Double trey trouble

[Curtis Johnson]

Joe:

Thanks for your follow up. I am sure that will help the OP if that is an option that is feasible to use.

[sortarius]

Curtis,
You were right, with the soffits it threw off my roof line.

Doing what Joe suggested, I was able to make the molding lines correct, then after about another hour figure out the logic behind where/how to add "countertops" to "fill" in the blank space. Joe mentioned making the molding lines 36" wide, but I did not see that option. That would have been easier I bet! Can anyone show me a screen shot of where that is at?

Final room ceiling:

Btw, ignore light placement...been messing with ceiling so long, lights are all off placement now.

Final room roof line:

[Curtis Johnson]

]You size the molding right in the dialog box to be 12" high and 36" wide. This is basically doing the same as you would end up with if doing it with soffits. Here's a snapshot of what it could look like:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60299[/ATTACH

I used the rectangular baseboard molding (for the shape) and just re-sized it to get the 12" high x 36" wide soffit. In my example my default ceiling height is 109.125" so I made the molding height at 97.125" so it would set 12" below the ceiling's surface.

[Joe Carrick]

I used the rectangular baseboard molding (for the shape) and just re-sized it to get the 12" high x 36" wide soffit. In my example my default ceiling height is 109.125" so I made the molding height at 97.125" so it would set 12" below the ceiling's surface.

Or, you could leave the Molding PLine on the Floor and offset the Molding itself vertically.

[sortarius]

Aaahhhh...ok I thought that height and width was ajusting the molding itself...the curvey part, not the box behind it. I thought that if I changed the molding to 12" then it would be a tall molding. I think in our current house the molding is 5 to 6 " in height, but in the new house these will be bigger (vertically), especially since many parts of the house will have a 12' ceiling. Of course, I am just a programmer, and learning how to play as an architect in my spare time, so I could be talking out the wrong side of my bottom...

Thank you guys so much for the assistance! Hopefully at some point I will have enough of a knowledge base to help others in return.

[Curtis Johnson]

Here's a triple tray. The bottom part is the 36" x 12" rectangular molding PL as discussed in the posts above; the 2nd one (step) was done by cutting a hole in the ceiling and using the same CA-001 baseboard molding to fill in the sides of the hole (12" high) and then applying a CA-34 crown molding to a custom ceiling plane with pitch set to "0"; the upper step was done by cutting a hole in the custom ceiling plane noted (via. the PL option of "Hole in Roof/Custom Ceiling") and then repeating the process used for the 2nd step (i.e., placing a molding for the sides, placing a 2nd custom ceiling plane over the hole with "0" pitch and then adding the crown molding.



What I learned in doing this example was Chief has two different options for cutting holes in ceiling planes: (1) Hole in Ceiling Platform, and (2) Hole in Roof/Custom Ceiling Plane. I had to use #2 to get the hole in the custom ceiling plane I created; the #1 option wouldn't work. I don't believe I have ever used the 2nd option before. I also learned that Chief does a funny thing when you cut a hole in the ceiling - it leaves a 5/8" x 5/8" notch (my ceiling default is for 5/8" GWB). Chief does put sides on the hole but they appear to be based upon a framing setting (rafter depth I think) for their height. If you don't want to see that "drywall" notch in 3D or other camera views you have to deal with it using the settings for the molding you use ... offset it or dimension the molding appropriately to hide it. Without looking any deeper into this, I believe the line used to create a hole in a ceiling plane is used by Chief as the edge of framing (ceiling). I think I need to experiment with this a bit more to make sure I understand what is going on.

As you can see, using holes in the ceiling structure at least allows Chief to build a truss that will be configured to your ceiling holes, however you want to set them up. That way, if you are showing roof and ceiling framing in your CD's, then your framing should show correctly, at least from the Chief point of view (I am talking about Chief generated trusses being generic and not structurally designed).

[Curtis Johnson]

Here's an image that explains where I was seeing the "drywall" notches in a 3D render camera view:



Note that the sides I put in with molding PL's covered up those notches. The upper step hangs down about 1/8" and is visible in my 3D ray trace. The lower one is covered up better and isn't obvious.

In inspecting this in zoomed mode, I can see I didn't do a perfect job of placing the moldings used to create the sides of the steps in the ceiling. I also didn't get my crown set for the finished ceiling height. Using ceiling holes works but you have several lines you are dealing with all stacked together (PL for hole in ceiling; PL for side of step molding; PL for custom ceiling plane and PL for crown molding). If you don't pay attention to which PL you are working with, you can mess things up a bit.

Regarding the drywall sides Chief creates when you cut a hole in a ceiling, for a standard ceiling, the height of the drywall side is based upon the default ceiling framing (structure) height (in my example 5.5 inches ... 2 x 6 height); for the 2nd step Chief generated sides that were 9.25" which apparently is based upon my default roof rafter setting of 9.25" (2 x 10 height). I am not sure why they do it this way. I think the little drywall notch is a mistake (bug) and should be fixed. It would be nice if the drywall side Chief generates could be controlled in some way such that a step is eliminated along with one of the PL's. Maybe there's more to this than I am seeing ... seems like there's always another way.

[sortarius]

The way I ultimately solved this issue was:
1. Build the room - room height 9'.
2. Use CAD to draw the box for the 10' and 11' ceiling heights.
3. Make the room a poly, then resize the poly to the bigger (or bottom) tray at 10'.
4. Make that resized room poly a cut out ceiling.
5. Make a molding poly the size of the bottom (or bigger) tray at 10'.
6. Make a counter poly the size of the bottom (or bigger) tray (+ 1" wider into the room) that starts at 9' and stretches to 10'.
7. Make a hole in counter poly the size of the bottom (or bigger) tray at 10'.
8. Make another molding the size of the top (or smaller) tray at 11'.
9. Make another counter the size of the top (or smaller) tray (+ 1" into the room) that starts at 9' and stretches to 11'.
10. Make a hole in counter poly the size of the top (or smaller) tray at 11'.
11. [last step] Make a final counter the size of the top (or smaller) tray (+ 1" into the room) that is 1" tall and starts at 11'1" as a "cap" for the room.

Now, this is from an absolute novice here, and there are extra lines on my plan so later on I will revisit this and see if I can't make this a lot cleaner...but it works, thanks to a lot of help from you guys.