Rookie65

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.

I don't know, as I have never used Suite. Another option could be to draw them as individual landings at the needed heights to complete the look.

Take a look at your reference manual on how to create winder treads.

Try using a soffit made with the countertop material and check the height above floor needed to get it to fit through.

I don't think you can turn the shingle layer off, though depending on what you are trying to do, maybe changing the roofing material to glass could work?

Good chance they may have renamed some. Go to default settings>floors & rooms>room types then edit. You can change names of rooms you don't usually use to rooms you would like to have. Or you can leave those alone and when you are drawing your plan, define it as a default room, then change the particular name from the default..

You can also try your library bonus catalogs under post & pier systems. You may be able to buy that catalog and download it so that type and others will be available to you as well.

Create a new wall type from that one.

Since my projects are residential, often the builder will notate the location on a plot plan that is drawn from a new survey most towns require to be submitted along with the permit application. For the little bit of landscape design I put on the plans, I use the built in elevation building part of the program and go from there. I adapt it to the x-y coordinates as the plan is drawn and it's very simple. Walls stay straight, trusses go in the correct direction, angles are mostly eliminated (except for interiors if needed), and all is right with the world and comes out just fine.

I've been using this program since 2013 and with over 300 projects drawn and construction documents created and built from, I'd have to disagree with you. If you're looking for site plans too, then this probably isn't the program for you and maybe AutoCAD is something for you to look at. I don't know what Premier does for site plans, so maybe I am incorrect in my thinking, yet I can't say I have seen anywhere that it professes to do site plans other than via imported coordinates from another source.

RScottG, I think what you are looking for is the civil engineering part of the project and not the architectural. Most plot plans that you see will have the building shown in relation to the survey information. Architectural works best when the plans are drawn along the x and y axis on paper. I don't know of too many contractors who would want to lay out a plan on the hood of their truck at some oddball angle to try to measure something they need off the plan. If Chief Architect were to try to make the program allow for every conceivable angle that you want, there would no room left in the program for the building design information. Let the civil engineers work their magic and their information can mesh with the architectural for a complete project to give the client.

Hi, For my two cents, I think the reverse plan should stay. Especially when drawing a duplex type unit and when people want a mirror image. Thank you.

Since it is a railing, open the wall and change the railing height.

Do them with the "cross section/elevation" tool and not with a camera view.

Sometimes it's one of the little things that happen with the program. Could put a soffit at that intersection in the wall and have "use room mouldings" unchecked. That is one solution. Sometimes changing the wall framing material from studs to drywall could fix it too.

No function that I know of, though you could make one by using closed polylines. Draw each one at the scale you need and use a solid fill on alternating one may work?

If you want to have all the bells and whistles that apparently you are used to, then Premier may be your answer. I would not agree that they are misrepresenting the product at all. I have been using HD Pro for my design business since 2013. With over 300 projects drawn and construction documents for them generated from the program, I have never had an issue with paper size once I asked about this situation and got the solution I posted. Not entirely sure what the trouble is you mean you are having with the level sets. For what it's worth, I created a "master" plan that I use to originate each project from. It has the defaults I like to use for dimensions, wall types, text, etc. so I don't have to set them all up each time i need to draw something. Then I change what I need for each particular job and "save as" the name I want to give it. That way my original is always there.

With Pro, the largest sheet it can save in a layout is 18"x24". What I do in that case if the plan is too big for 18x24 paper is send it to layout on 11x17 paper in 1/8" scale. Yet I will have my title block say "1/4"=1'-0" as the scale. You can put a border around the edges with the rectangular polyline tool to draw the line. When I send it to be printed, I have them double the print size and have it printed on 24x36 paper. DO NOT let them "fit to page" or it will mess up the scaling. This way you have a 22 x 34 correctly scaled drawing on 24x36 paper. The reference manual is a good place to look for answers to some of your questions too.

Or check to see if there are any available in the downloadable bonus catalogs.

maybe under shapes-open top and front will work?