Is there a quick way to show only the roof's outline in a floor plan?

[Gadget Man]

Hi All,

What I am looking for is a way (a filter, a view template or otherwise) to show only the roof's outline (the eave line or overhang) in a floor plan, without showing all the ridge, hip and valley lines?

I know (and use) the method of turning on an underlay of the roof plan above and using the Linework tool to change it manually by clicking on each line one-by-one. In each floor plan variety I want to display the roof outline (electrical, bracing, framing, etc). Tedious...

Another method (less "inteligent") is to draw the outline using symbolic lines and lock them to your roof, so they update automatically when needed. This is an easy task but the problem is that these lines are view specific only, so when you copy them to the other view they loose their constrains to the roof. You could draw them in each view separately but then this whole method is not much different from the first (and a little worst).

The third method I often use is to draw the roof's outline using symbolic lines (like above) and turn them into a group. Then copy and "paste in current view" in each relevant view. The quickest method of them all but you can't lock the lines to your roof (they are a group), so they won't update automatically when needed. This is not a big deal, because you need only to update one occurence of the group and all of them will update together, but it requires the user to be aware of it.

Still, the project at hand (a marketing brochure) consists of... 6 two storey houses, each in 4 variations (slightly different rooflines and features) and it needs to be reflected in 7 different views for each variation... 6×4×7×2 levels each=336 views that need to have just the roof's outline shown and the rest of the roofs hidden...

I would love to finish this job while I'm still relatively young, so... any ideas?

[Exar Kun]

Could you attach a fascia to the roof, then in the floor plan, with the underlay on, hide everything to do with the roof except the fascia and override the fascia with the linestyle you want? Obviously override with a view template setting but would still need to hide the roof itself by element in each view I think.

[Gadget Man]

Could you attach a fascia to the roof, then in the floor plan, with the underlay on, hide everything to do with the roof except the fascia and override the fascia with the linestyle you want? Obviously override with a view template setting but would still need to hide the roof itself by element in each view I think.

Thanks for the reply. You've got me thinking... Maybe if I use combination of filters and view templates... say, run the fascia made just out of a tiny profile, then create the filter to exclude everything but that fascia in the roof category and create the view template just with this subcategory (via the filter) turned on...? I will try it on Monday. I've had enough for this week.

Thank you anyway for the idea.

[DaveP]

You could also try the "overlay on Sheet" method.
Make a copy of your Roof Plan, fix up the graphics the way you want so only the edge is visible.
Then go to the Sheet your Floor Plan lives on and drag the new Roof Edge Plan right on top of the Floor Plan. You should see the alignment reference lines both horizontally and vertically when you've got the Roof perfectly aligned with the Floor. Turn off the View Title for the Roof, and viola! no one is the wiser that you have two View on top of each other.

You may need to play around a bit to make sure the Roof View is behind the Floor View, and you won't be able to Dimension between the two, but I believe this would be the simplest process for you.

[dhurtubise]

You could also try the "overlay on Sheet" method.
Make a copy of your Roof Plan, fix up the graphics the way you want so only the edge is visible.
Then go to the Sheet your Floor Plan lives on and drag the new Roof Edge Plan right on top of the Floor Plan. You should see the alignment reference lines both horizontally and vertically when you've got the Roof perfectly aligned with the Floor. Turn off the View Title for the Roof, and viola! no one is the wiser that you have two View on top of each other.

You may nee to play around a bit to make sure the Roof View is behind the Floor View, and you won't be able to Dimension between the two, but I believe this would be the simplest process for you.

Create a simple line-based family and apply it around the roof.

[Ning Zhou]

Create a simple line-based family and apply it around the roof.

that's for simplified fascia, can be as simple as just symbolic lines, but you can still get linear feet info. for these fascia.

for visibility at lower floor plans, you may have to use invisible line trick.

so for more BIM like solution -> line-based family + invisible line + filter + template.