Roof - gable dormers

[Archiphreak]

OK, so, please see attached file. I'm hoping there are some genius VW users out there that can help me (you know who you are).

What I have is a huge gable roof with three connected gable ends at the front entry. At least this is the desire. The two outside gable ends I created with the create roof tool simply by creating a shape and using the tools. The center gable currently is created with the roof face tool and the lower wall will extend up to it creating a large entry gable.

I previously tried to create this middle gable with the dormer tool. It quite frankly looked like and I wasn't showing that to a client, let alone a contractor. Any thoughts?

Always appreciated!!

J.

[Archiphreak]

I think I have it figured out. Rather than trying to use the dormer tool, which kind of sucks by the way, I created two roof profiles and a new wall on the attic plan. This way I can add whatever kind of window I want as a plug-in object rather than having to create a symbol.

What I don't know how to do now is get rid of the sloped roof under the gable. I know I can do it by ungrouping the roof and clipping it out, but then I lose all control over my roof object....

Does anyone know of a way to do this? Image attached.

[CipesDesign]

The only way I know of is to Ungroup and Clip....

[Archiphreak]

thanks, Peter! That's what I was afraid of. I might have to hold off on that for a bit. My boss has a nasty habit of making "small changes" to this house that require major changes to the roof.... :-\

[CipesDesign]

I know how that goes! FWIW it's pretty easy to Clip and Add to Roof Faces...

[Archiphreak]

Peter, I gave the clip surface tool a try, but my roof face was converted to a solid subtraction and now I can not use the framing tool to create my rafters. Ideas? Or am I just doomed to build this house virtually as if it were in the real world? :-\

Cheers.

J.

[CipesDesign]

First off, ALWAYS Save-As before messing around with unknowns... Second, try Undo, undo, undo, etc.... to try to get back to the Roof. Third, I said that Clip and Add Surface worked well on Roof Faces (NOT Roof Objects).

[Archiphreak]

Recreating the roof object was easy. I wasn't terribly worried about that.

And I did clip the roof FACE. It converted it to a solid subtraction.

First I created the roof via the create roof tool. Then I ungrouped the object into separate roof faces. then created the 2d polygon in plan view and then performed the clip surface while in edit mode.

Where did I go wrong?

Thanks!

[CipesDesign]

Hmm. The only thing is that you do not need to be in Edit mode. Just treat the Roof Face like any other 2d object in top/plan view...

[barkest]

You must be in a top/plan view for the roof face to remain as a roof face (same as a floor object for example). Check to make sure you are not in a top view which would create a solid subtraction.

I take a copy of the original objects (pre clipping or whatever action I am taking) and I place them into a class which has the visibility turned off. This class gets deleted when everything is complete.

[Archiphreak]

Peter, Barkest, thanks! It seems that is what I did wrong - Edit Mode. Will give it a shot once I finish all the other updates and let you know. Now I'm having issues with walls not fitting to the roof. I'm ready for this week to be over!

J.

[barkest]

Make sure the walls and the roof are on the same layer.

Select the walls and then AEC > Fit walls to objects.

[Archiphreak]

That didn't work. I've actually never been able to get walls to fit to roof if they are on the roof layer.

[Archiphreak]

Ok. This is weird. If I move the wall object from the Attic Layer to the Floor Layer Fit to Roof works fine. I move it back, no go. WTF??

J.

[barkest]

I see its changed in 2013 (I assumed it worked the same as 2012 my bad).

You do not have to have the wall and roof on the same layer. Just set which object you want to fit the wall to and make sure you select the layer where the object is in the dialogue box.

[CipesDesign]

Although it does not say so in the Help Files, it has always been the case that Fit To Objects need to be on a different Design Layer than the Objects which are being Fit. Otherwise funny things happen. I often create dummy geometry, in a discreet layer, simply for this purpose.

[bc]

I too have been aware of the Fit To Objects on same layer issue but recently had great success after forgetting to move the roof to it's own layer. Did it several times and it worked without incident or weirdness. This is on VW 2012. I thought wow maybe they fixed this...right before I realized I didn't like the roof on the same layer anyway (from a visibility standpoint).

But perhaps they HAVE fixed it? Mine was not a complicated roof, I must say.

[barkest]

It has always worked fine for me on 2012 (roof on same layer as walls). Maybe I just got lucky which I why I thought that was how it was supposed to work. Just looking at it again it works fine either on the same or a different layer in 2012 whether it is a roof or extrude etc. Pleased they changed the name in 2013 to fit to objects (fit walls to roof was misleading)