Adding a House

In Realtime Landscaping Pro you can design a house that approximates the exterior of your own. Designing a house in Realtime Landscaping Pro is a very simple process, and works very differently than typical home design programs. Houses can be designed from scratch, or a pre-built house can be added to your landscape using the House Wizard.

To add a house:

1.   Click the Add House button found near the top of the screen under the Building tab.

2.   Draw the outline of the house by clicking the left mouse button to add points. Press the Backspace key to remove the last point added, and press the Esc key to cancel. If you would like to input the distance and angle manually, place at least one point and then press the Enter key.

3.   To finish drawing the house, place the last point on top of the first point. Alternately, right-click to place the last point; it will automatically connect to the first point.

The picture below is an example of a simple house being created in the Top-Down view.

The picture below is the same house viewed during a Realtime Walkthrough. (Note: The roof is added automatically.)

Tips:

•      If you want an exact view of your house, use Realtime Landscaping Photo (included) to create a 2D design over a photograph of your house and surrounding property.

•      It is easier to add a house in the Top-Down view, but houses can also be drawn in the Perspective view.

•      The snap-grid makes accurate houses easy to draw; see Snap Settings for details.

•      Doors, awnings, shutters, and windows can be added to your house from the appropriate objects under the Building tab. See Adding a Door and Adding a Window for more information.

•      Multiple house objects can be used together to create more complex houses. For example, two house objects can be overlapped to achieve unique roof lines.

Gable Roofs

The default roof type is “hip”, but individual roof lines can be changed to “gable” if needed.

To convert from a hip to gable roof:

1.   Click the Edit Roof Type button found in the properties to enable roof editing mode.

2.   Click the house wall underneath the part of the roof you want to change. Clicking will toggle between hip and gable styles.

3.   After you are finished editing the roof, click the Edit Roof Type button to disable roof editing mode.

Below is a picture of a house with two of its rooflines “gabled”:

Designing Multistory Houses

Multistory houses can be created by simply stacking a top floor over a bottom floor. To do this, create the bottom story as detailed above, and then use the Add House tool to create the upper story. When the upper story is complete, increase the Elevation property of the house until the top story sits on the bottom story. For most multistory houses, it is best to set the Roof Pitch property of the bottom story to a value of “0”. This technique was used to design the house in the image below:

Tip: To better understand how to create multiple story houses in Realtime Landscaping Pro, use the House Wizard to add a pre-built multiple story house. Next, click the Ungroup button to break the house into individual pieces. By moving the pieces you should have a good idea of how the house was put together.

Designing Roofs with a Single Slope

Roofs with a single sloping surface can be designed, which are often used when creating sheds, rectangular bay windows, carports, and more.

To design a roof with a single sloping surface:

1.   Click the house you wish to edit to select it.

2.   Click the Edit Roof Type button found in the properties to enter roof editing mode.

3.   Click each of the house walls below the roof you want to change, except for the wall that will have the lowest roof edge.

4.   When you are finished, click the Edit Roof Type button again to leave roof editing mode.

The bay window in the picture below was added as a separate house object, and the above steps were used to give it a single slanting roofline.

Designing Carports

A carport can be designed by creating a roof without walls, which is also useful for creating covered patios, overhangs, and more.

To design a roof without walls:

1.   Click the Add House button and create a house normally.

2.   Move the Wall Height property to 1” or 0”.

3.   Move the Elevation property to the desired roof height.

Building Pads

When placing a house on uneven terrain, you can either flatten the terrain using an Area Grader, or use the Patio object to create a level building surface. For more information, see Area Grader and Adding a Patio.

See also:

House Properties
Selecting Objects
Editing Points
Adding a Door
Adding a Window
Editing Objects
Adding an Area Grader
Adding a Patio