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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    14

    Suite 8 on Win2K?

    I know better than to title a post that, but what can you do...? :-)

    We've recently purchased Suite 8.0, and we're having some problems with it. I suppose it's possible that these might be because we're trying to get away with running it on WIn2K, where it will install with no complaints, but likely a CA person will have to confirm or deny. [Sis informs me she tried installing it on her Win2K machine at work, and the pulldown and templates are there, so...]

    Just so I'm clear about it: I think the program is damned spiffy, and I'm perfectly willing to take "whaddya want for nothing; rubber bis-cuit?" as an answer. :-)

    ==

    When we try to create a new plan, the pull-down menu in the top right of the dialog for selecting a category of plans is entirely missing, and the list of plans, bottom left, has 4 houses (including the tutorial) and an 'uneven site' plan. And that's all.

    Was there something we were supposed to install besides the base package?

    ==

    Forging ahead, we tried to do some work anyway, and I got pretty far into a Dream House design (I don't actually *have* the cash in pocket to build a 6300ft2 house... yet :-), but I can't quite figure out how to do the sort of roof I want.

    The house is a very-slightly notched rectangle in front, about a 5 foot depression 30 feet wide, breaking it into 3 stripes, if you will. (it's 80ft (25-30-25) wide and 75ft deep.

    Since I want to put PV and solar thermal panels on the roof, I want to use a shed roof and face the house North.

    Well, I want to put *5* shed roofs up there.

    One big one over the central section, ramping from about 10 feet in the back to 18 or so feet in front), and on each out-rigger stripe, 2 smaller ones, each covering half the depth, like a sawtooth. All sloping up to the north. Ceilings inside cathedraled.

    A little birdie is telling me that being able to do that might cost me $500... or $2500, instead of 99 bucks, but I figured I'd ask anyway. (If I *did* have the cash to build it, I'd just go spend the $2500... :-)

    ==

    Finally, I've had some problems with floor treatments not displaying in rooms with odd wall intersections, in 3D views. The program isn't happy about our video card, though it doesn't say what it thinks we lack, or why it cares; is there a writeup somewhere on how hard the program depends on the 3D capabilities of the video hardware?
    Last edited by Baylink; 06-20-2008 at 11:35 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Lake Tahoe & So. Nevada
    Posts
    39
    ... yep, right to the heart of the matter - 99 bucks probably isn't gonna get you a roof like you're trying for. (Disclaimer time: I've never used or even seen a copy of Suite 8 ... so lets hear from someone else).
    I'm thinkin' you'll be much better off with Pro-8 ($500., maybe less?) where you can create manually-drawn roofs ... with some practice (lots & lots of practice, lol).
    And yeah, the video card you're using has just a Little influence on the programs performance. In fact, you may find that "video cards" are quite possibly the #1 topic-leader here.
    I'm hoping someone with alot more knowledge about your specific version can give you better info.
    Good luck,
    David
    HD Pro 7.08b
    (since Dec. '05)
    HD ver. 6 (briefly)
    Compaq Laptop
    w/Vista Home Prem.
    Designer / Songwriter
    Owner-Builder
    Engineer / Musician

    ... Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons . .

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    1,111
    "When we try to create a new plan, the pull-down menu in the top right of the dialog for selecting a category of plans is entirely missing, and the list of plans, bottom left, has 4 houses (including the tutorial) and an 'uneven site' plan. And that's all.

    Was there something we were supposed to install besides the base package?"

    Assuming that suite 8 is much like deluxe 7, you should see a dialog box like this when you go to start a new plan. If you are missing all of your style templates, then I am guessing you had an install problem. I would try uninstalling and then reinstalling if this is the case. If that does not solve your problem, then you might try calling tech support but I strongly suspect that they will tell you that W2K is not supported anymore. It is pretty old now.

    As for your roof, I can't really picture what you want. You might try posting a picture or at least something that would give us a better idea. I'm not sure if suite can do your roof or not but if I know what it looks like I might have a better idea.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    5
    as Jay noted - but probably sometime after you replied to him, so not your fault - I've installed it at work on Win2000, which isn't supported, and the missing menu/templates/opening offerings are magically present.

    As for the install, we did install it twice. I'm thinking that Jay gets to write the next ticket to tech support. (but it really does look pretty when it has all its parts. I just haven't had time to actually *use* it yet)
    back at home i apparently have a corrupted plan and need to marquee select and paste into a new Default plan. seeing as i don't have the default this should be fun, but not nearly as much fun as the fact that marquee select isn't working right (it's getting the missing walls but it's dropping the garage and half the bedroom, now that i see, from running it here, how it is *supposed* to look when it's selecting - at home you just draw a square and have no idea whether you've actually selected anything at all. here it turns grey)

    I'm just griping. No need to reply, reallly.

    Jay are you actually working on it via VNC? (there's nothing like doing walk-thrus over VNC!) (i should VNC in and check, huh?)
    Pamela Jaye Ashworth (yup, the father wanted a Jay and I got here first)
    www.bakulanews.com
    Home Designer Suite 8.0

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    14
    Quote Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout
    Assuming that suite 8 is much like deluxe 7, you should see a dialog box like this when you go to start a new plan. If you are missing all of your style templates, then I am guessing you had an install problem. I would try uninstalling and then reinstalling if this is the case. If that does not solve your problem, then you might try calling tech support but I strongly suspect that they will tell you that W2K is not supported anymore. It is pretty old now.
    I should have more clearly edited that, I guess; I noted earlier up the post that she'd just told me (after I'd written most of it) that she successfully installed it at work on Win2K as a test, so we must have just had the install go badly at home.

    As for your roof, I can't really picture what you want. You might try posting a picture or at least something that would give us a better idea. I'm not sure if suite can do your roof or not but if I know what it looks like I might have a better idea.
    Alas, it's sort of difficult to explain in 2-D. And HDS8 *is* my 3-D program.

    I'll give it one more shot trying to explain it in words, though.

    You can think of the design as 3 slices of house, sharing a common back wall. The center slice is 30x70' (deep), and the 2 side slices are each 25x75' (also deep).

    The main slice will have a one-piece shed roof, sloping down and back from an 18' front wall to a 10' back wall (and cantilevering over a 10' deep porch, though I can make this a separate roof if I have to).

    Each of the side slices will have a 2-segment shed roof, sloping down from 14' to 10' then jumping up on a window-wall back to 14' and sloping down again to 10' at the back wall of the house.

    So, if you look at the house from a high elevation, from the South (it will face North), you'll be looking at 5 nice flat places to mount PV panels.

    I gather, from my limited playing around, that you do this by building the walls, and then hanging the roof off the walls, and the ceiling under the roof. I'm just not sure how it will handle them being separate roofs.

    (The seams between the three slices will be block walls, as are the rest of the exterior walls.)

    Does that explain it any better? I'll try to sketch it, but it will probably require paper and a scanner; I've never tried to do an iso sketch electronically.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    5
    actually we had the install go badly *twice.*

    today at work, I copied my corrupted house, dropped in the default plan. put it on a thumb drive and brought it home.

    after I *got* home, I tossed it into the program (well, onto the hard drive first), moved the yard (it was off the side) and then did a dollhouse. It's all perfect except the steps down from the back deck which refuse to sit at an angle that will make them flush to the deck. Oh well. No big deal.
    Things are much better now. :-) I can happily drop in furniture and paint walls and floors at least.)
    Pamela Jaye Ashworth (yup, the father wanted a Jay and I got here first)
    www.bakulanews.com
    Home Designer Suite 8.0

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    14

    Clean install -- finally

    Well, we ripped it out by the roots again last night, on the home PC, and finally got it to work -- though the installer is singularly intolerant, it seems, of screens even as large as 1024x768.

    Nice to finally have all the templates.

    So I got to do a bunch of banging around on my Grand Dream House, and I will now have a bunch of follow-up questions which, in precisely the fashion recommended by the Sticky, I will post in separate threads.

    I'm fairly prolific (and probably mildly Aspie), try not to be put off by it. :-)
    Jay R. Ashworth - HDS8.0 - St Pete FL US - Blog - Photography - IANAA - IANAE
    Try to Ask Questions The Smart Way -- you'll get better answers.
    Put your product and version in your profile/signature.

 

 

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