Creating Carports and Steps

I have been successful in creating inside rooms in Home Designer 7.09.

But the outside items are driving me batty!

My 4 bugaboos today:

1) Creating carports. I tried creating a "Garage" but could not get it to create a roof. So I created a room, but then I had the problem of the walls. When I put invisible walls, no roof appeared either. So I had to put in "real" walls with HUGE door openings, but that seems like the wrong way to solve the roof problem. I wanted to add columns, but that doesn't seem to be one of the Architectural features of 7.09, except for the "short" columns which float above the foundation.

2) Then there's the floor problem. I created a driveway, which is great, but the "room" interrupts the driveway with a door jamb. And, in addition, I have to "sink" the room 10 inches to get the walls to line up with the driveway; otherwise, the walls float above the ground.

3) Which leads me to the 3rd problem - my front door is "floating" and I can't seem to get it to line up with the foundation!

4) And last, what if my outside walls are of 2 materials? I am working on a house that is 1/2 brick and 1/2 stucco. I can't seem to be able to "draw" my finishes onto the wall; it seems to be all or nothing.

Please note that I am no architect; I am trying to use this software as a Realtor to show mainly the interior of homes to buyers with little imagination. I create the rooms and add furniture, etc. to show what it could look like and the interiors work great. But the outside views are confusing me!

Welcome to the forum.

For items 1-2, I recommend that you read the following help database article:
http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/...?faqNumber=908

For item 3, you may want to open the Terrain Specification dialog and note the check box "auto calculate elevation". If you deselect that option, you can specify the elevation of the terrain. In this case, positive numbers indicate downward, and an elevation of zero will put the terrain at the same elevation as the main floor (not recommended since most floors are above grade to prevent surface water from entering the building).

For item 4, you can fake a two material wall system by using a thin soffit (with a brick texture applied) placed against the outside of the exterior walls. The process is not difficult, but can require patience.

Hope this helps. :)