Jo_Ann

Those 'dormers' are not dormers. They are simply rooms drawn on your 2nd story floor plan. If you are suggesting that you want to extend the 2 front left closets into the roof slope area, then you need to draw a wall where you want them to extend to, (or drag/extend the existing interior wall that is visible in the floor plan) and designate the wall (wall dialog box, roof tab) as a knee wall (so that the roof will continue to slope over it). Posting a 1st floor plan jpeg would also be helpful.

Draw a wall that matches the same length ( feet, inches) as one of the outer walls of the blueprint jpeg. Hold down the ctrl key, and begin to enlarge your jpeg from one of the diagonal corner handles (this will enlarge the jpeg while keeping the proportion correct). When the length of the jpeg wall matches the wall you have drawn to that same footage, you are ready to begin tracing.

After you have turned off 'auto build roof', the program will then allow the use of the material painter to paint individual roof planes.

After you have made that wall a full gable wall, open the wall spec box. Under the roof tab there should be a place to choose 'full roof return'. You can also set the depth that it extends out from the wall.

I think what you are seeing is the intersection of the 2 eave overhangs. Spread the 2 interior walls apart. Break the gable roof at each interior wall (on each side) , then open the 'middle' room spec box and remove the roof. Reduce the eave overhang (build roof icon spec box) to 2". Zoom in the 2d plan and start moving the walls back together until the 2 dashed overhang roof lines merge. Zoom in a 3d view and see if this looks better. Turn off auto build roof and then delete the interior walls. You can now build a solid interior wall to cover the ugly roof intersection at the ceiling level. If you need large exterior overhangs, you will need to build invisible exterior walls to create that effect, just as you did for your prior cottage project. You will need to do this before you turn off auto build roof !

Use a soffit as a wall.

Use a half-wall (railing wall) instead of a foundation wall. Make this wall the thickness and texture of a foundation wall. Open the room spec of this 'room' to alter it's elevation. Open each wall spec to change it's height.

Yes, you can. Select the top 2 step stair-segment, right click, copy/paste this on the opposide side of the stairs. Grab the rotate handle of the pasted segment (the little triangle), and rotate so that the arrow 'up' direction of the steps is going the correct direction. Then move this segment into position. Do the same with the bottom four step stair-segment.

Dialog BoX Knowledge Base tutorial: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00317/140/Home-Designer/Walls/Railings/Creating-a-Half-Height-Wall.html

If you broke the railing wall correctly, the wall dbx of the 2 landing walls can be opened (in 2d) and the height of each rail can be changed.

Thanks, Kbird.

Keith, I was curious as to what type of edge you gave to your moat...but I can't tell in the pic you posted. It looks like maybe you used soffits for the water? I used 'custom countertop' for the water. I added polyline breaks, which enabled me to wrap the counter around the moat. Where the two ends joined, I mitered the corners. I think the mitered corners look better in 3d view. The bridge is in the library. P.S. Exporting a jpg is always easier than doing a screen shot, because there are no toolbars visible in the export (that need to be cropped). Also, fill your screen monitor with the pic you want to export. I created a new folder to save my pics to, and labeled it 'hometalk uploads'. That way it's always easy to navigate to where your pic is, and you always know what pics you have uploaded.

Keith, Are you trying to model something like this, with this type of edge? Most of the edge showing is brown, but the section on the right is using a grass texture.

I tried this too. I added the two pass-throughs, with all of their interior/exterior trim removed. I then added a doorway between them (with all of it's trim removed). Resize the doorway until it meets the pass-throughs. Grab the center handle of the doorway and slightly move the whole doorway over the offending wall of one of the pass-throughs. Grab the opposite sizing handle of the doorway and drag it slightly over the other pass-through wall. You might have to play with the pass-through handles as well, until it works. I think this works for Suite, and it will keep the base molding on the walls.

Keith, I'm not sure how you want your moat to look like, but here is my version of a moat or pond. I used the valley tool as David suggested. I then added a terrain round feature (which contoured to the valley) and changed it's texture to dirt. I then added a soffit lowered to the bottom of the pond and added a 'dirt & gravel' texture (texture enlarged using the rainbow tool), which created the pond floor. Of course I HAD to add rocks and fish. Last thing I added was another soffit, enlarged beyond the perimeter of the pond and lowered until it looked to be the right level in the pond. I changed the soffit texture to 'corsica glass' (library), which I then used the rainbow tool to alter the color and transparency of, to make it look like water.

Break each railing wall where the landing is, then raise each landing wall to the height that is needed.

I don't think you can open the plan created in my program title, but this picture should help to get you moving forward. You also failed to list the all important pitches of the different roofs shown on your picture.

I did this quickie house just to show you that you can do this with suite. There are way too many settings involved to tell you exactly how to do this, and I think that is why David advised you to study the help files. Dimensions, room type, floor and ceiling heights, roof setting AND pitch on each wall (wall/roof tab), floor 1, floor 2, and level 0 settings are all needed to be known, for anyone to give you specific answers. My example was fairly easy to do, but... it was all guessing based on your picture.

Hold down the control key and select every part of the built-in. You might have to do this in the 3d view, to get all of them. Do not right click to copy, as this will deselect all the items (except for the one you right click on). Instead, go to the tool bar/ edit/ copy. Activate the new plan, and choose 'paste' from the tool bar/ edit/ paste. The entire unit should paste. If your software allows blocking, you can make a block and add it to the library. If not, save a plan that contains all of the items you want to keep as units. Then you can always open that plan and repeat the 'ctrl/copy/paste' routine.

Use a piece of soffit, same height and depth as the molding, and add molding to it (same height and depth). Slide it into place. Problem all gone.

But you could look in the library under millwork/wall panels and niches.

After arranging your cabinets, place a soffit (listed in the cabinet icon). Change it's specs to what is shown, and slide it up against the cabinet. If the directional triangles (shows when selected) of the soffits are all on the same side showing on each soffit, then the software will auto fill in the empty spaces to join the soffits (the same thing should have occurred with the open gaps on the backs of the cabinets). No need to overlap or add any 'fillers' or partitions. Then change the soffits to the countertop material that you want. Also, if you hold down the keyboard Ctrl key and select EACH object (3 cabinets, 3 soffits), you can move the entire unit (as if it were one piece) to re-position it if necessary.

Also, place a rounded window (with opaque glass) above the tall window (left pic). Or, use fan trim from the library/ millwork/ Mantels,Capitals,& Sills/ Fan Trim (pic on the right).

You didn't thoroughly read the first link about how to build a 'story and a half' house. 'Attic' room redefined as 'open below' room needs to have the finished ceiling height set to '0' to stop the roof planes from rising. In the tutorial, the room ceiling was set to 24", but ceiling height is your choice.

http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00358/52/Home-Designer/Roofs/Automatically-Building-a-One-and-a-Half-Story-Roof.html http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00210/0/Using-Open-Below-Rooms-to-Define-an-Opening-to-a-Lower-Floor-.html Also, read about 'attic rooms' listed in the reference manual contents under 'multiple floors'.