plan levels

[pev]

I am drawing a plan consisting of 2 houses with a shared driveway between then dropping down 4 metres their two respective & separate garages. I wish to draw a set of steps up the side of these garages onto the rear gardens of the houses but cannot set the start of the steps level with the floor of the garages.
When I started the plan I used the level of the houses as the datum and made the levels of the gardens & garages a minus figure, ie minus 4 metres for the garage floors. Is this the correct way to draw the plan or should I have started from the garage level, using that as the datum, and then had the house levels a positive value from the garage floor.
Thanks for any advice.

[Roger Rines]

Your approach seems to be similar to how I would approach that problem. In the case of getting the driveway to match the elevation of the garage floor, use the sidewalk polyline and then use elevation lines to get the results you need.

An example of how I approached the problem yesterday is available here:
Terrain Drop & Stairs Plan

In the example above, the terrain line that gets the driveway to meet the garage floor is hidden under the Sidewalk Ployline. To access that line you'll need to turn off the sidewalk polyline or pull the sidewalk back from the garage as Chief won't allow me to select an elevation through that area.

[pev]

Thanks for your response and plan which was very informative. I'm still very much a beginner but its reassuring to know that help is only an email away. Thanks once again.
Pev