scott65

Wow, thanks for all the help! To answer a few questions, yes this is a new build. The angled wall is probably silly, and not needed. This house is going to be built within the footprint of an existing farm house, so that hopefully most of the trees growing up around it can be left in place. We originally weren't going to build a 2 story but decided to get the space we wanted, it was that or take out the trees. I don't care much for the large blank walls of a 2 story house, so I was trying to give it a little more dimension. The existing house has a similar angle so I just copied it into this design. I'm using Home Designer Suite 2016. Sorry, I'll update my signature in a minute. I have tossed around the idea of 10 foot ceilings throughout, but haven't done anything about it in this plan. For whatever reason, the height values were defaulted just as you see them, or something unknown to me changed them. In other words, I didn't purposely alter any height measurements. And as far as wanting the roof to look that way, I'm not sure which section your talking about. I'm ok with the look of everything except for the step-up on the back master bedroom, that was originally flat all the way across the back. And also the goofy section above that angled bathroom wall, but this has been that way since I drew it out, a secondary concern. I can't try what you guys have suggested, or look at that new plan just yet. I am at my work computer now, its loading a new update for Home Designer. I'll check it all out when that is finished. Thanks again for all your help!

I'm going to try to attach my plan to this, I hope thats ok/standard procedure. Would someone mind looking to see if you can figure out what I've messed up? The back of the house, master bedroom. If you look from the outside, there is a section of roof that is raised up. It wasn't like this when I did the initial layout. I don't know when this first occurred. At one point I had a fireplace and windows on this wall, but I've since removed them thinking maybe that was the problem, because I never seemed to have the fireplace built correctly. But I don't really think thats when this happened anyway. I can't tell if its a height issue with the wall, 2nd story floor, ceiling height, or what. I've checked and changed any settings I can think of that might be related. Thanks Also, the small portion of roof above the first story in the front, opposite of where this first problem exists. There is a small section of angled wall below that doesn't exist on the 2nd story. The 2 angles of roof line make things a little off kilter over that angled section. Is there any way to fix this, or is this just going to present a problem when framing? New2.plan

I have no doubt this has been asked and answered here before, but I'm not in the business, just a DIY'er trying to build a farmhouse, so I don't know the terminology to look for. I'm trying to design a house that has 2 floors, but I want the 1st floor living room area to go all the way to the ceiling height of what is the 2nd floor for the rest of the house. The house is L shaped, the living room is one of the legs of this L shape. So 3 sides, including the end gable wall will be exterior. The other end I'm not sure how to explain but I'm sure I'll need help creating it, even after I figure out the ceiling part in the main room. It adjoins the kitchen at the other end, and a perpendicular hallway to one side leading into the other leg of the L shape. I want the tall ceiling to end maybe 5 feet or so before the wall going to the kitchen, and this last 5 feet be regular ceiling height. This will allow for duct work and give the room a little dimension. Edit: I think I just figured it out. I found the option to set the second floor room type as "Open Below", that seems to have accomplished what I need

You know, I remember seeing that last night but I never figured out how to get it to align. The reason it's 2 walls there is to create the gable, was that the correct way? And how can I get them to align? They won't "snap" to each other like every other time. Plus, I have redrawn that gable/bay section 20+ times and this was the only rendition that had that misalignment, but I see what you mean, that makes perfect sense. Regardless, I'll have to go back and try that again. Is that all you changed was the one roof setting? I tried all of those settings and didn't get the right result, but yours is perfect. Thinking back, maybe it's because I didn't redraw the foundation after the roof selection change? Thanks for your help!

I've been messing with this for hours, I'm pulling my hair out. And its probably so simple. First off, I'm a first time user, so I'm sorry for the ignorance, I've tried to find this on my own but so far I've failed. I'm using the Suite level, hopefully thats not my problem here: I'm remodeling a house. For the purposes of this problem, lets just assume its a rectangle, with a plain ole 4 sided hip roof. Now, on one end of this house, there are gables on each side, one slope of each gable matching the slope of the "end hip". So as your looking up at the roof from the ground, at the skinny end of the house, you see a big flat roof surface with a bit of triangular surface above it where the main ridge is a couple feet taller than the two side gables. Sorry, this makes sense in my head but maybe no one else's. Ok, within one of these gables is a bay window of sorts. I'm not familiar enough so I should specify. This isn't some purchased unit nailed into the wall. Its basically 3 walls with windows, all the way down to the foundation, with its own shingled roof on the surface of the gable. I can not, for the life of me recreate this monstrosity. I would tell you what all I have tried and failed, but it would take me all night. Lets just say I've tried everything except the correct way. I've ended up with no roof, gaping holes in the roof, 2 gables on each side of the bay, the bay countersunk itself into the wall, etc, etc. I've exploited every glitch in Chief's software I believe. Just now I thought I FINALLY had it, by just deleting my "walls" and putting in the pre-made bay window. But then I re-built the foundation. Now the roof of the bay is literally on the ground... I'm not sure if its because I'm doing the bay wrong, putting it too close to the corner of the house, or maybe even made the gables the wrong way... The gable on the other side of the house is going to eventually contain a chimney, I can't wait to tackle that feat... Yikes. Can anyone possibly give me some kind of hint here? Does any of this sound familiar? Or maybe you can just tell me I have to have roof editing features that only come with Pro, and I'll just stop trying, but at least I'll know. Here's the plan, if I attach it correctly. Again, I'm using Suite. 2016 Old.plan Edit: I realize now I made a long rambling post with a bunch of useless details. Sorry, I wasn't originally thinking of posting the plan, just trying to describe the situation. But I'll leave the description in case any of it helps. Thanks!

Hmm, thats interesting. I have antivirus and malware scanners and have run them both today. I have not defragged though. I downloaded the 32 bit version. The website states that if my system info says its an x86 system, its 32 bit. I assume there are no extenuating circumstances that can make this untrue? And I've tried re-downloading thinking I may have had a bad file the first time. So the only thing left I suppose is the defrag. I will try that. Thanks for your help Edit: I just opened defrag. I didn't realize it was set on a schedule. It defragged yesterday...

Thats great, thanks so much for your help! I'm looking at whats involved in upgrading to Windows 7 but the "Compatibility Checker" won't run because of the failed Home Designer install process, so I'm working on that in the mean time. I'm curious to see how yours turns out, I wasn't necessarily wanting to spend more money upgrading this machine if I didn't have to.

Thanks for posting. Given the symptoms, do you think my issue is the Windows version, or is something else going on? I would have expected issues possibly with running the program, but not during install. Looking at disk space right this second, it has consumed 20 gigs approximately. I don't know what its trying to do...

It would seem I messed up. I purchased some property with an old farmhouse in the middle of last year and researched different software titles to use in helping with a major remodel. I decided yesterday to pull the trigger on the Home Designer Suite but didn't realize they had changed the system requirements with the 2016 software. It seems it no longer supports Vista, which is what my laptop is running. So I have 2 questions. First, can I downgrade my software download to the 2015 version? And second, does anyone know what was added? Am I losing features that I may find beneficial enough to switch to a Windows 7 machine? I am trying to use the laptop because while we are remodeling this house, I'm in a "tight" living arrangement. Setting up a desktop computer (the only Windows 7 computer I have) and a printer to print out the "blueprints" would be somewhat of a hassle during this project. Carrying around the laptop seemed like it was going to be very handy. I'm running into install problems. I can only assume its because of not having Windows 7. The install program has been stuck on "Removing Backup Files" for about an hour now. I've redownloaded, uninstalled a couple of botched install attempts, cleared plenty of hd space, anything I can think of, and can't get past this spot. I've monitored the hd space while at this spot and something is definitely happening. For the entire hour, it has been going up and down on free space, up to 10 gigs. Sorry for the long post, just trying to give all the details. I realize that calling tech support will be my best option. I was just trying to get this thing going this weekend. Weekends are valuable time and so far allot has been wasted here. Thanks for anyone's help!