shed roof clerestory and ceiling height

Hello all

I'm new to the forum and chief having drawn in autoCAD. the two are quite different. I've attached plans and pics.
:confused:
I was cruising along until I started fighting with ceiling heights. I got the rear wall to be higher than the front wall and the same for the front wall in the GR using roof planes and extending walls.

desired ceiling heights:::front utility section, entry, GR = 8'; GR, kitchen, hall, MBr = roof plane; MBa = subject of future post.


I looked for a beam tool (it'll need one) but can't find it. tried creating a second floor with open below but that messed the exterior wall. tried invisible walls to no avail. tried creating a second floor with open below but that messed the exterior wall. this is the best I got it looking outside with an exterior wall in the attic. I can even put windows in it. but the ceilings inside are all messed up

all help is greatly appreciated

Hi James,

Welcome to the forum and CA.
Try this post regarding the same issue.
http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?t=42733

In my opinion the way this works is very contra intuitive and should be addressed.

CA support staff and many CA users think this is the way it should work.

Please let us know how you getting on.

Cheers,

Radek

I reread that thread and redesigned off an early no roof copy. set default to 96. changed room types to default. created 2nd floor with 12" height on top of floor platform. created attic in front of house and exterior wall on 2nd floor. i think i have the wall types set right...

BUT my ceiling is still messed up and I have a funny exterior condition along the band

i searched for the longest time for "wall height" in the help dbs, reference manual, etc. couldn't figure out what I was missing... It seems more logical for me to build a roof plane from a given height, i.e. wall height, top of plate.


chocolate cake helps everything

Sorry James.

I do not have enough experience to be of any help with this one. I hope that some of the CA pros come up with the correct work flow for this.

As far as your original question goes the beam tools are under the Build > Framing menu.

I wish that CA would better document the proper procedures to accomplish things like clerestories and how to deal with wall/room heights in these type of situations.

Chief has a lot of automated features, but they sometimes seem to be in the way in cases like this one.

I am sure someone will come up with an answer soon.

I drew a rectangular plan in Chief 10 for floor 1. Manually drew two roof planes, the "rear" one at a steeper pitch than the front one.

Dragged the rear plane's "ridge" so it overlapped the front. Specified the whole-plan "room" as roof over, but no ceiling. Now I have to do a clerestory wall.

Go up to level "A," and manually draw the wall from R to L, so its exterior face is to the right side. Use CAD however necessary to place the wall correctly, in regards to the "ridge" line of the front roof plane.

I want that front plane to stop right at the clerestory wall's inside face of its main framing layer. CAD helps me do that, checking in the backcut section view to see how I'm doing.

Once the wall (specified roof cuts wall at bottom) is positioned right, I view it in elevation, and drag its bottom edge down to join nicely with the ceiling surface of the lower roof plane.

Then it is time to place windows, which I do when viewing the wall in an exterior elevation, a vector view.

James,
Here's your plan back. I fooled w/ it some. Check out some of the room defs & wall settings.
Jim

Gene

I guess I could create a soffit under the front, smaller ceiling in the GR. but the rear wall height still needs to be at 10' and with the change in overall width (24' to 20') the height of the front wall needs to change also.

I'm still working on it and seem to come closer with a second story, open above, attic combination but can quite get the ceiling heights to display properly

thanks

James,
Did you look at the plan I sent back to you?
Jim

Jim

I'm still working on it. I've got the roof but I can't get the ceiling to display right. my 8' part displays ok but the rest is up on story 2.

I'm going to try it with an attic instead of a second story and maybe that'll do it

Incidentally, on the wall specification>general tab, there are ghosted radio buttons that say "default wall top height" and "default wall bottom height". I sure do wish I could uncheck some of these...

well, I'm starting to wonder if I have hardware issues or some default set wrong. I tried making a simple gable box and turned the ceiling off:::white hole. I installed new video drivers and the new update already. any advice?

James,
Leave your walls at "default top/bottom" as much as possible. Control their hgt by defining your ceiling hgt in your rooms to the plate hgt you want it to build to. Use "lowered ceiling" for ceilings that are below the plate hgt. Select "balloon through ceiling" for the wall to build all the way to bottom of roof if that is what you want. Be sure that your roof framing is what you want.
I found some odd things in your plan. When I went into wall defaults to change the main layer of your SIPS wall, the front wall disappeared????? I discovered that when the siding always disappeared on the clerestory wall, even when there was no roof plane there. Other strange things that I hadn't seen before.
I drew the basic shell of your plan in a blank plan & didn't get this behavior.
Anyway, it's all in your room defs & wall properties.
HTH
Jim

James,

You may also want to check out the following videos:

• 719 One and a Half Story Roofs
• 720 Designing a Cape Cod Roof Bearing on 2nd Floor Walls
• 721 Designing a Cape Cod Roof Bearing on 1st Floor Walls

Although they are not exact recipe for your situation, they cover the relationship between room heights and the way roofs are created.

Cheers,