Rookie65

Hi all, I am working on an addition where the front roof over the garage is a 12/12 pitch & the back is a 5/12 or so. I am trying to figure out how I can get a piece of trim that mimics the same pitch as the front to give the appearance of a gable. What I have drawn was by using rectangles, yet it doesn't put anything on the 3d views. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Regarding the windows, depending on the size, you may want to look into the wind loading on that side of the house. Windows just attached at the frames with no structural support can bow in with strong winds. Might depend on what brand you are thinking to use.

I bought this program specifically to restart my side business of designing houses, additions, etc. It has been a life saver compared to the old T-square & triangle days, especially with changes. I think any type of class that will help with building codes, materials, etc. will be a help. Even just going to a job site where houses are being built & seeing them in various stages is very informative. Some of the house plan magazines are good to pick up to see what types of layouts are popular/efficient/current. Definitely do not mention the word "architect" in any advertising, etc. I just tell people that I design/draw various residential projects. If you don't have an official title from a governing agency, try to stay away from giving yourself one. As far as billing, I use a combination of a base price then an add-on per square foot. The base can be determined by how much time you think something will take you to draw & what you feel your time is worth per hour. As for a questionnaire, one thought is to ask your customer to list things in 3 categories. Must haves, like to haves & if possibles. Ask if they like a particular style of house they like. Ask them the type of rooms they are looking for. In college we learned that even "bubble diagrams" are good to start with. Place them in an area a particular room might go. Adjust the bubble size by the approximate size of each room that the client may want. Some rooms need to have a certain minimum amount of square footage, such as bedrooms. I hope this may help a little bit.

Got it. Great help. Thank you.

I will give that a try. I am hoping it will work when doing a 2D elevation view. Thank you again.

Thank you, David, I like that idea, yet on the elevation view, it still shows the arrow pointing to the hinge side. Kbird, I will look more into that later.

Hi all, What do you folks do when you want to put sidelights next to an entry door? On a full glass one I make a fixed window & adjust the frame. Yet when I ama using a door w/some detail, the best I have found is to make the unit a pocket door so it shows the slab. Yet on the floor plan you see the area where the doors slide in to eaither wall? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you!

If Architectural will let you edit your defaults, go to doors-pocket & edit the width you want it to be. Keep in mind that any pocket door you draw will keep that same dimension. Hope this works?

Thank you Robin. Kbird got me squared away this morning.

I actually have it working now. I must have messed some seting up. With any luck I will be able to wrap this up for my customer shortly to review. I appreciate the fast reply from you. Great to have this type of support. Thank you

Thank you Solver. I have been trying it on level 2. I have the floors separated since I need to use 16" I-joist as the framing for the 2nd floor. Will try to see if I can drop the floor enough to make it work. It's the only thing holding me up from finishing the preliminary design for the clients.

Hello, I am working on a ranch house plan that has a walk out basement. So I have the stepped foundation at floor 0, the garage on floor 1 since floor 2 is a little higher & is the main floor. In trying to build a farmer's porch & a small rear deck off of floor 2, when I select build deck railing, the items get build on floor 1 so the entire structure is underground? Any suggestions are very welcome, as this is stumping the daylights out of me. Thank you all.

You are a life saver Mick. Thank you very much.

Hi all, Somehow my library browser does not open. Would anyone have a solution how to reclaim it? I am using Windows 8.1 with HD Pro 2015. It was working a few days ago, so I don't know what mayhave caused it. Any help or suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

You are very welcome.

One option is to select the door, change it to a tudor arch, then select the 1 side you want lower. It will then clip the corner of the frame, yet the door will still stay square, so maybe show that door as open. Then go to an elevation view of the door & drag the height down to where it fits. The angle won't change & it should give you close to your desired result.

Thank you all for the help.

Hi All, I have HD Pro 2014 that I have been running on Windows XP. I am planning to change to a different system, either Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. With all of the experience more of you have than me, Which one seems to work better with the HD series? I may upgrade to HD Pro 2015 at some point. Any help and/or advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

It looks like it's the self-generated layout box page title? Go the the "display options" tab on the layout page & uncheck the "display box labels" box. That shoud make it disappear. Then create your own text box & place as desired.