Finished Floor Slab and Structural Slab on separate Layers?

[MaltbyDesign]

I'd like to create a separate slab for my floor finishes as they may change from room to room, while my structural slab (sub-floor and joists) will be uniform throughout the building. At present, the top of my structural slab is set to elevation 0' with all of my walls and doors bound to this. I created a 3/4" thick slab for my finished floor (hardwood) and presently have placed it on my First Floor Layout layer which is where all of my first floor objects are placed (walls, doors, windows, millwork, furniture, etc). The first problem I see is that the doors are bound to the structural slab and are, effectively buried in the finished floor slab. The only way I can see having the doors sit on the finished floor slab is to place the finished floor on a second slab layer with it top surface set at elevation 0' and then set the top of the structural slab below the thickness of the finished floor slab. In this case, -3/4". But if I do this, then I think the walls would be bound to the finished floor slab rather than the top of the structural slab.

 

How do others handle this?

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Guest Wes Gardner]

@MaltbyDesign...how about this...set the door on your First floor Layout layer and then in the door dialog, create a threshold with "0" in most of the fields except the "Z-Offset" field where you can enter 3/4".  In this example, I've exaggerated it a bit...this gets the head heights correct. 

[MaltbyDesign]

Hi Wes, thanks for that. I think it was in one of your videos or other tutorials on setting up stories where you recommended not including the finished floor in the floor slab, which makes perfect sense to me, as a separate finished floor slab or slabs allows for easily varying the materials. Say, tile in on room and hardwood in another. I was looking for a z-offset for the whole door, not realizing there was one in the Threshold dialogue. Thanks very much for the tip!

 

Edited to add:

I think this is a great idea for the interior doors and allows me to have the finished floors terminate against the thresholds on my exterior doors, as they also have a 1" thickness to them but still have widths and depths, etc.

Edited September 26, 2019 by MaltbyDesign

[Christiaan]

13 hours ago, MaltbyDesign said:

The only way I can see having the doors sit on the finished floor slab is to place the finished floor on a second slab layer with it top surface set at elevation 0' and then set the top of the structural slab below the thickness of the finished floor slab. In this case, -3/4". But if I do this, then I think the walls would be bound to the finished floor slab rather than the top of the structural slab.

 

How do others handle this?

 

Just bind the bottoms of the walls to the structural slab level.

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by Christiaan

[jcsanabria]

Hi @Wes Gardner. How do you get the "Z-Offset" parameter to appear in the door threshold object info? My 2019 and 2020 versions have all threshold parameters ending on extrusion, the only parameter missing is "Z-Offset". Is it due to some kind of wall type bound to story level or similar? I have been breaking my mind figuring out how to have walls starting at top of slab and doors at finished floor, without having any wall lines underneath the doors.

Thanks!

Edited April 23, 2020 by jcsanabria

[Guest Wes Gardner]

@jcsanabria, I believe the answer is in the Insertion Options dialog of the Wall Style.  The door will sit at "Z = 0" at wherever the bottom of the container class of the wall is bound.  So for the example, the door will come in at "Top of Structure" or whatever you choose to name the level.

 

Wes