Working with roof PIOs

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Is there any way to allow seperate roof PIOs to intersect or cut each other? I've got two gable roofs with different bearing heights and need to cut away a portion of one where the other occurs. I'm assuming that what I'm trying to achieve would not be doable with a single roof PIO -- am I wrong?

[panthony]

You can use the two roof objects by performing a hidden line copy the use the hidden lines to make individual roof planes for each roof. You actually have 6 roof planes to work with

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Thanks panthony -- would that be Modify > Convert > Convert Copy to Lines with the Hidden Line option selected? And then do I use the resulting polygons (lines) to create roof faces using the Roof Face command?

Since switching to VW some time ago from AutoCad we've still done most of our drawing in 2D, but I'd very much like to make the jump to full-on 3D -- I'm just finding the learning curve a bit daunting, especially since VW's 3D functionality is really not intuitive for me (been spoiled by Sketchup) and it's not at all a time-saver to settle on a half-baked 3D model and then have to fake in and compensate for all sorts of stuff in 2D in our viewports.

[Jonathan Pickup]

there are only a few steps involved, but it's easier to see them them it is to read about them. generally i edit the roof faces rather then start them again. if you ungroup the roof, all the planes become roof faces.

I've written an extensive set of notes on roofs, which you can get from here:

http://www.archoncad.com/complex-roof-tutorial.html

[Chad McNeely]

Thanks panthony -- would that be Modify > Convert > Convert Copy to Lines with the Hidden Line option selected? And then do I use the resulting polygons (lines) to create roof faces using the Roof Face command?

Yes then no: use the end points of the smaller roof hidden line render as snaps to create the subtracting polygons.

So, 1st ungroup the roof object(s?) to get roof faces.

Do the convert copy to lines / hidden line render.

Draw a polygon that will be subtracted from the continuous roof faces, using the end points of the HL render as snap points.

Subtract this poly from the continuous roof face.

Draw a polygon using the same same points that represents the shape to be subtracted from the smaller roof faces, and subtract from those faces.