stepped footings

[lulu]

I'm trying to draw stepped footings using walls. Making individual wall sections for each step works, but leaves an unsightly line in my renderings where the steps abut. A posting I saw here suggested using the Fit Walls to Roof command to contour the footing to an object drawn to shape in another layer. I can get the top or the bottom of the footing to step, but not both. Any suggestions?

[panthony]

Use the 3d Reshape tool

[boxjoint]

I can't imagine why.

I just tried this and it worked for me. (See file)

I recently did a fit to roof where I also wanted the top and bottom to be adjusted. I recall that I was unable to select the layer I wanted in both dropdown menus at the same time, so I did a fit top and then reran the command to fit the bottom.

Have you tried doing them separately?

[lulu]

I can reshape the wall, but for something as common as a stepped footing, I thought there'd be an more straightforward way. I've attached a file showing what happens when I try to fit with the Fit Wall to Roof command. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether I fit to the top and bottom at the same time or separately.

[boxjoint]

Was the wall that you tried to fit completely above the lower roof elements prior to running the command?

Your illustration looks like one I got in my first attempt. I moved the bottom roof elements down so the were not touching the wall and it worked better.

[lulu]

The "roofs" in my drawing are two extruded lines, each in a different layer. If I place my wall (in front view) between the two lines, all works fine. But for the footings I need to make, I'm stepping down 24" every 24". In this case the wall can't be placed between the two lines; it will always be above or below one of the lines at some point. I guess it won't work in that case, so I'm back to my original strategy - joining wall sections. Is there any way to join walls of different elevations if they have some elevation in common? I can't seem to join the wall sections shown in the attached file. Am I missing something?

[islandmon]

Keeping in mind that Walls are hybrid and use the 2d datum for joining.

Therefore, if walls can be joined in 2d , they will be joined in 3d.

Sometimes it's just easier to use a PolyExtrude or ExtrudeAlongPath for complex geometry.

[mike m oz]

VW needs a fully fledged strip footing tool. One that allows you to select the walls and say 'Strip Footing from Walls', nominating the width and height and the relationship to the centreline of the wall above.

To cope with steps in the footings it needs to be a polyline tool so that you can add vertices and nominate the step height up or down at that point, plus the length overlap and the angle of the underside transition.

[lulu]

Yes, a footing tool would be a logical (and, even, necessary) feature for an architectural drawing program. I started out drawing my footings with a polyline, but had trouble with a curved wall which was solved easily by making the footings from the walls.

Does anyone know if you can join walls of different heights and, if so, how? What criteria limit the joining of walls? I have tried to join my curved wall to my straight ones and VW won't let me do it.