Changing elevation heights (floor/ceiling levels)

[FlightDeck]

Hi, after creating my model of an existing apt bldg I obtained the official construction drawings that were used when it was built (about 70 sheets of drawings).  I'm tweaking my model to better match the dimensions in the construction drawings since my model was built entirely by eyeball and a few rough measurements. 

 

The construction drawings have the elevation heights of each floor/ceiling from a specific datum.  For convenience I'd like to update my model to use these same absolute values for floor /ceiling heights instead of the arbitrary ones I used.  For example the elevation of my 1st floor is at 0 ft.  On the construction drawings it's at say 20 feet elevation.  So I'd like to change my first floor elevation to 20 ft, and have all floors/ceilings/objects move up 20 ft accordingly.  How can I do this?  I tried to simply edit the default properties for the 1st floor, however the absolute height for the floor is greyed out (dimension C).

 

Thanks and regards,

 

 

[solver]

I've requested, at least I think I have requested, the ability to set a benchmark in a plan, and an offset, so that you could have multiple structures on a plan easily all with the same or a different offset, so you could use floor 1 as the 0 height in each structure.

 

Surveyors will often set a benchmark on a building site that all elevations are relative to.

 

I don't think I'd want an additional 20' added to all the dimensions, and the only way you might do it is to manually change floor 1 settings (not defaults) to reflect the additional 20'. You might be able to go to each floor above and use Reset To Defaults to raise them.

 

I'd do a test plan and see.

[FlightDeck]

How can I manually change the 1st floor settings?  That's why I tried to change its defaults.  Changing the elevation of every single room on the first floor individually will probably break the model due to the large change I'm making.  So is there a way to change the elevation of the entire 1st floor at once, and have it automatically adjust the elevations of all the floors above?  I'm guessing no if I understand you correctly...

[solver]

I don't think you can do what you want. I have adjusted the height only after building the first floor.

 

Chief works the same way.

[FlightDeck]

Okay thanks Eric.  I guess their software isn't parametric.  I'll just live with all my elevation values being different from those on the plans.  I'm already stuck with them being in different units anyway.

[LawB10]

Did you try changing the ceiling heights by clicking Edit>default settings? What I have learned is that if you can't change the ceiling heights individually for a floor, the walls above it are not aligned or have different ceiling heights,

 

You would have to disconnect the wall(s) above and then change the heights for the floor below.

[FlightDeck]

I fell that it's not going to work without a tedious amount of effort that will probably break the model.  It's a 5-level apt bldg with lots of vaulted ceilings and drop floors.  I wanted to simply shift all the absolute values upwards but leaving all the relative geomtry the way it is.  I thought I could simply change the floor elevation for the 1st floor in the default settings, but the option is greyed out.  Doing it piece-wise on a room-by-room / object-by-object basis for every single level is going to break so many parts of the model during the intermediate steps when things aren't aligned.  It's not worth the effort in my case.

[LawB10]

I understand what you are saying, but that is reason the 1st floor defaults are greyed out, the upper floor(s) are out of alignment with 1st.

 

Did you post the plan? If it was created with HDA I'd like to take stab at it. If was created with Pro I'm SOL (Simply out of luck)

[FlightDeck]

There would be no way to put them in alignment with the 1st floor, due to the design of the building.

I didn't bother posting the plan for something like this as it was either going to be possible with a basic adjustment or it was going to be a pain not worth the effort.  Plus the plan is over 200 MB (and only partly done, lol).  Thanks anyway though.