In our area, and I believe we're not unique, plans need to be "stamped" by a structural engineer or architect. It is my understanding that none of the plans you can buy online are Stamped, so all need to be taken to a local professional who can review them and certify that the plans meet local codes.

From the Don Gardner website "Donald A. Gardner home plans are not stamped or sealed. At the time of creation, our house plans are designed to conform to the CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code or the International Residential Code. National and local building codes vary with location and change from time to time. Consequently, it may be necessary for you to meet with a local builder, architect or other construction professional to review your local building codes and make any changes to the house plan these codes may require. If you are building in North Carolina or South Carolina, we offer additional sets of home plans (must purchase at least a five set package) with an engineering stamp on the structural pages. Please contact our Customer Sales & Service"

If you're considering buying one of the plans you also need to know that all the mechanicals and HVAC need to be added in. After looking at online plans and realizing all this and knowing that every plan we looked at was going to need customizing, we ended up going with a local architect.

Thanks for your reply mlweaving_Marji. I appreciate it!

Since we already purchased Don Gardner plans, I was just curious to hear about others' experiences who did the same. Since they've been through it, I'm sure someone has to have some valualbe input.

We are having trouble finding a reputable local architect who will take our autoCAD files and make the modifications we want. We've met with 4 architects - 3 want to start from scratch and I'm doubting the capabilities of the 4th who is willing to work with our autoCAD.

Are we taking the wrong approach? Has anyone purchased the plans and gone straight to the permitting phase? Or did you go to a structural engineer and bypass the architect? Or do we seek out a draftsman? Or continue to search for the right architect?

Feeling a bit lost.

Do you have a builder yet? Your builder can probably steer you to a structural engineer in your area who can do this. We were looking at a Don Gardner plan online, but went to our builder first, and he told us that he would work with their plan but would prefer if we worked with someone locally to start with. He told us that if we had the plan that it would probably cost us more than the cost of the plan to get the HVAC, plumbing and electrical added, make the mods we wanted and get it stamped, but he knew where we could get it done.
If you don't have a builder or will be your own GC, as a last resort maybe call the Don Gardner office to find out where they suggest. On their website it says they won't recommend builders but they have lists of builders who've built their plans. Undoubtedly they've encountered this issue with other customers and may have a list of pro's in every state that they can recommend to get their plans stamped.
And if you're in NC or SC you can get stamped plans right from them.

We built with Don Gardner plans last year and we didn't have any problems at all getting permits with the plans...we did have to get the truss plans stamped but the truss company supplied those plans for us.
Our plans actually called for a hip roof and we went with a gable and the truss company designed accordingly and if there were any engineering fees they must have been built into the cost of the truss because as the owner/builder I paid for them.