Decks

You can define a room as a Deck on the General Tab of the Room Specification dialog.

To draw a deck, click the Deck Railing

tool, then click and drag to draw a railing. Once room definition is established, the area defined by the deck railing is assigned the "Deck" room type.

To create a deck without a railing, click the Straight Deck Edge

tool or the Curved Deck Edge

tool, then click and drag to draw the perimeter of the deck.

A room does not have to be defined by Deck Railing to be specified as a "Deck". See "Room Types".

By default, decks do not have roofs. If you want to have a roof over your deck, check Roof over this room on the Structure tab of the Room Specification dialog. Select the Post to Beam option on the Railing tab to give the roof a visible means of support. See "Railing Tab".

Deck Stairs

To create stairs using the Click Stair tool

Select the Click Stair

tool.

Click within 12 inches of the deck rail, outside the deck.

To draw a down stairway from a deck

Select Build> Stairs in floor plan view.

Place the pointer at the edge of the deck, hold down the Alt key (or click with the right mouse button) and drag in the direction of the stairs. Holding the Alt key produces a stairway that goes down instead of up.

Place a doorway in the railing at the top of the steps.

The only time you should ever draw stairs from an upper level down is when you are going from a floor platform such as a deck to the ground or finished grade. When stairs are drawn between two floor platforms, they should be drawn from the lower floor platform to the upper floor platform.

Deck Framing

You can frame deck rooms two ways in Chief Architect: Standard deck framing or Advanced Deck Framing.

If Advanced Deck Framing has not been built, the program creates standard deck framing when you generate floor framing using the Build Framing dialog. If you have a deck on your second floor, you must go to the 1st floor tab and select framing for the platform above to generate standard deck framing. See "Floor Tabs".

Normally, standard decks appear as solid platforms in all 3D views. Standard deck framing displays in 3D views if you create a framing overview. You can change the deck materials that displays in 3D views on the Materials Tab of the Room Specification dialog. See "Materials Tab".

You can create Advanced Deck Framing details that also include posts, support beams, and deck planking using the Build Advanced Deck Framing

edit button. If a foundation level exists, the program also creates supports for the deck. You do not need to build any other framing using the Build Framing dialog to create and display the Advanced Deck Framing.

If you want to remove the Advanced Deck Framing, select the deck room and click the Remove Advanced Deck Framing

edit button. Normally, the advanced framing deck display in all 3D views.

Deck Planking

The display of the deck planking is controlled by the Framing, Deck Planking layer in the Layer Display Options dialog. See "Layer Display Options Dialog".

You can customize the planking overhang, width, spacing and border on the Deck tab of the Room Specification dialog. See "Deck Tab".

After setting these specifications, select the deck room and click the Advanced Deck Framing

edit button. If Advanced Deck Framing has already been built, click Remove Advanced Deck Framing first.

Once created, the individual planking and framing objects created by the Advanced Deck Framing

tool can be edited like CAD objects. See "Editing Closed-Polyline Based Objects".