jayson

21 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

You need to measure or estimate the roof pitches of YOUR home and input those to get your roof system started. The program, the software is not smart, rather it is a finely made tool but has no more intelligence than a hammer or a wrench.

 

DJP

Edit: I think I may have found my answer here: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00492/building-a-clerestory-skillion-roof.html

I didn't know that this was called a clerestory roof.

So it turns out I do have another question.

In order to make the rooflines work, I created two exterior walls that sat next to each other, which is not the right way to do it. 

If I make that area one shared wall instead of two butting up to each other, the roofline changes. I no longer get the overhanging roofline so that the rear roof sits higher than the front roof, creating a wall where windows can be placed.

How can I make the two shed roofs sit at different heights, rather than turning into a gable roof as it is doing by default in the screenshots?

I believe what I'm trying to do is create a wall that looks like the profile in my third screenshot.

(The first screenshot is of the two walls next to each other, the second screenshot is with just one shared wall)

I've figured out how to make the roofs match the house, thank you for your help.

I built each "box" of the house on its own, then moved them together into the final house shape.

This was my process:

1. Create the four walls of the tallest shed roof section. Set the sides to full gable walls, then set the tallest wall to a shed wall. I measured the rise and run of the real house walls to get the roof pitch.

2. Create the four walls of the shorter shed roof section. As above, set sides to full gable walls, then set tallest to a shed wall.

3. Move the shorter shed roof section up to abut the taller one. The taller roof now rises above the shorter one exactly as the real house does.

4. Create the four walls of the gable roof section of the house (the "main" part of the house). Set sides to full gable walls, then move it to connect to the ones I already made.

5. Create the three new exterior walls of the garage, then change the side walls to full gable roof. The gable roof now extends over the garage in a smooth slope, exactly like the real house.

1 hour ago, DavidJPotter said:

How to set up for auto-roof generation is to be found in the "Build Roof" dialog - "Roof Styles" tab. On simple test plans practice producing each of the roof types BEFORE you work on the roof system of your house plan file is my advice. The settings must be exactly right to obtain an intended result and this requires study followed by practice to obtain actual competence. For the roof geometry of your home some additional tweaking of what is generated "automatically" will need to be manually adjusted by you to emulate your home's roofs as well.

Here is a link to the Home Designer website of help articles addressing Manual Roof Editing: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?default_tab=all&q=manual+roof+editing

 

DJP

Thank you. I'm practicing with a simple rectangular structure now, and I'm getting the hang of a shed roof.

To set the heights of the taller and shorter walls, do you have to set the roof pitch first? Or can you specify the heights of the walls, and let the program determine the roof pitch based on the wall heights?

This is my first time using Home Designer Pro, and I really just wanted to be able to make a model that we could use to plan our interior decorating. Our house has some unusual rooflines, and it's making it hard for me to figure out how to model it.

As you can see in the photos of the house, one part of the house has a gable roof, and the other part is more like two shed roofs that don't meet.

It seems like what I have to do is first get all of the walls defined with their different slanted heights so the roofs will fit on top of them, and then create vaulted ceiling planes?

I've tried reading the user guide and reference manual, but there are so many terms that are unfamiliar to me because I don't have an architecture or contracting background.

What are the correct steps I should be taking to set up my walls, roof, and ceiling so that they match the real house? 

Reservoir Rd.plan

36 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

Watch this video please: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/videos/watch/2246/stairs.html

 

DJP

Thanks!

11 minutes ago, solver said:

 

 

You can help everyone by adding that info to your signature (see below for how to turn them on) by clicking on your user name at the top right of the page, click Account Settings, then Signature on the left.

 

Doing so makes it always available, and keeps others from having to hunt for it.

 

And, turn on signature display too.

 

 

----

 

Many questions have been asked and answered. The Home Designer website is a good place to start your search.

 

Here is a video about searching the forum: https://youtu.be/dDT6wbrrVRM

 

 

Resources for self help:

 

The built in Help System (always a good place to start)

 

Getting Started

 

Knowledge Base

 

YouTube

 

Home Designer - Getting Started - Setting Preferences and Defaults

Thanks Eric, I did search the forums as much as I could before asking my question. 

By "got lost," I mean that I tried to add a landing, and could not figure out how to do it. I'm new to Home Designer Pro, and was hoping someone could tell me how to build these stairs, as I'm not able to find the answer to my question in the forum or the user guide.

I'm using Home Designer Pro 2022 on Mac - still new to the software, doing my best to build out a house for the first time.

I'm trying to build a U-shaped staircase, as shown in the screenshot. I'm drawing over a JPG of an existing floorplan. 

A photo of what the stairs look like in our house is attached.

What I've done so far:

1. Created the second level so the stairs have somewhere to go

2. Build > Stairs > Draw Stairs

3. Drew the first stairs up, and the second stairs up

4. Resized the stairs to fill the stairwell area

5. Tried to add the landing

6. Got lost

What's the proper procedure for making stairs like we have in the photo? I've read through the user manual, but can't seem to find how to make these type of stairs. 

Thank you!