Split Levels/Floors

[Elisa]

Good Day Everyone,

I have an existing building, the lobby is in between the 1st and 2nd floors, right now the user just placed the walls and floors offset from the closest level. The building is on a slope so at one end the entrance is on the 1st floor on the opposite end the entrance is at the 2nd floor so therefore it was only obvious to the original architect to place the lobby in the middle.

I'm wondering if I should actually place a level since it is a large lobby. I seem to have some room boundary issues and floor plans show some walls cut strangely.

Any advice?

Thanks!!!

[Dimitri Harvalias]

If you require a separate floor plan of this area then I would suggest adding the level. As you've already discovered rooms may behave strangely if they are not associated with the correct level and managing a bunch of plan regions to get the display correctly can be a pain. You'll also not be able to sort and filter schedules based on the 'Lobby' level if there is no level datum.

[dzatto]

You have way more experience than I do! But, I recently did a large house (~25,000 s.f.) with multiple levels. I set it up with a main level, then did the offsets for all the other levels. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned into a real pain. The next time it comes up, I'll set a level for each.....well.....level. That's my $.02. But, like I said, I'm still a noob. :laugh:

[Elisa]

I don't need to schedule the lobby separately, but I'd rather deal with the plan regions than the weirdness of rooms and doors and walls acting funny. Most of it is existing I think that's why the user didn't think it was necessary to add another level, but I don't like the consequences.

Thanks Dimitri!

[mdradvies]

I'd definately go with a separate level... For all the reasons already advocated here.

[snowyweston]

A new level (and associated plan) will also reward you with the ability to place level-hosted items (ie. rooms, furniture, doors, etc) on that level when it comes to working it up.

Believe you me, it's gets quite annoying explaining to people that all the items they keep placing keep ending up on the GF because they chose to duplicate the GF plan and jack up the view range to make a "FF plan". :banghead: