rfcomm2k

OK I tried it one more time. THis time it looks much better.

That will not work either. As soon as I open another program (i.e. snipping tool) the temporary measurements disappear.

OK, I was using the print screen option, so I tried using the export jpg option instead. Guess what. The export option does not show the temp dimensions that the print screen does. So even though the export pix are bigger, the info in them is useless.

@ DJP, detaching garages is out of consideration. When everything burned down in June, the insurance settled for just 10% of the home value toward the detached garage because it being detached was considered an out building. Hence the desire to attach it this time. @ Eric, second floor is undesirable. Am told because it makes house look boxy.

Thank you Eric. I tried the KB and searched the articles, but only found how to build a daylight basement. Nothing pertained to ADDING a daylight basement AFTER the whole plan was done. I will try what you suggest & post the results.

Not sure where I went wrong, but I want to have all temp measurements go between the inside of the framing layer of the walls, whether they are interior, exterior, or a mix. Currently if I click on an interior wall it measures to the inside of the frame layers if it is 2 interior walls, unless one of those walls ALSO has an exterior wall further down the line in parallel with it. Then it will measure to the other side of the interior wall with the exterior attached to it. Picture labeled correct is what I want to see whether it is int-int, ext-ext, or int-ext. Incorrect1 pict horizontal measurement goes to outside of exterior wall. I want it to measure to the inside of it. Incorrect2 shows horizontal measure between 2 interior walls with 1 referenced to the opposite side of the left wall. AND, I just discovered that if I simply scroll up, that 19' measurement seen in incorrect2 will disappear as seen in incorrect3. So I checked dimension defaults and set them to wall dimension layer and primary wall side. Then I went to exterior/interior wall defaults, clicked to define exterior wall (siding 6 by default) and it showed the picture of the sidint, but the STUD layer was bulleted. Dimension to this line was NOT checked. I then clicked on the ACTUAL siding layer bullet (layer 1) and saw that dimension to this line WAS checked. I then clicked back to the stud layer (layer 4) and now it too had the dimension to this line checked.So I clicked OK, OK, and Done. I went back to these wall defaults then and found ALL the layers have dimension to this line checked but after unchecking the ones I did not I found as soon as I clicked a different bullet the previous bulleted item changed back to being checked. So now you can see why I am so frustrated.

DJP, I tried to reopen your video just now but cannot. Was it deleted? Anyway, the plan now calls for a daylight basement. 3' concrete below grade, 1' concrete above grade, and 4' wood frame above grade. Then the first floor on top of that. My thought is to delete the existing foundation and redraw it manually using a pony wall defined as described above (4' concrete and 4' wood frame). Is this the way to do it? Or do I have to insert another floor below current level 1?

@ Rosco2017, No, I am not building with these plans. This is primarily to give the homeowner (my Son) an idea of what the floorplan will look like. He is then responsible for taking it to an architect to have it converted to useable drawings that adhere to local code (which I understand is VERY lax where he lives). However, I am also trying to learn how to use HDP at the same time, and all the valuable lessons from DJP, you, solver, katalyst, kbird, et al is well received by me.

I used invisible walls to represent a raised ceiling (soffit around perimeter). I noticed a piece of invisible wall that "connects" it to one of the other walls. I ignored it until I did the dimensioning and saw that there are dimensions to this "connector", which does not exist in reality. I tried to delete it but it was replaced by another. I cannot seem to hide it, but if I show this plan to a builder those dimensions are going to raise a lot of questions I do not have answers for. Is there any good reason why this "connector" exists and is there any way to make it disappear while still maintaining the soffit?

Ceilings are set that tall to accommodate an RV and a hydraulic lift to raise vehicles for repair. It is my Son's home and he has his own plow service and does 90% of the maintenance on the fleet himself. I did mention that I thought the ceilings did not need to be that high but he insisted. Also David, as you can see in my second post I tried to replace the picture file and for some reason it failed to upload, or at least failed to be seen in the post. Any ideas on that?

The original picture file was too small to be useful so I am reattaching it after enlarging it.

In the attached plan, and referencing the attached picture, I am trying to have the ridgeline become one long ridge instead of the broken up one that it is currently. However I do not want to change any room heights or wall locations. It seems to me I could simply change the roof plane geometry to accomplish this, but before I try that and make a mess of the plan, I thought I should ask some of you experts about this. Basically, looking at the picture, I want to push ridge A back to position B so it lines up with ridge J. Bring ridge G forward to position H to also line up with ridge J. Push ridge C back to position D and push ridge E back to position F. My goal here is to eliminate the short ridge between line A and the point of lines C & E. This could also be accomplished by leaving ridge A where it is and moving ridges J and G forward to line up with it. And then adjusting lines C and E as needed to eliminate that short ridge. Is my idea even feasible?

Had house plan just about completed when I was asked to add a full basement under the house. So I followed the user guide instructions exactly, and ended up with a full basement under the garages, but NOT under the house. This is exactly contrary to what I expected. What did I do wrong? Was I supposed to delete the foundation before recreating it? The stem walls for the garage should remain untouched except where they adjoin other rooms of the main house.

Found it. Under roof plane/options I had unchecked Use Room Ceiling Finish and checked Has Ceiling. So that part is done. But what about those two other problems? Still cannot find them.

I have the cabin looking just about perfect, except for the porch area troubles. Circled in red is what appears to be the interior drywall on the ceiling. Circled in lime green is IDK what. And circled in light blue is a problem with the end wall, possibly due to the roof plane cutting across it.

Solver, the link you provide seems to be confusing. Assume I have already constructed floor 1. Do I follow steps 1-6 under "To build a second floor with gable walls" and then continue with steps 1-2 under "To build a roof ignoring the top floor"? Or do I skip steps 1-2 under "To build a roof ignoring the top floor" and go straight to steps 1-6 under "To adjust the second floor"? Or do I skip steps 1-6 under "To build a second floor with gable walls" and go straight to steps 1-2 under "To build a roof ignoring the top floor"? Because by skipping the first 6 steps and going straight to steps 1-2 under "To build a roof ignoring the top floor", then when I get to steps 1-6 under "To adjust the second floor" there is no second floor room to click on.

How does one specify no foundation in HDP14? All I want to design is a plain little shed with plywood floors on 2x8 joists. Joists rest on top of a gravel base.

My bad, I attached the wrong sketch DJP. Please look at this one. See the dimensions of the truss/loft detail. 14" in from side wall the lower part of roof reaches 25". Then it peaks at 50.75". I can accomplish this with one floor. But when I add another floor with 0" height so I can use the attic space, then click build/roofs, the roof does weirdness as seen in the second pict attached to this reply.

I am trying to show a gambrel roof in a cabin with a loft space. Attached is the sketch with measurements taken of the existing rough structure. Also attached is my existing drawing of the proposed finished structure. If you do a cross section of the side walls (i.e. looking toward bedroom from living room) you see that the roof line does not match the sketch. I created the "second floor" as directed in a previous post so the loft space could be useable (although how much use could there be in a space 50" high at peak).But if I go to the second floor, select the 2 long walls and specify the gambrel roof as 24 in 12 bottom pitch and 6 in 12 as upper pitch, I end up with a really ugly looking abomination. Any suggestions as to what I obviously have done wrong? My first thought is that with the "second floor" walls being essentially 0" tall that is the problem. But IDK any other way to represent a useable attic space.

Update: I can change the color of the splines, but would prefer to place the lighting in a separate layer. In AutoCAD I can define dozens of different layers and turn them on and off as desired. Can I create new layers in HDPro14?

I am at the stage where the floorplan has been accepted and am now preparing the wiring layout. First thing I have discovered is that by the time the outlet wiring AND lighting wiring is on the drawing, the whole thing looks like a bunch of scribbles. I tried saving to a different document (saved a master with no wiring in place, then saved one with only the outlet wiring in place and saved it again with only the lighting wiring in place) and that worked OK until the customer came up with a floorplan change. Then I had to make the change to all drawings, and that got tedious. Is there a way to separate the outlet wiring from the lighting wiring without having to save to a different document?

Best method I have used to date is to go with the following: Normal frame construction=$130/sq ft living space. This assumes a 2 car garage which is fairly standard Add $60/sq ft for any garage space over 700 sq ft California or New England add $15/sq ft of total floor space Alaska add $25/sq ft of total floor space Brick or stone veneer add $7/sq ft of brick or stone wall Hardwood flooring add $10-35/sq ft of wood floor, depending on species. These calcs are labor and material for the structure and do NOT include cost for utilities/septic/land/landscape. This will give you a very good estimate of costs in general, at least enough to make up a budget. But you will need to contact a builder in the location of the construction to get a proper quote. So to summarize, a 2600 sq ft living and 3.5 car garage (estimated to be 1250 sq ft) dwelling in Alaska with NO brick or stone and NO hardwood flooring will cost

OK, I am ALMOST understanding this, after reading the manual, testing theories, etc. I thought I had it all right till I took a closer look. I have attached a test plan and an elevation from it. Elevation is taken standing in the garage looking toward the house. On the right I see the stem wall for garage and the sill plate on top of it, just as expected. But I see some strange things in this pict also. 1. To the left of door the stem wall steps down at the top exactly 1.5", the thickness of the sill plate. And the sill plate is not represented along the back wall (under door). This step down appears to coincide with where the outside wall for the living space meets the wall for the garage. 2. What's up with the stem wall and footing on the left? Why is it white instead of gray? It was my intention (once again) for the garage slab to sit 4" above grade, stem wall (excluding sill plate) to terminate 8" above top of garage slab. The house stem wall (excluding sill plate) should terminate at same height and the top of the house slab should be even with the top of the stem wall. Thus, the sill plates for entire structure are at the same height. So what did I miss this time?

I thought I remember seeing a post from you some time ago giving tips on the typical chain of events to creating a plan. i.e. choose a template, then modify the default settings, then draw the first floor, then check/modify the terrain, etc. Not sure I have them all or in the proper order, but could you identify for me the post I am speaking of? I cannot find it in my search for "default" Also, if I am correct in my understanding, if I want the top of a 4" garage slab to be 4" above grade, with a gas curb (stem wall) protruding 8" above the top of the slab and 48" below grade, then I should set the foundation defaults to walls with footings, minimum sem height 49 1/2, garage floor to SWT 8", and garage stem height 49 1/2. And set the floor defaults to a 4" concrete floor structure, and leave the floor finish @ 7/8. Is all this correct?

Yes Jo_Ann, that is exactly it. The terrain is flat, and will be referenced as 0". The stem wall is 60" high. Top of stem is 12", So there is 48" of stem below grade, resting on top of a 12" high x 16" wide footer. The location is Willow Alaska, which is why the foundation needs to go so deep. The garage floor rests 4" above grade, leaving an 8" curb. The top of the house slab rests even with the top of the stem wall, thus there is a step up from the garage to the rest of the building.