method of drawing split level houses

can someone please tell me the general methodology that is successful in drawing split level houses.
e.g. for a split level house over 3 levels,
is the best method:
1. draw say lower level on floor 1
2. draw midlle level on floor 2
3. draw upper level on floor 3 ???
OR
1. draw lower/middle level on floor 1
2. draw say upper level on floor 2
then go around each room on floor1 and drop the floor height to make it
the lowest level, while retaining the middle level at floor height (0) D ?

not sure how to handle stairs leading up/down to the split levels???

any ideas would be great!

I use the second method.

You will probably get better results using Wendy's method and putting the lower floor at 0, and making sure that the default ceiling height is tall enough to include both lower and middle level heights combined.

I set my entry level at 0 and the upper level on the same "floor 1"

The level below the upper & if there is one below the entry level - are on the foundation level..."floor 0"

consider changing floor levels when the floor/ceiling of that next area is higher/lower than 75% (approx.) or so of the than the floor/ceiling of the first area.

Also consider access to the area. If the only way to get there is via rooms/halls that are definitely on the other level than that's where that room belongs also. If access is available from either level then take your choice.

Any rooms that are "above" or "below" rooms on another floor level belong on different floor level.

It's all common sense, basically.

Lew

Wendy-

Let's say that you have 2.5 levels on each side, one with a crawlspace, and the other with attic space. Does that methodology still work?

Nikki

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RMorrison

You will probably get better results using Wendy's method and putting the lower floor at 0, and making sure that the default ceiling height is tall enough to include both lower and middle level heights combined.

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Richard- How does this affect the height if you have floors above both the lower and middle floors? Doesn't it make the overall height on one set of floors too tall?

Nikki

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nicnacka

Richard- How does this affect the height if you have floors above both the lower and middle floors? Doesn't it make the overall height on one set of floors too tall?

Nikki

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Nikki,

You just need to be careful with the ceiling heights at each individual upper room. The reason for using the higher ceiling is that there is usually a tall space at the interface of different levels in split-levels, and you can get flaky issues there if there are awkwardly stacked multiple open spaces. It's easy to make individual ceilings lower, either by lowering a ceiling manually or putting a floor above, but problems tend to occur (especially in automatic roof generation) when some rooms are higher than the default.

Thanks, Richard. I tried it as you and Wendy suggested and got the results that I was looking for. Now my problem is with the stairs. For some reason, CA is trying have my stairs go from the first level to the level above the split (the actual 4th floor), which is on the CA 2nd floor. Any ideas on how to fix this?:confused: