Ceiling ht drop for bonus over garage

[PitMan71]

Anybody else run into an issue where Chief Architect changes multiple room ceiling heights when lowering a garage ceiling to accommodate a bonus room above?

 

I typically design with 10' ceilings throughout. When I add a bonus room over the garage and drop the garage ceiling to 8' or 9', I’ve noticed that random rooms elsewhere in the house will also drop to 8' or 9'. It doesn’t seem consistent as to which rooms are affected.

 

Just trying to confirm whether this is a known behavior or if I’m missing a better workflow for adding a bonus room without impacting other ceiling heights.

 

Appreciate any insight—thanks in advance.

[Rosco2017]

You have to be very careful when lowering a ceiling when you have floors above. For example: If you have a room or even part of a room that hangs over the area you lower, it will drag that down as well. The only way around it that I know of is to use invisible walls below the rooms you don't want to change above and then lower your room. Does that make sense? 

[PitMan71]

1 hour ago, Rosco2017 said:

You have to be very careful when lowering a ceiling when you have floors above. For example: If you have a room or even part of a room that hangs over the area you lower, it will drag that down as well. The only way around it that I know of is to use invisible walls below the rooms you don't want to change above and then lower your room. Does that make sense? 

the only room I have in the second floor is the bonus area above the garage. When I lower the garage the allow for more ceiling space in the bonus room somehow other room's ceilings are also lowered.

 

What I am probably going to do is draw a test house and play around with it to see what's happening. I get a lot of my answers that way.

[SHCanada2]

6 hours ago, PitMan71 said:

 

Just trying to confirm whether this is a known behavior

yes, it happens. as rosco mentions usually because there is another room or the rooms do not line up exactly. For instance for a bonus room on top of part of the garage, you would draw invisible room in the garage that matches the room above

[Rosco2017]

Feel free to send it over or post it here and I bet you’ll get a quick answer to your problem. 

[Joe_Carrick]

I find it easier to set the floor elevation for the room above.  That will lower the ceilings below that room.

IOW, work from the top down.  Also, if you can do this in a 3D view it will be easier to see what's happening,

Edited 22 hours ago by Joe_Carrick

[SHCanada2]

also related:

 

 

watch the levels carefully, or you will go crazy changing on floor, which then changed another floor, so you go to that floor to change it, and then it changes the other floor.

 

CA also has no concept (that I know of) of a split ceiling in a room, such as:

 

so you need to make an room using invisible walls (shown as walls below)in the garage that matches the room above:

 

Edited 14 hours ago by SHCanada2

[PitMan71]

7 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

so you need to make an room using invisible walls (shown as walls below)in the garage that matches the room above:

That makes sense—if this is the condition I was trying to describe. This is definitely one of those situations where a photo would’ve helped, so that’s on me. That said, your example really helps clarify what you were referring to above, and it all clicks now. I appreciate the different perspectives in how we approach things—thanks for sharing.

 

In my condition the entire garage ceiling would be dropped 12" or so and stairs would come up from the living area that is 10' or 9'. 

 

The attached is the plan where adding the bonus above the garage gave me fits. When I added the bonus, the whole left side of the house dropped to 8' like the garage, even tho its the only space I changed. In this case I caught it and corrected it.... twice. haha.

 

Thinking back on it I believe the cause was my haphazard approach to accomplishing this, even though I have done it several times before. This is because sometimes things are in flux as you figure out how to add and access the space.... After seeing @Joe_Carrick 's post it made me think more critically about what needs to be done for chief to behave. Before I am pretty sure I didn't create a room for the stair. setting it at the ceiling height needed  for the bonus above to work. in this case 8'.

My takeaway from everyone's comments is to be more deliberate and aware when adding a space above where the ceilings change ht from default....