16 replies to this topic

[Jeffrey Elliott]

I have a very small house I am drawing and the property falls to the street and the house is built back into the ground.  It is a basement with stet walls and I have never built a house...with true stepped walls.  The bottom of the wall is 8" concrete and the upper half is framed.  How is the best way to draw two types of walls in the same verticle space having different elevations?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jeff

[Keith Almond]

I've created MULTI-MATERIAL walls where the materials split at 2', 5' and 8' heights, so that the actual wall definition includes the concrete wall and the frost walls up to a certain height, and then siding or other walls above. I found that trying to stack walls was almost impossible.

 

 

Personally I can't see a downside. All the walls have a constant height, they display well on plan, and the windows are able to cross material boundaries.

 

The other benefit, is that they are very quick to draw once you have your material definitions sorted out. You can just INSERT BREAK wherever you need too, and change the wall to suit. In Ontario, you can't backfill more than 3'-11" against a wall that isn't full height, so the 2', 5' and 8' nominal heights worked very well.

 

 

 

Using profiles, you can also do some really clever stuff with I.C.F. brick ledges etc.

 

 

 

[Keith Almond]

Apologies, there is a downside, but it only becomes obvious when you get to the inside .... Normally I don't show this bit ....

 

I don't think the windows are intended to be used like this ...

 

 

However, one of the builders I have worked for, never built half height frost walls. So if you define all the frost walls as full height, depending on how you actually build them, you might be good to go. Personally I like the "drinks ledge".

 

To be fair it's a little inaccurate, the way I use it, because usually I create a full height basement, add plates and floor etc, and generate a 3D. Then I edit the grades and walls. So in actuality, the lower wall ends up with 3 top plates. (1 Sill plate and 2 top wall plates). Now we NEVER use the material takeoffs in Softlist anyway, and the section is easy enough to edit. So it's not an issue. It's also something that can easily be corrected if it does become an issue. It's just the quickest way to get a reasonably accurate working drawing.

[Jay Preeshl]

I have created a (I call it a  knee wall plan).

It is a seperate drawing I create by using "SAVE AS" on foundation plan.

Erase full height foundation walls, part erase on others as needed.

Don't erase foundation walls where a wood wall will sit on top of. Just change heights and offsets.

When creating your elevations include  this knee wall plan when stacking floors.

I like Keith's idea though but never tried it.

[Keith Almond]

If they are any use to you ... maybe get you going quickly, I've enclosed some wall definitions. Hopefully some of them may work for you. Feel free to EDIT and play as you see fit.

 

GO TO DRAWING OPTIONS > DEFINE WALL > IMPORT/EXPORT. Click on the FILE radio button, and then click LOAD FILE, and navigate to where you saved the extracted ZIP file.

 

Obviously, you can add these to your SYSTEM OPTIONS too, if you wish, but I'd make sure they work for you first.

 

Good Luck

Attached Files

•  Multi Material Walls.zip   4.93KB   200 downloads

[Keith Almond]

Just added a few grades so you can see what the final idea looks like ...

 

[Jeffrey Elliott]

Keith, I took your advice and did create walls very similar to yours.  I have created about 4 different height walls and I think this is going to work well.  I spoke with the builder early this morning and he will build the  frame walls out into the room as needed.

 

Thank you all again for the help.  It was an easy fix...I was just having an issue getting my head around it for some reason.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

[PRESTON FOX]

Hi.

 

We currently upgraded to Softplan 2016, and before that we were using Softplan 2013 I believe. Anyway, there use to be a lot more types of walls to select from, for example when I am trying to build shorter knee wall wood framed walls on top of a concrete wall. I used to be able to select a type that provide this all in one wall, but in the 2016 version I am using, I can not find it, and trying to stack a concrete wall offset below a 2x6 wood/siding wall is nearly impossible as the walls do not want to join. Any suggestions? Is there a place a I can re-download these helpful walls I once had? Or is it a lost cause?

 

Jaime

[Keith Almond]

I don't remember there ever been walls like that in the standard version, but maybe there was. You can always download the walls in Post #5 of this thread and adapt them to suit.

 

Alternately, if you open one of your old drawings in 2016, you should be able to open the walls menu at drawing level, export all of your original walls to a file, and them import them into 2016 at system level.

 

I wholeheartedly agree ... trying to stack walls is a lost cause.

[randolph cohn]

check out the "extended wall list"

 

to learn how to change the type of wall lists your using

 

go to "HELP"  at the top of any softplan drawing.

 

type in > "extended wall list selecting"

or

something like that.

maybe someone knows an easier way to change your wall lists

to remodeller, extended and one other i can't remember the name for.

 

see if there's a "pony wall"

 

you might also want to search for "pony wall"  or "stepped wall"

 

note: you can also EDIT a conc wall to be "sepped"

 

takes a little to get used to but works.

[randolph cohn]

an easy way to change wall lists:

 

to select a wall list to use

select FILE / SYSTEM OPTIONS / SYSTEM OPTIONS

highlite > DEFINE WALL

 

the DEFINE WALL menu opens:

you can select one of the wall lists below:

 

1.  standard

2.  extended

3.  remodeller

[Keith Almond]

The downside with that Randy, is that once you customise the walls, changing the default wall list reinstalls all the walls, and resets all walls to the Softplan defaults. It's best to choose a wall list and stick to it.

[randolph cohn]

keith,

 

i was just suggesting that the wall he's looking for might be in that extended list.

 

personally i have a MASTER drawing which i use for any new project.

 

when i've finished the latest project,  a do a "save as" of that drawing

and name is MASTER FILE with the date. 

so now this new master has all my latest walls and changes

and i copy this latest master into the newest projects folder

along with a base drawing which is used with my title block.

the master will be used to draw my first floor plan

and than "save as" for all future drawings for this latest project.

 

sounds like he's talking about a pony wall that tom roman

taught me when i first started in 1998 / v10 (the first softplan windows version)

[PRESTON FOX]

Keith:

 

How did you create these "multi-material" walls in Softplan 2016? I am struggling with getting my elevations to show correctly footings, concrete, and knee walls, in split-level entry's. I've tried to offset the walls at different heights, but they do not want to join and leave big gaps between the tops of the concrete walls and the bottom of the wood framed walls.

 

Thanks!

Jaime

[Keith Almond]

Jaime, They are built completely in the wall definition menu, and are defined as single walls - They are NOT two walls stacked on top of each other. The walls don't offset at all, they are all the same height, just the individual material heights in the single walls vary - download the zip file from post #5 and load it into a drawing, and have a look at all the individual definitions.

 

Here's a full example definition if it's helpful ... Note all the vertical start locations ...

 

[PRESTON FOX]

Keith:

 

I tried to download the zip file you provided to us yesterday, but my computer does not recognize SPW files. Any suggestions as to how I can achieve this?

[PRESTON FOX]

Keith:

 

Head slap! Duh! I figured it out now after reading your instructions you posted with the file. Thank you so much for your help on this.

 

Have a blessed day!

 

Jaime