TomDesign
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Your assumption is correct, I'm just trying to get some ideas to make the "look" of the house correct. The floor plan will be the same as I have it. An architect will then draw the plan in autocad to make drawings for the permits and builder to price out. I'd like to learn how to draw the roof manually, but so far I haven't had much luck with that. Hard to get the planes at the right angles with the main roof. I usually end up with an odd hole in the main roof with crooked gable roof pieces. I'll read up on that some more. As for the wall height, wouldn't I need to have the height be set to the vertical height of the truss cross section at the point of the front wall? Because of the overhang and the truss construction it is probably 10" or more just above the house outside wall. Or is there a way to specify that it be on the roof surface in the front? I normally have auto rebuild roofs "off" as it seems to work better that way, but it is tedious.
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I see what you mean, but don't you need to have walls to define a room and control the size of the room? Do I need to make second story walls and then set the wall height of 1" to do that?
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OK, roofs are working fairly well for me now. I want to place a "fake dormer" which seems to be called a "floating dormer" in the program. I want just the triangle part that looks like a gable end without any side walls. This would normally be built on top of an existing roof and is for looks only. I would like to put this directly over the double garage door on the 3/12 pitch roof section. My calculations show that a 10/12 pitch gable roof that is 12' wide will be 5' high at the peak. The 3/12 roof is 5' high at the peak, so this fake dormer roof should meet right at the ridge of the roof. I have had limited success with the floating dormer tool as it wants a minimum of 6" high walls where I want 0" walls. I also can not seem to control the depth of the side walls which I would like to change. I have looked for videos and read the manual and can get the examples to work, but can not change it to the shape/size I want to use. I would like the gable overhang to be 12" and the gable wall to be directly over the outside wall that has the garage door in it. What would be the best approach to do this? Thanks- Tom
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Solver- I did get you private message with the videos. I have watched them several times, Thanks - I spent several hours today trying various things and getting used to the Pro version. It is quite different in how it works, especially the roofs. They work much more like I expected them to work. VERY different than the Architect version. Almost all of the instructions you have given me over the past several weeks suddenly work now. Right now I'm trying to get a small gable roof to go over the window on the right front bedroom. I can get it to work at 3-12 pitch as the roof is, but I want it to be a 10-12 gable if possible. I'm also trying to get the bay in the master bedroom to be only under the normal roof and not stick out more than the existing 42". I'm watching the tutorials and reading the manual but they don't show exactly what I am trying to do, just similar things. After I get used to things a little more I will ask some specific questions. Tom
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Solver - Thanks for the reply. Yes, out of desperation I did upgrade to Pro. It was real late at night. By the way, as soon as I upgraded to Pro, Ctrl-e worked as you had explained. I have had less than 15 minutes on the new version. Hope to have time to work on it more on Sunday. Tom
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Solver- OK, today I feel good enough to try this again. By the way,I never have auto build on. It doesn't work, so I am doing something wrong. You make it look simple though... 1) What do you mean by "Wall tool"? I have lots of tools dealing with walls but not one I could call the "wall tool". 2) On the second floor the balcony and hall area do not turn gray when clicked on. I think it won't do this because of the open foyer and staircase don't allow the perimeter of the area/room to be complete. How can I make a room out of this? Do reilings and open door areas at the top of the stairs stop this? 3) I also noticed that on the second floor, the left long vertical wall doesn't line up exactly top to bottom. Midway the walls are 1/2" offset. How can I move one part of wall to the left/right by 1/2" to line them up? They are drawn with a 1" grid, so the arrow keys will move it in one inch increments only. I think if I can get these things figured out it will solve a lot of problems. LawB10 - Thanks for the help. What you did looks close from the outside, but the foyer wasn't open (it had a second floor) and there was an anomaly on the roof near the back where part of it was higher by 1 foot or so. The railing was also hanging out in space over the staircase. When i tried to fix those items then the roof went wild again. I think it may be from the items I listed above. Thanks- Tom
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Thanks for the responses. I haven't tried or looked at them yet because I got sick with the flu. I didn't want to think I was ignoring you. I'm hoping to feel well enough in a day or so and start back on this project.
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OK, I give up. I have to ask for help again. After spending at least 12 hours trying to get the roof right, I am getting nowhere fast... I tried evefything explained previously many times, but I must be missing something. Do I have to spend more money and get a more capable version of HD Architect to do roofs in a more intuitive way? Attached in my newest version of the plans, and drawings showing how the roof should look in case it is not obvious. I really want to learn the program and most of it is intuitive, except for roofs. Thanks in advance for any help with this. Tom Bonnie5y-elevations001.pdf Bonnie5y.zip
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That was the button I pressed when I lost my previous reply so I didn't try it again. This time it looks different. Attached is the latest file. I saved it, and then quit HD first, then zipped it.Bonnie4.zip
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What do I have to do to uplad my file? I can't find a button or anything to do it. I did it before...
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I still can't find how to attach the file. I did what you suggested earlier at least 5-6 times. I had to do more but similar things to both floors of the plan, opening up each wall segment and changing the pitch value and making sure the Full Gable Roof box was checked only on the end gable walls. I would change values and later go back to check them and they seemed to have changed by themselves. I figured I was getting tired having worked on the roof issue for 7 hours straight. Well I finally found the magic combination of things because the roofs all look pretty good now. I don't know what exactly I did, so I may not be able to reproduce it again. But as soon as the roofs looked good, suddenly several portions of exterior walls were missing of didn't have siding on them any more. So I am trying to figure that out too. Also I can't figure out how to put about 3 concrete steps in front of the porch. I can't raise them up where they need to be. The windows are in need of placement and deciding on what style they should be, and generally making it look good enough so my wife approves is the next big job. I'll have to quit for the night soon too.
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I had just spent 20 minutes composing a reply. Then I was going to attach my latest file but couldn't figure out how to do it. I remember it was easy last time, but I can't find the button to attach a file now... Don't ever press the "More reply options" button located near the "Post" button, you lose 20 minutes of typing in a flash! I'll re-compose my message and attach my file as soon as I can figure out how to do it... I'll look at your ideas above, I just noticed you sent something. Oh, I did have some success with the roofs!
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I'm getting closer. I tried exactly as you said, and was kind of close, but all roof pitches were the same. They did look good however. I can get it to look right with all roofs at 3/12 pitch, or all walls at 12/12 pitch. I can not get more than one roof pitch in the same drawing. Could this be a limitation in HD Architect version? Any wall settings which are set for a different pitch than the build wall dialog box "pitch" setting are ignored. The "full gable wall" checkbox does seem to change the roof type. Any other ideas? I have tried to follow your directions precisely.
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This is my second try for a reply. I typed a lengthy explanation and hit the post button and nothing happened after the initial activity when I pressed the post button. I refreshed the page and everything I had typed was gone and it didn't post. I'll start a new one below this. Very frustrating.
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I'm not having much luck. I now have something like your default build picture above, but not quite as good. When i try to change the left and right roof sections to 3/12 pitch (3") it goes Picaso again, but not as bad as before. The left and right walls show full gable walls with 3" in 12" pitch in the dialog boxes, but the rendering has all roofs looking like 12/12 pitch. Since there are 3/12 pitched roofs on either side of the two story addition, shouls only the left and right wall be set to full gable and 3/12 pitch, or are the inside walls where the 3/12 pitch roofs come in contact with the sides of the two story addition also need to be set to 3/12? Eric, you obviously got it working. To get to the second picture, which settings did you change/edit? I'll start over with the defaults with12/12 pitch again and see if it works differently. I'll try to do exactly what you said. I did mess with the Attis default setting but I have no idea what they should be correctly set to anymore.
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What should the Rough ceiling height be set to (for approx. 8' ceilings)? I want the drywall to work without cutting every sheet.for example.
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When setting the defaults for each floor, what do I set for the "A" attic Rough Ceiling height? And the checkbox Ceiling over this room, unchecked? The pictures above look good. I hope I can get mine to look like those...
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I understand what you are saying, but I manually went in and edited every wall and roof value before removing the roof and rebuilding it. When I edited the values I did notsee the values you have reported above. I will, however, do what you say and will also check each room amd each wall settings. One thing I wonder about is where there are two rooms that share a common wall that is 9' ceiling height in one room, and 8' high in the adoining room. The common wall should be 9' and the other 3 walls of the lower room need to be 8' high. This is a remodeling job. There are only two roof pitches, 3/12, and 12/12. The 3/12 pitched roofs are currently on the existing house and can't be changed to 6 or 8 without removing and rebuilding them. The 3/12 pitch are over the roof over the garage/laundry areas, and the roof on the right side mostly over the Master bedroom and bath areas. The 12/12 roof is only over the second story area which will be added 90 degrees to the basic rectangle of the existing house.That section is supposed to have a lower ceiling height or 9'. All other parts, second floor, and the original house have 8' ceiling height. The garage ceiling height is higher because the concrete slab is lower, but the actual ceiling height of the garage is the same as the house's 8' ceiling height. When I looked at it here, the stairway looked like it was level with the upper floor. It did have 18 steps though, and I thought is should have only 15 because I measured a new house locally that had 9' ceilings and it had only 15 steps. It is hard to describe in words. It is entirely buildable though and not hard to do in real life either. Seems to be hard to get the program to understand though.
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I am still having problems with roofs. Gable roofs, not hip roofs. My latest plan has a roof that looks like Picaso painted it. Are there any guidelines to follow when different roof pitches intersect? for example on a two story wall, should "full gable" be checked on the first floor, second floor, or the attic wall, or on all of them? What settings should be made for the other side walls? I will attach the plan file if you promise not to laugh. I would like to figure out how the program nakes decisions about roofs, then I will be able to make the prgram understand what I want to do. Simple rectangular roofs work well. Whne ever there is more that one roof pitch in the same plan it gets mixed up. Bonnie4.plan
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I watched/read all of the above links, but I didn't see any way to "raise" the countertop height for the breakfast bar. I did see how to make a custon countertop shape. Do I need to make a wall behind the cabinets to do this, or as spceulated above, make a shallow base cabinet behind the main ones to support the raised counter?
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I have been studying your suggestions and ideas. They will be a great help as I work on my design. I will of course visit the local code enforcement officials when the time is right. Did you change the second floor ceiling height to 96"? You didn't say so directly, but are you indicating that in order to make the roof draw correct in my original plan, I would have to upgrade to the Pro version because the Architect 2016 version I have has limitations concerning roofs?
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Thanks for all of the ideas. If you would show a picture of the floorplan so i can see where the stairs are, and what they displaced on the first floor, I'd appreciate it. I hadn't even tried to find a place for the stairs yet, so your idea was welcome. I still want to figure out how to fix the roof line on the original drawing I posted. I spent a few hours again last night, but no luck. I shouldn't have to redesign the whole house to get the rood correct. There was no reason the roof shouldn't have worked correctly in a physical sense. Even that extra front overhang shouldn't have been there. I'm trying to learn how to make the program work properly (or me to learn what settings cause the extra roof weirdness). As far as the upper bedrooms, they are to be in the attic area with sloped walls at the edges and an 8' ceiling height except for the left walls which will have a slope. I was going to play with an 10/12 roof pitch as well, but that would make the usable space in the rooms smaller.
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Thanks for your help. I'm sorry to say I don't know what you mean by: "Go to the 2nd floor in plan view. Notice the gable ends are shown as invisible." I think I understand what you mean, but I don't have the computer here that I am using for this to try out ideas. I'll check it out. Earlier they showed but then they stopped somewhere in my designing. The roof over the two car garage section should have normal overhang of 12", not extended. It also is 12/3 pitch and is part of the existing roof on the house. I believe the picture you show has a steeper pitch. I am trying to add the left garage, and the center 1-1/2 story section to the existing ranch style house. I see that the weird angle on the back right gable edge is not there. I just left the footings as the default values the program had. I didn't know what was meant by Minimum Garage Height. I guess they don't mean the garage itself, but the stem wall height? I can try different values ad see. Thanks again for the help, I'm getting closer.
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Hi - I have HD-Architect. This is my first attempt and I have been reading the forum and watching videos but can't figure out what is wrong with the back of the garage roof on the left side, and the obvious gable walls on the front/back not filling in. I also am having trouble with the attic rooms in the second floor middle section. I want to have a ceiling at the 8' level under the roof. This is a remodel project which started with a rectangular 1960's ranch with 12/3 pitch roof. I added a garage to the left side and a 1-1/2 storey addition in the middle (or at least I'm trying to. I would like to learn what I am doing wrong so I can fix them myself. So far my experience has been good with HD-A especially compared to other popular home designer programs I have tried. I'm sure there are a myriad of other little things that I'll have to fixe too. Another quick question. The default footings for the garage areas do not go as deep into the ground and the footings for the crawl space. Is this normal? Wouldn't all footings need to be the same level to the frost line? In my area this is 32" so to be safe I should probably use 36"? I am attaching my file in case it will be of help. Thanks in advance...11303OCRd-2.zip