How to do my roof!

[araczek]

I have Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.5 I just bought and have no idea how to get the roof right. I understand the gable options I think. I have a garage and attached covered patio under one roof, the next roof is slightly higher and has the kitchen, din. rm, liv. rm. The next roof is over 2 floors with the gable at the front/back.

I really don't understand why I don't have more control over how to build the roof. How do I get the roof built for each distinct section rather than it building the entire roof every time. Seems like more hoops than I want to jump through.

I really am ready to return this. The tutorial really should not make it seem so easy. And for $70.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Kilgore Trout]

Fundamentally, I think roofs are probably the hardest part of designing a house (real or on a computer) so it is no surprise that this is the area that people have the most problems with.

The one key bit of information that you need to understand that is probably unique with this software is that you can control the roof by changing the settings in the walls. Most, but not all, roof designs can be created by changing the settings in the walls to control how the automatic roof gets built. For the set of designs that can't be done, the only option is to upgrade to Pro which gives you full manual control over the roof planes.

The next bit of advice is that posting a picture on this forum, either of what you have or of what you want (or even better, both). I won't claim to be an expert at building roofs but I know that there are people who frequent this forum who are and they will likely be able to help you.

[araczek]

Please let me know what I can do...

[crisw]

That doesn't look like too complicated a roof. What problems are you ghaving when you try to create it?

[crisw]

Is what you want something like this? I did this by making the indicated walls "full gable" and making the celings for 2 and 3 higher than 1.

[crisw]

Oops- noticed your part 3 should have 2 stories- mine is one. The procedure would still be the same, though.

[Kilgore Trout]

I did something similar to Cris:

[araczek]

Sorry for my testiness but I was anticipating getting to a patio project this weekend and hoping to make a quick rendition to see how things look. Thanks crisw for the explanation. Kligmore your drawing is pretty much right on. Just have to figure out how to do 2 floors . I assume I don't need to draw the inside first?

Does this app. also do the interior of the house? I assume so, but it is touted as a Landscape product. I am just trying to get a handle on the capabilities, what I have to do etc. There are several diff. versions of "Designer" sw and it seems the boundaries and limitations are vague between versions, unless I have not given it enough time. Time is what I'm short of .

[araczek]

I am at work, so doing this from memory. Note that the back of the house is pretty much a straight wall from one end to the other. The front has the diff. corners as you see. So if I tell the sw to make a full gable as in #3 won't it do this for the entire rear wall ? It assumes I want it that way - unless I am missing something.

I'd be interested in the overhead views of both your drawings if at all possible. Thanks everyone for your efforts.

[dr0591]

To have different gables or roof styles on one wall you need to add wall breaks where you want the roof to change styles. Then open up each wall section and set the roof type to what you want.

You might also need to add invisible walls inside to create house sections if the roof type you want is driven by an implied interior "wall".

[Kilgore Trout]

In my picture, I just raised the ceiling height for the back part of the house and left the 2 front sections default. It was hard to tell from the picture you posted exactly what your house looks like. To make this a 2 story design instead, you just need to build the second floor, and then edit your walls to make sure the second floor is only over parts you want. One good tip here is to turn on the reference display to make sure you get your walls right relative to the first floor.

I recommend getting your house "shell" correct, or as close as you can get it first, before you start worrying about any of the interior details. Landscape and Deck Designer will be able to do some of your interior work but Interior Designer, Suite, or Deluxe will be able to do a much better job and each of these would be compatible with L&DD.

"Time is what I'm short of" trying to learn new software while trying to meet a deadline is always a tricky combination. For some people, it works much like getting tossed into the deep end of the pool to learn how to swim. It's sink or swim time.