Tracking changes for remodeling/renovations

[Sopwith]

Hi,

 

I'm looking into Home Designer Pro to use in planning remodeling for an existing house. The "product chooser" on the web site said that all of the software products are suitable for remodeling, with Architectural and Professional being best for it.

 

I'd like to build a model of the house as it is, then design various alterations based on that model. I want an easy way to track & see just the changes from the reference model, and especially to see the materials lists of just the changes.

 

I've downloaded the HDP trial and don't see a way to do this, nor can I find anything in the support database on the web site. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

 

Thanks,

Elliot

[Kbird1]

I use Pro , and usually I do my AB   "As Built"   (existing)  Drawing and save it as Residence_AB.plan  , then use Save As , and Resave the Plan as Residence_Proposed.plan , then start incorporating the design changes ( there maybe 2-3 or any no# of "proposed Drawings #numbered),   then when Done Create a Residence_Final.plan . 

 

Since you cant save with the Trial you can't do this to test though , but HDA is capable of doing this too , if it's capabilities are enough , and they are for many especially if you have the time to play around with "workarounds". There maybe no need for Pro if only doing one house for yourself, your budget may decide that of course.  I like Pro for its ability to do some foundations easier and drawing Roofs manually ,which is handy if the rooflines are complicated.  If you are doing your Own CDs , Pro would be better, if an Architect is involved , he'll deal with those so no need for Pro for that ability.

 

M.

[Sopwith]

Thanks KBird1... It sounds essentially like there is no built-in support for versioning, and one just needs to save to a file for each version.

 

How about tracking materials and costs for just the changes?

[Kbird1]

I have Pro 10 , so not sure if Pro 15 has any built in versioning ?   I keep multiple Versions of the Plans.

 

Materials Tracking is only as good as your model and makes a lot of assumptions. Material's lists are "snapshots" only, when generated, and are not dynamically update once created, you can make them as often as you want and export to Excel etc though.

 

Costs are only tracked if you are willing to input all the costs into the Master Materials list 1st, might be wrong but I don't think there is a way to import materials costs from Suppliers but am no expert on it , it's one Feature of Pro I wish they would enhance---greatly.