Overview

Once you have drawn in the walls, creating the roof shape is very simple.

It is simply a case of visualising the roof shape that you wish to create. Points should then be added only at the starts and ends of any ridges or wallplates.

You can see in the simple square example below, how different roof shapes can be created by adding points in the appropriate positions.

Box Gutters will automatically be inserted where the base a of slope meets a house wall.

More complex designs may have more than two points – just add them in where necessary.

Creating the Roof Shape

1. In the Points/ Spiders tab, click the where you would like to add points. If you add a point incorrectly in error, click on that point to select it, then either use your Delete key on the keyboard or click Remove Spider

2. Once you have the points all now plotted in as desired, click into the Ridges/Wallplates tab. Click and drag from one point to the next to create the ridges and wallplates. Release the mouse button, whilst hovering over the end point (Point 2 in the example below).

3. Once you’ve joined up all the points, click into the Hips/Valleys tab to check the roof shape. The software will generally create these all correctly, unless there are points very close together, in which case, you may need to correct the points – this is covered in the next article

If your roof shape is correct, you can click ‘Next’ through all the remaining tabs. Your drawing with then be created in 3D, ready to edit the frames and add final touches to the roof, such as tie-bars and roof vents.