Gable/Roof Line

The Gable/Roof Line tool has a variety of uses. Its primary purpose is to mark the location of a partial gable condition along a wall. It can also be used to ignore alcoves when automatically generating roofs.

Creating Gable Walls and Gable Dormers

If an entire wall supports a gable end, the wall should be defined as a Full Gable wall on the Roof tab of the Wall Specification dialog. If only a portion of the wall is a gable, then the Gable/Roof Line

tool can be used to draw a line that defines the width of the gable.


Note: You can break a wall and define only part of it as gable. This produces similar results to using the Gable/Roof Line tool. If this method is used, once the roof is correct and locked, the wall should be restored as one continuous wall. Chief Architect functions better if long walls are single units instead of broken into multiple components.

The Gable/Roof Line

tool can also be used to place a small gable within a roof plane, as in the case of a dormer. This process can be automated using the Gable Over Door/Window

edit button. See "Gable Over Door/Window".

Gable lines should be outside the wall, within the first 18" (450 mm). If the gable line is placed on the wall it does not work.

Position a gable line of the correct length to represent the portion of wall that supports a gable roof. The length of the gable line determines the gable width at the wall main layer, not at the overhang. At the roof edge, a gable roof is wider than the gable line by twice the overhang distance.

Since the gable line is a CAD line, it can be selected and modified using the Line Specification dialog. See "Line Specification Dialog".

Covering Alcoves

A gable line can also be used to maintain a roof plane baseline where there is no wall below. For example, a house may have a large alcove and you want the roof plane to extend across the alcove, rather than wrap into it. A gable line drawn across the alcove causes roof planes to span across the alcove when roofs are automatically generated. The program models a hip in that area. When extending roof planes across alcoves, the gable/roof line must be drawn inline with the wall's main layer.

Multiple Copy

The Multiple Copy

and Transform/Replicate Object

edit buttons allow you to make multiple copies of a selected gable line at defined increments, as shown in the following illustration. The leftmost gable line was created, then three copies were made at 8 foot increments.

Creating Roof Lines

The Gable/Roof Line

tool can also be used to create roof lines where there are no walls or railings. A roof line is created the same as a gable line, but has a different name because of its usage. A roof line drawn across space generates a hip roof. If several roof lines are combined, they must be attached to each other, forming a non-closed polyline in order to automatically produce one set of roof plane baselines. Both free ends of the roof line or polyline must meet a wall at the main layer to produce roof planes.