Jo_Ann

To prevent (sloped) soffits from interfering with the dollhouse view, place them on the 'attic' level, and then reposition them to where they need to be (height?).

Turn OFF 'auto rebuild roof', then use the paint can to apply different materials to portions of the roof. If you accidentally rebuild the roof, the materials will default back to the original.

It sounds like you are trying to use the 'attic' space as your 2nd floor, and the software does not allow that. Search the Knowledge Base for 'Cape Cod ', and then view the directions for "Automatically Building a One and a Half Story Roof".

If your 2nd floor walls above the kitchen (left and right), are not set as 'gable', then you will have to add a sloped soffit to serve as the vaulted ceiling.

Poor,confusing explanation of what you want it to look like. So, I am guessing. Is this what you want?

Is this what it is supposed to look like?

A word of advice: Snapping stairs to a landing can be very frustrating. Keep at it until you get the hang of it. Landings have to be perfectly sized (side to side) to get the stairs to snap to them.

This is a complicated design for a new user. Too many elements and settings to try to explain, but it can be done. Practice and experience will get you better results. Keep working on it.

This is my interpretation of the type of roof you were trying to build. Full height 2nd floor over the front of the house, story and a half over the living room (new master bedroom), and a story and a half room between the 2, (possible large walk-in closet). Wrap around porch added for the new entry. The porch roof also helps to distract from the top heavy looks of the 2nd floor master bedroom addition. It is unclear what the 1st floor remodel is supposed to look like.

If the label is bothersome, open the tiny cabinet and suppress the label.

I hope that the new architect that you hire has a good sense of design style. You need to clean up / fix the house plan, so that the next plan that you post is more correct. This assists anyone trying to help you.

This example is only intended to show you how to manipulate some of the roof. You need to start experimenting to see what results you might get. This example (and settings) show how to get the triangle / gulley that Eric speaks about.

jmr117, That is not a very attractive design. I would consult another architect.

Put a wall break where shown on the 2nd floor.. Change the short wall to a hip wall.

I would worry less about the safety of 3 short steps (with a hand rail) out the door, than all those steps to get to the ground level. The upper landing and the mid-landing are closer to the ground. This means fewer steps, and shorter support posts (less cost) and more safety.

Food for thought.

If you are planning to do in reality, what I think you are wanting to show in the software, then I hope that you have extremely good liability insurance.

Is this what you want to see in the 3d framing view?

Not sure what you are doing when looking at the core content library, but I think the core content is the same for Suite, Architectural, and Pro. When I look under Architectural > Exteriors > Vehicles....I see a variety of generic cars, pick-ups, and suvs.

What you are wanting to create is called a half-hip gable roof (look in your user guide). The auto-build roof settings are very tricky and confusing for this style roof. This mock-up was done using auto build roof. I think that you will keep more of your hair, if you learn how to use the manual roof tools.

A challenge to experiment with. I found the pony wall /w rail method easiest to use. After following Eric's instruction to place the wall, then break the wall . Open the upper pony wall and set the baluster/newel tab railing height to 2". This eliminates the unwanted upper rail. You will still have missing balusters below the ceiling. Get the matching balusters from the library, and manually place and size them (there should only be 4 or 5 to place).

It sounds like your graphic/video card is not up to the task. You might get lucky and only need to update the card's driver.

There is no need to recreate the wall. Open the plan where the wall exists. Copy/paste the wall into the new plan. When the new plan is saved, then opened, the new wall will be there in the drop-down wall list. You can save it this easy way if you create a template plan, too. I have saved a lot of wall types this way ( that I want to have available in the wall drop-down list) without having to recreate them.

The same house plan was posted here: and here: Hopefully an easy one?

You haven't provided nearly enough info for anyone to help with your house plan. If this is an existing house, a few pics would help. Usually you begin with the correct roof settings on the walls, and allow the roof to "auto rebuild". Then you can tidy things up using manual roof tools to finish.