Sweden
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using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Hi: As an architect, I made multi-storey buildings in SH3D with walls, pillars, slabs and staircases, that is of bearing structures. The roofs were boxes, I could do even wavy ones. Now I have a commission for a building with high roof with tiles. As Keet pointed out to me, you need the SH3D "room" object even for just starting the "Generate roof" plugin. As my buildings have no room objects, I cannot use that plugin. Please, tell me how to use it without rooms, or how to turn walls into rooms. Or there is some other roof plugin? I searched in and outside SH3D but could not find a solution. Thanks in advance!
Netherlands
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
I'm not sure what you have against rooms but you can draw a room, generate a roof from it and then delete the room. The generated roof can be changed by selecting the roof and starting the roof generator again. It will read the selected roof and you no longer need the room.
The roofs were boxes, I could do even wavy ones.
The roof generator can't create wavy roofs. That's the one limit in Sweet Home 3D: creating curved or bend forms other than a curved wall is very difficult or impossible.
Especially when creating multi-story buildings rooms are an integral part of the design. Basically a room is a slab. The difference with a box is that it has special properties, for example allowing cutouts for a staircase. You define the thickness of the room (slab) in the level properties. Going back to your staircase: A level is defined by its height and floor thickness. Wall 250, floor 20 results in a total level height of 270, the height you would use for the staircase. This means the room really is a slab as thick as you defined in the level. (right-click on the level tab to see/edit the level properties.) I think the name 'room' sounds strange coming from an architecture background but remember that Sweet Home 3D originally started as an interior design program which made the name 'room' the logical choice. As an object in a project it really is a floor/slab. You can design complete houses with Sweet Home 3D but it is not a program architects can use to create building plans. It's very good to create a 3D representation of a house design.
Check out the user guide about adding levels where this is explained: https://www.sweethome3d.com/userGuide.jsp#addingLevels. You can also check out the blog post about split-levels where the correlation between levels, walls, and rooms is explained too. Once you understand how rooms really work you will be glad to use them instead of boxes as slabs.
France
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Read the FAQHow can I create a roof on top of a house? to get some ideas about roof creation. But as said Keet, you should start using rooms if you want to use Sweet Home 3D correctly, moreover if you want to manage multiple levels and/or non rectangular rooms.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
Sweden
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Hi Puybaret: Thanks for the fast answer. That is a sad thing for me. I mean, in architecture there is no such structure as "room." They are spaces with boundaries of bearing structures, walls an slabs. Handling them as structures is beyond weird for me. --You didn't say how to turn walls into rooms, so possibly no go. --I did not imagine that SH3D is not good for architects. --So, sorrily, I have to go over to some true CAD. FreeCAD is already downloaded and installed, now I have to learn that. Thanks again, and goodbye.
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
Sweden
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Sadly, there is no architect in the group of programmers of this software. None of them read a book about architecture. And none of them read even an introduction article about architecture. Then they would know the basic principles. They do not realize that the starting units of architecture means bearing structures. I would say they are stupid, but that would be a lie. They are very good programmers. So, they are clever people, who are totally ignorant of architecture. I am sorry, because they could have made a real architectural software. And that is a shame. Architecture based on "rooms" is laughably ridiculous for a professional. This not about being satisfied with the software. Simply, they just missed the basic point of architecture. Also, in real life, we do not put a roof onto "rooms." We put a roof onto a building, made of walls and slabs.
Netherlands
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
I am sorry, because they could have made a real architectural software.
That is your misconception about Sweet Home 3D. It is not architectural software and never was. It's interior design software where it's capabilities have grown far beyond the interior alone. If you expect true architectural capabilities I suggest you look for something else because that is not what Sweet Home 3D is.
France
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
In your case, SH3D is not suitable. You should turn to CAD (Computer Aided Design) and BIM (Building Information Modeling) software, much more suited to your needs. AutoCad, Revit and Rhino are just a few of the best-known, but there are many others that should satisfy your needs...
Romania
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Initially I was tempted to ignore this tread but:
None of them read a book about architecture. And none of them read even an introduction article about architecture.
Like I've already said I'm not an official architect and I don't pretend to be one. If that help you, you have to know I've read and I've tried to put on papers plans the Le Corbusier modulor principle and also the golden ratio. In my work I've needed to observe and learn how some of the ancestors have build their buildings and then to correctly reproduce it with SH3D. And I've succeed. How? Because I'm adaptable and I'm not stack on a term or OS. I don't care what the name of a tool is but what for it could be used for and how I can efficiently use it. You, as architect, are stacked on "slab" and you don't want or You are not able to understood that the "room" in SH3D is more than your slab. It's part of the plan and it is indispensable for the building structure. Why it is more than your slab?? Because it include it as floor (with surface and thickness) and have also a ceiling and is surrounded with invisible walls. In terms of CAD programs (any CAD programs including SH3D or ACAD) almost you seen on the screen are polygons, open or closed, filled or empty.
Also, in real life, we do not put a roof onto "rooms." We put a roof onto a building, made of walls and slabs.
Correct! A stupid question from a non-architect: without a plan?? If you draw plan for roof you don't draw the roof limits (roof projection)?? to know from where to where you are allowed to build the roof?? Your drawled roof projection is not a polygon?? I've used rooms as a polygon to generate roofs. Until these I've read a lot of articles about roofs and the straight skeleton, weighted straight skeleton etc. By the way, wile I'm not a programmer or an architect, how you think a roof generator plugin have to work? Please describe what the user have to do.
---------------------------------------- A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law (Greer's Third Law) When all else fails, read the instructions.Murphy's Law
Russia
Joined: Aug 13, 2022
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Re: using "Generate roof" plugin without rooms
Dorin, this novice architect will not be able to answer qualitatively. It's a troll. I am an ancient architect and I understand everything about this process. My idol Antonio Gaudi did not make drawings at all, and drew with a stick in the sand for the workers what they should do. This is normal! Because a real master has everything in his head, and a computer is not needed at all. And if there is nothing in your head, then no program will help. This is about architecture. And the fact that SH3D is a cool program for all tasks, only a blind person does not hear. Or the deaf can't see. Dorin, the plug-in for roofs is super. Don't even doubt it.
