Acropolis

I just want the peripheral walls to have the top tied together as they are at the bottom with the footer, and its part of the wall structure. It needs to be only a wall, not a second slab, the 2x6 roof structure sits on this or is anchored to this concrete peremitral structure. If I could tie questionable material calculations back, the solution to this might be a pony wall, but its not clear the calculations are correct when I change the height it should reduce the red hollow brick and increase the solid concrete, that I'm not seeing.

why would you use a slab where you need a wall? Makes no sense. One should be able to control the material content of a wall, stem wall lower from concrete upper wood and maybe even a third layer, other cad programs do it, why HD Pro no?

Plan posted, the suggestion to separate the interior and exterior did not work. There is probably more than one, but the obvious on is what separate living from dining. So to answer - there are too many instances that are locked out, the software is twisted, you have to go left to go right. It is inflexible to accommodate other building structural forms around the world, and as such is limited to the stick built houses of USA. So the larger issue is that I find traces of inaccurate materials, hence the need to spend hours figuring why stuff in material is there that should not be. A real problem if one is to have confidence in the materials calculation. the bottom line on a door way is NOTHING should be there of any type of trim. There are other errors in materials calculations. When I have time we can post these - the biggest thing the materials list doesn't do is allow you to go back by clicking the element to find out where the questionable entity is coming from. interoir_door_proof_for_bolu.plan

Question here - see pictures - is how to make this top structure which is concrete reinforced, on top of an existing wall?

First thing is to change the idea that I am wrong, maybe the word choice is different but this is an Interior door - here is a screen shot, and to eliminate the first excuse, when I take a screen shot from MAC OS, this s/w is grayed out whereas when you are in the APP, the live choice would be blue. The picture shows no interior casing, and it is NEVER possible ANYWHERE to de select the exterior casing, and that means in default setting for interior doors, or any where else.

you are all missing point, the interior is shut off, the exterior is grayed out, cannot un check it and I should be able to - in that exact space, it makes no sense at all anywhere else.

Sorry, your description isn't clear or doesn't work. I have door, not a doorway. Nor is there a doorway tool if its a door we are working on, one or the other not both if its a door in question, and the when you open it up to edit, the exterior casing is grayed out, you cannot un check it. Is this another difference in software levels, higher level, lower level of frustration?

How on earth can HD PRO 17 have a exterior casing - grayed out - for an "INTERIOR DOORWAY"??? I have no way to shut it off, a door way is a doorway, no moldings, pure wallboard or plaster. Is this fixed in version 18?

Surprised nothing here, but with cement walls, the standard interior door construction is to include the slab in a metal frame. No casings or JAMBs required. I have tried resetting the default interior door, working each door but each one when you review the materials list has an UNWANTED jamb. Going back over the settings, there is a greyed out interior jamb that regardless of door type - no known way to get rid of it. This is a bug in the software?

Broken software, backwards...I found a way to back into doing this, but MG is the help system broken, again, if the s/w doesn't do what the first indication is, you fall flat on your face. If this was automotive software, you would still be driving a 50 Chevy. There is no reason in 2017 the s/w doesn't do simple room size changes easier, CAD or no CAD. If this is a MAC thing, they need to clarify their s/w performs horribly on a mac, which with all this, I'm starting to wonder if that is not a larger part of the problem. Everything seems straight forward, and it doesn't work. Again, their s/w validation prior to release should have updated help, a pc person and a mac person side by side running through the steps, and where it fails, write an asterisk and give the user REAL help.

frustrating software, help says to set an exact dimension hover over and the select turns to a pointing finger. on my mac sierra, the finer is not there, hours going in circles again. what default must change - anyone know? I've seen these come up randomly when you dont want it to, but now that I need to make exact dimensions, there isnt a single help as to where this pointing finger is if its not there

so I did an entirely new plan, momolithic slab with footings, walls defined as solid concrete, should be no pine int he structural and basic materials list and to column volumes are WAY off. Why? Did you open the plan I attached - what's wrong with that column post definition?

David, why is it my error, I define a 3D object with three dimensions, all >0 and define the material as per one of the drop downs in HDPor, "SOLID CONCRETE".. Should work, you made a very wrong assumption that I used something else like blocks, which the attached plan did not include, block is block, concrete is concrete. To the same extent, Framing top and bottom defined as and built out of solid concrete is solid concrete.

I am noting a calculation error in materials calculation, Cement Post (Column). I created a column, via BUILD POST, then changed the material to solid concrete, then copied the column to all the locations I needed. 3meters high, 250mm by 250mm, there are 50 of then... The software is calculating I need 937 cubic meters!!!!!!!!! of concrete, like $150, 000. Manually the rocket scientist calculated for me each column should take .2 cu meters of concrete, accounting for extra or 10 cu meters of concrete, what's wrong with this picture? Here is a plan with a concrete post - it is doing same thing has two posts.plan

let me clarify then because you are working from a week old file, and more important, not paying attention, and too defensive of cumbersome software with many dead end defects. 1. I started fresh plan 2 fresh defaults 3. default was roof over 4. copied over wall structure definitions- the backwards way for home designer, thank you JoAnn so build roofs - does nothing and you go in circles for hours because the inadequacy of the software is it doesn't give any kind of indication. the way the roofs appeared was to go into each room separately, I clicked structure to see everything that was in the defaults was these, and saved, that action alone cause the roofs to start to appear room by room....that in its self is ridiculous as it not in the help section. The problem is - defensive ones, is that the software runs into dead ends, if it doesn't do as expected - the help section doesn't address those error states. so lets move on, I don't need to past the help section for stair cases, I pasted the pic of my software, where is this tool? AUTO STAIR CASE TOOL Stair ways, help section and user manual real clear on what to do to cut the hole for a stair well. followed to a T. it built a stair case exactly in a minute or two, then you spend half a day going in circles Where are the instructions on what to do if it doesn't work?

this is real interesting, just by selecting each room individually and selecting a roof group that is changing zero to 1, roofs appear on save. show me where that is in the help section on building roofs, its not, and going back to a earlier version it looks like just opening each room, then closing it, puts a roof on it where following directions causes a you to go in circles.

ah but that is where the fun begins, it is checked, next? hint - trying to manually draw a roof plane isnt working either

Stair ways, help section and user manual real clear on what to do to cut the hole for a stair well. followed to a T. it built a stair case exactly in a minute or two, then you spend half a day going in circles Where are the instructions on what to do if it doesn't work? no where. why is it some much stuff doesn't work, that was seen in the video above too... so please point out to me where is this clip is the auto stair tool

another with no direct clear answers - in this version of s/w how do you change wall heights? Directions are select, edit button at lower left, but no one has yet to answer why you can do anything you want to do to a wall, EXCEPT the most obvious - CHANGE the HEIGHT!?!

then like any other software why doesn't it light up with what that button is when you hover over it??? Fine you got one, but there are serious deficiencies... Like this same plan I started, I started over, and within that copy paste of the wall definitions, it did not build the roof. I had already done this 100 time BUILD>ROOF> , fix roof, roof plane, and chosen each one of the options, one I checked the box auto rebuild roof. If you check auto rebuild roof, why does it work? If its not going to build the roof, it should give an error message, it doesn't do anything. So, I went through the user manual pg 67 - 92 it says the same thing: build> roof, set up definitions, when you click OK, no roof is generated. the videos don't help either, all they show is the right way to do it and when the right way doesn't respond, you are at a dead end.

the problem is the help...you know that little button at the right side top??? it is interactive and shows you what to do, here is the next good one>>>> break wall, in the s/w I have break wall is not an option, this is a joke, the software that is, how can you have a help button within a given s/w that you have purchased that tells you what to do, but the option to do it isn't in in your software, happy new year

Ive told you twice now and it in my profile, as good as the software lets it be, HOME DESIGNER PRO 2017

here we go, one support search that doesn't differentiate between types of software, my God, you have to be kidding, that's like giving you a Camaro with FIAT 500 drive train, c'mon, I hope some of you are from the company and can see that there are a good deal of people that buy software some DIY, some looking to do a lot more, I see the DIY alot in the searches I've done, but why in the world would you give an answer for s/w that it doesn't apply to? This is the Company's HELP button search. Here is a good one that you amy know then since its not coming up as possible, how do I change the wall height of a sing wall. Logical??? Yes, the page that defines a single wall has the width, the length, but the height?? C'mon, this is too crazy, it should be on that same page, or be able to click it and just raise it

Joann - thanks for the ref to sketch up, an arch friend of mine recommended it over this s/w months back to do simple stuff then move to cad. I have to tell you in less that 5 minutes from down load a 30 day trial start using sketch up, I had the pic imported and all the major lines drawn of the front facade. Point is easy to use - logical and where there are instructions what they tell you do is what is in the software on your computer. I was thinking to export it into this program with a new template so over the last couple of hours been setting that up>>>then >>> trying to get that to save. but please, if the software help button lead you down blind dead end, how do you expect people to be able to stick with this? learning curve is one thing, but just flat out dropping bad instructions, just plain wrong.

David, thank you, I will study in detail over next few days... on to one of the other issues mr SOLVER point about saving walls to a template, I followed the instructions in CA>>>Creating and Using a Plan Style Template open new plan, default and set up the walls, windows, what ever else, BUT! it says To save a template Select File> Templates> Save Plan as Template . now on the base page of the s/w WHERE??? can I find that option