Dormer doldrums :-(

[ImNewHere]

Hi everyone,

 

I know this topic can be a real hassle, so I will try not to annoy whoever responds.

 

I have spent all day watching every video on dormers I could find, and reading knowledge base articles; I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

I'm trying to manually build a dormer bathroom in the area on the right where I cut out the roof plane. In perspective views, the walls pop up appropriately thru the cutout, but then I can't get the rest of it done as the instructors show in the CA videos. I try to build a new roof plane at the ext wall baseline; then open it, lock baseline, and set it to a shed roof with a 3:12 pitch. But every time I initially draw the dormer roof plane, it appears at the same level as the main roof, not the top of the dormer wall. It seems to be identifying the wall top plate as the pony wall, not the full-height wall. FYI, it's not really a pony wall; I just set the main roof to a -7' offset, so my interior partition walls are not stunted. I've tried making a dedicated dormer front wall by putting breaks in the main wall, and also by drawing a new wall on the plan, right over the main wall in the dormer area. Neither attempt changed the outcome. I'm also not clear on whether having the back wall with the door is a good idea, or if I should delete that and then put it back after the dormer is built. In all the tutorials I've seen, people build dormers with side walls only. I don't want the back wall to interfere with the main roof joinery.

 

I have attempted several methods to get it to do what I want, but it seems we're not speaking the same language.  I've also read numerous dormer posts on this forum, but I only partially understand the explanations.  And I gave up trying the auto-dormer pretty quickly, because every minor adjustment I make causes it to fail with a variety of error messages that are incomprehensible to me.

 

Attached is the file, with a perspective showing the dormer walls and an odd curiosity: The wall intersection nearest the door hinges is hollow for some reason, but looks normal on the plan view.

 

There are also a couple photos: One is the entrance to the dormer bathroom I'm trying to model here, to the left of the pocket-door closet. Unfortunately, I don't have any ext photos of the dormer.

 

The other photo is a pair of floor-level skylights with railings to stand in. That will be the next thing I have to make after the dormer. If anyone has any clever ideas on how to finesse that structure.

 

Thanks in advance! Hope this description was sufficient, and y'all are not as confused as I am. I never realized how complex roofing is until I started trying to model attic conversions...

 

 

attic_2026_02_22.plan

Edited 23 hours ago by ImNewHere