Slab Footing Tool?

[joey_martin]

I think this thread sums up, for me anyway, why I don't use this tool. I use the post footing tool, for the simple reason of needed a footing that I can manipulate without needing the worry about what type of wall may be above it. I generally want to just have a footing that I can do what I want with in a very short order. 

[Alaskan_Son]

Michael,

Are you aware that you can set this in Defaults? They have it under Walls.

I changed the wall to "Room Divider" and made it Invisible. Now when you draw with it, it corresponds to the icon.

Good tip Mickey. Admittedly I haven't actually had to draw up the conditions brought up in this thread very much but the issue has come up a couple times recently and so I've spent a fair amount of time experimenting with the various techniques and here are my conclusions...

-The slab footing tool is the wrong tool for the job. It was actually designed for a different purpose entirely and so it has certain characteristics and behaviors than can cause problems. I think the name of the tool coupled with the icon are misleading and cause a lot of people to misunderstand what it's for (myself included until I researched it a little more). It's a Slab Footing as in a footing FOR a slab. It's NOT a Slab Footing as in a slab that IS a footing. The icon showing an invisible wall just adds to the confusion. Bottom line though, I think the following 2 methods are far better for the task at hand...

1. As I said before, use a wall definition set up so that it accurately represents what you will be building on that footing (whatever that may be) and just set that wall as a foundation wall and give it a footing.

2. More specifically aimed at the subject of this discussion...simply use a standard foundation wall but set it as invisible. Put it on a unique layer (if you want) and assign the blank line style to that layer. This method is dang near perfect IMO. Easy to control, you can break and resize the footing as desired, displays flawlessly in all views (including the fact that the footer will tie into other footers without any extraneous lines) and can still be selected and resized without having to see the "wall" atop the footing.

[johnny]

Since this thread already deals with the subject - I really like the slab with footing tool - but wish we could edit the profile of the footing.  Has this ever been asked for? 

[DRAWZILLA]

I use this slab footing tool all the time and do not want it to default to invisible. It's good as is.

[Alaskan_Son]

I use this slab footing tool all the time and do not want it to default to invisible. It's good as is.

After further investigation I totally agree which is why I recanted in Post #14. I was going to just delete my previous posts to avoid causing confusion but the damage had already been done and people had already commented on them so I just left them.

[MickeyToo]

Michael,

 

I have to take exception to your comment about the appropriateness of using the Slab Footing Tool in this situation.

 

If I got it right, Johnny was simply looking to place strip footings inside a crawl space/stem wall foundation. He did not say so, but this footing will usually accommodate post and not a wall, although it can do that, too, of course. Again, he did not say, but when we do these around here, we do pour a slab, although a very rough one.

 

Now if we go to the Help files we find this:

 

Slab Footings are used to define Monolithic Slab foundations, garage curbs, and interior footings.

 

So it should work in Johnny's situation.

 

And as to whether to set the default to use a visible or invisible wall, I think it totally depends on your situation. Those who do a lot with monolithic slabs will probably like it the way it is (as Perry pointed out). Others, who do primarily stem wall foundations will find it useful to have it set to use an invisible wall (Johnny).

 

This is not to take anything away from the options you (and Joey) presented, especially your the second one, since that Foundation Wall/footing can then be added to the library. Very helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

[Alaskan_Son]

Good write up Mickey.  To each his own.  If you don't mind I think maybe you should redo those screenshots to add this one as well so people can see all options side by side.  The simple wall break and drag footing over method...