Roofs: a pitch for each wall, gables, sheds and roof planes

What you'll do

Shape the roof from the walls under it. Every wall gets its own setting, so one roof can be hipped at the front, gabled at the ends and stop flat against a taller wall at the back. For a porch or any face the automatic roof can't make, draw a roof plane by its corners.

Put a roof on

1. On the level whose walls carry the roof, click Roof.
2. Type the Pitch (6/12, or degrees such as 30) and the Overhang.
3. Choose a preset: Hip roof, Gables on the short sides, Gables on the long sides, or Shed (the side nearest the pointer is the low eave; the other sides are gable ends).
4. Leave Fascia and soffit ticked for boxed eaves with a fascia board, or untick it for a bare roof edge.
5. Point inside the building: the eave, the ridge, the hips and the valleys show on the plan. Click.

Any outline works: L, T, U and plus shapes, angled corners and notches. Hips, ridges and valleys are found where the roof planes meet.

One wall at a time

Pick the roof (on the level above the walls, click inside its outline) and look under Each wall in Properties. Pointing at a row marks that wall on the plan.

• Pitched: the wall has a sloping roof plane over it. Type its own pitch beside it, for example 12/12 for steep ends on a 6/12 roof.
• Gable end: the roof stops in a vertical end over that wall, the wall is filled up to the roof, and the roof runs past it by the Gable overhang.
• None (stops flush): the roof stops at that wall with no overhang and no gable wall, for a roof against a taller wall.

The Ends list at the top sets every wall at once; Set per wall shows when the walls no longer match a preset.

Plate height, fascia and soffit

• Plate height is where the roof planes meet the outside of the walls, measured from the level's floor. Leave it blank to sit the roof on the top of the walls; type a larger value for a raised heel.
• Fascia height is the board along the eaves and up the rakes. Type 0 for none.
• Boxed eaves puts a level soffit under each eave, from the wall to the back of the fascia.

Every plane meets its wall at the plate height, so walls with different pitches keep one plate line and their eaves end at different heights, as they would be framed.

Draw a roof plane

1. On the level whose walls the plane sits on, open Build and choose Roof plane.
2. Type the Pitch and, if it isn't the top of the walls, the Eave height.
3. Click the corners. The first side you draw is the eave; the plane rises from it towards the rest of the shape.
4. Click the first corner again, double-click, or press ReturnEnter to finish. EscEsc drops the corners.

A roof plane doesn't follow the walls. Pick it on the level above (click inside it) to change its pitch, eave height or thickness, or press fn DeleteDelete to remove it.

What's saved

Roofs are IFC roofs made of one roof slab per plane, gable walls, one fascia member and one soffit covering. The roof carries its ridge, hip, valley, eave and rake lengths, and its areas, for takeoffs. A roof plane is an IFC roof with one slab.