Multiple "live" Buildings On Single Plan

[Joe_Carrick]

Keith,

 

Never use Level 0 for a Basement and don't use Level A for a Floor.  Doing that is just asking for trouble.  Level 0 is for the Foundation and Level A is for the Attic - both of which should be treated separately from any space intended as usable.

[dshall]

......Never use Level 0 for a Basement ......

There you go,  JC and I are in agreement.  However,  the Northerners probably do not agree with this approach.

 

I think the P Man would agree with our approach.

[ebdesign]

Keith,

If you have actual sea level elevations/contours or elevations relative to some benchmark down the road, then, by all means, use them. Just assign your building pad elevation (0'-0") using those values.

[keithhe]

Joe,

I had to read what you wrote several times to grasp what you meant, but makes perfect sense now. OK, I will start to add Levels to all my plans from now on and will get out of the habit of using Level 0 as basement. Great advise guys !!!!

[keithhe]

Jim,

I do have the actual ASL ( I think I wrote AGL earlier, which comes up in my life more often as a pilot). Now correct me if I'm wrong, but if say my upper contour is say 234' ASL, and I put the house at 0'0" would that not sink the house below terrain, or am I missing something?

[lbuttery]

Never use Level 0 for a Basement

 

Joe:

 

CA would disagree with "never"

this is what they have been doing since I started with ver 9.5

watch CA's videos

 

There have been two schools of thought on this topic

 

my understanding is neither method is "mandatory"

 

Personally, most of my basements have been on floor 0

but I can see merits for both methods and don't have a "favorite"

 

but I disagree with Doing that is just asking for trouble

 

 

 

don't use Level A for a Floor

 

just for clarity - it is impossible to have rooms on floor A

 

Lew

[DRAWZILLA]

There you go,  JC and I are in agreement.  However,  the Northerners probably do not agree with this approach.

 

I think the P Man would agree with our approach.

I do agree and have said in other posts, not to use level 0 for basement's, for those that need a foundation plan. I still want the credit from Keith though. Stealing my thunder is against the law.      

[keithhe]

Perry,

 

You and Joe are interchangeable, I thought, although admittedly I have no idea who has the better handicap between you three southern left coaters

[ebdesign]

Keith,

Assign an elevation (sea level) to the main flr  in the terrain spec dbx/ building pad elevation. Change that value, & the whole terrain, inc all elevation data, features, etc moves up/down as a single unit relative to the house.

 

As an aside, I use flr 0 all the time for the basement/ foundation w/ no problems to speak of. If the basement ends up being finished w/ lots of detail, etc, then maybe, but hasn't been necessary in a long time. I prefer to keep flr1 as the main flr level, since that flr default elevation (0'-0") cannot be changed. & then I don't have to do any math to figure out where my terrain is either, since tht is also tied in to 0'-0".

I also don't ever use "bogus" blank floors.

Again, there are multiple ways to get most things done in Chief. Generally, no way is "right" or "wrong" as long as it gets the job done.

......generally.

[keithhe]

Jim,

 

Thanks, we "flat landers" don't generally have to deal much with this. Generally, virtually all the plats I've worked on have been flat or nearly so where there were no real issues with terrain. I have usually only needed to show the contours for permitting, but flat annotations and not live in the plans so this is new territory for me.

 

If I understand you correctly I change the terrain pad to reflect the "first level" 0'00" elevation. Perfect !!

 

Never stop learning in this program, and I thank you again for the great advise.

[DRAWZILLA]

It boils down to this if you want your foundation and basement level on the same plan use "0" for basement. If you want a separate foundation plan use level 1 for your basement. I have so many things on the foundation plan (required in this area)I simply can't use level "0" for basement plans.

[ebdesign]

I hear you, Perry. a great deal of the homes I draw are in your area.

& to be completely up front, I often do the foundation plan in a CAD detail. 

Which loses the "live" link to the model.

(Just thought I would point that out before one of y'all did.)

Which got me wondering if there is a way to use the plan footprint in a CAD detail for the foundation plan?

I know I can control the flr & the layerset of the plan footprint.

Hmmmm..........

[glennw]

This is done all in one plan - I wouldn't even think of  doing it any other way.

[DRAWZILLA]

Jim, do you live around here or do plans from out of the area?

I have never tried a foundation from a footprint in fact I have never used the footprint or a cad detail for a foundation.

[keithhe]

Glenn,

 

Nice plan, and looks like it might double as a ski resort in the winter, provided you get the lifts in. I'm giving it a go and will see how it works. Gotta learn and doing it is the only way I know, plus a little help from my friends. That would be a great title for a song??

 

Thanks guys

[glennw]

Keith,

 

Try not to think of the number of floors as defining the number of floor LEVELS in the plan.

Rather think of them as what floor LEVELS you want to show on each plan drawing. 

A little hard to explain without getting hung up on the terminology.

 

eg, I could have a garage floor 100' above a house floor level, but I may still wish for them to appear on the same plan drawing.

In this case, I really only need one floor level which would show both the hose and garage in plan.

By setting the appropriate floor and ceiling for the house and garage the 100' difference would show in 3D views.

 

This becomes more obvious when you have a three level house (one section a full 2 stories with a mid level attached on the side).

You can draw it with 2 floor levels to represent the full 2 storey section, but then you can draw the mid level floor on either the lower or upper floor plan, depending on which floor you want it to display on.

Either way will look identical in a 3D view.  

[keithhe]

Thanks Glenn,

 

I've been working to try all these great pointers out. I experiment with simple throw away stuff for house and garage to get the hang of it before I bring my actual model in and park it. I think I get it now. Appreciate all the good advise. I recognize that everyone has a different way of doing things, for a reason, and I try them out and I suspect like most people we end up with some hybrid of all the experience and advise we receive over the years.

[ebdesign]

Perry,

I live in NW Lower Michigan- near Torch Lake/Traverse City.

My primary acct is an architect in LA/Beverly Hills.

& another acct in San Francisco Bay area.

So I'm kinda familiar w/ your CA codes, condoc requirements & dealing w/ plan checker notes from the city.

Also dwg import/export for the trades.

"kinda familiar" is all I'm willing to cop to though.

 

I use the Plan Footprint for site plans. Works very well.

When I get time, I'm gonna play around w/ that for foundations.

[dshall]

......I live in NW Lower Michigan- near Torch Lake/Traverse City.

......

Hey Jim,  that is where we might do our golf trip next May.  I understand you guys have some great golf courses out there.  Maybe we can get together one evening if it works out.

[ebdesign]

Absolutely. I'm a golfer...........I mean I play golf.......not very well anymore.

We have some GREAT courses up here.

This area is a vacation destination; all about tourists.

busiest vacation area east of the Mississippi that isn't on the ocean.

Torch Lake is pretty spectacular too. I'll take you on a boat ride.

Be sure to contact me as the time gets closer.

I'll be your "guide".

We did that a few yrs ago w/ some Chief-users that came here as a group.

Annette, Bill Shideler, half a dozen others whose names escape me at the moment.

Great time.