Missing Piers

[bbuilders]

Hey,

I am following Chief's instructions on how to build a pole barn

I am to To place the posts and have encountered a problem: my piers for my posts are not being created and I do not know why. So, could someone shed some light on this?

Thanks!

[dshall]

No info, close the plan prior to zipping and posting.

[Tommy Blair]

Try building a terrain.

[bbuilders]

Here is the correctly attached file (I hope)

[dshall]

I looked at your plan, I do not do many if any pole barns so it was a new experience for me. Bottom line, listen to Tommy B. build the terrain, you will not get any footings without a terrain. There are several ways to do what you what you want to do, but TB is on the right track, without a terrain you will not get the footings, thanks for the question.

[bbuilders]

But here is what I don't get: Why isn't it working when you follow the steps put forth by CA in the article? There is no mention of terrains (at least not to this point in the article). Building a terrain is not an option for the application I need. I was hoping that maybe I had something hidden or not checked or a value wrong or missed a step...

But if the ONLY solution is to build a terrain, then I will abandon ship and go back to doing it the hard way.

[dshall]

But here is what I don't get: Why isn't it working when you follow the steps put forth by CA in the article? There is no mention of terrains (at least not to this point in the article). Building a terrain is not an option for the application I need. I was hoping that maybe I had something hidden or not checked or a value wrong or missed a step...

But if the ONLY solution is to build a terrain, then I will abandon ship and go back to doing it the hard way.

CA's videos do not always point out the ifs and buts, but to build a poe barn is not really isn't that hard to do, I do have a vid cooking that I will post in the am. But without a doubt you need to build a terrain which really isn't a big deal. What is worthwhile noting is the predefined top of footings for posts is dependent on the terrain elevation. So, if you set your terrain correctly prior to building your post/footings, the top of footings will build at the height you want them and you can still adjust the terrain elevation to the final elevation and this will not change the height of the footings. Many ways to do what you want, but you must understand the ifs and buts to speed up the process.

[Tommy Blair]

If you don't want a terrain, then don't put one in. Build your piers, posts, footings or whatever manually. Use slabs, solids or what ever. It's not real hard. Once you make one pier, just copy it around. There's generally more that one way to do things in this program.

[dshall]

If you don't want a terrain, then don't put one in. Build your piers, posts, footings or whatever manually. Use slabs, solids or what ever. It's not real hard. Once you make one pier, just copy it around. There's generally more that one way to do things in this program.

Or put in a temporary terrain, build the footings and then delete the terrain.

[Tommy Blair]

Never thought of doing that Scott. Good answer.

[dshall]

Never thought of doing that Scott. Good answer.

If I am not mistaken, the top of footings build 6" above whatever grade is there. In our neck of the woods the minimum is 8" above grade. It would be nice if this was auto adjustable, but since it is not, we can temporarily locate the terrain based on where we want the top of footings, and then adjust top of terrain to the actual elevation after all the footings are in.

I am not sure how this effects footings within the stem walls of a raised floor assembly.

[bbuilders]

The point of doing this tutorial is to get away from using p-solids to create an object that CA can create for me. To reiterate my earlier point, I am not interested in making a terrain because 1) the instructions make no mention of a terrain and 2) I know nothing about terrains and do not feel like learning them for this small side project.

The tutorial (for those that haven't read it) says: 1) Zoom in on one of the corners on the right side of the structure, select Build> Framing> Post and click to place a post with a footing close to the intersection of the two walls.
2)Shift + select the post and footing, and use the Point to Point Move edit tool to position the post precisely in the corner of the 7 1/2" main wall layer.

The way that is worded leads me to believe that when I click with the post tool, a footing should be magically created with it. I was thinking that maybe I had a setting wrong, but I have double checked everything and I found no errors. Now, I find it hard to believe that the author of this article would write the entire thing and neglect to make mention of the necessity of terrains if that is indeed the root cause of my issue.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to answer this post, but I can't say I am satisfied with the answer yet. Maybe Scott's video will shed some light on it. Or at least show me how to do an easy terrain!

[dshall]

bbuilders, it would be good to post your name. You have seen the CA video, was there a terrain there? I would guess there was one in the video. As I stated before, the CA tutorials do not always explain the ifs ands and buts. If you don't want to create a terrain, or at least a temp terrain, then don't, I think what we are saying is if you do not have one the footings will not build, your choice. I did do a video in the Chatroom section that might be helpful. I agree, I would not want to do the psolids either, terrain are very easy, especially temp terrains that can be deleted, do not fight the program, you will lose.

[bbuilders]

You have seen the CA video, was there a terrain there? I would guess there was one in the video.

This isn't a video.... It is a step by step written out tutorial. None of their pictures show a terrain. That is why I am so adamant about not using one. They obviously produced views of this building without showing a terrain.

I will look at your video and see if it helps.

[bbuilders]

OK, I checked out the video dshall made. I think it left me with more questions than answers, but it was good to see it built. I will concede that terrains don't appear to be difficult and it did indeed fix the issue. I am still, however, baffled that the tutorial makes no mention of terrains.

Thanks for taking the time to make that. I will continue to play with this and will try to post a final product (if I get that far!)