Chief Architect Help Database - Article Number:  774

How to Create a Custom Driveway and Sidewalks

The information in this article applies to:
  • Home Designer Suite
  • Home Designer Pro
  • Home Designer Landscape and Deck
  • Home Designer Architectural
QUESTION

How do I create custom driveways and sidewalks?



ANSWER

The Driveway and Sidewalk tools are Terrain Feature tools that follow the slopes of your terrain so you can easily create a wide variety of designs for your home's exterior.

  1. Open the plan in which you want to add a driveway and sidewalks, or select File> New Plan  to begin a new plan from scratch. 

    • In this example, a simple L-shaped plan is used.




  2. At the start of your new plan you should have a Terrain Perimeter already created.  To make sure this is the case select Terrain> Create Terrain Perimeter .  If this is greyed out then you already have a Terrain Perimeter on your plan.

  3. Select Build> Door> Garage Door  and place 2 garage doors into the left most wall.


To add a custom driveway

  1. Select Terrain> Road and Sidewalk> Driveway Area  from the menu.


  2. Left-click near the top left corner of the garage and drag down and to the left to create the first part of the driveway.



  3. Select the newly created driveway along the bottom edge.

    • Go to the Edit Toolbar and double-click on the Break Line  tool the left click along the selected edge of the driveway to place a 90 degree break.

    • Select and drag the left part of the broken line downward.



  4. To curve the corner of the driveway:

    • Select the left side of the driveway and click the Break Line edit tool.

    • Place a break approximately 10 feet from the top of the driveway.


    • Left click and drag the diamond shaped move handle on the corner to the right to create and angled corner.




    • With the angled edge selected go to the edit toolbar and click the Change Line/Arc  edit button to create the curve. The shape of the curve can be adjusted using the edit handles.






 

To create a custom sidewalk

  1. Select Terrain> Road and Sidewalk> Straight Sidewalk  from the menu.


  2. Left click along the edge of the driveway and drag downward to create a sidewalk segment that is 3 feet wide.







  3. With the right edge of the sidewalk selected:
    •  Go to the edit toolbar and click on the Break Line  edit button. (In version 7.0 products and earlier, double-click on the Break Line edit button).

    • Click along the right edge of the sidewalk to place a 90 degree break.

    • Select the newly broken part and drag it to the right.






  4. To curve the sidewalk use the same method described in step 4, above.
MORE INFORMATION

To learn how to design work space in a garage, see article 776 in this database: How to create a garage shop space.

Last updated on: Feb 05, 2013


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