Jo_Ann

You appear to have 3 different ceiling heights. Play with the ceiling heights and the roof pitches, and it will build this way.

Thanks, David! I can't do a video, so I've emailed the basic plan to you.

You can do this with Suite. This is just an example--your own dimensions will determine what the settings are for your roof walls (and they are very specific). You will need to play with those settings until you get it right. The red walls are the 2nd floor walls. When the roof is correct, then turn off 'auto build roof', and THEN you can raise the finished ceiling height of floor 3.

The shaded walls are railings designated as 'invisible'. The front (right side) railing wall (railing tab) specifies 'no rail' and 'post to ceiling'.

YES, it DOES matter which program you have, because Suite probably does NOT have that option. Just guessing. You also need to list which version you have (15?). You should add this to your signature.

David, When you turn off 'auto build roof' and delete the extra walls, you will then REJOIN the existing walls and it will no longer be a seperate structure. I would do a 'save as' on your plan BEFORE turning off the 'auto build roof'. You can then do your remodel in the 'saved as' plan (with the separate structure, which will maintain the flat roof). You can do as many 'save as' remodels that you want. You wil still have the 'as-is' plan, and the 'to-be' plan to show the contractor. When you settle on a final remodel, you can turn off the 'auto build roof' then rejoin walls on that plan, too.

I found that when lowering the roof pitch of the addition walls, it played havoc with the rest of the roof. Sooo, make the addition separate, as shown. When the roof is correct, lower the finished ceiling height so that the facias match. THEN turn off auto build roof. Now you can delete the extra walls and re-raise the ceilings. You CAN NOT rebuild the roof again, or you will change this roof.

Uh...NO. Home Designer 2014 has 5 listed titles: 1. Interiors 2. Essentials 3. Suite 4. Architectural 5. Professional

Place a base cabinet, and open a 3d full camera view. Open the cabinet dbx to 'front' tab and delete the toekick, then the door. Back in 3d view, select the cabinet and grab the size handle at the bottom and pull it up (to whatever height you want the drawer to be). You can make the drawer wider, a double drawer (dbx/front tab), or change the handles (door/drawer tab in the dbx). You can also extend just the countertop by using a soffit or custom countertop.

I've been thinking about the stairs, and it sounds as if you haven't built them yet (in reality). So...unless you're a really short person, I think you're going to whack your head on the ceiling at that landing.

Open this plan and zoom into the offending wall in the bedroom to have a look. There is an interior wall (made very thin) and moved close to the siding wall (not touching!!) This method works, but is a big hassle. Zoom in and take a look at the offending wall on the stairwell side. First make your interior walls in that room a drywall material. Then, as Elovia suggested, place an inverted wedge from the library (shapes). Make it very thin and position it against the siding outside (resized to cover the siding). This is the easiest fix. I changed the wedge to a different color siding to make it easier to see (in the 3d view). I hope this helps. alaska_av8r.plan

After all the new program versions offered over the years, I wonder why chief has never fixed this problem.

Has this feature been added to Architectural 2015? In my version you can raise the top pony wall, but you can't alter its shape via the edges.

Try selecting each wall, then pull it back from its connecting wall, then snap it back (reconnect). Oddly, sometimes that is all it takes to re-establish a connection.

No invisible wall on the main floor.

Thank you. Thank you very much. He He.

Keith. Looks good! It does look like you have a double soffit panel (in 2d window) in your front/back desk unit. You can explode the block and remove one of them, then re-block. Not seeing what you describe as the side desk looking elongated? With the 2d window active, open your display options up in the toolbar and uncheck cabinet labels. Numbers will be all gone. POOF!

If you followed the tutorial correctly, and then did a framing overview...you should see the floor joists and the roof rafters both resting on the bearing wall below.

Design the first desk with kitchen cabinets (customized to your liking). Use a thin soffit for the dividing panel. Block the pieces together, then copy/paste the block for the other 2 desks.

Mick, "A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky." Yes, any room type that uses a 4" floor structure will work (court, porch, slab, garage). I separated the 2nd floor with a wall. I think your example is not working because you forgot to recheck all the ceiling heights. They tend to automatically change, remember?

If appearance is what you are looking for, you CAN alter floor thickness in a work-around. The 1st floor is a standard build with 8' ceiling. The 2nd floor also has 8' ceiling. The left 2nd floor is the standard build floor structure. The right 2nd floor has been separated from the left side with a wall. This room has been designated as a 'court'. A court room has a default 4" floor structure. In this example, I added a 4" floor finish to increase the floor structure thickness to 8". You can see the difference in the image. However, in framing view it will not show any floor joists under the 'court' room.

New game plan. Forget the 3rd floor prow...it can be done easier on floor 2. Follow the settings in the 2d plan pic. The settings for the gambrel roof wall may vary (based on your own dimensions), but I think you can get the idea. The gambrel wing on the right is a narrower room, so the gambrel roof settings will be different (the lower pitch will need to be increased, and the distance from the baseline will need to be decreased). This will raise the walls to a better height. Draw the invisible prow walls as shown. Open the wall dbx and observe the angle, then make sure the other prow wall is at the same angle. Open the wall/roof tab on each prow wall, specify the pitch (same as upper gambrel wall 3" ?), then check 'high shed/gable wall'. The pic shows 4" pitch, but it should match the upper gambrel pitch (which is 3"). Oops. Open the small triangular prow ROOM dbx and designate it as 'open below' and uncheck 'show room label'. On the structure tab, make sure finished ceiling height is set at 0". Uncheck 'ceiling over this room' and CHECK 'use soffit surface for ceiling'. In a 3d view, you should now only see a prow roof with a white soffit underneath.

This is what I was able to build using auto roof. However, it took a LOT of tweaking and resetting ceiling heights (they kept changing automatically). To begin with, You should NEVER start drawing your interior room walls until the roof is correct! Delete them. ALSO, the 2nd floor gambrel roof rooms are NOT dormers. Like Kbird said, you should rebuild the 2nd floor with "0" ceiling height, add the invisible walls that are needed, and start setting all your roof wall types and pitches. The back room was then set to a 107" ceiling height. I had to set the front 'room' to a 3" ceiling height to make the roof join correctly. Depending on your own dimensions, this may be different (this is where the tweaking begins). At this point I recommend that that you start doing a 'save as' for each stage of the project that you get right. It will save you a lot of headaches if you need to go back to a place where things were going good. The front prow roof was done by adding a blank 3rd floor that only consisted of the tiny prow rooms. LOTS of tweaking here with floor and ceilings heights. Maybe Kbird can come up with an easier way!? When the roof is correct, you will turn OFF auto-build roof. You can then delete all the ugly prow room walls, AND raise the 2nd floor ceilings to the height you want them. NOW you can begin to draw your 2nd floor interior walls. At least this image shows that it CAN be done with your program, provided you have LOTS of patience!

Mick, I added the 2nd floor based on floor 1 (not a blank floor) with 0" ceiling height. I then drew the dormer, but needed the invisible wall to give it room definition so that I could add ceiling height (to make it rise out of the roof, of course). When I added the upper/lower pitch to the dormer roof, nothing changed. THEN, I noticed that when I moved that wall, the 2 pitches appeared!

Trial and error. Lots of trial and error.