Video: https://youtu.be/ndBCKm5E0Tg
Instructions from Video
There are three ways to create a roof in Envisioneer.
Roof By Perimeter is used if the shape of the house and the shape of the roof match. This tool will use the exterior wall shell to put a roof around that area.
The Roof By Picking Points tool should be used if the shape of the exterior walls doesn’t match the roof or you are putting a roof on a porch outside of the exterior wall perimeter.
The Surfaces tool can also be used to form a roof. We will cover that option in another video.
There are a series of questions that you should always ask yourself before designing a roof.
- Does the shape of the roof match the shape of the house? This helps to determine if you use “Roof by Perimeter” or “Roof by Picking Points”.
- In our example the roof on the second floor does but the roof on the ground floor does not. So, on the Second Floor, we will use Roof by Perimeter. Select the roof from the catalog and then move the cursor inside the perimeter shell of the building. The command colours the interior of the roof perimeter. Left-click to insert the roof.
- The second question to ask, are there any gables?
- Locate and place the gables on the roof before anything else. Left-click on the overhang of the created roof and arrows appear. There is an arrow for each separate surface that makes up the roof geometry. The arrows hold information like pitch, plate height, slope and style. A green arrow indicates a surface has been selected and it is ready to be edited. By clicking on an arrow, you can turn it from red to green and alter multiple roof surfaces at the same time. The sample roof has 3 gables so select their corresponding arrows to green. Once selected, right-click and select Properties.
- In the Roofs dialog box, in the upper left corner, select the Roof Shape There are many roof styles available and the custom allows you to put multiple styles together. Select Gable and click OK. Click OK to exit the Roofs dialog box. The 3 sides are now gables on the roof.
- Next question, are there are any changes in pitch or plate height?
- In the sample video model, the pitches running front to pack are 6/12 but the pitches running left to right are 10/12. The roof was put on as a 6/12 so I will select the left and right arrows and turn them all to green so I can edit their pitch. Right-click and select Properties. Here I simply change the slope value to 10 and then click The roof updates.
Now let’s work on the roof over the garage. I will change the location to the Ground floor location.
Check number 1, does the shape of the roof on this location match the shape of the house? No. We must therefore us the Roof by Picking Points command. Pick points at every corner of the roof. In the sample video model go all the way out to the columns where the roof where bear on and then back to the house to do the same outline in points as the roof shape. Once done, right-click and select Finish. The hip roof is created.
So now for the second question, where are the gables? The first gable is on the right side of the garage where we can see the ridge leading to. For the other gables, there is a good rule of thumb that you can use for all your roofs:
Where you wouldn’t hang a gutter or eavestrough, you would make that edge a gable.
So, therefore, each arrow that is up against the house will be made into a gable. This allows the roof to rake up to the house. 2 gables that are side by side will form a shed roof. With the arrows selected, right-click and select Properties.
In the Roof dialog box, select the Roof Shape button and change the style to Gable. Click OK to exit the Roof dialog box.
There are no plate height changes on this roof, so it is finished. The 3D view of this roof matches the plans.
Key takeaway. Always answer these questions in the order in every roof you model and you will have success! I hope that makes your work easier!