Building a Loft

[BlackHawk]

 

I am new to HD Architectural but not to design/CAD software.   Pretty impressed at how well it manages a lot of the things you would have to do manually in a CAD system.

 

Anyway, I am stuck on one part that I am not sure I am doing it the "right" way.

 

I have a cabin that I am trying to replicate in HDA.    I have the main floor pretty well done, but it has a loft for the 2nd level.    The way that I am going about it is to create the main floor with no ceiling and then put in room dividers in the Attic to get the proper roof layout.   The loft configuration has rooms on both ends, but in the middle there is a walkway.   I chose to use Attic instead of a floor because the roof angles downward to the level of the main floor as you move away from the middle.    Not exactly an A frame cabin, but along those lines.

 

Was I correct in choosing to work in the "Attic" as opposed to another Floor?     It seemed to me that making it a floor does not allow you to pitch the ceiling to zero height (but that may be my noobness coming out here).

 

Assuming that is the right approach, now I am encountering an issue where the walkway has no ceiling and it shows as fiber board, and I don't know how to put that in.    

 

Attached is a picture of the actual cabin, and then a picture of what is being rendered in HDA.

 

Am I going about this wrong?

 

Also the roof line in the loft is flat at the top and then slopes downward....do I have that much control of the ceiling design in HDA?

 

[BlackHawk]

Solver,

 

Thanks for the reminder on the signature.   I have added this.

 

Ok, I first did the drawing as a second floor, but ran into problems with the roof and getting it to behave the way I wanted it.    I have seen some screenshots where people put lofts in, but I have not been able to find anything in the knowledge base or in any of the help videos which specifically address the way to deal with this situation.

 

Let me give it a go again and see if I can make it work.   The one thing I did like about using a 2nd floor was you can specify "Open Below" which you couldn't do with "Attic".

 

[DavidJPotter]

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00210/using-open-below-rooms-to-define-an-opening-to-a-lower-floor.html

This Knowledge Base help article should help you.

 

DJP

[LawB10]

Can you upload the plan????

 

Also some pictures of what the roof look like...

[BlackHawk]

LawB10:

 

Ok, I think I am losing it!   I have tried a number of times to make it work by adding a second floor and for the life of me, I am making it worse.   I either end up with a roof in the second floor, or no floor at the second level (as it is in v2 now).   I know it is something stupid I am doing, but it just escapes me.   I am following all the videos and tutorials as best as I can surmise, but I am missing something.

 

As for pictures of the roof, well, that is yet another challenge, because on one side the cabin has a deck instead of a roof.   So I have to create a full gable wall (either temporarily in the first level, or on the second level) so that the roof lines come out proper.   I have not gotten around to figuring out how to turn the roof into a deck.....but that will probably be my next challenge.

 

Here are the designs.   V1 is using first floor and attic and the v2 is using 2 floors with attic.   

 

 

Cabin Design v2.plan

Cabin Design.plan

 

 

DavidJPotter:

 

Yes, I am aware of that article.   I use it to create the open space, but that isn't exactly the issue.   The issue is more around getting the pitch of the roof right and allow for a catwalk from one side to the other.

[solver]

Just to be clear, you need 2 floors, not one floor and an attic.

 

An Attic is a special floor (and room) type, reserved for attic space, not living space.

 

If you have living space on the 2nd floor -- even if you think of it as being in the attic, you need a 2nd floor.

[BlackHawk]

Solver,

 

That is what I am finding out....just that getting the 2nd floor to operate properly, getting the roof lines correct, and then making the attic non-existent (from a height perspective) is proving to be challenging.   That is the part I am getting stuck with.

[solver]

Have you reviewed this article?

 

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00358/automatically-building-a-one-and-a-half-story-roof.html

 

On 11/28/2017 at 10:06 PM, solver said:

Remember ceiling heights control the roof. You may need to make the 2nd floor ceiling very low until you get the roof correct, then turn off auto rebuild roofs and raise the ceiling.

 

You may also have the Ignore Top Floor option in the build roof dialog, which may or may not help.

 

Do you understand these two suggestions?

 

 

[BlackHawk]

Solver,

 

I did not see this one previously but at first glance it looks like what I have been doing.   But for some reason, my floor on the second floor is missing.    I will study this deeper and follow what they do to see if I missed something.

 

Thanks!

[LawB10]

Is this what you are trying to do?

 

cabin.plan

[BlackHawk]

LawB10:

 

WOAH!     How did you do that so fast?   You absolutely nailed it!   I am quite impressed that without seeing much more than the pictures, you were able to get it so close.   I think that would probably have taken me a week or so to do what you did.    I definitely owe you a few beers or something. 

 

Ok, so I have to ask:

 

What was I doing wrong with the 2nd floor?

Were there other noob things I was doing that I should have done differently?   

 

I know the one thing that was giving me a bit of grief was the fireplace.   I see that it is different in your file.

 

It is going to take me a bit to go through everything, but you certainly have given me a great start and design to study in detail.    Much thanks!

 

 

[LawB10]

solver gave instructions on how to build the 2nd floor, they were not followed. There's nothing that can be done in the attic, it's just open space.

 

That was not a difficult roof to build, you build the 2nd floor, gable the side walls and lower the ceiling height to 0", then turn off auto rebuild roofs

and reset the roof to it's default ceiling height.

 

In your plan the side walls and interior walls were attic, which caused the 2nd floor not to build, Attic wall are not used to build rooms or floors.

[BlackHawk]

LawB10.

 

Actually, I did follow the instructions solver gave me.   I found the problem that I was having (as you discovered) was related to the walls were not set right.  Once I made them all set to default, then my ceilings came back.    Not really sure how that happened, but I must have tweaked something and then didn't realize that the walls became independent.   I should have checked that they were all using default.

 

I was able to get my original design now fixed and am using yours as a reference to set the roof height and such.

 

Thank you again.