Jo_Ann

I could only do the porch gables using the Pro Trial, which supports manual roof tools. Sorry, but the trial version does not allow files to be saved.

Have you considered lowering the deck off the master bedroom, so that it is less 'ominous' feeling as it leads down to the pergola area?

Gables.

More food for thought...

It's time that you posted a pic of the existing structure. In the meantime, food for thought...

I suspect that you moved the house by holding down Ctrl and selecting all the walls, and then moving the house with the edit handle? If that's what you did, reselect them and move the house back into position under the roof. THEN use the edit area tool to move all floors to the location that you want.

Your master plan plot and each bldg. plot need to match. The building in each file should be moved to it's desired location on it's own plot before you copy/paste hold position onto the master plot. The bldg. will then be pasted into the master plan at the same location that it was in on it's own individual plot. This is what solver is explaining. And as DJP said, this might drive you batty...

Architectural doesn't offer that feature, so you have to take a longer way around. Use the 'edit area' tool to copy and paste the 1st floor level into the master plan. THEN use the 'edit area' tool to select and copy the 2nd floor (ON the 2nd floor). In the master plan, (2nd floor level) use the paste/hold position function.

James, I hope that your meeting with the contractor went well. I think that you had a good enough visual representation to express to the contractor what you want. He will do the math/elevation specifics. BUT...if you want your model to be more correct (for yourself), you might have more corrections to do. You said that the house had crawl space below it, and the garage was built on a slab. In the plan file that you posted, both structures are built on a monolithic slab, but you never said that the house was built on a slab. In the pic below, left structure is a slab (floor structure (L) 4"); right structure is a normal built structure (floor structure (L) 12 5/8"). Notice the difference between the 2, especially the distance of the doors to the terrain. You have to have foundation showing above ground (siding should not disappear into the ground). So.. how is the house structure really built? Food for thought.

I moved the front Elevation Region (flat area) back to the front-most part of the house. This changed the slope, so I then had to open the terrain perimeter and change the terrain height to 18". Argg. This also meant I had to change the stem wall height on the house and also the floor (C) on the garage. Yikes! So, the garage floor (C) is now set at -58" and the stem wall is set at 24". The house stem wall is set at 52". You have to uncheck 'automatic' and 'flatten pad' on the terrain dbx. 'Hide terrain' doesn't matter, because you have no basement.

This is what my own dbx looks like. I don't know what options Suite has. I changed the room back to 'garage' after the elevation worked out correct.

Big problem with the garage. Because the terrain is still sloping, a 4" slab isn't going to cut the mustard. The program refuses to allow the stem wall increase, without also dropping the floor. I changed the 'garage' to 'unspecified', then deleted the slab on level 0. I then manually drew foundation walls under the structure, and this allowed me to open the 'room' dbx, and change the stem wall to 24" (the minimum I could do to keep it below ground).

Look at Eric's structure info, and then apply it to your own plan.

Is the terrain really mounded up against the house walls, as your pic shows?

I see some problems, now that you have posted the plan. Your terrain needs to slope, but of course the house doesn't. Where in relation to the house, does the terrain begin to slope? I think that you need to delete the terrain perimeter and start over with the terrain. BUT 1st, draw a cad box exactly like the terrain, on top of the terrain. Set it's line color to red, so that you will know which is which. Delete the terrain. Build a new terrain. Grab the terrain lines and move them toward the cad box lines, and they will snap to the cad lines. This makes it quick. You can now delete the cad box. Set the terrain and elevation regions as shown, except set your own 'subfloor above terrain' to 8" (terrain perimeter dbx). Move the front elevation region line (increase) towards the house, to make whatever area you need to remain flat. If the terrain slope begins before the back wall of the house, then it stands to reason that you will have to increase the depth of your crawl space.

If you want your terrain to slope, you need to open the terrain perimeter and uncheck 'automatic' and 'flatten pad'.

Set your terrain elevation 1st. If you have 12" of foundation showing above ground at the front of the house, then set the terrain perimeter to 24" (floor structure accounts for the extra 12"). Choose the Elevation Region tool, and draw an oversized shallow region (prevents jagged terrain edges) at the front of the house, set to 0" (the ground region is 0", as opposed to the house floor set to it's own 0"). Choose the Elevation Region tool again, and draw a shallow region at the back of the property set to -65". This should give you a nice slope. You might need to open the house basement dbx (floor 0), and make the stem wall taller in order to bury the footer. When you have done this, and then properly placed the garage, you will be ready to start fixing the garage level (don't forget to rebuild the foundation under the garage).

Another view.

You can also enhance/ tweak that roof by setting an upper/lower pitch on the east wall. Then manually add the roof returns using library shapes.

Open the room dbx, structure tab. Put a check in the box 'use soffit surface for ceiling'.

Use the railing wall on floor 1 to make a 'room' (designate it as a 'porch') below the cantilever room. Set the railing to show only the post and beams.

This has been done with 'auto build roof'. It's pretty much like Eric explained, but looking at the plan is easier that trying to explain it. Pyramid type roof.plan

Are you trying to get one of these results?

Widen the single door...it becomes two doors.

If you zoom in on that east corner of the room, there is a short section of the east wall that is defined as an 'attic' wall.