Ceiling Rafters?

[ottotc]

Anyone know how to get TFP to put in ceiling rafters in the topmost ceiling, without having a floor in the attic?

Thanks,
Otto

[Allan Chesney]

Otto,

You can turn on the existing 'framing' and turn the ceiling  and floor surfaces off which would make the exisiting 'framing' visible. You can also make the surfaces transparent.

Another option is to add the beams manually.  In Interior Accessoris/Decorative you will find a Custom Member that can be sized to do this and in the same area are some Decorative Trusses etc that may do what you want.

Allan

[ottotc]

Allan-----

I must be missing something.  When I insert a ceiling in/above the topmost floor, what I get is the ceiling only.  For example:  1/2" thick ceiling composed of 1/2" drywall.  No rafters/joists.  "View Framing" shows nothing above drywall.  The ceiling rafters/joists are needed for the material list, proper ceiling thickness, etc.  If I put a floor above the ceiling, then there are rafters/joists, but then there is an unwanted floor in the attic.  What am I doing wrong?

-----Otto

[Doug.S]

did you try deleting the floor or changing its material properties to transparent?  that should do it

[ottotc]

Allan-----

Is there a way to delete just the floor covering, leaving the remaining parts of the floor intact?  Is there a way to change/edit the floor covering material to "Transparent".  I couldn't find anything in the material lists.

I did create a new material with the "Properties, Rendering Effects, Preset Effects" set to "Transparent-full".  I used that for my floor covering, and it seems to do what is needed.  But it would be nice if you had an easier way to delete the floor covering, or else to make the floor covering transparent.

Thanks a million for your help.

-----Otto

[Allan Chesney]

Otto,

You can make any material transparent as you have done, just set it to Transparent Full. This makes the MATERIAL (Texture or colour) itself transparent, so you need to be careful in that if you use that material somewhere else it will be transparent.  Best to create a new material (Use an existing one but give it a new name - eg Transparent) and use that for the purpose.  Bear in mind that there are usually at least two surfaces -(eg Floor surface and Underside and if it needs to be transparent when viewed from both sides then both must be set to transparent. Transparency only works one way - if you set one side of a wall to transparent you will see through it but if you move the camera to the other side you will not. Both surfaces must be set.

I see what you mean about the ceiling framing - its does not exist!  (Maybe that is what they mean by Suspended Ceiling -Joke!!).  If you are using TFP to create a Materials List, then you must be careful to set walls etc to the correct type. A freestanding wall with brick on both sides will still show a timber frame unless you start with the correct type - in other words the surface texture used does change the wall type and does not affect the material list.  The Custom member I mentioned will appear in the Material list but not with any dimensions etc.

Allan

[ottotc]

Thanks.

I had not thought of trying to make material transparent.  Once it was mentioned, it was merely a matter of going into "Help" and typing in "Transparent".  I expect that transparent may be useful for resolving other situations as well.

-----Otto

[Allan Chesney]

Otto,

If you are going to be doing some Advanced rendering later, you may want to do some experimenting first - I have found that transparent materials will sometimes render black! (probably NOT what you want!).  If of course if you are just wanting to 'walk around' using the regular 3D view, then material transparency should solve your problem ( the floor surface would still show in the Material list though!

Interesint that adding a ceiling does not add any timber to hold it up - I will put that in the Feature Requests.

Allan