Good morning,
Over the many years of using SoftPlan, I have just come to accept SoftPlan's default zero elevation offset. By default SoftPlan determines that zero elevation (bench mark if you will) is the bottom of the slab.
This has never made sense to me as a builder, because in my mind, zero elevation should reference the top of slab, not the bottom. I cannot even use a transit to shoot the underside of the slab, because the foundation would be in the way.
In constructing a home, if I have a step down or step up in the home, it is always referenced from the top of the main slab (zero benchmark), so my step would be plus 4" or minus 4". On paper and in the field the terminology matches, but within SoftPlan, it does not match field or paper.
When drawing in SoftPlan and you have multiple stories with multiple floor levels, (and even just setting beams for that matter) it becomes a challenge at times to do accurate math. You always have to "add" that 4" that the slab has defaulted the wall heights to. It also becomes a problem sometimes if you delete or modify a slab, because your walls have automatically jumped up 4".
I say all this to ask this question....
Wouldn't it make more sense if the top of slab was SoftPlan's default ZERO position?
I may be the only one that thinks this way, but I bet I am not.