stpete111

Thank you so much JoAnn!!!

Update.

After looking at your pics, I re-worked the plan with a new strategy  (2nd floor ceilings are now raised and auto roof is still 'on'), and this is how it turned out.

Lots of small glitches, (but nothing that can't be hidden with a few soffits or shapes) but I guess it has to be expected when using the limited tools that Suite & Architectural offer.

If you still want the plan to look at, let me know and I will upload it. 

Oh my gosh that's amazing work, JoAnn!, Very nicely done!  Yes, please do upload the Plan I would still greatly appreciate it!!  

JoAnn, I hope you didn't put a whole bunch of time into this as of yet.  The entire reason I've been doing this is to start with a reproduction of my home before starting a remodeling process - we wanted to use the software to aid in ideas.  We very much by chance met an Architect yesterday at a birthday party our kids were at.  We really hit it off and he is now going to be working with us in exchange for a good meal and some good craft beers  

I shared my experience with HDS and this forum and he was glad to hear of forum of helpful folks like this being available.

Thanks again very much, Mick and JoAnn for all your help, you've been great.  JoAnn, I'm still willing to try and figure out how we can get you onto a better computer...

Holy Moley! You grabbed the camera and took pics (looks like it was raining, too) !!!

Yes the weather down here in New Orleans has been horrendous as of late!

So all we need is a pc that can run windows 7 under normal load, right?

Ok see attachments.  Let me know if this is helpful detail or confusing overkill!  Note that I identify the house as 3 sections - Left section, center, and right.  Hoping those identifiers are fairly obvious.  Be sure to see the actual names of the files as I've tried to make them as descriptive as possible.

(And yep there's a patio in the rear of the left section adding to the complex roof, but I honestly could care less about that patio's existence in the software model)

Ha ha ha!  You guys are funny! 

 

In image6 that you posted, it appears that you are trying to use your exterior walls as 'knee walls'.   Knee walls are interior walls, drawn within the room.

Put the exterior walls back where they belong.

 

The new pic of the real room is confusing.  It looks as though there are 2 dormers on each side of the roof?

In the real full house pic,  I see only 1 dormer on each side of the roof.  ?????

Ok understood on the knee walls, however those knee walls worked quite well as exterior walls before I started to get into the madness of the wrapped roof.  The second section of the house (middle section) was the one I actually had working pretty well!

Anyway, understood on the confusion - stay tuned, detailed diagram with arrows and fun stuff like that on its way...

So just in case this is helpful, I wanted to take a picture of the inside of the room that has the knee walls.  Sometimes helps to visualize from the inside.

Ship her a nice 64bit  Win7 computer and your troubles will be over  , she'll be appreciative no doubt....

So it's just an older hardware problem?  Wow that is 100% a problem I can solve.  I have more pc parts here than I know what to do with...

When I get more time I'll have a look at your plans , but Jo_Ann can't as she is unable to install 2016 on her computer , which is why she ask for your floorplan , I assume she is duplicating it in her HDA10  instead , She likes a Challenge too

Thanks again, Mick, I really appreciate any input you may have.

@JoAnn, are your installation issues computer-related or Home Designer software-related?  Now we're getting into an area I'm actually good at - I'm in IT support. Let me know if I can help with any issues that are related to general computer problems.

you can always goto ARCH now and then too Pro when you can afford it or need it , but as Jo-Ann proves every week HDA is pretty capable ,so you may never need Pro?   and you are correct there is no "extra" discount for upgrading , you essentially just pay the difference.

 

Of course it looks like you have chosen the most difficult house to start out with    ,but it's still it's cheaper to upgrade the software than the house !

Good point for sure, Mick.  I'll likely upgrade to Architectural with that said.

These two errors here (attached) are the root of my issues w/o a doubt.  The last attachment is the 2D of the FULL upstairs.  Note the highlighted knee walls, something you guys haven't had to deal with up until this point. These guys are causing issues.  

I'm going ahead and attaching my real plan with the full house, in case anyone decides they want a challenge this weekend.  If no one touches it at all, I totally understand and I don't expect it at all. The first plan has JoAnn's setting applied to the upstairs at this point - therefore this is basing the roof on the 2nd floor walls, whereas Mick's approach bases it on the 1st story walls.  The other one is before I applied any of JoAnn's settings, maybe better off than the first one.

Hope you two have a great weekend!

Avron1-2 Roof JoAnn Settings 1.1.plan

Avron1-2 Roof TestF.plan

@stpete: if you buy HDA you get the money you spent on Suite back as an instant rebate , so you lose nothing by upgrading in the same year.....

M.

 

 

 

@stpete: if you buy HDA you get the money you spent on Suite back as an instant rebate , so you lose nothing by upgrading in the same year.....

 

M.

Agreed that at the end of the day I've only spent a total of $200 on Architectural, which is what it costs to a new user, but I was 1.) curious if the additional $100 that I have to spend gets me $100 more worth of features 2.) is there a discount for upgrades such that if you've bought a lower-tier product, then decide to upgrade to a higher one, they will charge you less of the differential amount as a discount (e.g you buy Suite for $99, decide you want Arch, you can upgrade to Arch for say, an additional $75 instead of an additional $99).  I don't think CA would do this though, b/c ppl who want Arch from the start would just go buy Suite first then use the discount upgrade to get Arch.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic - and if I'm going to upgrade, I would want to go all the way to Pro to really notice the difference in features.  That's not something I can afford right now unfortunately.

Post a jpeg of your 1st floor 2d floor plan.

Good morning -  sorry about the delayed response, I was out-of-pocket all day yesterday.

Attached as requested.  You can now see the entire 1st floor of my plan.

This is what my mess looks like after applying JoAnn's settings.  Sorry, all I can do is laugh... I suck at this! 

This may be one of my problems.  I get this error when I try to change the most far right room in our left section of the house to the Structure settings reflected in JoAnn's model.  One thing you guys haven't had to deal with are the knee walls I have in the middle section of the house...  another logical plus for uploading the plan I'm actually working on 

@Jo   I used X7 as Stpete is using 2016 and I couldn't open the file in HD Pro 10 , yours on the other hand I could... I thought you had Pro 2016 Trial now though?

 

I noticed your 4" ext. walls but couldn't figure out the why???  

 

Honestly I did not think you could do that on the 2nd floor with the Roof settings , but I have never figured out why the overhangs don't work like they should with Gambrel Roofs and you end up having to set it so it doesn't extend too far down, rather than at the correct measurement.

 

Not sure why you have a wall missing between the 1st and 2nd dormers?  though you may have mistaken the Soffit for an invisible wall in plan view? I'm guessing the soffit was to make the roof edge look more like the photo?

 

The inside of the Dormers need a bunch of work to clean them up , I'll have another look tomorrow , when I have more time.

 

M.

I really appreciate your willingness to keep looking at this with me.  Should I upload my real plan?  I don't know why there would be any other difference than the rest of the house being attached to the right (there's one more section that's not in my original pic) but trying to apply you and JoAnn's settings is not giving me the right results.  

If I were to upload my plan, please tell me what the Structure settings (ceiling heights) should be for both floors of the section in question - I will apply that to each individual room so you don't have to do that tedious part.

If you've already started on your own model or just don't want to get involved with my mess, no worries at all.

I think I detect a Southern Drawl

 

quoted per earlier post in thread............

 

"your default overhang is set at 1/4" , it should be minimum 1 1/2 ? ( I used 2 1/4) otherwise you will lose the siding as seen, as the fascia would be in the wall as it is 1 1/2" thick (usually) but maybe 3/4 thick with Siding tucked behind it.?"

 

....some more info......

 

the fascia is part of the Roof System and Roofs ALWAYS cut walls , so keep fascia off the wall , the overhang measurement is to the back of the fascia from the STUD (main layer) not the siding, so make it to big to start and sneak it back in till the siding disappears or do some math and figure out what it needs to be if you fascia is hard on the siding.

Got it.  Please note that I do read every word of you and Jo Ann's posts and try to apply the settings and/or at least understand them.  If it seems like I ignored or missed something you said in a prior post, it simply means I tried applying that setting in my real plan, and I ended up worse off for some reason.  I'm starting to think I should just upload my real plan...

stpete111,

Don't judge a wall by it's color. 

If you click on the wall to view it's properties, you will see that it is a thinner exterior wall.   A thinner wall was the only way that would allow me to extend the front walls of each dormer, out further (to lengthen them).

 

The dormers have to be done manually.

 

I don't know what is going on with your attic walls.

Ok I see, well Mick is right, you are very good at coming up with creative workarounds to get the right results in this software.  I wish I could just afford Pro, but alas.  Does Chief Architect ever run discounts on upgrades?

Quick question - anyone know why my attic walls look like wood like this, while you all's is correctly the siding?

Thanks.

stpete111,

1. If you have to change ceiling heights back and forth for an entire floor, you will know why it was not beneficial to yourself to have many rooms to change (on each floor).  You'll see...

 

2. HDA has many more tools and more versatility than Suite.  If you plan to dabble in the software for more than just one project, I think it is well worth the upgrade.  Play with the trial download, and you'll see for yourself.

 

P.S.  Although you can't save anything in the trial....you can open both my plan, and your own plan at the same time (within the trial version)  and tile them vertically.  It makes it convenient to change your settings and see how it affects your model, without having to open and close 2 plans in different programs.  Experiment...you can't damage your original plan.

Thanks again JoAnn,

1. Oh, actually I've been having to change ceiling heights via individual room this whole time anyway - it's definitely time-consuming but I'm used to it.  Small price to pay for getting this right.

2. Ok I will take a look and consider the upgrade

So I'm looking at your plan now in Architectural trial - I see you did two interior walls for the outside walls?  And did you build the walls of the dormers manually?  Just trying to determine exactly what I'm doing in Suite...

JoAnn, slight sidebar here - I'm looking at the comparison matrix of Architectural vs Suite to see if it's worth me spending the extra $100 to upgrade.  It really seems the main difference is the additional templates and library items in Architectural.  Does that sound right?  

Hi , I found the same 96/12 limitation in the Wall DBX    until I 1st set the default Roof Pitch in the "Build Roof DBX" to 125  in 12, it then becomes the standard pitch and you only need to alter the Upper pitch setting.

 

Same issue as you with the windows and doors and I had to set the eave overhang to 3-4 inches to get it closer to right , I also used the other settings in the Build Roof DBX ,under "ignore 2nd floor"  ,not sure what you have in Suite

 

This appears to be a tough roof for the Software and  Jo_Ann maybe correct that in Suite the Dormers will be an issue to Autobuild ,Auto Dormers can't be built in two Roof planes per your image , and in Suite you have no manual roof tools, however , it will let you still place windows in the 2nd floor walls so it will look "kinda right" though shows obvious issues.

Dormer windows.JPG

 

I'm thinking you may have issues with Roof lines adding the RH extension on to the House too and the dishwasher Area ,as the gambrel settings seem to be playing with the Roof height at this point anyway

 

Perhaps Jo_Ann will post a solution , She is great with workarounds but I'll add my play plan , hopefully you can open it to view at least if not edit it.

 

Gambrel Roof TestE_R2.plan

M.

Thank you for this additional effort, Mick.  I am in fact having some trouble translating your settings in your attached plan to my real plan (the one that includes the rest of the house, not the example I uploaded).  I'm not yet sure why this is, but I am continuing to tweak to see if I can figure it out.  I actually was able to open your plan in Suite - it just gave me a warning message basically saying "Modifications may be limited by the person who created this plan."  So I started trying to transfer what you have in your settings to my real plan.  My main issue is the back wall (the issue most assuredly being caused by that dishwasher area you speak of.  I did what you suggested in my real plan, but the back part of the roof won't match the first part.  So I know, now I'm wondering why I didn't just upload my real plan to begin with... DOH!

Ok so right now I'm going to go grab the Trial of Architectural to take a look at JoAnn's model and see what I might be able to grab out of that.  I'll report back, and possibly upload my real full house plan if this starts getting too hairy!

Mick,

I wish I could have opened the plan you uploaded, but I can't.  What version program did you use?

If I had been able to open the plan, I could have done a better re-creation of stpete111's house plan.

 

stpete111,

This version of the plan was done in HDA10, so to open it you will have to download the free trial version of HDA2016 (HDA is the MOST similiar to Suite...Pro has too many choices and that would be confusing).

 

You will then be able to see the settings that I used, and apply that to your own plan.

I had to raise the 1st floor ceiling (of the main house) to 9', to make the front roof eave (height) look correct.  Overhang settings are also critical.

After your roof is entirely correct, you can turn off 'auto build roof' and re-lower the 1st floor ceiling to 8'.

 

On the 2nd floor, you would then check 'ceiling over this room' and raise the ceiling to 8'.

You can then begin tweaking the walls upstairs, too.  If you have already added interior walls to the entire house, then you have somewhat sabotaged yourself. 

 

You can never ever never rebuild the roof again after you have changed these settings!

JoAnn!  Wow, thank you for this!   Point well taken on never rebuilding the roof again, and the critical importance of turning off Auto Rebuild roofs after getting everything right. 

I do wonder why I have a problem since yes I have already done all the interior walls?  

I will go grab the trial of Architectural right now. 

Mick, never mind I got it.  It's the Overhang setting that was causing it.  Your setting of 4 likely worked ok because you were able to get your to a 125/12 pitch.  I can only use 96, so I had to adjust my overhand to 2"

Thanks again!!!