How are dormers SUPPOSED to work?

[RMorrison]

I think I must be missing something. Let's assume a one-story plan. In order to get a dormer to display properly on the plans, it needs to be placed on the floor above, i.e. the attic. No real problem there.

But I want the first floor to be open to the dormer above. When I explode the dormer, I cannot get it to create a room (even though all of the walls seem to be normal) and thus create an "open below" condition. I have to go to the first floor and create an invisible room with no ceiling, which seems a little kludgy to me.

Am I missing something here?

[Tommy Blair]

Try putting a platform hole where the dormer is located. In other words, if it is a one story house and you put a floating dormer on the roof, place the platorm hole where the dormer is located. See if that helps.

[Merls]

I usually build my roof and then build a second floor. Move the 2nd floor walls in and rename as knee walls, build my dormers, explode them, make a rear wall, and label the room as open to below.

[Allen42acj]

Hi Richard
Is your ceiling height set high enough?
Auto floating dormer?
Why are you exploding it?Works either way for me..

[Tommy Blair]

Be sure to open all walls and uncheck "no room def." if they are checked. That should give you a room definition.

[RMorrison]

Be sure to open all walls and uncheck "no room def." if they are checked. That should give you a room definition.

That's what I'm saying. It's not giving me a room definition, even though all four walls are set to provide a room definition.

Allen, I'm exploding the dormer in hopes of getting a room definition of "open below".

[Tommy Blair]

If I use the floating dormer, the invisible wall is set for "no room def." by default. I assume that is not you problem though right?

[RMorrison]

If I use the floating dormer, the invisible wall is set for "no room def." by default. I assume that is not you problem though right?

I've changed the invisible wall. As far as I can tell, all four walls are set to room definition.

[Tommy Blair]

I don't know what to say. I don't have a problem getting a room definition. I was using 10. I will see if I have a problem in X1.

[Allen42acj]

How do you want it built?
Boxed from the roof down or is it all an open ceiling?
Boxed down,I would have another floor set up as an attic space..

[RMorrison]

Tommy,

I just tried it with a second floor, rather than an attic, and was able to get a room definition. Something is still a little flaky for me.

[Dan Park]

I was going to suggest the second floor. Attic levels currently don't allow room definition. I think we are moving in the direction to make attic floors more like other floors but we are not currently there yet. 11.3 introduced a few changes there but it's a work in progress....

[Allen42acj]

:mad: I don't like that idea.
Have worked off plans that only had measurements to what was in the attic.No references to where it was on the house..
It is better to make a new floor and get the outside walls showing..
If walls that are knee walls or cut by roof would show differently auto..

[RMorrison]

I was going to suggest the second floor. Attic levels currently don't allow room definition.

This was the part that I was missing. I guess I never tried to create a room on the attic level before, so I never encountered this limitation.

However, another help would be for the Auto Dormers layer to actually work.

[JP Ware]

I too am struggling with how to deal with what floor a dormer is on. The issue I have with them is properly displaying the windows and kneewall on the floor that the dormer is actually on and not having the cheekwalls extend all the way back into other rooms. Currently I am putting the dormer on the floor above and then making a second wall on the (floor below) the floor the dormer is on to show the actual size of the room, window locations and actual effect of the cheekwalls on headroom. This method creates issues in render views as there are now two windows in the same location and the windows will sometimes show through.

I have attached two screen shots, the first being how I am doing it now, the second being with the dormer on the floor with the room. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to display the dormer like in the first screen shot yet not have to use two walls and two sets of windows to achieve the result?

I am probably missing something very elementary here so please enlighten me and I will be eternally grateful.