Keith_K

You made me look at the windows again. I have now supressed the interior sill and got rid of the allowances for cut outs etc and they look much, much better. Thank the Lordy that the system now updates everything if you change the default setting. It didn't used to and the thought of having to change all those windows manually...

NOW HE TELLS ME!! The windowsills aren't white. Well they're not supposed to be. The window spec says "buff limestone" and I don't know why the colour in the 3D image doesn't show up the same as it does on the spec sheet. But thank you ever so much for spending time on it. I will now print off your reply and go and fiddle some more.

Odd. I don't usually fiddle with ceiling thicknesses and have no recollection of doing so but I have done as you suggested and have my white ceiling back again. I don't set that room to "deck". The programme does it as soon as I use the Build>deck>straight deck railing tool. I change it back to "unspecified" but as soon as I use the toll... The invisible wall is because there is no floor above the staircase and the only way I know of to do that is by having an invisible wall so that the whole of that entrance foyer doesn't lose it's ceiling. The LH fallen rail isn't there because I deleted them both, tried again and when I saw the RH just did the same as before I didn't bother trying the LH one. The concrete upper floor is also showing through the stone wall. I seem to remember encountering this problem with my first ever plan using HD but can't remember what I did to fix it. One is getting old, one is. I think what I might just do now is zap that staircase and start fresh.

The follow stair option was tried with hilarious results and then unchecked again. Now let me see if I can attach the plan...et voilà Baron's Keep 12.01.2015.plan

The dragging back didn't work.

It's been so long, Mick, that I've forgotten how to post a plan. The floor above in my plan has concrete floors. If you look at the first image I posted when I opened this topic you will see that the ceiling is fine as it is not showing as concrete. I haven't a clue why it does now particularly as I have changed nothing on the plan other than fiddling with the staircase. The landing handrails were hand drawn. I do need the handrail on the left as that landing is 1200mm away from the wall behind it. The space is for indoor foliage which I did try and include but couldn't get the sizing of the plantings right so I just deleted them all. I will try and drag them back slightly from the edge and see what happens. Any ideas as to why the upper floors are showing through the walls?

I thought that that might be the reason and agree with the advice Mick has posted. It is what I do and I never seem to encounter your problem.

Purely as a matter of interest, why is the fourth wall a different thickness to the others?

Well, I've played with moderate success and some frustrations appearing. Most of it seems to have worked apart from the two recalcitrant landing railings which remain firmly on the floor instead of on the landing where they have been drawn - red arrows. Clicking on them in 3D to try and drag them up doesn't work. The other frustrations are (a) the upper floor showing through the walls - blue arrows and ( the system refusing point blank to render the ceiling in white and insisting that, despite me specifying white ceilings for the room, the colour should be grey concrete.

A belated thank you for your replies. I have had ten days of "high drama" thanks to an on line purchase of a new washing machine and I have only now returned to earth. I will play some more. Regarding the stringers, Mick, the fantasy in me did want them in glass as I wanted the staircase to be almost invisible apart from the handrail. We shall see. Or not see, as the case may be.

...the more I seem to cock up everything. My needs are simple. All I want is a staircase with clear glass treads and risers and glass panels railings with stainless steel frames. I have set all the specs to how I imagine they should be on each staircase section but all I get are standard stainless steel railings with newels and balusters without a bit of glass in sight and to frustrate me even more the type of railing I actually want sitting across a landing where it shouldn't be. What am I doing wrong?

What I did on my second attempt was also a wasted effort, Jo-Ann. I did the full screen thing and saw that it created hard edges where the four sides joined. When I can figure out a way to get the valley tool to work, decipher David's video and get my brain into some sort of gear for your suggestion I will give it another go. Until then the castle can remain moatless.

Hmmm. I must try the first suggestion next time. Up to now I have been doing the Print Screen/Paint method which tends to be a bit laborious.

Yes, Jo-ann, very much like that. I had a bit of a light-bulb moment this morning, searched the knowledge base and found article KB-00440 - Creating An Outdoor Swimming Pool... http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00440/ Then, using a simple little saved plan that I use when I want to fiddle and see how things work I followed the instructions (well, most of them) and created what you see in the attachments. Probably needs a bit more adjustment to the depths and stuff but I'm quite chuffed with myself and am ever so grateful that I still have the capacity to think. It can work wonders. Sometimes. p.s. I love your bridge!

Thanks for your replies. The moat needs to surround the building and pass under the driveway. I've "sort" of drawn it in the attachment. David, the result in your video was interesting. Unfortunately your actions are too quick to follow and the image, even enlarged to the max on my monitor, isn't big enough for me to see what you are clicking on to follow what you are doing.

I tried using the terrain "stream" tool but when I joined the four sides the system created a circular thing. Then, as you can see at the top left of the attachment I tried using the pool tools but the system doesn't appreciate me trying to fiddle with the size and won't let me extend the long and narrow pool beyond about 30 metres. Apart from that I don't want any hard edge to the moat that the pool tool creates. Any ideas? Thanks.

When you say "reading the documentation" did you mean this article? http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00744/

The you should get the hang of the text insertion wotsit on your editing programme. I tried doing what you said, honest. But the pane became a total pain in it's refusal to move to the middle of the wall so I gave up. The perusers of the plan will just have to use their imagination as to where the glass should be and also as to where the planters I could not find would go in the spare floor space and light shafts as I collect the prints later this morning.

You have terrible handwriting, sir. I found that solution when I had a brief moment of clear headedness shortly after making my last post, but thank you anyway. I'll give the sash changes a try in the morning, my last chance to fiddle as I have to be a the printer tomorrow afternoon. I'm more than sure that any compensation from those for whom I am killing myself will be minimal. We are in an age of austerity you know. Now, if I could just find some large planters filled with plants that I could dot around the ghastly open plan offices I have been forced to create to give them some life...

Hi Mick. It's hell when some of us speak in metric and the others in imperial. I am sure that I have tried all your suggestions and have now set the dimension specs for the window back to default. I have attached them all. You will see that the showing of the casings has been unchecked and this applies to both the interior and exterior casings. As for as the sill goes I never see an option to uncheck the exterior sill. Maybe I'm missing something. My brain is extremely tired as I have been working on this until the early hours of the morning of late in order to meet a deadline which I am now going to miss because this window thing isn't the only one being affected by my current cranial numbness.

I have a load bearing wall running from the front to the back of my office block effectively splitting it into two sections. Apart from the two light shafts I want to put a series of tall glass windows into this long wall to create a "cross flow" of light between the two sections of offices. As you can see from the attachment I have used the standard fixed glass window in the light shafts and in the long wall. I don't mind the sill on the windows in the light shafts but for the centre wall windows I don't want a sill (or if there is one it should be on both sides of the glass pane) so that the window sits in the middle of the wall not at the edge. I've tried fiddling with the window dialogue to no avail. Is there another window I should be using or is there a method of achieving what I want.

Definitely rectangular polylines. Mick, you clever lad. I was using the break wall tool because it is the only "break" thing I could find and Jo-Anne explains why But since I posted this I've deleted all the polylines because I've added a second light shaft to my plan and have to re-arrange all the desks again. I should stop getting ideas last thing at night before falling asleep but at least if I create odd shapes again I now have the answer. Thank you all.

I tried the line break tool several times. It doesn't work for me. I click on the line to break it but no break line mark appears nor does anything happen if I click on the polyline on either side of where I tried to place the break. And to make matters worse I've now got two light shafts to get around.

Thank you for your reply. I tried very hard to get what I wanted but gave up in the end and went for this instead.. ...and by some fluke I also managed to create this on the roof. Yay me!

Because of the open plan nature that I have been asked to do to my original office plan I have got to place some 360 desks within the building. As a way of defining the various departments which fall under a particular executive manager I want to colour areas on the floor plan which link to said executive. The only way I could think of doing this was by using polyline rectangles. Good in theory but there are places where I have had to use more than one rectangle for some departments and there is therefore a polyline that needs to be got rid of. Hence my question. You will see what I mean on the attachments. I want to "erase" the lines are arrowed. Maybe someone also knows of a better way of achieving the effect I want.