Complicated Archway

[dbjorck]

Hi!

I am a new user, and I have a complicated archway and so I read through the posts here. I found one that was very helpful about a way for placing a light inside an archway; and I wanted to post a reply to that, but now I can't find it again. So I'm creating a new thread. Sorry for that.

The original post was that you can't place anything inside a doorway, but the solution was that you can if you place it on a soffit. So I tried the method. I have base moulding inside my archway, but I could place that on a soffit. It just took hours of fiddling to place it correctly however; it had to be slightly off the edge of the doorway or it would disappear.

So far I was happy, but then the problems started. I also have a plate rail of sorts in it. I could not get that soffit to stick, no matter where I placed it, half way through it would get invisible. I guess that's how they try to stop you from putting a soffit through a wall. (Although, I have another example where the moulding on a soffit goes through the wall and there is no way to stop it - the soffit stops but the moulding continues). The second problem was that in order to create the archway, I had to create a thick wall, and that stopped me from moving a nearby door as close to the wall as I needed to.

So I looked for another solution. I chose to use SketchUp to create rounded corners and place as imported objects. That worked like a charm. It was the very first time I used SketchUp, and it was a bit confusing at first. In fact I had to redo it a couple of times before I got it right, but time well spent! The result is in attachment 1. Placing lights was now not a problem, as the ceiling is still there between the rounded corners. The base moulding placed itself automatically as it now was regular walls. The plate rail was just as easy to place as on any other wall.

The actual object I used is in attachment 2 - perhaps someone else will find it useful. You should be able to do any archway with it simply by adjusting the sizes.

Brgds

Danny

[Katalyst777]

Here's a link to the thread mentioned in which a light was placed on a soffit in the arched doorway, just in case anyone reading this may be wondering: http://hometalk.homedesignersoftware...ead.php?t=4456

[Deirdre]

Hey folks, just to let you know HOW I did it: placed a single soffit at the top of the arch, changed the height to 1/16 inch, then kept fudging it up or down till it blended with the arch. Computerized plastering.