Help! My floating dormer has 'horns'

[RachelC]

I have created a floating dormer on top of a horse barn. I don't know why, but there is a section of wall popping up at the back and creating what looks like 'horns' where it attaches to the roof. I have watched all the tutorials I can find and followed each step, and they don't have horns, yet I do. Why is this happening and what can I do to fix it?

Dormer with Horns.htm

[SusanC]

Don't feel badly, the floating dormer tool can be challenging and requires some knowledge of the settings to get it to work correctly with your roof.

Please let us know what version of Chief you are working with and what your computer specs are.  It is very helpful to let everyone know this information because the answers can vary depending on what version of Chief you are using and what computer you are using.  

I was not able to open up the attachment you posted.  As Eric suggested, can you attach a zip file or a screen capture? 

[DBCooper]

Posting a picture would be good, but a plan would be even better.

 

Maybe your dormer is too high up on the roof?  Maybe your ceiling heights are messed up?  Don't really know for sure because I'm not sure if I have seen "horns" although I have seen some pretty messed up side walls.

 

The only other thing I can suggest is to send it to tech support.  I don't think dormers should build with "horns" regardless of what you have done.

 

[DavidJPotter]

I downloaded your offered file and tried to open it in Edge, Chrome and Opera and each time all I got were blank images, communicating NOTHING, sorry. Post a copy of your .plan file, please.

 

Generally speaking, the dormer tool is basically a symbol made up of walls, hole in the roof polyline, a window and roof planes. Like any other symbol it has programmed limitations built in. With its Default Settings planned for per application it is a time saver but is NOT a "fits all instances" kind of application. The best route is to study and find out for yourself what it can and can't do by default and then find out how to work with it as it is to get what you want, whenever you want it. That requires a lot of trial and error practice tweaking such constructs until you find out for yourself its limits and how to deal with those. Like any symbol that has built in limits they often interact with other 3D elements in your plan with walls, attic walls and roof planes in which they reside.

 

Not every thing in this software can simply be "clicked" or "Check boxed" into existence without the end user having to step in, find out what is happening and then taking corrective, manual actions to fix it.

 

DJP