Amateur hour typical roof issues

[RubbleBuilt]

Hi everyone,

First off, I apologize in advance for my limited experience and knowledge. I am a complete amateur and definitely not an architect or engineer. I’m trying to learn as I go, and I genuinely appreciate any patience or guidance.

I am currently designing a small cabin in Chief Architect and have run into an issue with my shed roof and wall heights that I cannot figure out.

Project specs:

• Cabin size: 30' x 16'

• Shed roof design

• Roof pitch: 1.5/12

• Intended wall heights:

  • Low wall: 8'

  • High wall: 10'

• Vaulted ceilings throughout following the roof line (no flat ceilings anywhere)

The intended framing setup is:

• Low shed wall:

  • 91 1/2" studs

  • 4 1/2" combined plates

  • 8' overall wall height

• High shed/gable wall:

  • 115 1/2" studs

  • 4 1/2" combined plates

  • 10' overall wall height

• Two side gable walls:

  • 91 1/2" studs

  • 4 1/2" combined plates

  • 8' overall wall height

  • with rake walls built above following the roof slope

From my understanding, the math should work correctly:

1 1/2" x 16" = 24" 8'-10' 24" difference ? 

So unless I am misunderstanding something fundamental, a 1.5/12 pitch across 16' should naturally create approximately 2' of rise, meaning an 8' low wall and 10' high wall should be achievable.

However, in Chief Architect, I cannot seem to get the roof/walls to generate correctly.

What I have tried:

• Turned OFF “Flat Ceiling Over This Room”

• Set my top plate/wall height to 96"

• Set roof pitch to 1.5/12

• Manually drew roof planes

• Rebuilt roofs/framing multiple times

One thing that confused me even more is that I actually managed to get it working temporarily by splitting the structure down the middle with an interior dividing wall.

When I did that:

• I could assign one side as the 8' section

• and the other side as the 10' section

• and the roof/framing generated properly

However, the cabin is intended to have an open interior with continuous vaulted ceilings from the 8' side to the 10' side.

As soon as I remove that dividing wall and rebuild framing/roof:

• the high wall extends above and past the roof plane,

• the wall heights become incorrect,

• one stud shows approximately 121 13/16",

• and the overall roof/wall intersection looks wrong.

At this point, I suspect the issue is probably related to:

• Roof baseline settings

• Wall definitions

• Ceiling/roof relationships

• Room definitions

• Attic wall generation

• Or how Chief calculates automatic roof generation in open vaulted spaces

rather than the roof geometry itself being impossible.

Could someone explain:

1. The proper way to set up a simple open vaulted 8' to 10' shed roof in Chief Architect

2. Whether I should be adjusting baseline height instead of wall height

3. Why the high wall is extending past the roof plane

4. Why the roof behaves correctly with a dividing wall but breaks once the space becomes open

5. Whether my understanding of the roof math/framing logic is correct

I would really appreciate any explanations, corrections, or guidance. I am still learning and trying to better understand both framing concepts and the software itself.

Software/PC specs:

• Chief Architect Premier X17 (latest version)

• Windows

• NVIDIA GTX 5050 8GB

• 16GB RAM

• Intel i5 2.20GHz

I will update this with plans/screenshots shortly as I am currently posting from a mobile device.

Thank you very much for your time.

please help lol.zip

[Rookie65]

If you're using Chief Architect, best to post on that forum https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com

This is the site for their Home Designer software. Same parent company, different program capabilities.

[RubbleBuilt]

Ooof lol,  I originally posted on a different forum and the person who helped said they didnt have home designer x17 so i figured that was what i used lol.   thank you for the assistance ill post there.

[Rookie65]

There is no home designer 17. Home designer uses years, chief architect uses X(numbers)