Michael_Gia

I’m not at my desk now but I will plug in a few different values and get back to you. Thank you so much for sticking in there. I definitely owe you a beer at least! thanks either way

If I could even select all of my roof planes and simply enter the top of fascia then that would work as well. Unfortunately you have to select each plane one at a time to change the top of fascia value because if you select all the planes then Chief greys out the top of fascia value. Too bad

I tried the formula: for 6/12 pitch which is 26.56° and 18” overhang: Using your formula tan(26.56) X 18” = 9” raise off plate BUT in reality the value is 5-3/8” Then you said to try subtracting the top chord of 3-1/2 which I'm assuming that you're just taking a stab at the arithmetic of 9"-3.5"=5.5" so that got us close to the real value of 5-3/8" however that isn't the math behind this calculation because the chord thickness doesn't really affect the height of the eave. And using the formula for a pitch of 8/12 and a 24" overhang produced even wilder results. Formula no work. BUT, I think you're on the right track. There's just one more variable needed and we don't have it and there doesn't seem to be a way to produce it in advance of the calculation. And that is the vertical height from top plate to the baseline. (I'm guessing here to) If anyone knows of a way to calculate that value then I think we can figure out the math. I had called Chief on this a few years back and they had told me to plug in different values and take cross sections to find the raise off plate value and to make a table with the most common pitches and overhangs that I use on a regular basis. I use 4 different overhangs, maybe 7 different pitches on a regular basis. I was hoping by now someone might have figured this stuff out.

Omg I’ve entered a world where reality and fantasy blend into one alternate universe. Chief’s roof dialogue box is the portal. Beware.

Change pitch and overhang and you won't have eave level with top plate.

It worked for 6/12 with 7-1/4 top chord but didn’t for other variations. It’s really dependant on pitch angle and overhang. I think the other variable that we need is Chief’s Baseline height from top plate. That vertical distance as explained in the help file under the “Baseline” definition in the Roof Planes section.

Regardless of structure, the software is using a top secret variable in order for it to cut out the trusses so that they don’t interfere with the ceiling height. What is that variable? If we know that then a formula would be easy to figure out.

Here's a basic plan with what I'm looking for (Out of the box X11) Raise off roof study.plan

I was excited with that formula because it looks like it should work but it doesn’t. There must be one out there. Example: for 6/12 pitch which is 26.56° and 18” overhang: Using your formula tan(26.56) X 18” = 9” raise off plate BUT in reality the value is 5-3/8” so a little off.

That is how I do it as well. Raise some random height. Take cross section. Measure. Adjust. A lot of steps which has to be done for each pitch and overhang combination. (Also, I need the underneath of my soffit to be level with my ceiling plane. That’s because my bottom chord provides the nailing for my soffit and also provides my ceiling.)

Hmmm...maybe i’ll play around with JJohnson’s idea of inserting a 1.5” dummy floor just under the roof but I was hoping one of the wizards here would have some formula or algorithm to calculate the “raise above plate” value in the roof dbx. This is how we build up here... (excuse the French) I think they’re called Howe K trusses.

I leave the furniture there mainly for electricians to place plugs for night stands etc. Gives everyone a little bit of orientation. Minimalist furniture though.

Thank you! I thought I was on crazy street, all alone.

The important feature is the underneath of the soffit is level with the ceiling and is created by the bottom chord extending out over the top plate to create the eave. That’s the feature I’m interested in and at the moment there doesn’t seem to be a formula to figure out how high I need to raise off of plate. Trial and error is not fun especially when you’ve created all your roofs and the client changes his mind on the pitch.

Yeah, maybe I’ll put a hatch pattern with a label then. Less work and probably will avoid confusion.

Ok, here goes another one of these. The real question is what formula do I use to figure out how much I need to raise off plate for each pitch so that the bottom chord of my roof trusses supply my ceiling structure. (We add a furring strip to the underside of the trusses) I know this seems alien to most on this forum so here’s a link from Georgia of all places describing what I’m looking for. https://basc.pnnl.gov/images/site-built-rafter-roof-raised-top-plate-allows-more-insulation-underneath At the moment I enter some arbitrary value for “raise above plate” then I take a cross section, measure how much I’m off and then raise the roof by that amount using the z value in transform replicate. There has to be an easier way. There must be a formula and it needs to contain the roof pitch as this value is dependant on that angle. Also, why is this not more common? Who is still cutting birdsmouths into rafters? Are you all building log cabins in the woods? I don’t get it. Don’t you insulte and want ventilation even in warmer climates? (Tone is not intended to be derogatory, just frustrated this isn’t a built-in roof feature)

Isn’t that only for 3D floor overviews? I was referring to plan views. Or am I missing something really basic?

Really? I guess I was overdoing things.

Sorry, I didn’t phrase the question right. My problem is that I still get people not understanding that there isn’t a room on the second floor or that there is suddenly a floating sofa on the second floor. Either people don’t understand plans or my method isn’t clear. Is there some accepted drafting etiquette on how you’re supposed to show stuff on the floor below?

When in plan view, how do you all show the contents of a room below from the floor above? Such as in a two story great room ceiling. The way I've always done it was to put the furniture of the room below on a separate layer and then create a reference layer with light grey dotted lines. Like this... What other ways are there to accomplish this?

It’s to avoid having my footings pushed down below the footing level of the rest of my basement when I drop my garage floor for example. Sure I could set it at some arbitrary low number to avoid that but 0 is the lowest and avoids any issues. I use the rough ceiling height which is easier to calculate and predict. This goes back to OP’s original video showing that unwanted gap in stemwall height which he could’ve avoided. I’ve yet to see a practical reason to have a minimum stemwall height except for you guys in warmer climates who build slab foundations and want that. But even then I would have a room below and use rough ceiling height. Just makes more sense to me.

Great video as usual but I always set my stemwall height by controlling the rough ceiling height of the room below. To have the most control I always set my minimum stemwall height to 0. Of course this is because I’m up here in the far north where we always build foundations at a minimum of 54” below grade.

I was a Softplan 14 user. Had been using the software since version 12, so probably from 2011-2013? Anyway made the switch and glad I did. The tool I missed the most and still miss is the “repeat edit” tool. Softplan is way too constrained in its procedures, example, select the roof, now select the move tool bla bla bla. No such thing in Chief. In Chief you grab that sucker from anywhere and start moving, stretching anywhere you want. You show it who’s boss. Way more ways to get things done in Chief, you’re only limited by your imagination. There really is no such thing as it can’t be done in Chief. There’s always a way. This forum is way more active and responsive. Chief’s free training videos and resources are much more plentiful with actual human beings as presenters instead of that android Softplan hired. (Sorry has to get that shot in) Chief’s roofs are more flexible and intuitive than the Softplan lollipop system. Standard 3D View, PBR, and the other rendering styles are much nicer in Chief. Convert to Symbol tool is better in Chief. Molding polylines are more flexible. Softlist is still better than what Chief offers unfortunately. Way better. Chief has had live elevations and the ability to dimension those live elevations and cross sections forever while Softplan only adopted this ability this year only. Far behind. Up until now in order to dimension an elevation in Softplan it had to be converted to dumb cad. Customization wise I would say Softplan is Apple and Chief is Android if we were to use mobile phones as a metaphor. (And this is coming from a self proclaimed Apple fanboy) Its time to jump ship.

I personally would like to have Chief expand the Storyplole Dialogue Box with a Tab to set your various “floor levels” where you can set the 0” level for whichever level you want. Let this be the only place in the software where you can do this. Then every other item’s level is determined by the level it references along with its offset up or down from that level. I think the Storypole is the best new feature in Chief in a while.

In your video where you are in the build foundation dialogue box you need to set the minimum stemwall height to 0. The reason why 13” worked for you is because it was less than the (minimum stemwall height plus floor thickness). Its not that 13 was a magic number. And to avoid this in the future always set minimum to 0. In an existing plan where the foundation is already built go into the “foundation wall” defaults and set minimum stemwall height to 0, or you’re going to have a really bad time. Now to set your stemwall height use the room dialogue box and set your (rough ceiling height + floor thickness) to get your stemwall height every time. Remember stemwall height includes the sill plate thickness.