Cannot change default material for exterior walls

[OscarPiper]

Home Designer Pro 2021 

 

I would like to try out various colours of siding on my house plan. I did the same for doors, windows, and cabinets and the process worked fine.

 

It isn't working for exterior wall materials. I suspect a bug in the software (it is clearly iteratively developed and sometimes these things happen).

 

Here are the steps I follow:

1. Choose the item in the plan (e.g. window, doors, cabinets, walls, etc.)
2. Make sure each instance of the item is using the default for that item's materials.
3. Go to the defaults dialogue and select the item (this is the default value) and make sure it is using the default.
4. Go to the defaults dialogue and select Materials and then select the item.
5. Set the material for that item to what you want. 

 

Now, to change the colour, I can just go to the material and change the default value. If I look at the item and then its materials it will say Default and then what the specific colour/material is.

 

These steps work for everything I have tried EXCEPT exterior wall surfaces. It even worked once for the exterior wall surfaces when I set it to "Dark Brown Tongue and Groove".

 

I tried changing the default material for Material...Walls (Exterior) to a selection from the James Hardie Manufacturers Catalogue (Evening Blue).

The default material changed but the display in 3D did not change and when I checked any of the walls they were still using what it said was Default: Dark Brown Tongue and Groove.

 

I thought perhaps it didn't like using a Manufacturer's Catalogue in a default (but it should not care). I tried changing it to something from the Core Catalogue. It still kept the Dark Brown Tongue and Groove. Nothing I can do will change it. I can apply the Evening Blue manually to each wall section but that is a real kludge and I should be able to change the default material and have it work. Right now that is what I am doing.

 

I have the program installed on several different computers (as I travel) and the required files are stored on Dropbox and I make sure they sync. This shouldn't be a problem. The software should handle it. 

 

Any suggestions other than what I have already tried are welcome. I have tried searching for this and have read the manuals and can't find any other hints.

 

The easiest way to do this is to make sure all my exterior walls are using the default material. I have done this.

[solver]

Spray the new material or color on to the siding, or change the material in the wall definition.

[OscarPiper]

14 hours ago, OscarPiper said:

I can apply the Evening Blue manually to each wall section but that is a real kludge and I should be able to change the default material and have it work. Right now that is what I am doing.

 

14 hours ago, solver said:

Spray the new material or color on to the siding, or change the material in the wall definition.

Thanks, Eric, but when I spray a material colour onto the siding, I have to do it to each wall section. As I said in my original post, that's a kludge. I'd like to be able to change the colour/material ONCE and have all the exterior walls change. The way to do that is to change the default and that works for everything I've tried except exterior walls. 

[solver]

2 hours ago, OscarPiper said:

I have to do it to each wall section

 

You can do it a floor at a time, or the entire plan with a single click.

 

 

17 hours ago, solver said:

or change the material in the wall definition.

 

[OscarPiper]

Eric,

 

Thanks. As a novice user with a complex tool., I was unaware of the different ways of using the material painter. Accessing it from the 3D menu, I can now see the options that you list and using the Plan version does what I want to do. This is very helpful to know.

 

Also, it took me a while to figure out what you meant by wall definition but I finally realized it wasn't the definition of the wall that I wanted to change but the definition of the type of wall I was using. That also works. Having done both of these things, the materials list now shows James Hardie board as I wanted.

 

In reading the manual further, on p540 I found that the Material Defaults dialogue (which I was using) lists the items I said worked for changing the default the way I expected so I guess that the walls default is still working a little differently.