Editing contour lines & retaining wall heights

[MParsons]

New user here.  

 

Summary

When attempting to model a multi-tiered retaining wall system on a steep 30° slope (base elevation around 7110') in Home Designer, the software overrides manual elevation and height controls for both walls. Additionally, attempting to level the area between the walls creates unintended conical terrain anomalies, and existing contour lines cannot be properly broken or modified to integrate with the new wall structures.

Detailed Symptoms & Technical Challenges

• Loss of Wall Elevation Control:

  • The software automatically snaps or assigns wall heights and top/bottom elevations rather than respecting the desired 7110' baseline and intended wall dimensions.

  • Secondary walls placed 5 feet away and designed to be 10 feet high do not maintain correct relative positioning or height parameters.

• Terrain Deformation (Coning):

  • Using terrain modification tools (such as terrain leveling or flat regions) between the two retaining walls results in distorted geometry (a "cone" effect with erratic elevation points).

• Contour Line Conflicts:

  • Pre-existing contour lines intersect the newly placed retaining walls incorrectly.

  • Attempts to break, edit, or disconnect the contour lines to resolve the conflict have been unsuccessful.

Desired Outcome

Successfully place and control the exact top and bottom elevations of a tiered retaining wall system on a 30° slope, create a stable and flat level bench between the walls without terrain distortion, and properly manage contour lines so the terrain accurately reflects the proposed design.

 

Any guidance would be really appreciated.  Thanks!

 

This is the actual drawing I am trying to get into Home Designer.  At least reasonable close :-)

[Angie15]

In my opinion, terrain controls in HD are dismal. I usually have to manually enter elevation data points (sometimes over 200 for the type of map you've shown) and even then it doesnt slope/level correctly and I also get distorted geometery and spikes. What youre asking for there, is way beyond this softwares capability. You'll also reach a point where the software is "unable" to calculate the terrain data, and EVERY change you make will result in a pop-up saying "Interopolating/calculating terrain" for about 15 seconds. (even if you just change the colour of something, and regardless of your PC specifications. 

[Robborito]

13 hours ago, Angie15 said:

In my opinion, terrain controls in HD are dismal.

Ohh, that's a bit harsh isn't it?

True the elevation points have their interoperability issues (spikes etc.) - However I have been told by Support to use the elevation lines for better results.

The terrain tools are a bit fussy imo and one would expect these glitches to be fixed. Before a new release happens.

Or, get CA to demo the tool at a working level - not a sales level. (I have had paid one-on-one CA training)

Remembering that Home Designer is marketed to DYI - not Professional use.(According to Website)

Happy terraining!

 

[MParsons]

Both of these comments are helpful.  At least now I know I am experiencing reality rather than just me ignorance.  Maybe I get the house foundation in and then rough something in from there.  Thanks!  Oh, by the way this is a DYI project just a bit bigger than most would tackle. lol 

[Angie15]

On 8/20/2026 at 6:06 AM, Robborito said:

Ohh, that's a bit harsh isn't it?

True the elevation points have their interoperability issues (spikes etc.) - However I have been told by Support to use the elevation lines for better results.

The terrain tools are a bit fussy imo and one would expect these glitches to be fixed. Before a new release happens.

Or, get CA to demo the tool at a working level - not a sales level. (I have had paid one-on-one CA training)

Remembering that Home Designer is marketed to DYI - not Professional use.(According to Website)

Happy terraining!

 

Not harsh at all. If you’ve been using this software as long as I have (since 2011), you’d realize it’s an incapable CA program issue as opposed to a user issue. You can use points, lines, regions etc, it makes no difference. It’s not fussy, it’s stupid. You will get spikes, dips, abnormal behaviour for nearly everything you do. Chief can’t do a gentle straight-line slope from A to B. It will hump or dip in the middle. Why? Add more retaining walls perpendicular to other retaining walls, and the software will hang for about 3 mins while it “Interpolates terrain” (only using 6% of my computer resources btw) and generates unnecessary spikes as if it doesn’t know what it’s doing.

I’m using CA HD Pro 25. The use of the word “Pro” stands for Professional. These “glitches” have not been fixed since 2017 and will never be fixed because Chief took away so many controls from HD Pro and rolled it all into an inferior 26 subscription version at double the price and now support for Pro 25 is unavailable.