Questions on...stairs, room labels, sunroom, and ceilings in Cape Cod

[illercan]

Hi - I'm trying to recreate our current house and use this software to visualize a remodel we are doing upstairs.  We are in a Cape Cod style home, which I've found difficult to create overall, but I'm running into some specific issues that I'm hoping someone can assist me with as follows:

 

Software details: Home Designer Architectural 2017 (file attached)

 

Issues:

1. Stairs - I've gone so many of the questions on this topic and the help files, but have been unsuccessful in getting the stairs to connect to the second floor.  In the attached file, the treads and risers are correct (steep), but I just can't figure out how to get it to appear on the second floor.

 

2. Room labels - On the second floor, there are multiple room labels appearing that I'm not able to delete.  I select them and click delete, but they never actually go away.  How can I make them go away?

 

3. Sunroom - There is a sunroom with a cement base in the front left of our house, but I'm not sure how to indicate it in the plan since there are no walls...it's just all windows, floor to ceiling (3-season room, really).  It's above the foundation of the house, but it was originally an outdoor porch, and the cement floor in there slopes away from the rest of the house.  There is 'basement' space underneath, but I haven't even begun the basement yet, which is split between an actual basement, and a root cellar.

 

4. Ceilings upstairs - It looks like most of the ceilings are rendering correctly, however, there are two issues.  a) in the Dressing Room and the Master Bath, how would I expose the roof trusses, but still keep the cathedral ceiling finished? and b ) how can I connect the shed roof over the back dormer to the actual peak in the roof instead of starting a couple inches below?

 

I know this is a lot of questions...I'm a newbie, and learning this software has proven a tad challenging (I actually work in IT, so it's frustrating I'm not picking it up faster).  Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond to any of my questions above!

 

Kimkim's house.plan

 

[katalyst777]

I just can't figure out how to get it to appear on the second floor.

KB-00125: Creating a Stairwell for your Staircase

 

On the second floor, there are multiple room labels appearing that I'm not able to delete. I select them and click delete, but they never actually go away. How can I make them go away?

Drag a marquee around the room labels with your mouse. The Master Bedroom label alone says on the Status Bar that 29 objects select when I do this, which probably means you've only been deleting one at a time. Marquee select and delete the duplicates. I have no idea how you replicated them all so many times?

 

Sunroom - There is a sunroom with a cement base in the front left of our house, but I'm not sure how to indicate it in the plan since there are no walls...it's just all windows, floor to ceiling (3-season room, really). It's above the foundation of the house, but it was originally an outdoor porch, and the cement floor in there slopes away from the rest of the house. There is 'basement' space underneath, but I haven't even begun the basement yet, which is split between an actual basement, and a root cellar.

KB-02263: Creating Glass Walls

KB-00780: Creating a Sun Room

There are no manual framing options in Architectural to create your Roof Trusses like there are in Pro and Premier. You might be able to fake the look by importing symbols from the 3D Warehouse or manually build them using sloped Soffits.

[illercan]

Thanks for the quick responses!  

 

I've updated my profile settings, so now it displays my location and includes a signature.

 

For my questions:

1. Stairs - I've read through and tried the "creating a stairwell", but I must be doing something wrong.  I'll try again tonight or tomorrow and see if I can make progress again.

2. Room labels - I was able to use the marquee/delete option and it seems to have worked.  Although I did get a new duplicate Master Bdrm label at some point again, but was able to delete just that one.

3. Sunroom - Thanks for the link on a sunroom and glass walls...I'll dig into that as well!

4. 2nd floor ceiling - Thanks for the info about Architectural not having this functionality.  Makes it easier so I'm not digging and digging trying to figure it out.

 

Thanks again!

[LawB10]

 

For my questions:

1. Stairs - I've read through and tried the "creating a stairwell", but I must be doing something wrong.  I'll try again tonight or tomorrow and see if I can make progress again. Delete the invisible walls on the 2nd floor, then use the auto stairwell tool to create the stairwell.

 

2. Room labels - I was able to use the marquee/delete option and it seems to have worked.  Although I did get a new duplicate Master Bdrm label at some point again, but was able to delete just that one. Click edit>delete objects, check all rooms and then check text click delete.

 

 On the front Porch click on the railing(s), click newels/balusters and change the spacing to 100.

 

Raise the the ceiling height or pitch for Master bedroom dormer.

[illercan]

Thanks LawB10!  I deleted the invisible wall upstairs, and deleted a couple walls downstairs...then tried the steps again and it finally worked!  I also removed all the room labels for now using your suggestion.

 

On the front porch, I can't figure out how to accurately depict what the front really looks like because every time I love the posts it deletes the roof.  I've attached a pic below of the actual porch if you have any suggestions.

 

The ceiling in the master suite is standard. Actually it's standard on the whole second floor, and the layout in my file is what we're planning for a remodel (loving some walls and things).  I want to open the ceiling up in the master closet and the bathroom on the second floor, but it's not critical to figure it out in the software.

 

Still need to make time to follow up on building the sunroom...might try to attack that this weekend.

 

Thanks again!

[LawB10]

Here is a modified version of the plan...

 

kim's house2-1.plan

[illercan]

OH MY GOSH!  This is the best Friday in a long time  I certainly wasn't asking for someone else to modify my plan, but holy cow does it look great!!!  You added so much detail that I wasn't even going to try and learn...thank you SO MUCH!

[LawB10]

Your Welcome!

 

Keeping trying and learning what the software can and cannot do...