Generating Automatic Hip and Gable Roofs

The information in this article applies to:

QUESTION

How do I build hip and gable roofs automatically?

ANSWER

The automatic roof utility in Chief Architect allows you to create a wide variety of roof designs using the Build Roof dialog and the roof directives that you can set in the Wall Specification dialogs for each exterior wall in your plan.

This tutorial will cover building an automatic hip and an automatic gable roof, changing the pitch of a roof plane above a wall, and how to adjust the ceiling height of a room.

INDEX

• Automatic Hip Roof
• Automatic Gable Roof
• Controlling Roof Height

An automatic hip roof is the easiest type of roof to create in Chief Architect, because the program will generate a roof plane on each exterior wall in your plan by default, resulting in a hip condition.

To create an automatic hip roof

1. Select Build> Wall> Straight Exterior Wall from the menu, then click and drag four wall sections to form a rectangle.
   
   
   • In this example, a rectangle 40' by 30' is used.
   
   
   
2. Select Build> Roof> Build Roof from the menu to display the Build Roof dialog:
   
   
   
   
   Note: In Chief Architect version 10 and newer, the Auto Rebuild Roofs option directs the program to rebuild the roof any time a change is made to the plan that will affect the roof. This option is useful for this exercise, but is not completely necessary.
   
   
   • Check the box beside Build Roof Planes.
     
     
   • Notice that Rebuild Walls/Floors/Ceilings and Build Fascia And Roof Trim are also checked automatically. Though it is highly recommended to leave these options checked, they can be unchecked if necessary.
     
     
   • Make note of the Pitch and adjust as necessary; all automatically generated roof planes will be made using the pitch specified.
     
     
   • Click OK to close the dialog and generate an automatic hip roof.
     
     
   
   
   
3. Select 3D> Create Perspective View> Perspective Full Overview from the menu to see the results in 3D.
   
   

If a gable is needed above a particular wall instead of a hip roof plane, this can be set in the Wall Specification dialog of the wall in question.

To create an automatic gable roof

1. Select File> Close View from the menu to close out of the Render Overview window and return to floor plan view.
   
   
   
2. Click on a wall that you would like to form a gable over to select it, then click the Open Object edit button.
   
   
   
3. On the Roof panel of the Wall Specification dialog, check the box beside Full Gable Wall, then click OK to close the dialog and apply the change.
   
   
   
   
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is enabled, the roof will automatically update to reflect this change.
     
     
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is not enabled, select Build> Roof> Build Roof from the menu, check the box beside Build Roof Planes, and click OK to rebuild the roof.
     
     
   
   
   
4. Click on the wall opposite the new Full Gable Wall and repeat steps 2 and 3, above.
   
   
   
   
5. Select 3D> Create Perspective View> Perspective Full Overview from the menu to see the results in 3D.
   
   
   

In the event that the automatically generated roof planes should generate at a specific height, the height that automatic roofs generate is determined by the ceiling heights within the structure.

To control the height of automatic roofs

1. Select File> Close View from the menu to close the Render Overview window and return to floor plan view.
   
   
   
2. Select Edit> Default Settings from the menu, and in the Default Settings dialog, click on the word Floor in the list, then click the Edit button.
   
   
   
3. In the Floor 1 Defaults dialog, change the Finished Ceiling (F) to 121 1/8", then click OK to close the dialog and apply the change.
   
   
   
   
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is enabled, the roof will automatically update to reflect this change.
     
     
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is not used, select Build> Roof> Build Roof from the menu, check the box beside Build Roof Planes, and click OK to rebuild the roof.
   
   
   
4. To see the difference that this change makes on roof height, select Build> Wall> Straight Interior Wall from the menu, then click and drag to draw an interior wall perpendicular to the ridge of the roof.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click on this wall to select it, then click the Open Object edit button. On the Roof panel of the Wall Specification dialog, check the box beside Full Gable Wall, then click OK.
   
   
   
6. Click in an empty space in the room on the left to select it, then click the Open Object edit button.
   
   
   
7. On the Structure panel of the Room Specification dialog, delete the Finished Ceiling (F) value and type in 97 1/8", then click OK to close the dialog and apply the change to this room only.
   
   
   
   
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is enabled, the roof will automatically update to reflect this change.
     
     
   • If Auto Rebuild Roofs is not used, select Build> Roof> Build Roof from the menu, check the box beside Build Roof Planes, and click OK to rebuild the roof.
     
     
   
   
   
8. Select 3D> Create Perspective Camera> Perspective Full Overview from the menu to see the results in 3D.
   
   
   
   

   It's important to remember that automatic roofs are generated based on the current ceiling heights. If you change the ceiling height after the roof is built, the height of the roof will not be affected until it's rebuilt.