Outdoor Areas and Roof Sections should be more than just Squares - just like Rooms

[chairstacker]

I like how I can draw rooms and adjust what the interior of my house really looks like.
The tool that makes this work so well is that little + sign that allows me to split a wall into sections.

Is it possible to allow this for other options as well, e.g. pool, lawn, terrace?

The same would be a great option for roofs and roof sections as well.
It looks like right now, I can only create square there, too.

[therealMRBK]

Good idea, and it fits: the + on a room's edge is exactly the right tool for this. It is in 0.9.0 for two of the three things you mention:

• Outdoor areas (lawn, terrace, pool, fence, pergola and so on): select one and every edge shows a +. Drag it to add a corner and shape the area as you like. In the form, the corner buttons (1 ×, 2 × …) remove a corner again.
• Flat roofs and parapet roofs: the same + on the edges. The first one turns the rectangle into a free shape, and its corners can be added, dragged and removed.

What I did not do is pitched roofs (gable, hip, half-hip, pyramid, mansard, pent). Those are defined by a ridge over a rectangle, and a free outline would not give a sensible roof, so they stay rectangular. L- and T-shaped houses are built from several sections side by side, which also lets every wing have its own ridge and height. If you have a roof shape that cannot be done that way, send me a sketch and I will look at it.

Update through HACS, restart Home Assistant, then reload the NextFloor page.

Release notes: https://github.com/therealMRBK/NextFloor/releases/tag/v0.9.0

[chairstacker]

Thanks for the quick response - really appreciate the additional functionality.

I tried it with the pool, and it worked great - roof and terrace will be next.
Wondering, if I can 'cut the pool out of the terrace' or if I need a workaround for that.

I fully understand the argument about the pitched roofs - that's not relevant for me, but if it does cause an issue for me I will update here.

If you don't mind, I'll leave this open until I have worked through my roofs and terraces.

[therealMRBK]

Good news and a correction: there is already a switch for this, and it was not obvious. Every outdoor area has Cut out of surrounding areas in its form. If you switch it on for the pool, every area that contains the pool completely gets a hole there.

Two things made it fail for you most likely: before 0.9.1 it only cut areas that were drawn before the pool (you drew the pool first), and the pool has to lie completely inside the terrace, every corner of it. Both changed in 0.9.1: the order no longer matters, and a pool cuts itself out on its own, without touching the switch (you can switch it off for a pool that should lie on top). The hole also carries no light of the terrace now.

The pool still has to be fully inside the terrace. If it reaches the edge, draw the terrace as a shape around it with the + on the edges. Flat roofs have no cut-out yet; if you need one there, tell me what you are building.

I checked this with tests on the geometry, not with your plan, so please tell me if the pool still shows through the terrace.

[therealMRBK]

Glad the pool worked! Cutting it out of the terrace is already there: select the pool and tick Cut out of surrounding areas (it is on by default for pools since 0.9.1). The terrace then gets a hole where the pool is, in any drawing order. Leaving this open until you are through your roofs and terraces is fine, just post here if something does not fit.

[chairstacker]

It works all as I hoped it would for the parts I've tested, i.e. pool, terrace, path.
Haven't dared to touch the roof yet because I added solar panels to it and I guess they'll need to be re-done when I change the roof 😮

Need a little more time to think this all through - and probably a tape measure and a ladder.