Embedded inside the outline of each freehand roof panel is an arrow. That arrow points out the direction of the maximum downward slope of the roof, and is usually aligned perpendicularly to one or more sides of the roof. When this happens, then those edges that are perpendicular are horizontally level; if it isn't perpendicular to any side, then the roof has a lowest point rather than an edge, which makes it a peculiar (but not unheard of) roof panel. This perpendicular roof alignment is fairly critical when trying to get roof to line up.
In Punch! the direction of the arrow can be set simply by dragging one end or the other in the direction you want to rotate the arrow in. However, this rotation action is snapped at angles that are evenly divisible by 15 degrees to the screen axes. That's handy, as the roof is usually similarly oriented, making exact setting of the arrow pretty easy. In those cases where the arrow has to be set at an angle that is not evenly divisible by 15 degrees, the handle can be selected and the command Edit->Rotate... can be used to set any angle between 0 and 360 degrees, out to 6 places of accuracy.
Well, that was the way it always had been, until Punch! version 10.0. Due to a bug introduced in development, the arrow does not respond to the Edit->Rotate... command. Therefore, there is no way to set an arrow angle that is not a member of the 15 degree snap values.
PlansPlus comes to the rescue. The last items in the object context menu (see the second illustration on this page) is Set Roof Slope Azimuth...; "azimuth" means "direction", as in a compass direction. This item will be grayed out unless an edge of a roof panel is currently selected - then it will be selectable. If it is selected, the following dialog on the right is displayed.
In this dialog, the drawing of the situation in the box shows the outline of the roof being adjusted, with each side of the roof given a letter-name (the green letters). In the center is a depiction of the screen axes in gray. The thicker axis to the right is the reference line for angular measurement of the arrow angle. The black arrow in the center represents the current value of the arrow angle; the red will show any change that we make with the controls, and ultimately the value to be set for the roof panel's arrow.
At the top of the box are three radio buttons which select how we will be choosing the angle. The default button is Absolute - the value entered is only relative to the reference axis, and the new value will totally replace the old value. That angle will be entered into the box at the upper right corner of the dialog. Note that if a value is entered there it will not be acted upon until the cursor is moved to a different control, such as clicking on the Go button. That is what it is there for. Whatever value is entered into the box will be adjusted to fit the range 0 to 360 degrees by modulo arithmetic; thus, entering 480 will result in 180 degree value being set.
The Relative selection states the the value next entered into the Angle box will be added to the current value in the box (the one that existed just before the new value is entered). Generally this value would be in the range from -180 to 180 degrees. Immediately when the Go button is clicked, the value will be changed to the sum of the former and current values. The radio button will automatically revert to the Absolute state also.
We'll get to the rest of the controls at the top in a minute..
At the bottom left is a window showing the original angle at the time that the Set Roof Slope Azimuth... was selected. This box is grayed and the value unchangeable; it is there for reference only. The button next to it labelled Revert may be clicked at any time to force the angle back to it's original value. The Cancel and OK buttons, as usual, may be clicked to end the dialog box. OK changes the roof slope arrow's direction, Cancel leaves it as it was, as if the dialog was never entered.
As we said above, it is often critical that the arrow be arranged perpendicular to one or more edges of the roof panel, and that's where the other top options are useful. The radio button Perpendicular to side opens the combo box just beyond, and in that box any of the sides may be chosen by the letter-names that are attached to them in the drawing. Immediately as one of these options is chosen, the perpendicular value is computed and placed in the Angle box, and the drawing redrawn to show the new angle. It should, of course, be exactly perpendicular to the side selected. This action is depicted in the illustration on the left.
When the (Perpendicular to side) is selected, it cannot know whether that side is on the high or low side of the roof; either choice is possible and useful. Therefore there is a button labelled Flip which will reverse the arrow by exactly 180 degrees from where is was before the button was pressed. Clicking it a second time will return to the original value. It may be used on any radio button setting.
The angle setting is returned to PlansPlus when OK is pressed, and is in turn returned to Punch! when PlansPlus is exited.
Punch! allows the user to specify whether the elevation of a toof panel is measured from the base or the peak of a panel. The difference can be a great help when trying to get roof panels to match up on a complicated roof; it is often necessary to match the panels at the roof peak rather than the bottom. Unfortunately, when you change from the default base to the peak, Punch! does a wierd thing: it moves the panel downwards so that what was the base elevation becomes the peak elevation, unchanged. It would be much more useful for the panel to remain unchanged, and simply to change the elevation shown and set to be the peak value.
PlansPlus will do that for you. When a roof panel is on the plan, right clicking on edge of the roof will show the usual context menu, but an option on that menu allows for changing the reference from the default low (base) to hi (the peak), and thereafter whenever the option is chosen the value toggles back and forth. When PlansPlus is exited, the panel will refect the last reference value chosen within PlansPlus, but the panel will not physically change elevation; only the elevation display will be changed when looked at thereafter.
Notice that the context menu item for setting peak or base occupies two lines; either line, when chosen, will toggle the base/peak value to the opposite of what it is. Also note that a checkmark on the first line indicates the value is on the peak currently, and on the second to indicate it is on the base. No checks will be displayed, and both lines are disabled if the selected item is not a roof panel.
PlansPlus and the contents of this help file are
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