Creating a Single Slope Roof in AutoCAD Architecture

When creating a roof in AutoCAD Architecture, it defaults to creating a roof with a ridge down the middle (going the long direction) when using the Roof tool.  There are many times when a single slope roof is needed, whether that is a long sloping main roof on a commercial building or on a shed roof over an extension on the side of a house.  The following will outline steps to get a shed style single slope roof on the side of a house as an example.

  1. Create a roof:
    1. Select the Roof tool from the Design palette or from the Build panel of the Home tab.
    2. In the Properties palette, verify the following information:
      • The Shape should be set to Single Slope.
      • The Overhang should be set to whatever is desired for the overhangs.  This will affect all sides of the shed roof.  If the high side of the shed roof will be against another wall, this overhang can be changed to 0″ later in the process.
      • The Rise and Slope is not important, as it will change later in the process.
  2. Highlight the roof.  Pick the corners of the walls for the shed roof.  Press ENTER when complete.  A hip roof has been created.
  3. Pick and highlight the grip point at one end of the ridge.  Move the cursor past the end of the structure and pick a point anywhere to create a gable end.  Do the same to the other end of the structure.  The roof should now be a gable roof with a ridge down the middle.
  4. Pick and highlight the grip point that is in the center of the ridge.  Move the cursor past the “high side” wall and pick a point anywhere.  A shed roof has now been created.
  5. To modify the roof slope for proper pitch:
    1. Highlight the roof and go to the Properties palette.
    2. In the Lower Slope section of the Properties palette, enter the desired rise in the Rise box.
  6. To remove the overhang from the “high side” of the roof:
    1. Highlight the roof.  Right-click and select Edit Edges/Faces.
    2. At the Select a roofedge prompt, pick the roof edge that is to have the overhang eliminated.  Press ENTER when finished selecting edges, if there are multiple edges.
    3. In the area labeled Roof Edges, pick and highlight the dimension directly under the (B) Overhang button. Enter 0 (zero) for no overhang.
    4. Pick the OK button to exit the dialog box.
  7. Get the walls to extend up to the roof:
    1. Highlight the desired walls, right-click, and selecting Roof/Floor Line -> Modify Roof Line from the context sensitive menu.
    2. At the RoofLine prompt, type A for Auto-project.
    3. At the Select objects: prompt, select the Roof object to project the selected walls up to the roof.  Press ENTER to exit the command.

6 thoughts on “Creating a Single Slope Roof in AutoCAD Architecture

  1. Great to see someone else paying attention to this great little tool. Long due for an overhaul but of great use anyway, even as you show on a roof fit for the roof slab tool. Even on some commercial work I still default to the roof object rather than slabs as I know it well.
    Can I suggest another method. Start the roof tool and change the roof pitch to 90. Once created just change the one pitch to slope. The drag options are great though so it might not be any faster.

  2. Is the “shape” property new to 2011?
    My admin will not install 2011 as we’ve been trouble shooting 2010 since it was installed and he’s intimidated by it.

    • The “Shape” property has been there for a long time and I believe was in the very first version of Architectural Desktop. The Roof function has not really changed any for many releases with the real change being the Roof Slab function being added in one of the earlier releases.

  3. Sorry for double posting this Doug. Just anxious to share!. Just wanted to let you know that I have finally put up on youtube my series of tips on the Roof Object. How to add vertices, overlap, underhang, cut holes for dormers, tips on editing, errors etc, and want to let as many know about what this secretive tool can actually do. Hope you can share it around as I think it’s very valuable info for anyone doing residential work.
    youtube playlist
    Blog page on RO

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