Swimming Pool surrounded by a Slab?

[Joe_Carrick]

I've been trying to come up with a way of doing this so that:

 

1. It looks right in 3D
2. There's an optional Pool Deck Edge (probably a Molding)
3. The Slab (Pool Deck) has a hole that moves with the Pool
4. Pool Surface is below top of the Slab
5. Pool has a variable depth

 

It's not easy.  Does anyone have a great method for doing it?

[robdyck]

Depends what you call great! A combination of slabs, p-solids drawn in plan and elevation views, moldings, 3d moldings, and so on. Here's a few shots of a 'zero-edge' pool I recently completed.

[cv2702]

How many hours ... ?  Great looking pool

[Kbird1]

I recently used a 6" concrete foundation Wall-type with pool tile on 1 side to make a "Room" which I then split into 3-4 Areas with different heights , eg for the deep end, Spa Pool Area and 6" deep sunbathing area.

 

The rest is Polyline Solids (with Holes as needed) except the stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rlackore]

Very simple pool, but this was my solution:

Roof Plane for the sloping pool deck with a Hole to cut out the pool shape.

Slab for the pool bottom.

Molding Polyline for the pool tile & trim, and the coping tile and cap.

Polyline Solid for the water surface.

 

[Joe_Carrick]

Hi Robert,

 

That's a pretty nice solution.

I'm not sure how well it would work with a oval or kidney shaped pool. 

 

One of the things I am most interested in is being able to get and display the areas of water and the pool deck as separate items.

• The PSolid and Roof Plane should be sufficient for that.

 

[Renerabbitt]

5 hours ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Hi Robert,

 

That's a pretty nice solution.

I'm not sure how well it would work with a oval or kidney shaped pool. 

 

One of the things I am most interested in is being able to get and display the areas of water and the pool deck as separate items.

• The PSolid and Roof Plane should be sufficient for that.

 

I use Kbirds method, walls cut terrain so it works quite well, additionally I'd be happy to do a custom molded insert imported from sketchup..would take me next to no time, maybe 10 minutes, let me know.

[Joe_Carrick]

 

34 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

I'd be happy to do a custom molded insert imported from sketchup..would take me next to no time, maybe 10 minutes, let me know.

Thanks for the offer - but I'm more interested in a generic approach that I can use for a variety of different shapes and configurations.

Ideally, it would be a specific tool (Terrain Feature - Swimming Pool) with all the options.

 

I'm probably just dreaming. 

 

For now, I will plan on using Robert's method - at least until something better comes to mind.

[dshall]

Hey Joe,  this is. my method. (I can't slope the pool bottom.

 

1-  Create Terrain

2- Create terrain feature for the pool deck (NOT A SIDEWALK),  check clip overlapping terrain

3- Create terrain feature for the pool,  make it -72" height and 72" thick

 

My. picture shows those three elements.

Now copy the pool and turn it into a molding for the coping. 

 

Maybe you already use this down and dirty method.

 

[Renerabbitt]

 

 

1 hour ago, Joe_Carrick said:

at least until something better comes to mind.

This is the best method for most pools IMO:

4 walls can get you a square /round pool that can be moved/filled/ has molding profiles/has wall coverings/shows water...easy to control, manipulate and move around, looks great in 3d

[robdyck]

7 hours ago, rlackore said:

Very simple pool, but this was my solution:

Roof Plane for the sloping pool deck with a Hole to cut out the pool shape.

Slab for the pool bottom.

Molding Polyline for the pool tile & trim, and the coping tile and cap.

Polyline Solid for the water surface.

 

Looks good! 2 questions: which materials (and settings) for your grass and water?

[DRAWZILLA]

3 hours ago, dshall said:

Hey Joe,  this is. my method. (I can't slope the pool bottom.

 

1-  Create Terrain

2- Create terrain feature for the pool deck (NOT A SIDEWALK),  check clip overlapping terrain

3- Create terrain feature for the pool,  make it -72" height and 72" thick

 

My. picture shows those three elements.

Now copy the pool and turn it into a molding for the coping. 

 

Maybe you already use this down and dirty method.

 

Hey Scott remember when we used roads with a curb to do pools

[rlackore]

15 hours ago, robdyck said:

Looks good! 2 questions: which materials (and settings) for your grass and water?

 

The rendering was completed in Twinmotion; the grass and water textures are materials native to that program.

[tommy1]

16 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Very cool idea!

 

This is the best method for most pools IMO:

4 walls can get you a square /round pool that can be moved/filled/ has molding profiles/has wall coverings/shows water...easy to control, manipulate and move around, looks great in 3d

 

[Joe_Carrick]

16 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

4 walls can get you a square /round pool that can be moved/filled/ has molding profiles/has wall coverings/shows water...easy to control, manipulate and move around, looks great in 3d

Thanks for the video.  I think I will set up your method so I can use it in the future.  Just need to get all the pieces together and organize in my user library.

 

Some questions:

• What did you use for the Pool Deck (slab, stepping stone, etc) so that it automatically adjusted when you changed the size/shape of the pool?
• Couldn't you use the "ceiling" as the water surface instead of a molding?

[Kbird1]

19 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

 

 

This is the best method for most pools IMO:

4 walls can get you a square /round pool that can be moved/filled/ has molding profiles/has wall coverings/shows water...easy to control, manipulate and move around, looks great in 3d

 

Thanks Rene , interesting step up from the Room Based Idea I used..... in my case the Patio etc was already there so I just cut Holes in it for the Pool and didn't delve into the Use of Room Moldings for the Coping etc , seems to work well, so will have to try it next time around.

 

Mick.

[dshall]

On 10/16/2019 at 3:59 PM, DRAWZILLA said:

Hey Scott remember when we used roads with a curb to do pools

 

Yes I do,  but I really like Rene's method.  The only down side is the terrain intersected by building needs to be checked.....  but very small downside

 

[Joe_Carrick]

I also like Rene's method.  I made a few tweaks for my own purposes:

1. Created a 8" concrete stem wall with a thin white plaster interior surface - added to Library
2. Created moldings for both the cove base and the tile coping - added to Library
3. Use a thin tiled cove molding for the water-line (1/4" thick x 6" high)
4. Use a Room Ceiling for the water surface

This eliminates the need for any additional molding polylines and just moving the walls results in everything being adjusted accordingly.

[Renerabbitt]

10 minutes ago, John_Charles said:

That's a great method for the pool outline.....

 

I thought I was being clever and tried to create varying levels ie steps and a spa/ sun shelf by creating rooms with varying depths using an invisible wall but that messed up the slab depths and created voids that I could only fill with poly line solids  The invisible wall itself also created a gap in the wall finish that I couldn't figure out.

 

Any ideas if this method can be adapted to do this?  Would I just build poly line solids 'within' the pool? And final question, with this method, how do you get the molding to show on a plan layout?

I think I've changed a few things about this method, namely using a ceiling instead of a molding for the pool water. then the crown molding(the coping) is just offset. Molding profiles should look correct in your room dbx, not sure I understand the molding question. Im not sure I follow the voids predicament without a video but you could certainly make those steps with your solid tools. Hope that helps

[Kbird1]

5 hours ago, John_Charles said:

The invisible wall itself also created a gap in the wall finish that I couldn't figure out.

 

Not much to figure out, it's invisible, hence the Holes, use Normal foundation Walls or other methods....

 

this is the Final Pool Design from above with 6" deep sun deck, 36" Spa and the main pool at 8' deep. the slope was just a P.Solid drawn in elevation.

 

[Kbird1]

54 minutes ago, John_Charles said:

The molding doesn't show on the plan view

 

Is the  molding layer turned on in Display Options or the ALDO?  -- this is usually the Cause if you can't see something in just a particular view.... every View ( or camera) has it's own Display Options DBX if you weren't aware. personally I never close the ALDO ( Active Layer Display Options) these day but I have several monitors and normally have the Project Browser Open too.

 

M.  

[wjmdes]

I used to do renderings for a pool company and this is how I did a non-rectangular pool with a sloping bottom.  I always put each item on a separate layer to avoid confusion.

pool-steps

pool-coping

pool bottom

pool walls

pool terrain

etc.

 

This took about 5 minutes.  

pool.plan