Jo_Ann

Most likely, the existing walls you are seeing on floor 2 are attic walls. Draw the new exterior walls over them. Turn on the floor reference to see where the floor 1 walls are located. After drawing new walls (that exist over floor 1 walls), right click each wall and select 'align with wall below'.

You can also use the box window (tool bar>box window). It will build the roof exactly like you want it. However, it has limited editing. You can alter or delete the existing windows, but you can't add a window.

Try this. It might not be exactly what you want, but I think it is closer. BEGIN by dragging the wall specified, to the opposite side of the room. This shows you where to place the wall break. Designate the wall specified (to the right) as 'full gable'. You can then return the dragged wall back to where it was originally. Set the side walls of the front room to 7.5" pitch (this slightly lowers that front room roof). NEXT: Drag back the wall connections in the remodel (as shown) so that the entire area can be selected as ONE room (this way you won't lose any doors or rooms). Change the finished ceiling height as specified. Set the north wall (specified) as 6" pitch. I hope the roof that it builds is more acceptable. I couldn't make it behave any better. When you are done building the roof, THEN (and ONLY then) turn off auto build roof. You can then raise the ceiling height back up, and re-connect all the walls.

Try this.

Also, you have not built the garage correctly. You need to name it's room type as 'garage', then you need to build>floor>build foundation.

You could auto build a second floor on the house and set the finished ceiling to 0". Then delete the walls that form the 2nd story bump-out. Return to floor 1 and reset the bump-out ceiling to the default value. At least this way your bump-out ceiling will be the same as the house ceiling. I have no idea why the program won't allow the bump-out roof and gable roof to co-exist normally.

Here is my effort at what you are trying to do. Elovia has the right idea about using a pass-thru (doorway) and 'shapes' to form the window well. Obviously the pass-thru has to be larger that the actual window. But instead of building the window from soffits, did you know that... you can place a regular window in a solid portion of the wall, then ctrl/drag the window into the pass-thru? If you add the umpteen soffits and shapes (interior/exterior, required to build the flared well) into the attic level (or even a 3rd floor blank level) and then drag them down to your working floor level----they won't show on the floor plan of the working level (but they display (in 3d) where you put them. Blocking all those pieces together would simplify adding them to other window wells. In order to make the floor plan wall (where it stops at the pass-thru) look like it meets the regular window (within the pass-thru) , you could add cad boxes and alter their appearance to whatever looks acceptable to you, on the 2d floor plan view.

Individual rooms are defined by walls (solid or invisible) that are connected to other walls. Here's another approach to the passthru/ doorway problem: Replace the ENTIRE stretch of wall (passthru/doorway/passthru) with a railing (railing, not deck railing). Open the wall: make it solid> change railing height to the bar height. Close the wall dialog. Grab the wall break tool, and add 2 wall breaks where the walk thru door opening will be. Open that center section of the railing wall and set it as 'invisible'. You will still have to use a soffit to represent the header, and the bar-top counter.

Is the bump-out a window? Usually that type of bump-out has a lower ceiling. If you lower the finished ceiling in the bump-out 'room' by about 12 5/8", I think your hip roof will build.

Hi Keith, The new stairwell layout is nice looking. If you still want to play around with the other design, I redid it in metric (US unit/measurement is probably why the other one was shrunken?). You can always save your current plan 'save as' and then play in the new plan with the older stairwell design. That way you can have both. Keith's stairwell metric.zip

Ross, Tools>display settings>display options>rooms,interior area (put a check). In your reference manual, look at rooms>room labels for an explanation of the different room labels.

Keith, Open both plans and tile the windows vertically. In my plan, select an item you want to copy>go to the top toolbar/edit/copy. Then, in your own plan (active window), go back up to the top toolbar/edit/paste.

Here you go Keith. I changed the balcony rail for you. If you open this plan up in your software, you can copy/paste items and textures into your own plan. Have some fun! KeithK stairwell.zip

For the window: Temporarily turn off 'auto build roof'. Add/change the walls shown in the diagram. Slide the window into position. Return the wall structure to the way it was originally. Turn 'auto build roof' back on. The window should remain where you put it. Tying in the porch roof to the garage: I have been playing with that and haven't found a solution yet. With my software title, I could make it visually correct (not structurally) by adding a sloped soffit with roofing material added. Suite doesn't have sloped soffits. However, you might be able to get a 'wedge' shape (library) to cover the space correctly. Add a soffit for the fascia. Still not structurally correct, but looks okay in 3d.

Try this. Note: You will probably not be able to add the stairs leading to level 2, until auto roof has been turned OFF, and you can then delete this wall that is in the way (path of the stairs).

As far as I know, the program won't allow you to 'straddle' wall breaks with windows or doors.

Some of the items were probably bonus libraries that needed to be downloaded when they were available. BUT all of this stuff should still be made available to the newer products!

You have really chosen a complicated design for a new user to this software (different floor elevations, ceiling heights, invisible walls needed, dormers, building angles, roof pitches, and the addition on the chimney end of the house is a problem all on it's own). What David said about the geometry needing to be correct is an understatement! Roof overhangs can create a problem too (when they overlap each other). YIKES! It CAN be done, but WOW what a headache for you!!

I seem to recall reading a previous forum post about the same subject, and a staff moderator replied that all previous library items were included in newer product versions ( plus new items added). Guess NOT. P.S. The library bicycle is decent looking, but somebody forgot to add the pedal 'arms' !!

If your camera view is taken from outside a room (that includes invisible wall rooms), then that room will not be lighted...UNLESS...you have edited the default setting>render quality>use enhanced lighting. Then add a light, and that room will be lit (even if the camera is outside of the room). Also, you can open the dialog box for the added light, and experiment with the color of the light to get different results.

Be cautious about adding too many sketchup objects to a plan, because they can cause an extreme slowdown to the plan that you are working on.

You can group select many objects ( for example, windows), enabling them to be moved as one unit, as a temporary block. But...not all objects can be saved as a block (for example, windows). HDA 10 Reference manual page 305-306 lists blockable items. Blocks can be saved to the user library. The block icon is a purple/blue cube that appears on the left side tool bar. This tool bar only appears when an item has been selected. The block cube only appears when items have been 'group' selected. You can select textures with the rainbow icon, and then change their X/Y values. This can greatly improve the way that some textures look, but it's sure not a cure-all fix.

Kristine, With your object open in sketchup, go up to the toolbar and choose window>materials (a window will open showing materials). Click on the little house and choose 'in model'. Right click the material...choose 'export texture image'. It will save a jpeg material to the location of your choosing. The feet were added manually (find them in the 'millwork' category in the library. You should also delete the cabinet 'toekick', and raise the cabinet at least 4" off the floor. NOTE: You are using the same version of HDA as I am. Read page 305 of the reference manual, pertaining to 'architectural blocks'.

I'm not very skilled at using sketchup, but I downloaded the 1st object on your list and began experimenting. The 1st thing I did was to import and save the distressed texture (used on the cabinet) to HDA. Then I imported the cabinet to HDA, and re-applied the newly saved texture. Using the rainbow tool, I set it to 'stretch to fit'. The cabinet on the left is the result. The handles appear to be photos applied? Then I created the cabinet on the right using a kitchen cabinet (base cabinet with drawers), and changed the texture to the saved sketchup material. Next, (after not finding similiar handles in the HDA library), I re-opened the sketchup object (in sketchup), recolored the handles, and saved them as a new sketchup object. Then I imported the handle into HDA and placed it on my new cabinet. I copied/pasted the other 7 handles. So, my advice is....keep experimenting.

I am also at a loss as to exactly what you are trying to do, because (as Mick said) you have not provided enough info or even a jpeg of your floor plan. My guess, is that you need to draw invisible walls to separate your deck into 'rooms', then choose which 'room' has a roof and which does not.