How do I get different baseboards in each room?

[ebullock]

I am using Home Designer Deluxe 7.06b

I started recreating my existing house using the Arts & Crafts style. The default baseboard for that style is 7" high dark cherry wood. This suits the 3 formal rooms of my house just fine but most of the remaining rooms have 4" high white baseboards.

Selecting an individual room, I find I can "turn off" baseboard molding easily enough by replacing the HEIGHT parameter with 0 (removing the (D) -- thanks guys). I can change the height too.

What I cannot do is get the baseboard color to change.

I have tried to go to the MATERIALS tab and specify the "molding" material to be white (color "bone" actually) but I find that although the change "takes" in the dialog box the Doll House View refuses to update the color.

I also tried to specifically remove the baseboard by specifing zero height, regenerating the Doll House View, then turning the baseboard back on by respecifing the height/color but this did not work also.

I thought of specifing the default molding as "bone", deleting it from the 3 rooms which need cherry base, then using skinny "soffits" along the floor to mimic base ... but boy is that a kludge!

Any suggestions or observations will be appreciated!!

[nelsaadi]

I am a new user and use HD 7.06 as well. I think you can accomplish what you need by using the default template and then you can alter color, material and dimensions using the room dialog box; however, the material selected will apply to all base, chair and crown molding.

I hope this was helpfull

[ebullock]

I don't want ALL rooms to have the same baseboard color. 3 rooms are one color, the remaining 8+ another.

[Kilgore Trout]

I could not figure out a way to do what you want. You can turn on or off the moldings in any room or change their size or height above the floor. Apparently, you can only change the material for all of your moldings at once (in the material defaults) and not for each room separately because the program is ignoring the setting that is in the room dialog.

This appears to be just a problem with the arts and crafts style because I could change the materials when using the default style. You might want to report this to tech support.

Another way, that might be easier then using the soffits, would be to use the wall coverings instead. You can turn off the molding by setting the height to 0 and then specify a wall covering as the same height and size. It might look OK but not as good as a molding.

[ebullock]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, I too found that if I select the "Default" style I can selectively change the color of baseboards room by room. I also tried the "American Casual" style and found it behaved as the "Arts & Crafts" style -- it ignores the "Moldings" entry on the MATERIALS tab in the ROOM SPECIFICATION dialog.

I wish I could change the style of my plan from "Arts & Crafts" to "Default" ... but I can't see any way to do it. I've read earlier threads which state it is impossible to change styles on a plan -- do you guys still believe this to be so?

At this point I'll loose 2 full days work if I start over. So I will use the "Wall Covering Specification" (under WALL COVERING tab) you mentioned as this is not a critical item for me to get "just right".

[ebullock]

I wanted to tell you guys what followed. I decided to restart my plan from scratch and re-doing everything. It was not nearly as painfull as I thought it would be.

Although it had taken me (a newbie) 2 days to get to the point where I realized my mistake in not starting with the "Default style", it only took 2 hours to create the new plan. Here is how I did it...

First, in my existing plan, I added to most of the rooms I had created internal dimensions ("Dimensions Tool" icon on tool bar, then "Internal Dimensions", then use the tool). Make sure you move/select your dimension lines so they show clearly (as your printout will be small.). Then I made sure the external dimensioning was turned on ("Dimensions Tool" - "Auto Exterior Dimensions"). Finally I printed my existing plan ("File" - "Print" - "Print" - "Fit to paper - 100%" - OK). The result was small, but readable.

Next I created a new, blank "Default style" plan. Before I added anything, I set up all the defaults I wanted ("Edit" - "Default settings" - "Arrow" etc). For many items I just selected whatever I thought the majority of my house had, knowing that in certain areas the defaults wouldn't work.

Next, using the printout from my old plan as a visual guide, I re-entered the walls of my house. As I did this, I re-created dimensions using the Dimension Tools (interior and auto-exterior options specifically), which helped me re-place the walls. It all worked much quicker than I'd hoped.

Having the walls redone, I moved onto the details. To place the doors, windows, cabinets, etc., I simply copied each item from the old plan to the new. Specifically, with the new plan open, I opened the old plan; then I starting at the front door and, moving clockwise, I selected each object on the old plan, used control-c to copy it to the clipboard, then selected the new plan and used control-v to paste it into the new plan (usually I'd then have to slightly adjust it's position).

For 1 story (1500 sq ft building) it took less than 2 hours. Well worth the effort.