13 replies to this topic

[Martin Livingston]

Hi

 

Just finished my first townhouse in Softplan. I have been using AutoCAD for them up to this point. I learned a lot from this project!

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[Kevin Rabenaldt]

That looks mighty good.  What did you learn from doing this in SP?

[Keith Almond]

Looks good Martin, but why did you feel the need to use AutoCad previously? It's still a lot easier in Softplan!

 

How do you manage to put so many steps in your side walls. Aren't they too high for backfill against an unrestrained wall?

[Martin Livingston]

That looks mighty good.  What did you learn from doing this in SP?

I originally intended to create 6 different projects, one for each unit, and assemble them with the "neighbourhood" function. Unfortunately when I started adding the third unit to the site plan I started losing details from the neighbourhood house models. I was hoping to use this method because it was an easy way to place them at different heights to deal with the basement floor levels. This building has only 1 grade change so there were only 6 floor levels to manage. The next building has 3 grade changes and 9 floor levels. Ultimately the plan was to create the 6 units which would encompass all the potential unit configurations and combine them to make each of the buildings on the street. I had left and right ends, left and right middle units and a couple with 9' ceilings in the lower floor. 

 

When I figured out that the "neighbourhood" function would not work for the renderings I resigned myself to the need to combine the six drawings into one for at least the 3D model. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Softplan automatically assigns new floor level numbers to each of the inserted drawings. I also learned that I could assemble the plan sheets from all the individual project drawings leaving the original drawings intact to use in the assembly of the next 5 buildings. The only real problem I ran into was having to explode any live schedules so they would not reset when I added them to a plan sheet in a remote folder.

[Martin Livingston]

Looks good Martin, but why did you feel the need to use AutoCad previously? It's still a lot easier in Softplan!

 

How do you manage to put so many steps in your side walls. Aren't they too high for backfill against an unrestrained wall?

Up to 6 feet of fill is no problem on a seven foot wall. there will be some areas were I have 7 feet of fill on an unsupported 8 foot wall which may require a stamp from my engineer.

[Keith Almond]

Up to 6 feet of fill is no problem on a seven foot wall. there will be some areas were I have 7 feet of fill on an unsupported 8 foot wall which may require a stamp from my engineer.

 

Ahh, Ontario only allows 3'-11" of backfill against a standard 8" - 20MPa poured concrete wall that's unrestrained at the top. For that reason I typically use 2' - 5' - 8' for my wall steps in walkout basements. That allows a minimum of 9" of exposed concrete (allowing for a 4" slab) at the top end of the 5' step.

[Martin Livingston]

I was asked why I was still using AutoCAD for our townhouses. For several years we were repeating a product I had already completed in AutoCAD before we acquired Softplan. I could not justify the time required to redo the work in Softplan when it was a fairly simple task to alter the existing AutoCAD drawing. This new design is a complete departure in style and structure so the work now was warranted. Also, our sales people are becoming more dependant on renderings to help market them.

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[Michael Collazo]

Great work. I have struggled to find a way to do these in SP myself.

[randolph cohn]

i've done a few developments and didn't use the neighborhood command for the 3d renderings.

 

i created separate 3d models for each unit and this way i could move, rotate, offset, etc

each of the separate models as needed.

 

not saying this is the best method but it worked for me and the few people i helped

used the method over the years..

for me it's "the easy way out"

 

note:  i'll bet the "neighborhood command" is really the way it should be done.

the projects i've done were all single family homes.

with attached town house development,  not sure which would be

the best / easiest way to go.

[Martin Livingston]

Just a follow up on the unsupported backfilled walls. I talked with the engineer and the most cost effective way to accomplish this is to simply pour a 9' wall and pin it to the floor diaphragm so it is no longer "unsupported." I am still only using the 7' of backfill so 12 inch 1x4 sleepers will be embedded in the concrete at 16" OC to extend the exterior finish down to where it would be if I had used an 8' wall.

[Martin Livingston]

note:  i'll bet the "neighborhood command" is really the way it should be done.

the projects i've done were all single family homes.

with attached town house development,  not sure which would be

the best / easiest way to go.

 

When I experimented with it initially the neighbourhood function worked like a charm. the joint between the individual units was seamless. But that was with only a few units. When I started adding more, Softplan started dropping or changing details. First the light fixtures in the neighbourhood disappeared, then the spindles on the porch railing dropped foot relative to the rails and then the round concrete piers turned into 10x10 square wood columns. I tried everything to make it clean up but no luck.

[Keith Almond]

When I experimented with it initially the neighbourhood function worked like a charm. the joint between the individual units was seamless. But that was with only a few units. When I started adding more, Softplan started dropping or changing details. First the light fixtures in the neighbourhood disappeared, then the spindles on the porch railing dropped foot relative to the rails and then the round concrete piers turned into 10x10 square wood columns. I tried everything to make it clean up but no luck.

 

I hope you let Softplan know ... these are issues that they really need to fix. In my opinion, Softplan is the best CAD system I've ever used, but there are still a number of issues like this that really need to be fixed. Especially relating to stairs and railings.

[Jacques Phelps]

_{Very nice work Martin.}

[Joseph Smith]

Great job!