Hi All, I have been playing for weeks with no luck. I am trying to set up my new house with this app. It is on a sloping block and hasd two levels (1 at the front and aseond towarf the rear - which is there due to the slope). Should I try and set up the topography first then try for the house. I had a really good looking house - then haf buried it. Would be great if someone could coach me through this set up stage. Most of the erst I have worked out?
David Broadbent
Hi David,
Welcome to the forum.
Sounds as though you almost had it right
Quote from: SafetyPsych on November 29, 2012, 03:51:37 PM
I had a really good looking house - then half buried it.
Probably all you needed to do was lower the Terrain - is it too late or have you started again?
The whole Terrain can be lowered or raised at Settings / Program Settings / Terrain.
A key starting point probably is to get Settings / Building Locations correct. You would need to have a Location set for each level. Probably you could just use the existing Ground Floor and Second Floor but change the Floor Level of the Second Floor. These Locations control all the VERTICAL aspects of your building so it is essential to get them right before you start. The Terrain is sort of irrelevent as it just 'floats' at whatever level you set it.
Each floor level should be a different Location and usually each section with a different wall height (if it supports a roof) as the roof sits at the wall height specified in Building Locations. Presumably your split level home has the roof on two levels or if not it has two defferent height walls. Obviously the two part of you building are inserted on the respective Location and it all comes together in 3D.
So that the Exterior surface of the walls work correctly, each of the levels must be totally enclosed. You may have only 3 walls on each section and they are open to each other where the split level occurs but you need to join the 'open ends' with an "invisible wall" which gives the whole section on that Location a continuous exterior. If you do not do that the texture (eg brick) that you used for the Exterior surface of the wall will not appear. You make this "invisible wall" by using the Room Divide tool to join the open ends.
Before going to any detail with your actual plan, I would suggest that you just set up a practice one, play with the levels and Terrain and get a feel for how it works. Don't worry about specific sizes, just practice, and then, when you see how it works, start on your main project - and just ask when you get stuck (or use the forum Search - you may find someone has asked the same question before).
Hope that helps to get you started.
Allan
Afraid it was too late Alan. I seem to have gone in a diff direction and stuffed up. Many thanks for your detailed reply. Shall try and get my head around this. I have attached the drawings I am working from FYI.
Hi David,
I notice that the plans you attached are dated some years ago. Does this mean that the house exists and you are maybe planning some changes or is it just a plan you happen to like? Either way it does make it easy for you to set up the Building Location settings as most of the dimensions are clearly shown on Section AA.
I would suggest that you forget about the Terrain for the moment and get the house right - you can worry about that later. It is not a simple one way slope, although you could treat it that way for convenience.
For your Location settings it may be easiest to treat the Terrain level (zero) as the lowest point on Section AA and work the levels from there, then later you can just slope the Terrain UP from that point. It is actually a two storey home rather than a split level, which makes it a lot easier.
Work out the height above the ground of the floor on the lowest level (FFL line) and enter this as the Floor Level on the Ground Floor (eg 300). Next enter the Head Height (door height, usually 2040) and Wall height as shown (2400) and Ceiling height.
Now you can do the same for the Second floor (front of house level). You will need to work out the Floor Level by adding the Ground Floor floor level (300? - how high is the top of the Laundry door step above the ground at that point) plus wall height (2400) plus upper floor thickness (322? - bit hard to read on the PDF plan) and this will give you the upper floor level (eg 300+2400+322 = 3022). On the upper level the Walls and Ceiling are 2700 and this is the point where your roof will sit.
To avoid confusion you may want to rename the floor Locations, as Ground Floor sounds like where your front door is, so maybe Upper and Lower or some other name that easily identifies it for you.
Hope that makes sense.
Allan