SPLIT LEVEL HOUSE and GARAGE

[ronhenderson]

I'm new to TFP and am trying to put in a split level house. My basement floor is approx 3 ft below ground level and the first floor is approx 5 feet above ground level. How do i get exterior wall to extend for a total of 13 feet? I also have windows directly below the first floor windows and i can't seem to place in the basement windows. 

the garage is attached to the house but is at ground level of course so it's roof approximately 3 feet lower than the house. At the moment I can only get the roof to be one continuous roof for both.

thanks for your help

Ron

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Ron,  Welcome to the Forum!

What you are trying to do should not be a problem if you have the Locations set up correctly.  Settings / Building Locations would have to have the basement at minus 3 ft, and First Floor (Ground floor?) at 5 ft (may need to allow for floor thickness as well).  The two walls (8ft on top of the 5ft of the basement) will give you the 13 ft (obviously!).

The walls need to be aligned exactly of course.  Easiest way is to do one first and then select the outer walls, right click and select Duplicate to Location.  They will be replicated on the other location exactly aligned with the same appearance.

The basement window should insert into the basement wall in the same way as in the first floor wall.

The garage would be another Location again, with the wall height set to whatever the garage walls are and the roof will sit on top of these, while the main roof will sit on the first floor walls. 

I hope that all makes sense - if you need more explanation just ask again.

Allan

[Doug.S]

I also suggest you try the tools, wizard, house design   and use the settings to make a full basement, 2 story one room house and explore the results in 2D and 3D...at each location level and view the location settings

This will give you a good idea of the basics with a real live model.  I don't think the wizard will allow all the possible settings (such as first floor below zero ground level) but should suffice for playing around to learn how to work in multi levels. 

You can adjust a lot of stuff in the resulting model to learn the software for design, moving around/views, rendering, cameras, materials etc.

[ronhenderson]

Thanks for your help, I've got the 2 levels for the split level house, but am now having a couple other problems. first, i can't get the slab floor put in the basement, i've got grass in my basement I've tried several times to put down a floor and it doesn't take. Second, i'm having difficulty with putting in the door since it is 2'8" in the top level and 4' in the lower level. I've tried to cut openings in the walls for the door but the openings in each level doesn't want to match up (ie bottom of the top level opening and the top of the lower level opening don't join to make one complete opening). Third, is there anyway i can globally turn all the measurements in the catalogs from metric to ft/in... practically all the items in the catalogs are listed in metric measurements.

thanks for your help

ron

[Allan Chesney]

Ron,

Re the floor - you should be able to insert a floor anywhere if you choose By Picking Points a this does not even yrsy about walls.

I have not tried this but you should be able to insert a garage door in the basement wall and it should span both - it cuts the hole automatically. I will try when I get home - using a phone at present.

Setting has a Metric Imperial choice. If the Catalog names are the problem change it in File / Catalogs.

Allan

[Doug.S]

consider you might want to have setting in program settings to "cut out" terrain around a basement below ground level so the terrain  (green grass) does not appear inside the basement.

There are two catalogs...both same except one is metric other is English.....maybe you have the metric catalog loaded and need to switch to other catalog.  I assume you are working in ft-in units.

To get doors and windows and other openings to "cross" two levels, you may need to make a third level (location) whose wall adjoins the other two levels  (overlaps the same 3D space)...then place the door in that wall....you may have to play with the other walls so they "disappear" out of the way of the new location otherwise their materials will block the opening in the new shared wall location.

Perhaps if you still have problems, search this forum for split level, shared walls, or similar as I think its been discussed before and you may find answers.  Otherwise maybe show a .jpg picture of your problem or attach a .bld file for others here to look at.

You might play around with a small test case .bld setup to learn how to make a split level (3 levels) play well at the shared walls...it has been done successfully....but not by me as I have not tried it yet except to attach a garage with a slab floor to a house with a basement and had a shared wall.

[Allan Chesney]

Ron.

The garage door will insert cross Locationi and so will Openings if you set the basement Head Height to the height of your opening - otherwise it wil align it at Head Height and push it through the floor.

Allan