I have house that is contemprary cape with garage under. It is basically split level style home, with top floor dormer full house length. What is best for doing the roof and number of floors? Do I do basement and then 2 floors, or 3 floors, since the basement is above ground on 1/2 of the house and then about 1/2 way below on other side. Roof in front starts at top of the main floor (bottome of the 3rd level) and then in the back ends at top of the 3rd level. I can't figure out how to do the levels and roof to get started, so any help appreciated. Side picture attached might give idea of the roofline.
Thanks, Carl
Hi Carl,
Welcome to the forum!
Going by the photo, probably what I would do is to ignore the Foundation and use the Ground Floor as the base, with the two floors above. When you come to do the terrain slopes, they will build up from the ground level (0) and it can be raised or lowered (minus figure) as necessary so that it sits in the right place relative to the house. It will automatically cut around the ground floor.
Bear in mind that the wall and ceiling height you set for the third level, should be set to the LOWEST height of the vertical wall of this floor. In other words, if there is no vertical wall on one side then set the wall height for level 3 as 1mm (or 1"). The roof sits on the wall at its lowest point and walls will extend automatically to the roof where they need too. The ceiling needs to be set to Cathederal (or just use the underside of the roof, if it slopes the same as the roof). You should still be able to insert windows in the ends etc even if the wall is so tiny. If you set the wall height as say 2400mm (8') for example to accomodate the high side, then the lowest part of the roof will be 8' above the second level which is not what you want. It seems stange that the wall should be so tiny but it does work.
All the best with it.
Allan
Thanks for the detailed info. It gave me a good start. I still have roof issues though, even when I set all 4 top floor walls to 1", then
the roof just floats in mid-air at the 8' mark. Ideally I would set the front wall to 1" and back wall t 8', but I can't seem to get the roof to form the different sections. I have it set to gable, should it be other?
Carl
Hi Carl,
Sorry I was not clear enough in my explanation. When I mentioned setting the floor height to 1", I meant in the the Location settings, not the individual walls - they must be set to "extend to roof". All the vertical measurement to create a 3D image from the simple plan you draw, are contained in setting for each floor. You need to go to Settings/Building Locations and set each floor accordingly, making the top floor Walls 1" and Ceiling 1". The roof sits on top of the walls so the lower edge of the roof will be just 1" above the floor below as will the ceiling. (You may want to turn off the baseboard, at least on that low side wall, as it is obviously higher than 1").
In the actual model space you don't change the wall height - they will automatically become 1" because that is how they are set by that Location, and will extend to the roof when it is inserted. The ends would have to be set to gable of course, so those walls will extend allowing your to put windows in them. On the side that has a higher wall, that again will extend up when you set the pitch of the roof on that edge, as that slope is obviously very different to the opposite one so it will themn make that wall higher also.
When changing the roof pitch make sure you only have that edge selected (the arrow will turn green - the others must be red). Also where the roof edge on the low side follows the wall in and out again, these two edges must be set to gable also, otherwsie you will have valleys in the roof. Again make sure you only select the two short edges of this section of the roof selected when you set these to gable (or you can select these two edges and the two ends of the roof at the same time and change all to gable at once - just make sure that these edge arrows are green and all the others red).
If you do a Search on the forum (using Roof) you may find some other helpful tips.
Hope that is clear - ask again if not.
Allan
Thanks for the help! I started over, as I think having some windows prevented the roof to be at 1". I also had to change the "Support"
tab setting to 1", then I was able to set it, and then change back before re-adding windows again. Lots of subtle issues to learn.
Carl
Carl,
When setting the top level Location settings be sure to allow for the floor thickness. The floor level for the top floor must be the total of the Ground Floor thickness and Wall height plus the second Floor thickness and Wall height plus the top floor thickness. Adding those up will give you to top level Floor surface level on which your 1" wall goes. You may have already realised that but just in case...
Not sure what you mean by the 'Support' setting.
Allan
Haven't gotten to that level of detail with floor thickness yet, still just doing some basic learning of the program features.
For "support" on the properties support and details tab, I had to change the "support" height box for the rafter as well as
the parameters on the basic tab. Not sure if it was only the support tab that was needed or both tabs, but until I changed the support height, it wouldn't work.
Carl
Hi Carl,
You should not have to change the Support height - it will automatically change to your wall height if you have the Building Locations set correctly. It is important to get the Building Locations right first or you will have all sorts of issues with the 3D model, as the Locations control the third dimension. The 2D plan view will seem OK but the vertical aspects will be all wrong.
While you are just experimenting and getting used to the program it is fine but before you start any serious work on your project, make sure the Building Location settings are correct. Normally the default settings work fine (which is why the Support height is set to 8' because that is the default wall height) but because yours is a "no wall" top level it will need to be set right first. I have used this program almost daily right back to version 3 (probably about 15years) and I think I have only had to change the Support height once for a very unusual roof. Generally all the default settings work fine, as long as the Location settings are right.
Have fun!
Allan
Thanks for all your advice, it has been very helpful. Not sure about support height, but it did make the difference, maybe because
I first set it to 8' and then went to top floor and set to 1" later? (ie, should I have set all to 1" and then
increase?).
Carl
Carl,
If you had set the Location to 1" first, then inserted the roof, it would have automatically changed the Support dimension to 1" along with the walls etc and the roof would have been in the right place. You can go in and override these things later, to bring the roof down for example but if you set the Location first you do not have to fiddle with those things at all. The override options are for very out of the ordinary situations. The Locations control all of the vertical dimensions.
Allan
Must have been that, as I did the wizard initially that made 3 floors and roof, and started at 8'.
Thanks again, your assistance is appreciated.
Carl