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
How do I create custom driveways and sidewalks?
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.
- 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.
- In this example, a simple L-shaped plan is used.
- 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.
- Select Build> Door> Garage Door
and place 2 garage doors into the left most wall.
To add a custom driveway
- Select Terrain> Road and Sidewalk> Driveway Area
from the menu.
- 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.
- 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.
- Go to the Edit Toolbar and double-click on the Break Line
- 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.
- Select the left side of the driveway and click the Break Line
To create a custom sidewalk
- Select Terrain> Road and Sidewalk> Straight Sidewalk
from the menu.
- Left click along the edge of the driveway and drag downward to create a sidewalk segment that is 3 feet wide.
- 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.
- Go to the edit toolbar and click on the Break Line
- To curve the sidewalk use the same method described in step 4, above.
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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