Bi-Level Woes


HighwayMan55
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Hello, new to Chief Architect here.  There does not seem to be a lot of information on Bi-Level homes.  Having a heck of a time with mine.

 

Currently trying to recreate my house. 

 

I created the main floor, with garage, then added a basement. I drew the foyer in with the first floor.  Below the foyer is the same concrete slab of the basement. 

 

Our foyer is split between the main floor and basement.  I have the stair landing, stairs and opening all correct. But the foyer closet and ceiling heights are what I am having a problem with.  Above the landing itself (includes the closet) the ceiling height is 8' .  The closet currently is still on the first floor level. I can't seem to get it down.

 

The garage is another issue.  The slab is 24" below the finished floor of the foyer.  I followed the steps for creating a split level home to sink the garage down, but it's too far.  And when I try to adjust it in Room Specifications>Structure, it sends all the other numbers haywire.

 

I have attached the drawing so you can see what I'm talking about. 

 

Thanks!

 

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If the closet is on the basement level, then draw it on the basement, not the first floor.

 

Okay, never mind, you posted a plan. For the closet open the Room Specification dbx and adjust the Structure>Absolute Elevations>Floor value to match the landing height:

 

post-95-0-44098400-1454013117_thumb.png

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If you want the exterior walls set at 8', then use the closet Room Specification dbx to set the Ceiling (B) to 8' above the Floor ©, which is 29.5 inches:

 

post-95-0-19608600-1454017947_thumb.pngpost-95-0-20376800-1454017954_thumb.png

 

...but I suspect you're talking about something like this, which can be accomplished by manually dragging the walls down to the proper height:

 

post-95-0-75484700-1454018222_thumb.png

 

For exact control of the height, shoot a wall elevation, select the top of the wall to activate the temporary dimension, then click on and enter the dimension. I used 8'-10" because your closet floor is defined as 10":

 

post-95-0-47679900-1454018342_thumb.png

 

Then you'll have to cap the closet with a soffit to make it look pretty:

 

post-95-0-93114600-1454018545_thumb.pngpost-95-0-41988000-1454018632_thumb.png

 

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Thank you for that information.  I am definitely learning a lot with this.  Although it's not quite what I am trying to accomplish.

 

Please ignore that the following photos are from Halloween, it's all I could get at the moment :D

 

I haven't asked about the vaulted ceiling part as I have not yet gotten to that part, I'm just tying to learn one thing at a time.  But as you can see the whole foyer section is lower inside and out.

 

post-9838-0-26551900-1454072656_thumb.png

post-9838-0-41179900-1454072664_thumb.png

post-9838-0-69519500-1454072681_thumb.png

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You will use roof planes to achieve what you want for the foyer - essentially you can ignore my post #8. You'll need to need to go to the basement level and draw a room divider across the foyer to make the landing area it's own separate room:

post-95-0-76724300-1454074928_thumb.png

 

Then open the Room Specification dbx and uncheck Ceiling Over This Room; this is the step that will give you the vault.

post-95-0-77594900-1454074969_thumb.png

 

Then draw your roof planes, set the baseline height to whatever value you need (I used 48" to approximate your exterior picture). You'll get something like this:

post-95-0-45067500-1454075054_thumb.pngpost-95-0-12027100-1454075062_thumb.pngpost-95-0-66823700-1454075069_thumb.png

 

As you can see there's no need to fuss about with the closet walls - their height will be determined by the roof planes.

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