Underground Room revisited.

[RookiePete]

I've seen a few posts regarding this, but have yet to find a solution.

I am looking to create an underground room - easy enough, but with the terrain that covers the structure.  It this case, a wine cellar built into the side of a steep hill.  The front of the room having a "walkout" face with a door, but the bulk of the room entirely underground with terrain features above.  If I create a standard "garage" below grade, the terrain above gets cut parallel to the room walls even if the room is feet below the surface.

Creating a slab on an slope that intersects a hill creates the desired effect which is that the terrain appears above any slab portion that is underground. but even if I put a slab on top of the room and specify no roof, the terrain still gets cut.  Included is a quick image of my attempt which illustrates the problem.

In effect, I want to make a tunnel under the terrain.

Example.pdf

[Chopsaw]

There is a cool new tool that I think we got with X11.   Select your Terrain Perimeter and then on the Active toolbar there is a tool called "Make Terrain Hole(s) Around Buildings(s)" near the end of the list.  This creates and editable polyline cutout that should work for you.

 

Likely best to work in plan view with a split screen and a 3D overview open to see what is going on.

 

Welcome to the forum.  

 

P.S.  Images can be posted directly as .jpg or .png so downloading .pdf's is not necessary.  Thanks.

[RookiePete]

Thanks Chopsaw,

That looks like it will get there to 95%.  I cut the terrain hole to the width of the front wall then put a slab on top of the ceiling (vulcraft and a slab for actual construction).

One catch that I can't figure out;

There has to be a hole, so while that hole the width of the front wall gets pretty good results, it does not allow the structure to be entirely underground.  If I extend the slab with a 1 foot overhang over the structure to accommodate the terrain, I can get that figured out.  In other words, no actual tunnel entrance. I tried retaining walls on the side but couldn't get that to work either.

[lbuttery]

it is possible to have all 30 floors underground

 

I am not a terrain expert but I did it many years ago

I can't remember how but it involves using negative floor heights and negative ceiling heights

 

I'm sure the experts will chime in soon

 

Lew

[Chopsaw]

1 hour ago, lbuttery said:

it is possible to have all 30 floors underground

 

Lew that does not sound like your average root cellar.  Are you sure you should be talking about it ?  Did you forget the NDA you signed ?

 

1 hour ago, RookiePete said:

I tried retaining walls on the side but couldn't get that to work either.

 

Have your best go at it and post the plane file with a few notes about how it should be and someone will take a look for you.

[rgardner]

4 hours ago, RookiePete said:

Thanks Chopsaw,

That looks like it will get there to 95%.  I cut the terrain hole to the width of the front wall then put a slab on top of the ceiling (vulcraft and a slab for actual construction).

One catch that I can't figure out;

There has to be a hole, so while that hole the width of the front wall gets pretty good results, it does not allow the structure to be entirely underground.  If I extend the slab with a 1 foot overhang over the structure to accommodate the terrain, I can get that figured out.  In other words, no actual tunnel entrance. I tried retaining walls on the side but couldn't get that to work either.

Have you tried playing with your terrain level?  Maybe have the floor you want on 0 and your terrain on 1?  Or vice versa?  

[DzinEye]

10 hours ago, RookiePete said:

The front of the room having a "walkout" face with a door, but the bulk of the room entirely underground with terrain features above.  If I create a standard "garage" below grade, the terrain above gets cut parallel to the room walls even if the room is feet below the surface.

You need to select your terrain and in the General tab un-check 'Hide Terrain Intersected by Building'.  Then you need to manually cut a hole in the terrain for your walk-out portion.

[lbuttery]

Lew that does not sound like your average root cellar.  Are you sure you should be talking about it ?  Did you forget the NDA you signed ?

 

Chopsaw:

 

I haven't done beta testing in over a decade

 

I did the 30 floors underground test more than a decade ago

 

Lew

[rgardner]

Looking for something like this?  (warning super rough but just for example).

 

 

Foundation room with terrain on 1st floor set at heights, front wall drawn as same wall as below with an 18" height railing setting (play with height for actual terrain as this needs to be somewhat of a retaining wall.)  Set elevations and breaks around it.

[RookiePete]

underground test.planI must have a serious case of the newbies... this terrain is getting the best of me.  The checkbox for 'Hide Terrain Intersected by Building' is I think what I was looking for and seems to be working... somewhat for me.  But I just can get the elevations to work out.  Here is my test:  Simple 10x20 garage on level 1 with ceiling at -1" and floor at -100".

Created a perimeter and 2 elevation regions one at 0" and the other at -110" to create my steep hillside.  I pushed the lower elevation region into the face of the structure so hillside doesn't run in front of the front wall. Generate the terrain... and it looks correct from plan view.  But now from a perspective, those elevations just don't make sense to me - why is the structure now 2 or 3 ft below grade?  It the top region is 0, then the top of the garage wall should be 1 inch below the surface and the floor should be 10 inches above the terrain at the front wall.

[Chopsaw]

32 minutes ago, RookiePete said:

those elevations just don't make sense to me - why is the structure now 2 or 3 ft below grade?

 

There is still an issue with the plan file you posted but there is a setting in Terrain Specifications > General > Building Pad > Subfloor Height Above Terrain.   This may account for the discrepancy you are seeing.

[DzinEye]

Adjust your terrain... see snip.

BTW... Is your terrain really that steep?...that's a cliff not a steep hill!

[RookiePete]

Thanks DzinEye,

Unchecking the automatic subfloor was the last part of the puzzle to make it work as expected!  Along with the Make Terrain Hole function, I can get it to work as hoped/expected.

Thanks much for to all for helping me walk through this. I appreciate it!  This is my first post on the forum.

No, the terrain is not really that steap, it was just a quick test I setup.  I took the test a little further with suggestions from above and I have what I was looking for.

Here is the "finished" product and another attempt at downloading the finished plan.

underground test.plan

[DzinEye]

1 hour ago, RookiePete said:

Thanks DzinEye,

Unchecking the automatic subfloor was the last part of the puzzle to make it work as expected!  Along with the Make Terrain Hole function, I can get it to work as hoped/expected.

Thanks much for to all for helping me walk through this. I appreciate it!  This is my first post on the forum.

No, the terrain is not really that steap, it was just a quick test I setup.  I took the test a little further with suggestions from above and I have what I was looking for.

Here is the "finished" product and another attempt at downloading the finished plan.

Looks good.  You might try playing with the different terrain elevation data input methods to see how they effect your terrain.  You might try an elevation line or spline to set the top and bottom of the hill, then putting in an elevation region to form a level pad in front of where you want the entrance to the cellar.  

[rgardner]

10 hours ago, RookiePete said:

Thanks DzinEye,

Unchecking the automatic subfloor was the last part of the puzzle to make it work as expected!  Along with the Make Terrain Hole function, I can get it to work as hoped/expected.

Thanks much for to all for helping me walk through this. I appreciate it!  This is my first post on the forum.

No, the terrain is not really that steap, it was just a quick test I setup.  I took the test a little further with suggestions from above and I have what I was looking for.

Here is the "finished" product and another attempt at downloading the finished plan.

underground test.plan

Looks good.  Not sure you are aware that chief is doing a free webinar on site plans and terrains tomorrow Thursday 5-14-20 @12pm pst.  You can email them or hit the link on their Facebook or Instagram pages to get invited to it.