Roofs: Drawing Hipped, Gabled, Shed and Flat Roofs with Pitch and Eaves

Draw a roof

1. Open **Structure** and pick **Roof**, or type `ROOF` (`RF`).

2. Click each corner of the outline the roof covers, usually just outside the walls. Click the first corner again, or press Enter, to close it.

3. The roof is built over the walls under it at once: its eaves sit where those walls end.

A roof belongs to no storey: one roof can cover a two storey block and another a single storey wing, each at its own height. Roofs go on a layer called Roof, which is how you hide them.

Its shape

**Flat**: a flat roof with an edge thickness.

**Hipped**: every edge slopes up to a ridge.

**Gabled**: the two ends stand as gable walls; the roof slopes on the long sides.

**Shed**: one slope; **Slopes toward** sets which way it falls.

**Profile**: a roof by its section: an A-frame, a gambrel, a saltbox or a mansard, or a custom section you draw.

The **Roof** tab holds the shape and the pitch, written as **Rise in 12** too, the **Ridge above eave** and the direction of the ridge (**Ridge along**).

Edges one at a time

The **Edges** tab lists every edge of the outline. Each reads Same as roof until you change it, so a hipped roof can have one gable end, or a steeper pitch on one side.

**Overhangs**: the eave overhang and the gable overhang, per roof or per edge.

**Courtyards**: add one in the roof's Courtyards band and drag its corners on the plan. Its edges are eaves: the roof falls into it and the ridge goes round.

Eaves, gutters and caps

**Eave at**: the walls it covers (the usual case), the floor (for an A-frame that comes down to the deck), or a level you type.

**Gutters and downpipes**: switch on rainwater goods and set the gutter size and how far apart the downpipes are.

**Ridge and hip caps**: caps along the ridges and hips, with their profile, width and height.

**Covering**: the material of the roof and how its pattern is sized; the **Plan** tab sets how the roof reads on paper.

Walls under a roof

Gable ends are walls: the wall under a gable rises to the roof's underside, so it takes the wall's finish and not the roof's.

To take any wall up to the roof, set its **Built to** to the roof. When two roofs cover the wall, **Which roof** picks one.

A wall that stands higher than the roof goes through it, as a parapet does, and the roof stops at it.

Read next

• Walls and rooms
• Structure
• Drainage
• Sections and elevations

Frequently asked questions