Porches and foundations


SNestor
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When creating a porch and using a railing wall type...why does CA not automatically create a foundation under the porch?  

I've tried to trick the software by drawing a room using a standard exterior wall, then create the foundation....then change the wall type to "Railing".  The foundation disappears.  

If the porch has a roof over it...some type of a foundation will generally be required.  Seems crazy to me...I think CA needs to either fix this...or give us the option to select "foundation required".

 

If I'm missing something...let me know.

 

In the pic below...(2) simple porches.  I have automatically rebuild foundations turned on.  

As you can see...as soon as the wall type is changed to "railing"...the foundation disappears.  Why?

  

  5a01d31426b94_PorchFoundation.thumb.png.2ff5b5671a5d5d04b4a90399cbee1c13.png

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I've never been able to put a foundation under any of my porches either. Seems like it should at least be an option.

What if you keep the room type as 'porch', but define the room type function to 'Deck' in the DBX?  

Then you can toggle on your ceiling & roof as well?  It doesn't fix the issue of not having the option to put a foundation under it, but you'd at least have piers & footings... :blink:

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You can make it look right in 3d by telling the slab to be as thick as the depth you want the footings.  A lot of builders would only do a point load pad where the columns are located and make the porch an elevated slab.  In this instance, the software is doing it right.  You would have to manually place a pad for the columns on the foundation layer.

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2 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I always manually draw any foundations for porches and turn off the foundation in the room DBX for several reasons

 

I always draw the foundation manually also...because CA refuses to create the automatically.  In Indiana if a porch has a roof over it the porch slab will have a continuous foundation wall/footing under it.  

 

We we experience deep frost (aka frozen) ground in winter.  

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Probably a good thing to add in the Suggestions Forum , strangely they let you add a monolithic Foundation but not a Standard one under Rooms defined by Railing Walls, the Porch Room type gets the Default Slab so it should be easy enough to have the option for a full foundation ...not everyone lives in California after all :) with no Frost Depth line... 

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Have you considered placing a garage with the slab at the top of the foundation.
Place a roof on the garage and change the walls to invisible.

Place posts and beams

Using the post and beam tool build and create your own rails if you want them.  It doesn't take long.

It you want a framed wood floor on a foundation drop down to the basement  level and use the place foundation tool

Stuff like this is easy and several different procedures will work.

I've been using CAD since the 1970's  I used Bentley (3D surfaces) and Intergraph EMS and IFems (3D Solids)  The only software I refuse to use is AutoCAD. 

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20 hours ago, SNestor said:

I always draw the foundation manually also...because CA refuses to create the automatically.  In Indiana if a porch has a roof over it the porch slab will have a continuous foundation wall/footing under it.  

 

We we experience deep frost (aka frozen) ground in winter.  

 

All front porches here have the same foundation as the house, although the porch footings are not always as deep as basement footings. Seems like this would be easy feature to add. 

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17 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

All you should need to do is check this...

Foundation.thumb.jpg.6242894cd638db077715a0a5635c43a1.jpg

 

That doesn't work for me. At least, I didn't see a foundation under the 3D porch when I selected that. 

 

I did find a "Foundation Wall" specification on the "Foundation" panel of the Railing Spec DBX, but it didn't produce the desired result either. None of my efforts have produced a standard foundation wall on Floor 0. This needs to be part of the Foundation Defaults, like the Garage specifications, and needs to produce a foundation drawing on Floor 0.

 

Maybe there's something else I'm missing? I'm certainly no expert.

 

5a0331ec410be_Porch-noFoundation.thumb.png.8316f1561b7ea5f5021cd417bf7a8f77.png

 

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I'm away from my computer now so I can't  double check to see if there was some other setting that needs to be set a certain way.    I don't think there is though.   Only thing I can think of is to make sure auto rebuild foundations is turned on and to make sure you have an enclosed room.    I don't think that setting I pointed out was designed for this particular use (I believe it was designed to add walls and footings under interior partitions)  but I have made it work for the situations mentioned in this thread. I'll have to check when I get back to the office to see if there's something else that needed to be done.

 

On a side note, I personally don't shy away from turning off auto foundations either.  I typically do as Perry does also and just draw any oddball foundation stuff manually.   Chief never seems to be able to get foundations exactly like I want to them without making some manual modifications.  I was just trying to offer a possible solution for those of you who don't want to turn off auto foundations. 

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I think you guys found a bug...it doesn't seem to work the way you'd think. What is interesting is I remember Michael helping me with a similar issue - it was a "railing" wall used for a courtyard screen - and it worked exactly the way you'd think.

 

The reason I believe this hasn't be an issue yet is its so rare to build full foundations under porches.  Typically its just a perimeter footing or pad supports for the posts/columns. 

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3 minutes ago, johnny said:

 

The reason I believe this hasn't be an issue yet is its so rare to build full foundations under porches.  Typically its just a perimeter footing or pad supports for the posts/columns. 

 

Not in Indiana...all porches that carry some load...and even some that don’t have foundation walls/footings.  Unless the home is slab on grade.  

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54 minutes ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

That doesn't work for me. At least, I didn't see a foundation under the 3D porch when I selected that. 

 

I did find a "Foundation Wall" specification on the "Foundation" panel of the Railing Spec DBX, but it didn't produce the desired result either. None of my efforts have produced a standard foundation wall on Floor 0. This needs to be part of the Foundation Defaults, like the Garage specifications, and needs to produce a foundation drawing on Floor 0.

 

Maybe there's something else I'm missing? I'm certainly no expert.

 

5a0331ec410be_Porch-noFoundation.thumb.png.8316f1561b7ea5f5021cd417bf7a8f77.png

 

 

That setting does not work for me either ....it works on INTERIOR walls only it seems ....I ringed my porch with exterior walls as a test and the foundation automatically appeared on the  Porch as well with Auto foundations on.

 

M.

 

 

Capture11.JPG

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14 minutes ago, johnny said:

The reason I believe this hasn't be an issue yet is its so rare to build full foundations under porches.

 

Wow. Where I'm from (Ohio) full foundation under the front porch is universal. Every house.

 

Back patios are usually slab-on-grade, with footing for posts if covered. But the front porch always has a full foundation unless wood framed with posts going into the ground.

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28 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Around here even a patio cover must have a continuous grade beam if no slab is present, to connect the posts.

 

Yeah, they typically have a slab or deck framing to tie together.  So if you have a slab or deck you guys use pads/pier footings to post - right?  I am doing a project in Laguna Beach (CA) right now and that is what we are dong.

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1 hour ago, SNestor said:

 

Not in Indiana...all porches that carry some load...and even some that don’t have foundation walls/footings.  Unless the home is slab on grade.  

 

As a requirement or just what you guys do?  Thats interesting, that isn't common at all in the states I work in.

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1 hour ago, johnny said:

 

Yeah, they typically have a slab or deck framing to tie together.  So if you have a slab or deck you guys use pads/pier footings to post - right?  I am doing a project in Laguna Beach (CA) right now and that is what we are dong.

The slab will keep the post and pads from moving around so we don't need the grade beams.in most cities, I work in 50 cities down here and they are all different with what they want..

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7 hours ago, johnny said:

I think you guys found a bug...it doesn't seem to work the way you'd think. What is interesting is I remember Michael helping me with a similar issue - it was a "railing" wall used for a courtyard screen - and it worked exactly the way you'd think.

 

The reason I believe this hasn't be an issue yet is its so rare to build full foundations under porches.  Typically its just a perimeter footing or pad supports for the posts/columns. 

 

 

It's not rare in Arkansas. In fact, it would be rare to see one without a foundation. And I do like most everyone else and draw porch foundations in manually. No big deal plus I never figured out how to get Chief to draw them for me. 

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On 11/7/2017 at 11:12 PM, ginetta said:

Have you considered placing a garage with the slab at the top of the foundation.
Place a roof on the garage and change the walls to invisible.

Place posts and beams

Using the post and beam tool build and create your own rails if you want them.  It doesn't take long.

It you want a framed wood floor on a foundation drop down to the basement  level and use the place foundation tool

Stuff like this is easy and several different procedures will work.

I've been using CAD since the 1970's  I used Bentley (3D surfaces) and Intergraph EMS and IFems (3D Solids)  The only software I refuse to use is AutoCAD. 

 

See pics attached.  Designated porch as a "Garage" room type.  Auto rebuild foundation is "on".  Made walls invisible...BOOM...foundation disappears.  

 

Chief needs to fix this....or give us the option to have a foundation under the porch slab.  Yes...you can manually draw in the foundation but is 2017...and it's a foundation wall.  Please...

 

5a0473b86d64e_PorchGarageRm1.thumb.png.b8bb0955a43ad60bf94c71575c974552.png   5a0473bc899f8_PorchGarageRoom2.thumb.png.d5640ede17cf3c9e1db9e722680bb599.png

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  • 4 weeks later...
On ‎11‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 10:29 AM, SNestor said:

 

See pics attached.  Designated porch as a "Garage" room type.  Auto rebuild foundation is "on".  Made walls invisible...BOOM...foundation disappears.  

 

Chief needs to fix this....or give us the option to have a foundation under the porch slab.  Yes...you can manually draw in the foundation but is 2017...and it's a foundation wall.  Please...

 

5a0473b86d64e_PorchGarageRm1.thumb.png.b8bb0955a43ad60bf94c71575c974552.png   5a0473bc899f8_PorchGarageRoom2.thumb.png.d5640ede17cf3c9e1db9e722680bb599.png

 

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