How to draw a foundation for a walkout basement

[DB_Construction]

Hey guys.  Brand new to CA, trying to learn the ropes before I start a plan.  I've been trying to figure out the most efficient means of designing a walkout basement, which is common in my region.  After struggling for hours I have managed to draw one, but just realized that I have no way to display it as just a foundation plan.  I read some of the threads about foundation on 0 or 1, but am not advanced enough to follow the discussion.  Code here requires a 42" frost wall below grade, so at the front of the house I'm drawing a standard height foundation wall, but as I move to the rear the foundation needs to step down incrementally to keep the footings at a 42" depth.  Any streamlined techniques would be appreciated

[Rosco2017]

https://www.youtube.com/user/dshall44/search?query=basement

Here are some videos that may help you. Are you a SSA member? Where are you from? Maybe set up a signature and give us a little more info about you If you're a SSA member, try Chief's training videos. 

[DB_Construction]

I am an SSA member.  I tried some videos, but none I found go into enough detail on how to actually make the foundation work correctly.  Most just focus on terrain, which matters nil to me.  I'm battling against the default settings to try to get the foundation render correctly, and the walls to frame correctly, etc.  Just wondering where most guys start and where they go from there.

[Alaskan_Son]

I am an SSA member.  I tried some videos, but none I found go into enough detail on how to actually make the foundation work correctly.  Most just focus on terrain, which matters nil to me.  I'm battling against the default settings to try to get the foundation render correctly, and the walls to frame correctly, etc.  Just wondering where most guys start and where they go from there.

 

Did you watch the second video in Ross's post?  The gentleman in the video talks about terrain very briefly but once he gets past that, I believe he addresses the issue you are trying to figure out.  He's using an older version of the program, but the basics are still the same and work with or without the terrain. 

[DB_Construction]

I will watch.  I admit I did not because I tried the pony wall approach already but I could not get it to separate the foundation portion of the wall from the framed portion to show on a foundation plan.  Also to get the footing beneath I had to designate as a foundation wall, but then could not get the program to generate the framing for the non foundation portions.  I'll see if this vid has a different approach.

[Alaskan_Son]

There are a lot of things coming into play here and there are pros and cons associated with any given method. Not anywhere near all encompassing, but a few things that I think are worth noting and looking into though...

1. Make sure the foundation wall in question is designated as a foundation wall in the wall dbx.

2. I have no problems creating a foundation wall that has both a footer and a "pony wall".

3. Build framing works for me no matter how the pony wall is configured.

4. The thing I have NOT found a way to do is put the framed section of a pony wall onto its own layer. It's defaulted to the same layer as the foundation walls and there seems to be no way to separate the 2. You can use the Delete Surface tool to get rid of all the upper wall geometry but that's just a workaround. Any changes to the model (including updating any related views sent to layout) and the surfaces will rebuild. This issue just needs to be fixed in my opinion. We really need the upper and lower portions of a pony wall assembly to be assignable to their own layers.

5. You can abandon the pony wall method, modify the foundation and footing in an elevation, draw a section of exterior wall, click on that wall and designate as "No Room Definition", place the wall directly on top of your foundation (aligning with the wall above), and then break/resize your new exterior wall polyline to fit between the foundation below and the wall above. Now you can put this wall on its own layer but it definitely takes a little more time to build and clean up.

Just a few of my musing...stumbled across while trying to explore your problem.

Someone else may be able to give you better advice. It's pretty rare that we draw up framing and foundation details and even more rare that we draw up daylight basements so most of the above is basically just stuff I figured out today messing around with your problem.

[MoeGia]

I typically draw a walk-out basement on floor 1 with the foundation plan on floor 0.  It allows me better control of plan display, wall heights etc.  It has it's own challenges, but is a better way for me to get a clean foundation plan, and a basement plan when needed. 

 

I have my template plan set up with the basement on floor 1.

[joey_martin]

If you want the bottom section of the pony wall to display in plan view, you have to tell the wall to display it when you set up the pony wall.

[DB_Construction]

Thanks all.  I think I've got it.  I drew the exterior walls on floor 1, then did a cross section and broke and stepped them where needed.  I used auto-build foundation then using some lines broke the foundation wall and stepped it up to meet my basement walls.  This method auto stepped the footings to follow the foundation as it stepped up.  I think this method works, but haven't gotten far enough in my plan to tell whether or not it will present any problems down the road.