Working on Multiple Floors and Split Levels
This tutorial will
teach you how to create a multi-floor or split-level house design. Specifically,
you'll learn about:
Defining Floor Locations
Adding a Floor Location
Adding Stairs from One Floor to the Next
Working Between Multiple Locations in Your Project
Tips for Creating Homes with Multiple Elevations or Split Levels
Building locations allow you to work on areas of your project that have different elevations and other properties. Building locations can be floors, split levels on the same floor, or any portion of your project that benefits from a unique set of location properties -- floor level, wall height, etc.
Building locations apply to all elements under the Building or Interiors tabs, and to Decks under Landscaping . Most of the Landscaping and Terrain elements are inserted on a single terrain level. For more information on landscaping and terrain modeling, see the appropriate tutorial.
Your project is pre-set with several floor locations with standard properties. If you think any of the floors in your house will have non-standard properties - for example, taller than usual ceilings - it's generally best to define your floor locations before starting your project. When you define floor locations, you are basically doing two things:
- setting the wall height for each floor (level) in your project
- specifying where each floor is positioned relative to the ground (zero)
| To
change floor location properties: 1. Select the Settings menu and click Building Locations.  -OR-Click the Building
Locations icon on the View Controls toolbar. |
 |
| 2.
Click the property you want to change. 3. Type the value you want. 4. Press Enter. 5. Click OK when you finish making all your changes. |
A floor
location has six properties:
Number - A reference number for the
location.
Name - The location's name (e.g. Ground
Floor).
Floor Level - Height of floor above
ground level (0).
Head Height - Height of the tops of
doors and windows relative to the floor level.
Ceiling Height - Height of underside
of ceiling surface relative to the floor level.
Wall Height - Physical height of the
walls inserted on the location, and the height at which roofs are inserted.
Note: Making changes to the properties will not edit existing elements in your project. For example, if you have drawn the perimeter of a house where the wall height is set to 8', changing the wall height in the Building Locations dialog to 9' would not make all your walls 1' taller. You would have to edit the height of the existing walls through their Properties dialog. This is why it's best to set up your location properties before creating your structure.
It's easy to create multiple floors in the program. The Building Location dialog lets you add new floors with the click of a button.
| To
add a floor location: 1. Select the Settings menu and click Building Locations. -OR-Click the Building
Locations icon on the View Controls toolbar. 2. In the Building Location dialog, click Add Location. A new new location with the same Properties as the currently selected location will be added to the end of the list. 3. Give the new location a name and edit the other properties to your specifications. |
Tip: In the default location properties, you might notice that even though the Ground Floor's Wall Height is 8', the Second Floor's Floor Height is actually at 9'. This 1' of extra height is filled by the structural floor/ceiling between the floors. If you add new floors directly above an existing floor location, make sure to allow for this extra space, otherwise your floor to ceiling height will be 1' shorter than you expect on your lower floor.
Copying
a Floor Plan to the New Floor Location
With a new location
created, you can easily transfer elements from
one floor location to another. This makes it convenient to copy wall layouts
that carry through to a second floor, for example.
To
copy elements to other locations:
1. Select the elements you want to copy - for example, the perimeter walls
of your structure.
2. Right-click and select Duplicate to Locations.
3. Click the target floor location(s).
4. Click OK.
| Adding Stairs from One Floor to the Next |
Video
Tutorial
|
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If you've added a second floor, you probably want to put stairs going up from the ground floor. Adding stairs is a two-step process. First, you need to insert your stairs. Then you need to cut an opening in the floor above for the stairs.
To insert stairs:
1. Select the location where the bottom of the stairs will rest. For example,
for a stairway going from the ground floor to the second floor, select
Ground Floor from the pulldown.
2. Select the
Building tab and click on the Stairs tool. 
3. Select a type of stairs from the catalog. If you're not sure what the
different types are, look at the preview image to see the difference in
construction styles and layouts.
4. Move the stairs where you want them in your project and click to insert
it.
Stairs are big objects that are inserted in one direction only. You may find that you can't put your stairway into the exact position you need. Use the stair's move and rotate handles to get the stairs in the right place and going up in the right direction.
Once you are happy with the position of the stairs in your project, you can cut an opening for them in the floor above.
| To
cut an opening for stairs: 1. Select the location where the top of the stairs end. For example, for a stairway going from the ground 2. Select the Building tab and click on the Define Floors tool.  |
|
| 3.
You should see the stairs faintly from the floor below. Click points
to define the space occupied by the stairway, or the space you want
to be open to below. 4. Right-click and select Finish when you have defined the floor area to be removed. 5. Switch to a 3D view and position your camera so that you can see the area you just defined on the upper floor. 6. Click on the floor area to select it. Hit the Delete key on your keyboard or right-click and select Delete. The floor will be removed, exposing your stairway and the floor below. |
 |
Tip: Because floors are created automatically between walls, it's hard to get them back once they have been deleted. Make sure you want to delete a floor before you do it, and if you make a mistake, just select Undo from the Edit menu to remove each floor opening segment you drew.
Working Between Multiple Locations in Your Project
| Your 2D views are tied to a single Building Location -- meaning that you can only work on Building and Interiors elements on the location currently selected from the Building Locations pulldown. The elements on currently selected location are fully visible, while elements on other locations are dimmed so that you can just see them for reference. This makes it easier to work from floor to floor without cluttering your drawing area or getting confused about what location you're working on. |  |
If you want, you can hide other locations altogether in your 2D views by using the View Filter.
| To
hide other floors: 1. Click on the View menu and select View Filter. -OR-Click on the View Filter icon in the View Controls toolbar.  |
|
| 2.
In the Sort by box, click the button next to Location. This
will make the filter display all the building locations in your project. 3. Click the display filter icon for any location you want to turn off in the current view. In the example dialog to the right, both the Ground Floor and Second Floor would be displayed at the same time, but the Foundation level would not. 4. Click OK. |
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Note: If you want to work on elements on more than one location at a time, switch to 3D. A good example of when you might want to do this is if you have a two story house and you want to move or edit all the walls on one side of the house. You would switch to 3D, then hold down the Shift key while selecting both the ground and second story walls.
Tips for Creating Homes with Multiple Elevations or Split Levels
Homes with different level floors, different ceilings heights and the like can be difficult to create and there are more than one way to go about it. Here are a couple of building scenarios you might want to create, and how to best approach them.
Note: The suggestions below are written with an expectation that you have already mastered the basics of the program, such as switching your view, navigating, and inserting elements. If you are unfamiliar with anything mentioned here, review the Getting to Know 3D Home tutorial.
|
A room that
has taller ceilings than the rest of the house |
 |
An area of a room
that is a different elevation than the rest of the floor (such as a sunken
living room)
You can simply define the portion of the room to be at a different elevation,
then use the Elevate command to move everything in that space.
| To
raise or lower a portion of the floor 1. Make sure you are in a 2D view and can see the area you want to elevate. 2. Select the Define Floors tool under the Building tab. 3. Click points to define the area you want to raise or lower. If the area you want to define is a whole side of a room, simply click points to draw a line from one side of the room to the other. 4. Switch to a 3D view and position your camera so that you can see the area you just defined. You should see a black line on the floor. |
|
| 5.
Select the new floor area by clicking on it. 6. Right-click and select Elevate. 7. Enter the height you want to raise the floor. Enter a negative value to lower the floor. 8. Click OK. The floor will raise or lower appropriately. |
 |
Tip: Use the same Elevate technique described above to reposition any furnishings or other items on the raised or lowered floor.
A true split level
with distinct floor and ceiling heights
If you have a true split-level home, make a separate building location
for each level of your home. When you draw the walls of your home, pay
special attention to walls that are shared between two levels. You will
want to draw a wall on both locations. However, the shared wall on the
lower level should be edited so that its wall height comes just below
the floor of the higher level.
