This guide will show you how to add a two story house with a dormer.

Before you begin, walk around the exterior of your house to take measurements. Note the length and width of each story, as well as the wall height. To build this particular style of house, we will make multiple small houses and fuse them together to create the desired style. You can also use the House Wizard to add a pre-built house which you can then customize.

First, we need to customize the grid. In the Menu Bar, click Settings, then Snap Settings.

Customize the grid settings

A new dialog box will appear where you can adjust the grid size according to your preference. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to make it one foot, and then click OK.

Snap and Grid settings

Now that we have all the required measurements, we can begin creating our house. Click the Building tab, and then click the House button.

Add a house to your landscape design using the House button

Left click to place points and create the outline of your house. To enter a specific distance, press the Enter key on the keyboard, and a dialog box will appear prompting you to input the desired angle and distance for the next point. Once you have the correct distance entered, click OK.

Enter the angle and distance when placing points for your house

Continue for all sides of your house. When you are ready to place the last point, Right click and it will finish your outline. You can also Left click and place the last point on top of the first point to finish your outline.

Place the last point to create the outline of your house

Since we want to create a covered porch area, we are going to make a second house with dimensions similar to the first house.

Create a second structure to form the roof of your house

We will then use the second house as the roof to cover the first house. We will change the roof pitch on the first house to zero degrees, as seen in the image below. Click Options under the Object Properties panel, then use the slider or manually input the roof pitch in the space provided. This will create a good base for the roof to go on top of.

Edit the angle of your house's roof pitch

If you would like to further customize your house, click Options under the Object Properties panel. You can use the following options to edit the wall height, elevation, roof pitch, and overhang:

Edit the wall height, elevation, and roof pitch of your house

Let us now customize the second house, so we can place it on top of the first house as the roof. Adjust the wall height so that only the roof remains. Here we have changed the height to 1’2″. Now adjust the elevation so it matches the wall height of the first house, in this case, ten feet. Then we are going to adjust the roof pitch to twenty degrees since we will be adding another story later.

Adjust the roof pitch of the second house

Next, place the second house on top of the first. Left click and drag the roof to position it into place. You can use the Plan view to better align the two structures.

Align and place the second house on top of the first house as the roof

Now, we are going to create another house to serve as the second story. We are going to make the dimensions of the second story smaller. Click the House button, then place points to create the outline.

Add a second story to your house by creating the outline of another house

Adjust the elevation to ten feet, then place it on top of the first house. Now you have a two story house.

Place the second storey on top of the first house

The default roof type is Hip, but individual roof lines can be changed to Gable if needed. If you want to change the roof type, click Options under the Object Properties panel, and then click the Edit Roof Type button. Left click to toggle between hip and gabled roof type.

Edit the roof type of your house to gabled

Now, let us create the dormer for the house. Repeat the steps for creating another house, but use smaller dimensions to create a rectangular shape.

To add a dormer, create the outline of a rectangular house

Now you can customize the dormer by editing the wall height, elevation, and roof pitch. Then Left click and drag the dormer to place it where you desire.

Position the dormer in your house design

To add a front door, click the Building tab, then click the Door button. Click the model image seen below, and it will take you to a selection of door styles to choose from.

Add a door model to your house design

A dialog box will appear with a wide variety of door models, including some from national brand Amarr. Make your selection, and then click OK.

Choose from a variety of front door models, including some from Amarr

Left click to place the door where you desire.

Place the front door on your house

Continue adding doors, windows, and other objects as desired. Here is the completed house.

Completed 3D house design using our landscaping software

Thank you for reading this guide, and please feel free to contact us for more information about our landscaping software.