Rookie65

You will have to manually dimension them to see. Each item should have their own dialog box where you can set the distance from floor or ceiling, depending on the item.

Hi Chris, This is a forum for people who use the Chief Architect Home Designer series of CAD products. It's not a place for home repair tips.

Try using a soffit and changing the material to mirror

The program will ask you if you want to save the camera view once you modify it.

Are all of your foundation walls joined and are they aligned with the walls above? Have you got the room set as "unspecified" and the display living area turned off?

The auto interior dimension tool was deleted in HDP 2020 if I remember right. I think it was a good idea, as it would generate so many dimensions the plan became almost impossible to read. Now just set your manual dimension tool to how you want to generate dimensions and run "strings of dimensions on your plan to get the interior ones you want. For interior area of rooms, go to the "display" tool and look for "Rooms-interior area" and that will show the interior area of each room that has it's label displayed.

that could be another limitation of architectural.

Try under "edit>default settings>windows>casing" and that's where the option to change it for all window you put on the plan. Existing windows may still need to be changed manually.

If you have the original ".plan" file of the first project, open it up, then "save as" with the new name you want to use. Then you can make the changes needed on the new plan without it affecting the original.

Start with setting how your dimensions will be generated. Easiest for a remodel like that is to have them measure to the surfaces so it is easier to match whatever drawing you did by hand getting the dimensions. You can also set it to measure windows and doors to the casings or sides. If you need to double check something, you can use the interior dimension tool. Watch what it's reading to, because if it is reading to the stud and not the drywall, you'll need to account for that in your dimensions. You can also dimension to the surfaces of the interior walls. A suggestion is to start with a basic box and put some walls in it. Then play around with the dimension tools to get a combination that works to what/how you gathered your information.

Build the house straight along the x & y axis and rotate the plot.

I suppose you could try taking the roof, transform/replicate and shift it to either side. Then expand it and take the original roof and size it to just be at the gable walls. Then you can open your new roof, open the soffit material and copy it w/a new name. Then take your new roof, change the material to the new soffit and just have it overhang the walls the depth you want.

You're welcome. Glad I could help. Probably don't need to copy each reply in a new post.

That will give the stairs a starting reference point to determine the treads, rise & run to reach the deck.

Have you set your terrain?

Under the "text" drop down box, use the "marker" setting. You can generate them at the levels you desire. If you know the dimensions between floors, etc. you can use the transform/replicate and move them along the Z axis at the distance needed. That will keep them aligned with each other. Then you can use the point to point dimension tool to draw your dimensions vertically and move them away from the markers as desired. Just a note is make sure you have changed the default dimension settings to read in the inch size that matches the plan so they show correctly for this part..

I am guessing that your building codes won't allow such a staircase without landings at some point. The simplest would be to put a landing at each floor since you know what the height of the floor is from your plan. The length of the landing probably doesn't need to be any deeper than the width of the stairs.

Probably a good time to learn about creating manual roofs. Which direction do you want the shed roof to run?

Try attaching the ".plan" file to an email and send it to yourself from the laptop to your desktop. Open it on the desktop and save it there. If you are running the same program on both, I am thinking that will work.

You do realize the program is sold globally? There is no possible way Chief Architect could have a way to include priced materials that would make sense to anyone. Lumber prices alone vary widely from coast to coast, never mind between 2 yards in the same town! Never mind the fact that the prices would be useless from the time it was shipped from the factory until the time you installed the program. Best advice is be diligent how you frame your plan and then send the program generated materials list to a local materials dealer to price. That's the only way you'll get anything worth trying to use.

Are you expecting the program to come with material prices in it?

Terrain is typically derived from the 1st floor, which defaults at "0". Then the foundation will build down at a negative dimension. I am thinking if you set the 62' height at the dimension it would actually be below the 1st floor and then the high end would just be 18' higher. The settings can be found in your terrain tools. Hope this helps get you going in the right direction?

I do a lot of screened porch plans and always make my screening with a soffit. I set the thickness to 1/8", adjust the screen material to my liking and then apply it over the deck railing that I used for the wall. Put it just inside the outside of the wall so it appears to be inside of the posts. Then copy and paste it around the perimeter as needed.

This link will take you to the catalog library where you can purchase catalogs that you may find helpful. The ones that are marked "SSA Only" are not available for us Home Designer users, yet the others are and can be very helpful, along with the free ones. Happy shopping! https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library/index.php?r=site/library&reset=true

You can make it a soffit, add the moulding pattern to it and define the size you want it to be. Then adjust the length to go to either side of the opening.