Split level house

[vasilbilak]

Is there a way to design or draw a split level house (like a five level split)?
Thank you!

[Allan Chesney]

Hi and welcome to the forum! 

Split levels are not a problem as long as you set up the Building Locations correctly (Settings Menu). Five levels is essentially five floor Locations. Name them so they make sense to you. Study the diagram on the Locations dialog box so you understand how the settings work. Simply put the Floor Level for the Ground Floor is the floor thickness or height above the ground (default is 1' or 300mm). Add wall height + floor thickness gives you the Floor Level for the Second Floor. From then for each Floor Level is the wall height + floor thickness added to all the previous floor levels. In other words, the Floor Level setting for each level is measured from the Terrain (ground) so, for a normal 5 storey building, it is the total of the walls and floor thicknesses below it.

However, since you have split levels, the levels are still measured from the Terrain but the wall heights presumably are different on different parts of the floor or are there stepped ceilings also?. If your ground level for example has a 3000mm ceiling in a lounge/entry and then a 500mm step up to dining room, then the lounge/entry Location would have 3000mm walls while the dining would have 2500mm walls.

A lot of the techniques with this depends on the actual design. If the dining room was in effect just a raised section within the perimeter of the same 3000mm walls and a level ceiling, then you could just insert a floor and right click Elevate it to the dining level. You could do this without creating a Location for the dining room, but if you did not create a location for it, any furniture you inserted would fall to the lounge/entry level. With the dining Location created the furniture in the dining room, would would sit on the dining room floor automatically, as would any walls you added inside the outer 3000mm walls.

Sorry if this sounds confusing but without knowing the actual design of the building I have just tried to give some general concepts so you can understand how it may work for you.

Ask again if you could not understand anything.

If this is your first project, I would suggest playing first to get used to the tools and how they work. You will then find it easier to see how the split levels will work.

Allan