BisbeeBlue

I've tried tips from several people (thanks Robert, et. al.) but I can not create a roof no matter what I do. Obviously, I've missed something fundamental. I've reduced the problem to simple test case. A rectangular building with 6" X 96" wall drawn in plan view. If the walls are unselected no wall too is available. If I select all walls, I can use "Create Roof" but "Roof Face" is greyed out. Selecting all walls and Create roof, I set the eave to Double, Horizonatal - 5.5", Thickness - 5.5" as is bearing inset, Bearing height to 8' (Eave height is greyed out), overhang 12" and create roof in layer "Roof. In plan view I have a rectangle. A left, right, front, back view yields a view of the walls (in plan view) and a single line representing the roof. Going to a Rt. Isometric I get an angled view of a rectangle which I suppose to be the roof with the walls still in the original plane. My questions are fundamental: (1) how do I "see" the roof on the walls? (2) Why doesn't "Roof Face " work? (3)Why does the roof in any view or layer have no thickness? (5)Why is the roof plane always oblique or at odds with the wall view? No view or rendering technique changes these relationships. I have spent a great deal of time with the manuals and the learning CD's and the text (for example with roof face) glibly states, "easy way to creat a slap or flat roof by converting any closed 2D object into a roof face object." I'm not having this result. I'd appreciate it if some one would give me the magic word on this as VWA 11.01 gets increasingly less popular here.

Thanks for the helpl. (4) Was a quick vacation. Hope you enjoyed ;-) I find that if I use the create roof and have a rafter angle I finally do get a roof. If I set rafter angle to 0 i.e. a flat roof. Nothing is visible with create a roof or roof face. If I go to say a front view I will see the walls of the structure and a rectangle the size of the original roof, but it is in an opposite plan from the walls. I've used the same layer and align layers is not available. Progress, but still looking for that flat roof. (I live in Arizona. Not many pitched roofs here.)

I've spent a good deal of time reading manuals, playing with tutorials and making multiple attempts, I cannot, however find a way to create a simple shed (pitched) roof that runs from a lower height wall up onto the side of a taller way. This is hardly an uncommon feature, but use of any of the create roof tools (or frame) seem to always show up as gabled. I've tried drawing a polygon over the walls and use create roof or fit roof get exceedingly odd results. I'll keep working on this, but some master with the right tip would be greatly appreciated.

Actually I have a brick hatch and I'm trying to apply it to a wall created as a portion of a house. The hatch is visible in the top/plan view, but doesn't show up anywhere else. I would like to render or view it in 3D and have the walls be opaque and show the selected hatch. I seem to be missing some fundamental trick to VW as I am also unable to put a simple shed roof over this addition. The manuals have given me little to work with.

I can get a texture (adobe brick) to appear in a top/plan view. When I look at it from the front, the texture doesn't show and the walls are all transparent. The only way I've found to see the walls as opaque is to use artistic rendering, but this doesn't show the brick hatch. I admit to being a newbie, but several readings of the manual do not seem to suggest how I can make this happen. Directions or reference to a source greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I pasted the wall into a new drawing and it started working again. Strange

Thanks Robert, What permissions will I be looking for?

I'm using 11.01 with OSX 10.3.5. I've suddenly found that when I select the wall preferences and then go to cavities I can change the width of the wall but can not add any cavities. Clicking on any other option produces a boing (no error message). All I can do is cancel out. This has worked in the past on this machine and has just screwed up with this new file. Any thoughts?

I've had similar behavior with 11.01. The object seems "stuck" in the wall. I can only move it by nudging. Odd

Ok. So I know I'm a rookie at this, but the roof creation tools are enough to make a man drink. I'm drawing the gable end elevation of a remodel and am attempting to add a shed addition projecting out from the existing wall. The 3 walls are no problem. Can even make them pitch to meet the existing wall. I cannot, however, seem to get a roof on it. I've tried using the "create roof from walls." this gives an interesting little hipped roof running atop the actual wall area (but not reaching to the existing wall). Cute but not a shed roof. So I've tried creating a polygon both from an extruded rectangle and also by using the extruded polygon tool. In both cases when I attempt to use the "create roof from polygon" tool, I get a message to the effect that I must first select a polygon even though the object is clearly selected. I've tried it in orthogonal plan view and in front elevation view. Nothing seems to work. So what is the magic incantation that impells the roof tool to do its stuff? (Could have built the addition in the amount of time I've spent trying to draw it. Mutter, grumble, huff, etc. Course I know powerful tools take effort, but I'm not yet getting much return from this one.)

I find that short cuts that worked under 8.5 no longer work under 9.5. I've tried to use the workspace editor to assign keys but either I don't know what I'm doing (likely) or many functions now can't have short cuts. Examples. j = wall join. All choices are greyed out. I also can't assign a key for the select straight wall. The editor indicates it can be done, but there seems to be no way to effectuate the new assignment. Would appreciate some wise person shedding light on this.

The walls (that I remember) started dragging to the right of the screen, although if I change orientation - say draw towards the top (or any direction) the behavior doesn't change. The files are all 9.5.1 created under OS 9.2.2.

Thanks for the clue that it wasn't operator error. I in order (1) rebuilt the desktop, (2) Downloaded/installed Apple's new nVidia driver (3)Trashed the VWA pref file, and just to propitiate any errant gods zapped the pram cmd-opt-P-R. No joy. The tool is completely unusable. It isn't a question of deleting a wall, it's that I can't create anything with it. Is there any hope trying to communicate with tech support as it seems to be a larger issue than just myself.

I'm creating a set of as builts for a craftsman I'm preparing to restore. All of the work has been done in the top/plan view using the 3D wall tool. This worked fine until about 85% of the way thru when the wall tool turned into an out of control "infinite" line. It now acts like the irregular polygon tool except that it can't/won't terminate. Escape makes the line(s) disappear. So does double clicking. This behavior persists thru shut/close of program and new documents. Any suggestions? 1 Gb G4 OS 9.2.2