Adding Floors

Now we'll add a basement and second story to our plan. Anytime after the first floor layout has been finalized is a good time to add additional floors. For more information about working with multiple floors, see "Multiple Floors".

To create a foundation or basement

Press Ctrl + Tab on your keyboard to return to floor plan view.

Select Build> Floor> Build Foundation

. In the Foundation Defaults dialog, change the Min Wall Height to 96 inches and click OK. See "Foundation Defaults".

Select Derive New Foundation Plan From the First Floor Plan and click OK to close the New Floor dialog.

You can select Window> Fill Window Building Only

from the menu to center the plan on screen.

To add a second floor

Click the Up One Floor

button to return to the first floor.

Select Build> Floor> Build New Floor

. The New Floor dialog appears.

Select Derive new 2nd floor plan from the 1st floor plan and click OK to close the New Floor dialog. A floor plan appears for the second floor based on the first floor plan. We'll need to edit the walls of our second floor manually. It will be difficult to know where the second story walls should be without knowing where the first floor walls are located.

Select Tools> Reference Floors> Reference Display

(or press F9). The first floor walls are displayed for reference.

In the next few pages we will edit these second story walls step-by-step. When finished, we will have four exterior walls that are aligned as shown in the following image.

To achieve this, we could create a blank second floor plan and draw our second story walls manually, or we could generate second story walls based on the layout of the first floor (which we've already done), then merge walls.

To merge two parallel walls into one

To finish merging the second story walls

Note: Before merging walls, make sure Object Snaps are turned on.

When finished, the bottom wall should be 20 feet from the top wall.

Select 3D> Create Render View> Render Full Overview

from the menu to create a 3D overview of our entire plan so far.

To add a second story deck

Now that we have a second floor, we'll use the tools and techniques we learned earlier to add a second story deck that is aligned with the first story deck below. See "Decks" for more information.

Press Ctrl + Tab on your keyboard to switch back to floor plan view.

If they are not already displayed, click Reference Display

to display the first floor walls.

Select the Straight Deck Railing

tool.

Draw a deck as shown in the following image. If you have Object Snaps

on, the second story deck railing will likely be drawn in alignment with the first floor on your first attempt. If not, you can align the deck railing with the first floor deck below in the following steps.

Select a section of deck railing that has a deck railing below it on the first floor, click the Open Object

edit button to open it for specification, check Align with Below on the General tab of the Wall Specification dialog, and click OK. (If Align with Below is disabled the wall needs to be moved closer to the wall below, or the wall is already aligned.) This will align the selected deck railing with the deck railing below.

Repeat this step for each section of deck railing that has a deck railing directly below it on the first floor. When you are finished, your second floor should look like this: