Measuring the external length of walls

[hyperdoxical]

Good Morning All,

 

I'm looking to create a digital plan from my existing house. My house has a double brick exterior (common in Western Australia) using the following bricks with a 50mm air space (Manor Range Augusta Limestone). I've created a wall type definition based on this information. My issue is that I'm given the dimensions of a wall on a plan and that is the actual dimensions of the wall. When I draw a wall to those dimensions, Home Designer seems to measure from the midpoint of the wall not the actual extent. How do I get Home Designer to measure an external wall like it was being measured with a good old fashioned tape measure where I hook the end to one part of the wall and then pull the tape out until I get to my desired length rather than the plan adding bits on the ends?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

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Home Designer Pro 2024 Build 25.3.0.77 Windows 64bit

Edited November 2, 2023 by hyperdoxical
Confirmation that plans are scaled correctly and still getting the issue

[hyperdoxical]

Trying to use the "Auto Exterior Dimension" options generates this error

Quote

AutoDimensionBuilder.cpp(538): Warning #272015421

"No automatic dimensions were generated. Make sure that there are proper room definitions and try again."

11/02/2023 08:45:45 PM

Build: 25.3.0.77 Windows 64-bit

No idea what a proper room definition may be. Searching the forums doesn't seem to yield fruit.

[solver]

 

You are missing some core concepts about how the program works.

 

3 hours ago, hyperdoxical said:

No idea what a proper room definition may be. Searching the forums doesn't seem to yield fruit.

 

Understanding room definition is key to working with the program. Think about a room in a house, very broadly, it is a space defined by (usually) 4 walls. Try drawing 4 walls to create such a space. You can now select the room, and change many settings, and Auto Exterior Dimensions will work.

 

9 hours ago, hyperdoxical said:

When I draw a wall to those dimensions, Home Designer seems to measure from the midpoint of the wall not the actual extent.

 

Your wall shows a length of 2500 (you do not say how you drew the wall to that dimension), because that's how your default dimension settings work. Dimensions go to the Main Layer, but may be changed to the exterior surface in Dimension Defaults. I believe you may manually adjust individual dimensions, snapping the extension line to another point too.

 

You should understand the Resize About settings found under Defaults>Walls>General Wall.

 

There is a tutorial linked via the Help menu that will help you learn to work with the program. 

 

People use two methods when inputting a plan where they only have a paper copy. 

1) Simply draw the exterior walls to get them in place, without exact dimensions. Then work around the plan, usually in a clockwise direction changing each wall to have the correct length.

2) Setting up their defaults, then carefully entering each wall in its correct position and to its correct length.

 

Suggestion: Learn to work with the program and not against it.

 

And this thread has some general information about using the forum, and some links to some self help resources.

 

 

[DavidJPotter]

Dimensions have dimension points between which they measure distances. You can preprogram such intended dimension points and you can manually move them where and as you wish.

 

DJP

[y-g-m-n]

hard to see your screenshot but what is your MAIN LAYER?

For USA where majority of houses made from wood framing (vertical studs, top & bottom Plates):

majority HDPRO included wall types use the STUD layer as the main layer and is what dims are pulled from since well that is what the framers need build a house.

Does not dimension from sheet rock or exterior brick veneer since they are attached to studs based on wall definition.

I.e. Interior sheetrock direct to studs.

Exterior brick holds the define air gap (varies here 1/2" to 2" range).

 

So in your example with interior and exterior brick w/o studs the software does not know what to pull dims from,

 

Also you just have a free standing wall without forming an enclosed room.

 

Enclose the room and then check dims.

As always you can make manual dims and then edit the end points of manual dims are pulled from.

 

Again, ya gotta play with software to understand how it works.