Creating a Sunken Living Room

The information in this article applies to:

QUESTION

I would like to create a sunken area, such as a living room. How can I create this?

ANSWER

Creating a structure that has floor height variances between rooms is easy do by simply adjusting the Floor value in each room accordingly. Begin by opening the plan in which you would like to create your sunken area.

In this example, we have a single story structure with the Kitchen being at the highest level, then the Dining area, and finally the Living Room at the lowest level.

To adjust floor heights

1. First, you must have an area entirely enclosed by walls and/or railings to form a room. Once you have your room completely enclosed, use the Select Objects tool to select the room, then click the Open Object edit tool.
   
   

   If a physical wall or railing does not exist in the plan that you are modeling, place a Room Divider wall (Build> Wall> Room Divider) to enclose a room for the purposes of designating this area's height separate from the other areas in the plan.

   
   
2. On the Structure panel of the Room Specification dialog that displays, change the Floor value to the appropriate height for your design.
   
   In this example, we specified a value of 48" for the Kitchen.
   
   

   The Ceiling height can be changed on a room-by-room basis as well.
   
   In this example, a cathedral ceiling is specified, so this value does not need to be changed. Please see the "Creating a Cathedral Ceiling" resource located in the Related Articles section to learn more.

   
   
   
   
   
3. Once you have finished making changes to the Floor and Ceiling values, click OK.
   
   
   
4. Follow this same procedure for the Dining room.
   
   In this example, we specified a value of 24" for the Dining room.
   
   
   
   
   
5. The floor height of the Living Room was left at the default value of 0".
   
   
   
   
   
6. To quickly place stairs between these different levels, select Build> Stairs> Straight Stairs and click to automatically place stairs that will connect the two levels.
   
   
   
7. Make any other desired changes to your design, then take a Camera  view to see the results.