VHampton

Sky-lites make solar panel installations a breeze. No ceiling hole. No worries. - No need for adjusting to the roof slopes either. The placement of a sky-lite (without a ceiling hole) matches the roof pitch exactly.

Corrugated metal roof texture would do it as well. With a tight axis in the short direction.

Aha... suggestion then. Use Rene's very clever option OR make a molding poly-line to match the stair case. Take a 2D elevation and draw a line along the top rail. Convert to a 3D molding. Moldings can have caps added to them. If you keep this molding below the railing however - no cap required.

Aside from Rene's very neat trick.. here's another option... Offset the stair railing (-3) so that it encompasses the stringers. Use the vertical offset option to set the rail "wall" in line w/ B.O. stringers. This way, it matches your stairs slope.

Build the radial section of rail @ the floor level as a U shape.(Meaning that it has (2) straight sections and a radial outer section.) Place an invisible wall the close off the U. Designate the U shaped room as "Open To Below". This makes it work as its own "room". Build the stairs as one would normally build them.

I think 14 allows this as feature as well. Not sure. The OP said that they're using 15 even though the signature indicates otherwise. Per your initial reply, (years ago before these rail options came out) 3D solids were the answer. One could make the baluster as a solid, hit copy replicate, and that was that. BTW... that red arrow didn't come from me. I personally wish that they would do away them. Hopefully the red tomato won't ever cause discouragement from contributing my friend. -All the best.

...plan for you as well. balcony rail.plan

The railings can be calibrated with offsets in every direction. Offset the railing Offset the balusters (in the vertical axis). Offset the newel posts (in the vertical axis). The balusters may not be chamfered as in the real world condition, but the design intent will be close. The settings are below. Baluster spacing by Chief is 5" on center by default. The first attachment shows them at 4" vs. the second image which shows 5" on center. It also appears in the as-built photos that the newels may drop down just a tad more. Good luck with this!

Build a 2nd floor exterior wall (which travels over the porch girder). Connect the wall back to the house on (2) sides and label the new space as Attic Drop the attic floor elevation by 12" + the difference in using either 2x6's or 2x8's (for the floor) vs. the 12" dormer joists. Whatever it takes to get the underside of attic framing to bottom out @ 9.0' above the porch elevation. The porch will need a 3D solid as the ceiling layer. It's a viable solution without too much work in having to fake the ceiling layer.

That's the solution. The dormer floor should technically stop at the outer wall of the dormer. The program however doesn't know how to make the distinction when the underside of floor and ceiling are two different elevations. Designate the left side porch as having no ceiling. Use the build ceiling tool to manually build the 9 foot section.

In years from now... New user here. The voice to draw simulator didn't quite facet the roof lines correctly. PS... sorry for not posting my signature. Using version Z-7 w/ a nonillion megabyte processor.

Just a casual observation... but the bots are getting smarter. A good indicator is usually a first post... no signature... and friendly banter.

Man. That's like being called Nancy (ice cream hoarding) Pelosi. Or Joy Behar. I'd rather have a down vote any day. For what it's worth, I am calm. As a gesture of goodwill though, no down vote despite slinging one of the most horrible insults imaginable. lol For what it's worth, if star ratings can be done for threads, why not posts?

Many long time members post here, with the best of intentions, and practical solutions. The red arrow of disapproval can be discouraging. Rather than a downvote, perhaps a star rating could help. This would avoid making the person who posted feel like a complete dumb ass, or having wasted their time in trying to be of assistance. ☆ = Lame reply. Off Topic. ☆☆ = Better, but marginally helpful. ☆☆☆ = Take note. Helpful comment. ☆☆☆☆ = Someone really knows their stuff. Kudos. ☆☆☆☆☆ = Enlightenment. Thank you for saving the day and for the expert tip. For what it's worth, everyone in this thread got an upvote. Here's another below. Provided with full disclosure.

Thanks much to Steve, DB, and Mr. T I reset the side windows, and did a factory reset of the toolbars. The cog showed up as the "Tool Palette" which I never use. Somehow this feature got a bit messy after the Library "snapped" to the left side toolbar a few times too many. Much appreciated.

Thank you. Sometimes it does nothing. Sometimes it offers "grid view". Which does absolutely nothing when you click on the option. It's a useless visual annoyance, even though I can ignore it after a while.

Does anyone know what this is, and how to eliminate it?

Gary appears to have addressed it. Basically a faux double hung. Maybe one day it can be a window option? The developers are gonna be running out of things to do soon. : ) ...The program has almost every tool imaginable these days. The "meeting rail" cant be adjusted in CA, but for all intents and purposes, custom muntins certainly do the job well enough. I had a client a few weeks back asking for the look of a double hung, but with functionality of casement. sent them these below...

The old method of doing a "plan check" seemed much easier. The Living space is always coming and going it seems.

Deck is defined by toggling to the room names, and if that designation is used... bingo. The result will be a deck - drawn with posts. Just as Gary demonstrates. If you don't need or want the structure (footings, post, and beams) choose "balcony" as the option under room names. Then change floor material to deck boards (or whatever texture file suits the project). BTW... What you are designing is completely feasible - meaning without the need for posts. My good friend and mentor had designed a rather unique home in the 1970's which we made a reality not long ago. This was the Chief model.

Thank you. It appears as if they gave the entire release quite a significant overhaul.

Curious as well regarding why the viewport doesn't always show a taller backdrop. Previous versions have behaved this way (as far back as X10) Now I send the live camera view to layout (at the desired scale) and park it outside of the page borders. (Camera view is then readily accessible for when the design may go through modifications). Step 2 involves re-sending the same camera as an image where it can be stretched to scale. (This method also results in PDF prints being greatly reduced in size, which is a plus).

Thank you so much Chris. Really appreciate it. I was incorrectly looking under Library Browser for the control feature. Best, Val

No suggestions, but a general observation If it's ok to add to the thread... The browser always wants to "snap" to the toolbar almost like a magnet. It's slightly frustrating in that the Toolbar gets moved around as soon as the library merges. Whether it be top or on the sides. (Locking the toolbars doesn't seem to help either). Toolbar gets all messy every time. Is there anyway to tame the library browser so that it stops wanting to "snap" to the outer bounds of the screen? Or is it better to set it up in a permanent location?

Thank you Doug. The results are simply the program at work. Likewise my compliments on yours... Joey's as well. It's always interesting to see how folks make optimal use of the software.