Creating a Cross Gable Roof

Reference Number: KB-01043
Last Modified: August 17, 2021

The information in this article applies to:

Home Designer Professional or Home Designer Architectural or HomeDesigner Suite



QUESTION

I would like to create a cross gable roof of my structure where the roof ridges meet. How can I accomplish this task in Home Designer?


ANSWER

Creating a cross gable roof is easy to accomplish using the per-wall roof settings located in the Wall Specification dialog in conjunction with the Build Roof tool.


To create a cross gable roof

  1. First, launch your Home Designer program and select File> New Plan .


  2. Select Build> Wall> Straight Exterior Wall  and create a basic structure, similar to the image below. 

    Floor plan view of house with 20’ ends East and West and 10’ ends North and South


  3. Using the Select Objects  tool, select the top horizontal wall, and click on the Open Object  edit button.


  4. On the Roof panel of the Wall Specification dialog that displays, select Full Gable Wall, then click OK. 

    Wall Specification dialog with Full Gab le Wall specified on the Roof panel


  5. Repeat steps 3-4 for the left, right, and bottom walls, all of which are indicated in the image below with solid blue wall hatching.

    Floor plan view showing four blue walls at the far ends of the house


  6. Next, navigate to Build> Roof> Build Roof from the menu.


  7. On the Roof panel of the Build Roof dialog, check Auto Rebuild Roofs if it's unchecked, specify your desired Pitch (in 12), then click OK.

    In this example, the Pitch is set to 6".

    Roof panel of the Build Roof dialog


  8. Take a Camera  view to see your progress.

    Camera view of house with roof built

Now you can see that your gable ends have been created where you want them. However, it is clear that the 6" Pitch is not going to allow for the thinner portion of the structure to meet up with the wider portion's ridge height.

As you have already specified a gable end for this thinner part of your cross gable, you will need to increase the pitch for its side walls to allow it to meet at the center.


To adjust the pitch on a wall-by-wall basis

  1. Return to your 2D floor plan view.


  2. Using the Select Objects  tool, select one of the four walls indicated with orange wall hatching in the image below.

    Floor plan view showing the four side walls of the North and South ends of the house in Orange


  3. Once you have selected one of these walls, click on the Open Object  edit button.


  4. On the Roof panel of the Wall Specification dialog, specify a higher Pitch.

    For the purposes of this example, we increased the Pitch to 12".

    Wall Specification dialog showing a Pitch of 12” in 12”


  5. Repeat this process for each of the remaining orange hatched walls indicated in the image under step 2.

    If you have Auto Rebuild Roofs checked in the Build Roof dialog, you will notice these changes take place as you go wall-by-wall through the plan. 

    If you do not have Auto Rebuild Roofs checked, then you will need to return to the Build Roof dialog to rebuild your roof after changing all of the indicated walls.


  6. Finally, take a Camera view to see the results.

    Camera view of house with roof built

With a basic understanding of these principles, you can apply them to your own designs. Keep in mind that you may need to adjust the Pitch of the cross gables more than once to get their ridges to align perfectly with the main roof ridge.