Delete basement or Change to be a Crawl Space

[marishka]

Hello,

I have a layout that I really like, but it has a full size basement that I want to either:
1-delete completely (the house would then sit on pads
2- change into a crawl space

I have tried going into the setting/building location menu and "playing" with the properties of the basement there, but it does not seem to achieve what I want.

(I set the  floor level of the basement to zero, and the head, ceiling and wall heights to 2', but the changes are not reflected in the plan...the wall height of the basement appears to be the same as before (ie 9').

Any ideas?

Marishka

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Marishka,

Most changes to the settings in Building Locations will only affect things you insert on that location AFTER you change the settings. Changing the Floor Level should work by moving everything on the Location up or down but if you had previously inserted 9' walls then they will still be 9'. Changing the setting will only affect future walls, so if you insert new ones now, they will be 2'. If you select all the walls on the Foundation location and change them all to 2' then that will probably solve part of your problem (see further down for the other part of the problem).

Before we go any further the question now is - what is the correct Floor Level for your Foundation?  NORMALLY the Foundation is below ground level and defaults to a negative figure ( - 8') so if you changed that to zero, you have in effect raised all your Foundation to probably the same level as your Ground Floor. Of course if you had previously changed the Foundation Floor Level to a positive figure and made it shorter, then you would have lowered the floor. Remember that the Floor Level setting is the distance from the Terrain (zero), to the SURFACE of each floor. If your Foundation is below ground level, as it normally is, then the Floor Level for the Foundation should be zero, minus the Foundation's Wall Height.  However, if you have the Foundation as an above ground crawl space,  then the Floor level is zero (assuming no floor) plus the wall height (2').

The other part of the problem alluded to earlier, is that the Ground Floor settings may also have to be changed, so that the Floor Level setting for the Ground Floor is the correct distance above the Terrain (zero). If you have the Foundation as zero (and no floor as such), then the Ground Floor's Floor Level setting would be Foundation Walls (2') + Ground Floor floor thickness (eg 1') hence the Ground Floor level would be 3'.

Does that all make sense?  If not just ask again where you can't follow it.

Allan

[Doug.S]

I think another way to say partly what Allan said:

BEFORE you draw anything for any NEW design, figure out the floor heights/location setup....and THEN start drawing/designing.

You can change/recover later (virtually everything CAN be fixed) but it is just much more work.

So if you have not invested much time or details so far....may be easier to start over....and you could save a floorplan view of the old/undesired basement design for an easier re-start (trace or print as a guide)...so not all is lost.

Also always decide how much if any landscaping you plan to do...best to get terrain and house placement/lot sorted out early, then design and landscape details later.....you may even want two separate files: 1 for interiors (detailed with only exterior stuff needed for views thru windows) and 1 for exteriors (interiors sparse unless looking in thru a window) to make files smaller and design/renders faster (less computer load)....but it does require keeping 2 files synchronized and backed up.

[Allan Chesney]

Hi again Marishka,

I just read Doug's post, then re-read your original message and realised that neither of us commented on your first option :

1-delete completely (the house would then sit on pads

You can delete the Foundation location just by selecting it in Building Locations and click the Delete Loction button. This would delete the location and everything on it but it would not automatically lower any other floors - you would still have to change the Floor Level setting for other floors.

Hopefully it should not be necessary to start all over again - adjusting the floor levels should sort it out.

Unless you have a very old slow computer you also should not need to set up separate files for inside and outside renders. It can be useful but as Doug said it is a problem to keep them syncronised. I generally have very complex projects, both internally and externally and I find that render times are quite acceptable. If it did become a problem you can always use the Display Filter to turn off certain areas. This is a situation where you can actually make good use of Locations. You need to plan the locations beforehand as Doug said, but they can then be used to advantage. You could for instance have all your furniture on one location (eg a copy of the Ground Floor), and when doing outside renders just turn the Furniture location off. I always have furniture on a separate location, not because of render times, but simply because it is easy to hide all the furniture while I am working on the building itself, then I just turn it on again when rendering.

Allan

[marishka]

Hello and Thanks for the tips.

I "played" quite a bit with the building locations and have managed to get the building to sit on a 4 foot crawl space (which avoided me starting over). The building location dialog box is a little hard to grasp, but by tweaking here and there, and checking with the front elevation after each tweak I have a good grasp of it now....

I did try to delete the basement altogether however, and that did not work for me....the delete button is greyed out in the building location dialogue box...It is of no matter tome now because we have settled on a 4 ft crawl space, but I figured I would mention that.

Marishka

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Marishka,

Good to hear that you are starting to understand the Building Locations dialog.  It is essential really to understand this, as it contols all the vertical aspects of the model.

Re this problem:

I did try to delete the basement altogether however, and that did not work for me....the delete button is greyed out in the building location dialogue box...It is of no matter tome now because we have settled on a 4 ft crawl space, but I figured I would mention that.

Did you delete everything from the Foundation location first?  If anything is still inserted on the location the Delete option WILL be greyed out, so that you can't delete a whole section of your model accidentally. Obviously if you delete everything from the location first, then it does not matter if the location itself is deleted, so I guess TFP then decides that you must know what you are doing!! 

One other thought: Did you decide on a 4' crawl space, or could you not get the 2' you originally spoke about, to work?

All the best with your project.

Allan

[marishka]

Hello,

Oh, deleting everything in the basement first is a great idea. That's probably why it was not working for me!

Marishka