Rookie65

Depending on which Home Designer program you have, you can use the "split wall" tool to define the sections of walls you want to break into each finish type. Then open that wall and change the interior material to either paint or tile.

When I have larger projects that will need to go on 24 x 36 paper, I will draw it and send to PDF on 11x17 paper with the title block scale reading 1/4"=1'-0". Then when I send the PDF to be printed I just ask them to double the size, not fit to page. It will come out as 22 x 34 on 24x36 paper, and that should work for all parties.If it has to be on power point, then I am pretty sure your idea will work too.

Hi Keith, Good to see you on here again. In going over this quickly, my suggestion is to start on the default floor of 1, which would be the ground floor in this instance. The lower floor will generate as a foundation on floor 0. In essence, both floors will generate at the same time. Change the default wall types for both floors to what they need to be. For the grade, it is usually set for distance below the floor. So if your ground floor is elevation "0", set the grade below floor to the difference between the floor and grade. That will set the flat plane at the same height below the "ground floor" even all the way around. The lower floor can be "revealed" by setting your elevation heights as negative numbers from the existing grade you created. You can draw an elevation line where it stays flat and set it to "0" so it stays flat. Then the next elevation line will drop to the distance it needs to be. I hope this helps as a start, yet you can always save the terrain until the end before placing exterior stairs, etc.

You could also do it manually with an arrow and text.

Most people stick with 16" oc, here in New England anyway. It also provides more support for drywall & exterior sheathing.

I just use a soffit at the desired size and thickness and place it outside of an "opening" for the door. Pick the material you want it to be. There are barn doors in the bonus catalogs, yet aren't available for the Pro version.

On the 1st issue, I have had the issue in 2019 where the materials get a little haywire on roofs. Might just need to open that wall and check the materials for the exterior. Then change it to your B&B exterior as the rest of the house. With the other issues, if you are using auto roofs, it may be where you are getting the results you don't want.. One option is to break the exterior end wall in line with the wall that is running the correct direction. Open that wall and change the roof to a gable. If that fails, eliminate the "roof over this room" setting on the rooms that are perpendicular. Rebuild the roofs as desired. Then turn off the auto build, manually build the porch and intersecting roofs. Then drag the ridges to where they meet the roof it needs to intersect. For the porch, just draw it manually at the pitch you want and with the material desired.

Try clicking that one roof plane, then go to "options" and the boxed eave can be adjusted there. It will apply to both ends of that particular roof.

Or it may be "build framing?"

I don't know what Suite has for options, yet I go to "posts" in the framing section, with or without a footing. Then select "round", paint it "color-red brown" and it's done.

I always do automatic exterior dimensions and manual interior dimensions for that reason. Just run a string and then you can slide them up and down as needed. Plus you can grab dimensions individually along the string to relocate as needed. You can also set the interior dimensions to show only on rooms that have a user defined amount of square footage, though I have not had much success with that.

It may be picking up the default room heights from floor 1. Simplest way I have found around these things is to leave the room type as the floor is & just change the room name to display what you want it to be called. Saves a lot of hair pulling . . .

That's what happens if you make an overall change on materials. You'll fare better doing it after the fact. You can select the walls you want to change and then change the materials.

Create a new wall type without drywall on one side. I do it all the time, as I do a lot of basement conversion projects. One tip is to change the "fill" to a different pattern when you name it so you can keep them separate. Simplest is to copy the interior wall type it will be (4 or 6). Then go to the wall type and copy-then name it. Delete the layer of drywall you don't want. You will have to play around with the materials when you go to view it. Often the studs won't show, yet you will see "fir framing" as the material. Hope this helps?

Depending on which Home Designer program you have, you cold do it with 2 landings. Do one set of stairs and set the top height and select your riser height. Put the 1st landing at the bottom. Then set the next landing at a riser height lower. Then you can complete the stairs by looking at the measurements left.

This forum is for the Home Designer series. You may be better served searching/posting on the Chief Architect forum. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/7-general-q-a/

Looks like you added an exterior wall. Try with an interior wall and see what that does.

Those things show up all the time for no reason. Was supposed to be fixed in the last 2 updates I thought I read in the notes, yet they still appear. Not the end of the world, just a slowdown.

You could also try room dividers to make the room the size of the area you want raised. Set the existing ceiling to the height you need, add the dividers and set the room that those form to the 10' height. That should give you just the perimeter lines you desire.

One of the nice things with this program is that you can build a room the way the program knows how to build it, yet name it what you want it to be called. For example, build it as a "Room Type: Living", yet change the Room Name to "porch" after you uncheck "use default." That will build it with a framed floor, etc. Change other defaults as needed. Maybe try that, as you didn't mention what the rest of the desired structure was, just the foundation.

Most architects will not stamp plans drawn by someone else as it puts their license on the line for a project not designed/drawn by them. A structural engineer can review to make sure the correct framing members, connections, etc. are specified. I am thinking you mean to have them "printed" and then stamped? Not knowing where you are located, asking a user forum for pricing is somewhat pointless. Ask your contractor or check online for structural engineers in your area. They will be the best ones to tell you how much they will charge to review & stamp. There's a good chance they'll notate on the original plan the changes needed and send them back to you. Then you will need to make the corrections and once the plan is re-sent to them to review, then they will affix their stamp if everything is correct. Often they'll do it by PDF and once you have a stamped plan, you can send the PDF to a local print shop that has the correct equipment for the size paper you are using, etc. Or maybe the engineer can print them for you as part of their fee. They'll be the ones to ask.

The footings on the garage are probably generated by default from your settings for garage foundation stem wall height. The little lines are most likely from the exterior walls not being aligned with each other?

I will second Jo_Ann on that last statement. I have been using this program since 2013 for my business and it has served me very well. I initially bought the Architectural version, yet after 3-4 days and seeing what was missing, I knew I needed and upgraded to Pro and haven't looked back. There is so much more you can do with Pro and it gives some more flexibility to be "creative" with materials, etc.

You may be able to do it with an inverted cone. Play around with the dimensions so you can bury it in an object that will hide the point, yet show the rest to get the result you are looking for. Just a thought.

Hi, I am thinking you will have to do it with landings all the way around. Start with the bottom step at the full depth of all the treads together and do the perimeter. You can angle them at 45 deg to get the sharp corners. Then "transform/replicate" on the Z axis up one step height. Then drag it back the depth of the tread and repeat until you have all the steps done. If you don't need the 45 deg angles at the corner, you could likely use what you have and make the landings hit the heights you have. That's how I'd do it, though others may have a different way.