How do you start?

[GaveAHoot]

With help from this forum, I have used Home Designer Suite 2017 to start the design for my bathroom renovation. It is not perfect, but we can plan from it and I will keep improving it. I feel that I have learned enough to enter the design of the whole house into Home Designer and start dreaming of our next renovation. Would you share your favorite way to start and develop your plans? For example, do you like to create the exterior walls OR the property and elevation first? At what point do you design the roof and in my case, the partial daylight basement.

Thanks

Gave.A.Hoot

Home Designer Suite 2017

[GaveAHoot]

I am not sure my post is clear...

I am slowly renovating our existing, 50 year old ranch, starting with the master bath. I now want to start designing changes for the rest of the house.

Gave.A.Hoot

[solver]

Set your defaults.

 

Draw walls, build roof and basement/foundation. Everything works together so you need everything drawn and in place.

 

Refine what you have done.

 

Focus on the structure and resist adding furniture, cabinets, paintings on the walls etc until the structure is correct.

 

Add terrain.

 

Suite has many limitations, so in some cases, you may only be able to get close. People here will help with overcoming problems as they arise.

[Jo_Ann]

Begin with your user guide.  Look for helpful tips in the knowledge base articles.

Set defaults, and draw exterior walls.  If the garage is attached, draw the interior wall that separates it from the house, and designate it as the garage.

Get the roof structure correct.

Build the foundation.

Build the terrain.  The terrain elevation is set according to the house, NOT the reverse  (floor 1 should always be set as '0').

Learn how to manipulate the terrain to expose all or part of the daylight basement that needs to show.

 

These rules and sequences need to be followed, or you will be frustrated somewhere further down the road!

Newbies are all too anxious to draw interior walls and start decorating.  BIG mistake!

[LawB10]

Turn on Auto rebuild roofs and Auto rebuild foundation, DO NOT turn them off until the house is built.

 

Create the terrain perimeter, and uncheck automatic and flatten pad.  To lower the terrain raise the number, to raise the terrain lower the number.

[katalyst777]

Seconding Jo_Ann's recommendation to go through the User's Guide. Make sure you understand everything there, then use the same basic steps in the same order for creating your own plan.

Any time you run into a snag, make sure you check the videos, articles, and other Help stuff and if you still can't figure it out, start a new thread and post here with your question.

[GaveAHoot]

Thank you, Jo_Ann. I missed (or decided it was not important) setting the defaults. I did not use them when I designed one room, but after skimming the reference manual and watching some of the videos where a member of the HomeTalk board reviews someone's plans, I see how they help. I really did not understand the importance after watching the Home Designer videos and webinars. I am reading the manuals closer now and I hope to start this weekend.

Thanks all

Gave.A.Hoot

[LawB10]

Post a plan, show what you have sofar.