Designating Interior Wall as Load Bearing

[RMR-Ethan]

Hello.

 

I have read the documentation and used the in-program help system and I can see that if I ask the program to generate ceiling/2nd floor subfloor framing, the joists should automatically run the shortest distance between load bearing walls or beams. I also see that one of the ways you can designate multiple joist directions is by separating areas with load bearing interior walls.

 

The documentation says "Check 'Bearing Wall' in the Wall Specification dialog." and "Specify one or more interior walls as 'Bearing Walls'.".

 

However, there does not seem to be an option in any of the panels of the wall specifications to designate the wall as load bearing.

 

Am I doing something wrong or was this option removed?

 

Thank you.

[DavidJPotter]

There is no place to mark walls as "Load Bearing" in the Wall Specification Dialog. There is a tool called "Bearing Line" tool found under "Build - Framing - Bearing Line tool" for manually marking "Load bearing"  walls, so when framing is actually built, the ceiling joists will then "Break" over walls designated as "Load Bearing" using the "Bearing Line tool".

 

DJP

[RMR-Ethan]

31 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

There is no place to mark walls as "Load Bearing" in the Wall Specification Dialog. There is a tool called "Bearing Line" tool found under "Build - Framing - Bearing Line tool" for manually marking "Load bearing"  walls, so when framing is actually built, the ceiling joists will then "Break" over walls designated as "Load Bearing" using the "Bearing Line tool".

 

DJP

 

I was afraid that’s what it might come down to. This seems like either an error in the documentation or in the program because in the documentation regarding running joists in different directions, marking a wall as load bearing is a distinct and separate option from using bearing lines (as well as using different platform heights).

 

My concern with using bearing lines is that the documentation indicates that you have to run the bearing line right through the structure, starting outside and ending outside. The documentation shows “steps” or “jogs” in the bearing where the joists would break over different walls, but the joist direction was the same throughout. I have bearing walls that are perpendicular and don’t go all the way through the structure and joists which change direction over those walls. Therefore I couldn’t have a bearing line that starts and ends outside the structure because the bearing wall abuts a perpendicular (bearing) wall inside the structure. If I could designate both walls as load-bearing it seems like the program’s logic of running joists the shortest distance between bearing walls would cause it to run the joists in the correct direction for me. 

I’ll play with bearing lines a bit to see if I can get it to cooperate but otherwise I guess I’ll manually frame the subfloor for the 2nd-floor. 
 

I went ahead and submitted a ticket regarding the documentation to see if it needs to be changed. 
 

For reference, this is copied from the reference guide:

 

MULTIPLE JOIST DIRECTIONS
By default, all of the rooms on each living floor share a single floor platform and a single ceiling platform. If you require joists that run in two directions in either of these platforms, begin by dividing the platform in question in two. There are a number of ways to do this:

* Divide the living area into separate rooms with different platform thicknesses and/or heights. See Floor and Ceiling Platforms on page 295.

* Specify one or more interior walls as Bearing Walls. See Structure Panel on page 264.

* Draw a Floor/Ceiling Beam   specified as a Bearing Beam. See Floor/Ceiling Beam on page 613.

* Draw a Bearing Line. See Bearing Lines on page 631.

Bearing Walls, Floor/Ceiling Beams, and Bearing Lines should be drawn on the same living floor as the joists they will interact with. Floor framing for a living floor is created on the floor below, while ceiling framing for a living floor is created on that floor. See Floor and Ceiling Framing on page 606.

[RMR-Ethan]

Also from the reference manual:

 

“It is not unusual for joists to lap or butt in the middle of a span rather than build across a platform. When they do, they typically bear on a wall or beam at that point. To produce joists that break over a support, specify the wall or beam in question as Bearing in its specification dialog:

• Check Bearing Wall in the Wall Specification dialog. See Structure Panel on page 264.

• Check Bearing Beam in the Framing Specification dialog. See General Panel on page 637.”

 

There are a few more references. These are also present in the in-program help system. 
 

Technical support replied to my case and said this feature is only present in Chief Architect, not in Home Designer and the documentation is an error or was overlooked. 
 

I’ll mark this as “solved”. DJP was correct that it can’t be done. But you can see the confusion because the documentation says it can…

 

Confusion resolved. Hopefully they’ll update the documentation and in-program help system to prevent future confusion.