in your pic? is the wall split in two with one part a gable other part something else where the flair is..... easy to fix in Pro with manual roof tools but in Suite you need it 100% right as you only have Auto Roofs.

yes the room heights not the doors , it cause a sight ripple (diagonal line) in the roof otherwise, set those two areas to default like the rest. look at the parapet tutorial , yes you add a 2nd floor ,with BLANK option, at 36" high , the reason for using railing or 1/2 walls if you have them rather than walls is so you get a cap on top of the parapet wall (like a railing) and a finished look. M.

quick look..... so far.... You have the ceiling thickness set to zero , check the default box and you lose the concrete ceiling, it becomes 8mm board again...... for some reason you have the room(2-3?) where the stairs are set as Deck not sure why? that are has a room divider ,necessary? different flooring? same now.... lower staircase need stringer at wall same style as upper staircase concrete showing at edge of floor at stairs maybe cos you are using glass risers ? ie see through normally that area is same wood as staircase handrails are short bottom etc they are supposed to extend to leading edge of bottom/top tread ...here at least that is minimum code, ie bottom newel is in middle of tread. LH fallen railing is gone deliberate? haven't figured RH fallen railing yet ,will look again later when I have more time.... link to indoor deck error KB http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00065/