Dormer's

[NeilofOZ]

Having issues with placing Dormer's, have placed two on the upper level ( just as practice ) but need to place some

on the lower level which is over the entry & Garage.

System keeps telling me it can't work, but I don't understand why. Have looked at several CA tutorials and none of them

make sense, ie it extracts some walls from the "Auto Floating Dormer " and "Auto Dormer'  but when I do this it

sends me a standard wall associated with normal walls, nothing to do with Dormers.

 

Have attached a pdf pic, file is too large to send a cad plan.

[VHampton]

It’s possible the program is struggling because the roof surface over the first floor isn't quite an "attic," which can confuse the dormer tools.

Why not try building it manually? You could copy and paste the (2) roof planes from the attic level, then lower them to align with the roof over the first floor.

From there, manually edit the roof above the first —create the necessary breaks and openings as needed. Presumably the dormer are being shown in the attic level plan.

 

The reverse gable(s) which you're trying to build should be shown on the 2nd floor plan --- so that the roof framing makes sense when that particular plan is being generated. 
 

Anyway... it should go fairly smoothly with a bit of adjustment.

 

And honestly, getting comfortable with manual roof editing is a great skill to have in Chief.

 

 

 

[SHCanada2]

6 hours ago, NeilofOZ said:

but need to place some

on the lower level which is over the entry & Garage.

it looks like a gable above the entry would be more feasible, as It does not look like you have enough room horizontally for a dormer with more than tiny walls 

[NeilofOZ]

Having no luck with your suggestions.

Managed to view another Chief video on "Creating a False Gable" and thought this would be my saviour as it looked so simple

and exactly what i was looking for, but alas no luck with this.

 

After examining the second floor roof outline it appears that the hips over Bed 3 & 4 are in the wrong place and could be the reason 

why I keep getting problems when placing the locations of the False Gables to both lower and upper floors, as when i place a Gable

general walls and roofs are displaced, creating a head ache. 

 

  Is there a simple way of sending my Chief Plan, as this would help me with your diagnosis.     

[NeilofOZ]

No contact from my previous email, but have played around with the project and comment as follows:-

1.Have tried many attempts, both with "False Gables", "Auto Floating and Auto Dormers" of which the

    large AF Dormer was successfull but unfortunately this is not required, just did it for practice.

2. it's my desire to:

    a. Apply 3 Dormers matching 3 windows on level 2 , front elevation.

    b. Apply 1 Dormer over the font door entry, level 1. 

    In both cases, there is not enough space, as these have either walls and or ridges in the way, don't 

    understand why the walls are interfering with a Floating Dormer. 

3. From my perspective, the mere factor, if its floating why cant a dormer be placed on top of the roof.

4. In the "False Gable" video most of the commands/actions do not show up when on my system, ie the twin 

    Roof Sections are suppose to be accessed from the Attic level, together with the Wall, they aren't.  

5. Is it possible to extend the eaves overhangs to give me more space for the Dormers, had a go at this on the

    Entry door and would allow me to increase the size of a Dormer.

6. If you need my Working Plan, then Is it possible for someone to tell/show me the way to go. 

 

REGARDS, Neil       

[SHCanada2]

Are you looking to put a gable there or a dormer? I dont think a dormer would fit.

 

Post the .plan file

[VHampton]

In reading the initial post, he's trying to place a reverse gable over the front door - by using the dormer tool. 

 

It's not possible... thus the manual roof method. OR the gable roof line tool (see attached video). 

 

Technically they wouldn't necessarily be dormers anyway. Dormers create space within an area where there's need for head room. 

 

That will never be the case on the 1st floor roof. There's no living space. 

 

The reverse gable is a technically an accent, and it needs to be constructed otherwise - meaning not w/ the dormer tools. 

 

This video shows how:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1503/using-the-gable-roof-line-tool.html?playlist=95 

[NeilofOZ]

Tried the Gable-Roof-Line-Tool process as recommended, at first impression it looked like a solution, but as with all other 

video's it didn't solve my problem.

 

I played with this for two hours including using a split screen with side by side access, doing bit by bit as per the video, Issues were:-

1. After drawing the "Gable Roof Line" and hitting the Tab key, the video showed a window  "Enter Coordiants", to adjust data.

    this did not happened for me, so I searched where this may come from and found similar data is accessed by clicking on the Roof line 

    which had simialr data, so I checked this out and closed, no change took place.

 

2. At this stage in the video an outline of the gables was shown, this did not happen with my computer.

 

3. The cad is too large and your system can't handle it so I can't send it, is there any other process we can use to get you a cad plan as

    I can't finish this project.

 

Had a go after I zipped it, hope it works.          

Michael's House.2.zip

[Doug_N]

This is best handled with the roof in auto rebuild.  There is a porch with invisible walls to generate the front overhang.  The pitch of the overhang roof is reduced by adjusting the pitch using the roof dialog in the wall DBX.  The peak over the door is created using the gable line tool (only works if the roof is in automatic).  I nearly forgot to mention that the preferences was set to ignore upper floor. Turn that off.)

 

The floating dormer is adjusted by setting the wall height to allow the dormer roof not to exceed that ridge height of the main roof.  I included the file that I worked on for your review.  Hope that helps.  (All done in X-17)

 

 

Michael's House.2.zip

[SHCanada2]

and if you want a dutch / reverse gable You can take dougs two roof planes above the entry door and move them using the transform replicate tool in the Z and Y directions. Then collapse the main lower roof to where it was,. and then draw a second floor wall below the gable roof planes, with the property roof cuts wall at bottom

 

 

[NeilofOZ]

Doug, I have a few queries on your input, prior to me getting started:-

1.Did you actually send me the Cad drawings as shown on your pic. as when I tried to open this up, the system told me

   that an upgrade was required before I could open it, I did this and all I got was my original X16, so nothing achieved or accessed..

2.Turning off the Upper level, in the Preferences (Under my Edits), I have no provision to Ignore Upper Floor in my version,

    must be somwhere else.

3.With the Invisible Walls, are there just sides or one to the front as well. 

4. If I turn on Auto Rebuild, the system makes changes to existing roofs on that level, which I don't need.

5. Wall DBX, not fluent with this, need some info.

6. Can you give me a link as to which tutorial video matches your process, as it might make it easier.

 

Sorry for being a pain, I depend on guys like you (God Bless) I must have spent at least 50hours to date and its frustrating.

REGARDS, Neil 

[Doug_N]

6 hours ago, NeilofOZ said:

Doug, I have a few queries on your input, prior to me getting started:-

1.Did you actually send me the Cad drawings as shown on your pic. as when I tried to open this up, the system told me

   that an upgrade was required before I could open it, I did this and all I got was my original X16, so nothing achieved or accessed..

2.Turning off the Upper level, in the Preferences (Under my Edits), I have no provision to Ignore Upper Floor in my version,

    must be somwhere else.

3.With the Invisible Walls, are there just sides or one to the front as well. 

4. If I turn on Auto Rebuild, the system makes changes to existing roofs on that level, which I don't need.

5. Wall DBX, not fluent with this, need some info.

6. Can you give me a link as to which tutorial video matches your process, as it might make it easier.

 

Sorry for being a pain, I depend on guys like you (God Bless) I must have spent at least 50hours to date and its frustrating.

REGARDS, Neil 

X-17 is now a free upgrade to subscribers.    It really is a huge upgrade and well worth the effort. Hopefully you are a CA subscriber.

I will do a video and do this again showing all of the steps.

[Doug_N]

 

Here are all of the steps in X-16

 

[NeilofOZ]

Doug,

Still having problems with False Gables and see below some notes with issues that I have encounted:-  

 

1. I think the extended roof that you did on level 1 on the front elevation and a new room to facilitate False Gables is creating 

    issues as I haven't been able copy the process that you did for me, lots of other things have change and are distorted.

    I followed the video that you did at least a dozen times without any success, no matter what I do changes happen all over

    the building and no Gables.    

   

2. You extended the roof and commented that you did not know how this would be supported, nothing needs to be extended, all I 

    did was lengthen the eaves from 600mm to 800mm as the main part of the roof will be framed between walls of level1 & 2 to

    carry the load, similar to any eaves where they hang past the plate, is it possible to remove this extension and delete the room

    that you created, not sure if you were aware that level 1 (front elevation) there is a setback between the front wall of level1 and

    Level2 of 1000mm, so the roof sheeting is approx. 1800 ie setback 1000 + eaves 800 = 1800mm, if set both of these then there is

     no need to extend.

 

3. The eaves to Level 2 (front Elevation) was too large and the soffit didn't match other areas, which are Boxed Eaves, think this 

     was something created from changes made at Level 1 roof. I managed to reconfigure all the roofs and eaves, but they

     modifide again after pursueing the False Gables, done this a dozen times with out success, all eaves were set to 600mm

     overhang, but this changes as soon as i implement other related tasks, they are have a weird profile, currently all the eaves

     to level 2 are incorrect after several times of me correcting them.

 

4. There is one False Gable on Level 2, which showed up with no trimmings, this is fine and is what I was looking for but it's 

    incomplete, don't know where it came from as while i was trying doing something else, it appeared. 

 

5. There are 3 separate roof profiles which are unconnected and every time i work on one of them, changes keep happening on others.

     

6. I have tried using at least 4 Video Tutorials, none of them seem to fit what I am doing, am doing this project for a mate and

    not looking to good, never had these sort's of issues in all my time with CA.       

 

Have attached my current Plan showing some of the issues, Level 2 eaves, False Gable to level2, Roof/Gable to Level1,

The wall that keeps popping up that you noticed, not too sure how we handle the above but if further info is required then 

we can correspond via Chief Talk, to enable a clearer understanding.

 

REGARDS, Neil.     

Michael's House.2.zip

[Doug_N]

Sorry Neil, I did the roof extension because of an assumption that I made from this view of the house posted earlier on.

 

Maybe we can do a zoom meeting and I can see what you are doing and help you a bit, perhaps early next week?

 

I opened the model that you posted in the last post, and all the roofs were joined.  I also had no problem with floating roof dormers, once I set the wall height of the dormer in the dormer DBX to ensure no interference with the ridges.  The wall poke up through the roof on the side of the first floor because in the wall DBX under structural, the default wall height is turned off.  Turn that on, and the wall no longer pokes through the roof.  

 

Oh, and the missing trim, is because in the default preferences for roof, you have the sub facia and the facia boards turned off.

[NeilofOZ]

Doug,

 

Thanks for getting back promptly, think a Zoom meeting would be great, best you set it up as I have only

used Zoom once many years ago, according to Zoom I'm only allowed 40mins, otherwise I have to pay 

an annual fee, you might be able to guide me. 

REGARDS, Neil.

[Doug_N]

19 hours ago, NeilofOZ said:

Doug,

 

Thanks for getting back promptly, think a Zoom meeting would be great, best you set it up as I have only

used Zoom once many years ago, according to Zoom I'm only allowed 40mins, otherwise I have to pay 

an annual fee, you might be able to guide me. 

REGARDS, Neil.

I have a paid account so no problems there.  What is our time difference?  I am EST. 

 

[NeilofOZ]

Doug,

Time difference Whitby Canada/Perth Western Australia, we are 12 hours ahead of you.

 

REGARDS, Neil

[Doug_N]

So the question is what time should we Zoom to see if I can help?  How about 10am EST?  That would be 10pm your time, right?

[NeilofOZ]

Doug,

10pm is ok Tued/Wed suits me, let me know what suits.

 

Some notes, so I don't miss anything on the day:

1. Level 2, existing Floating Gable needs adjustment, couldn't get it sitting on the gutter line, my fault.

2. Add two more to match above, to be centred on windows, if we can?

3. Floating Gable required above entry Level 1, similar to above Gables. 

4. Some minor things:-

     a. Front elevation Level 1. on left hand side, can't match up the gutter mitre, played around with no success.

     b. Can't change the colour of ridges & hip cappings, done a few go's but always snaps back to white

     c. Client wants exposed rafters to eaves all roofs, can't see where this is done.

 

REGARDS, Neil.

 

 

[Doug_N]

Neil

 

Please send me an email (in my signature) so that I can send the zoom link.  Also your most recent plan.  A link to OneDrive or Dropbox is fine. 

 

Doug

[NeilofOZ]

Doug.

 

Email - halworthy@iinet.net.au

Latest - Plan, see attached.

Drop Box - Don't have an account, do i need to have one. 

Michael's House.2 19-05-25.zip

[Doug_N]

Hi Niel, 

 

Thanks for the latest version.  I was afraid it may have grown to the size that you couldn't upload anymore.  

 

So are we on for Tuesday at 10 EST?

[NeilofOZ]

Doug,

All good to go, assuming you are saying your 10am, me 10pm

 

Have got the latest Plan looking pretty good, hope it will look a little better after your input

 

REGARDS, Neil.

[Doug_N]

Neil,

 

We were wrong!! You are 14 hours ahead!!!   That makes 10 EST Midnight in Queensland.  You were patiently waiting for me to send a zoom, and nothing.  Those Canadians are not to be trusted you must have thought.  Sorry, I should have checked with Dr,.Google.  We can try again tomorrow, I will be on at 8am which should be 10 pm your time.

 

My bad.