Jo_Ann

You can draw a railing wall within a house room (keep a 2' distance away from interior wall) and specify it as 'no rail/post to beam'. THEN slide it up against the interior drywall. If your room ceiling is sloping (ceiling unchecked) you will have to use soffits to simulate upper beams in that area (horizontal & vertical). If you want beams to follow the ceiling slope, your only option (in Essentials) is to make them in sketch-up (free program). I think it is easier to just use soffits rather that the railing wall (in the main room).

Thanks for showing a pic of your successful results!!

You should have put your second post in this thread, instead of starting a new thread for the same problem. Others might not look at both threads and see the full problem.

You are on the right track. All 3 front walls (solid and invisible walls) need to be set as 'high shed gable' walls in the wall/roof tab of each wall. Make sure your invisible rooms (designated as a deck? yes) have the same finished ceiling height as the interior rooms of the house (144" ?) In each of those invisible wall rooms, make sure 'roof over this room' is checked, and check 'use soffit surface for ceiling'. You will probably have to go to the attic level and make the attic walls (over the invisible walls below) also invisible.

Keith, You must be doing something wrong. When the polyline is selected, then right clicked, the window with the break-line tool pops up. As seen in the thumbnail example, you can shape it any way that you want.

There are many helpful articles in the knowledge base on the Home Designer website. http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00358/ Also, you should download and save to your computer the user's guide and the reference guide (there are 2 downloads).

Open the soffit dbx and put a check mark in the box that says 'sloped soffit'. In 2d view, (when selected) the soffit will display an arrow. The arrow is the high point of a sloped soffit. When you get the slope correct, it is easy to raise or lower the entire soffit by selecting it in the 3d view.

Using the auto dormer tool always leaves a roof eave in front of the wall. Follow this older thread: http://hometalk.home...the-attic-level

Using the dormer tool always leaves a roof eave below it, and I don't think even the newer architectural program has a way to remove it. So the back wall (with the deck) needs to be created in a different way. Follow this thread from earlier this year (in the old forum): http://hometalk.homedesignersoftware.com/showthread.php?19439-How-to-add-a-dormer-to-the-attic-level

As Kbird said, use the break-line tool. Delete the smaller rectangles, then select the remaining polyline and add breaks. Edit the polyline area to the custom shape that you want, just as if you were using a terrain tool to edit a driveway or sidewalk shape.

Use a full wall for the ceiling height wall. As DJP suggested, use a half-wall (same as solid railing) for the slanted wall. You may have to play with it's placement until it takes on the slant of the stairs. You can adjust the wall's height in it's dialog box. Delete the left stair railing. You then have to manually place (and size) ballusters and newells from the library (library/millwork). Use a sloped soffit for the rail.

DJ, While in 3d view, select the object (that you placed the number on) with the rainbow tool. In the window that pops up, choose 'stretch to fit'.

DJ, How did you add the png file to 'my library'? Did you add it as a new 'material'???

DJ, If you follow the knowledge base tutorial (and do a lot of finagling) you can get something like this. Use the 'flat region' tool to maipulate the terrain.

DJ, I don't understand what you are saying about the numbers sticking? I see them in your last pic? You applied them to a soffit, correct? You then move that soffit up against any surface that you want the numbers to display upon. For your terrain stairs, look in the knowledge database: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00498/71/Home-Designer/Stairs/How-to-Create-Stairs-in-Sloping-Terrain.html

The green strip on the corner... Build/trim/corner boards. Open the corner board (after applied) and set the width. In 3d view, select and alter the height.

Looks like you've got some wonky terrain issues going on, too. Also...If the particular terrain problem showing the level 0 footing (garage side) is caused by the cantilever from floor 1, place a grass textured soffit at that terrain level to cover it up. P.S. What is that unsupported thing ( roof?) in front of the front porch entry?

Mick. I'm not understanding what you are doing with those ceiling heights. All the ceilings are 84". I did the livingroom with a second floor. I measured the ceiling at it's peak by using a tall soffit, and it is 9' 5". The only way (I think) to lower it is to decrease the pitch to 5/8" (creates a perfect 9' ceiling), but that doesn't look as good as the 3/4" pitch does (on the exterior). Is the main floor of the house cantilevered over level 0?

Mick, Room heights are 7' and the high shed rises (I hope) to 9' (as DJ specified). All of the new titles list the minimum operating system as 'Vista". I have XP, so it would probably be a waste of effort. My nvidia card runs excellent for my current title, but it would probably flounder at running Pro. P.S. I'm really disappointed that the post options don't have a 'crying' smiley!

Wow! My 'just guessing' plan has exactly the same pitches! Very shallow pitch! Odd that it doesn't look 'flat' in 3d view. Thanks for the floor plan, Mick.

Mick, I don't know what settings DJ has, because my older program will not open the plan file. DJ, If you would post a full jpeg image of the 2d plan, it would be helpful. Also, what is the roof pitch?

Like this? DJP is correct. You must add this png pic (number) to your 'my library'. You then place a soffit on the ground, and make it a very thin height. Open the soffit and apply the new material to it. THEN move the soffit over top of the concrete where you want it, and re-size it (the soffit) to the size that you want the numbers to appear to be.

It appears that you still have a problem with your high shed roof? About the numbers: Do you have photoshop or any image editing program? What are the numbers that you need?

Look in the library under Architectural / Cabinet Doors,Drawers, and Panels / Specialty Storage / Wine Rack.

Like this? To begin with,not enough info given. But this version was done with a second floor where the high shed is...and a LOT of finagling.