Help with Wall Types - Pony Wall to Show Electrical for Fireplace and TV

[DefinedDesign]

What is the best practice to build this wall type so I can insert a wall niche and then put electrical in the wall niche and calculate the wall materials correctly?

 

Note:
I created a wall using an exterior wall and defined it as a pony wall and got it to look like this, but I can only put a wall niche in the upper pony wall and it won't let me put in electrical outlet or cat5 in the niche, and I can't put a niche in the lower pony wall at all.

 

 

[TeaTime]

"best practice" depends on what you're after. Ponywall works fine so long a you don't need super precise framing -- remember that the wall thickness determines stud thickness, and 2x18 studs are uh... rare.

 

47 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said:

I can only put a wall niche in the upper pony wall... I can't put a niche in the lower pony wall at all.

X15 seems to allow this just fine, but it may be different in older versions. If you place a niche and then drag it down in a 3D view, it should jump to the lower walls surface once its fully "in" the lower wall.

The other trick is that you're wanting a niche in both upper and lower walls, but as far as the program is concerned that's the same location on that wall.

Probably the easiest method would be to place one in the upper wall, set it's height etc., then use the Copy/Paste > Paste Hold Position and drag the copy down to the lower wall.

 

49 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said:

it won't let me put in electrical outlet or cat5 in the niche

This is correct - these objects are setup to attach to walls - the back of a niche is--well, part of a niche. it's not seen as "wall".

But if you place an outlet on the wall in Plan view, you can then open it and set it's height and Offset from wall - setting a Negative offset will push it into the wall, so if the niche is 3" deep -3" Offset will flush it to the niche's back surface.

[DefinedDesign]

Thanks @TeaTime I appreciate your help. Between @solver advice and yours I have a game plan to fix this tomorrow morning. 

[DefinedDesign]

Thanks so much the help!!! @solver Thank you for the video!  You make CA easy to understand!  @TeaTime I appreciate your feedback too!  With your advice I realized a Pony Wall was not the solution.  I had tried earlier in the day to use two walls but my error was using a straight wall, and that would not place drywall on the sides when connecting the walls to the exterior walls.  Solver's video showed me that by returning the wall back to the exterior wall, the drywall would show on the sides.  So I created the interior wall and returned to the exterior wall leaving enough space to add the half-wall with it's returns.  Then moved the sides of the interior wall to the sides of the half-wall. 

 

I edited the wall types to reflect the proper materials used to correctly calculate them (thanks Solver for the advice on this).  This method also allows me to insert the fireplace using a pass through opening.

 

[TeaTime]

Glad you got it sorted - framing out the whole area like a small room like that would have been my next suggestion, it really is the best way to work with walls. Making them really thick causes all sorts of weird issues and more often than not just complicates the situation.