Room Floor Heights

[ereisch]

I have a hallway that connects to a stairwell, with the stairwell area on the 2nd floor and a small area above the 1st floor landing sectioned off as "Open Below" obviously.

 

When I click on the 1st floor hallway and open the room Structure tab, it shows the absolute elevations as expected (see attached "room1.jpg").

 

However, if you click on the 1st floor hallway in an area that is "underneath" the Open Below area, the absolute elevations for the same room show up differently, with an effective zero floor depth for the 2nd floor, as seen in "room2.jpg".  Also note the relative heights change as well.

 

It took me awhile to figure this out, because I was trying to correct the Ceiling elevation for what I thought was the hallway area, but it would change the floor above value to match whatever I entered into the Ceiling elevation.  I was clicking underneath the Open Below area for convenience, but after fighting for awhile I discovered that where you click when selecting a room to view its properties affects the contents of the structure tab.  I don't know if this is a bug or not, but perhaps there should be a message somewhere in the dialog highlighting that the floor structure for the floor above is showing a 0" depth because of the Open Below modifier, but that the room ceiling has varying heights.  (Though I know the varying heights message does come up when you actually do have inconsistent floor elevations for the floor above.)

[ereisch]

Related issue: In this same case, when I open the stair section, and click "Make Best Fit", it makes the following selections, which all make sense given the 1st and 2nd level heights:

 

However, when you accept the changes and then immediately re-open the same staircase, you are given these values:

...which as you can see has for some reason has altered the Top Height of the staircase by ~1 riser (without altering the number of risers), and has adjusted the riser height accordingly to match the new Top Height.  The "Make Best Fit" button is now available again, and when pressed, reduces the number of risers to make a normal slope stair match the (seemingly random) selection of Top Height.  Short of manually entering the values that work and locking them in, I don't know what to make of this to keep the program happy.

[Joe_Carrick]

Start from the top of your building and work down, setting the elevations.

 

I know that's the opposite of the way we think, but that is the way "Chief" thinks.

[ereisch]

Yeah that's what I've been doing, but doesn't resolve the problem of where you click on the room returning different heights (or the auto stair issue).

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention originally (though it was in the one screen shot): using HD Pro 2014.

[DavidJPotter]

The most common error is not knowing on what basis the software is programmed versus, as Joe pointed out, what you might think the basis is. I think all you are seeing is the apparent difference in "opinion" as to how the software should be programmed as opposed to how it is programmed. Try to see how the software works devoid of your own preconceptions and just observe what it does do, when you make changes (confront and understand the changes to better understand how and why it is doing what it IS doing. 

This is part of the learning process, sorting out how it actually works versus your own preconceptions and biases.

 

DJP

[WendyatArtform]

Some important principles:

 

1. Chief defines height by room, and...
2. As Joe said, Chief defines from the top down.

So - if you have spaces on two floors, rooms with different height conditions that don't stack, Chief will be very confused about what to report back as heights!  You have a hall and stair with two different conditions above.  

 

Solution - add an invisible wall separating your stairs from your hall.