125 — Footing Step

A footing step is a step cut into the bottom of a panel, at one end, where the footing under the panel steps up or down. It is part of the panel’s form outline, so it is set first, with the top steps, before the openings and the face work.

The Footing Step button records up to four steps on the panel. Each step is described by the side it is on, the elevation of its top, and its width. ConstructiVision cuts the step out of the panel solid, so the weight and volume in the title block lose that concrete.

Where it is

ConstructiVision toolbar → Footing Step (tooltip: Footing Step). It sits right after Top Step, at the end of the group that follows Edit Main Panel. The button runs CV-FEAT-FTGSTEP.

Open a panel drawing first. The button opens ConstructiVision – Footing Step Details. The line at the top reads (Elevation from Finished Floor to top of Footing Step).

column

what it holds

default

Enable

whether this step is built

clear

Side

Left or Right

rows 1 and 3 Left, rows 2 and 4 Right

Elevation

from finished floor to the top of the step

1'-0"

Width

how wide the step is

10'-0"

There are four rows. A row’s Side, Elevation and Width stay greyed until you tick its Enable box. The buttons along the bottom are Calc, OK, Cancel and Help.

None of the sample panels opened for this lesson carries a footing step. On AAA039, CSB001, CSB060, ODE038, SegalP15041 and Water048 the dialog opens with every Enable box clear.

Try it on AAA039

AAA039 is a panel from the Arlington Airport A sample project, 28’-0” wide. Its finished floor is at 0” and the bottom of the panel is at -1’-2”.

  1. Open AAA039.dwg.

  2. Click Footing Step. All four rows are clear, each 1'-0" / 10'-0", all greyed.

  3. Tick Enable on row 1. Leave Side on Left.

  4. Elevation 1'-9", Tab.

  5. Width 6'-11", Tab.

  6. Click OK. The command line reads:

    [CV-FEAT] Footing Step accepted -- redrawing panel...

    and the panel redraws.

What you see

On the redrawn sheet, an elevation callout 1’-9” marked FS gives the top of the step.

The title block’s WEIGHT and VOLUME go down on this OK, because the step is cut out of the panel solid.

Save the drawing, close it and open it again, then click Footing Step. Row 1 is still ticked, on Left, with 1'-9" and 6'-11". Click Cancel and the command line reads:

[CV-FEAT] Footing Step cancelled -- nothing changed.

The 1 Form phase button includes steps (its tooltip lists forms, miters, steps, openings …).

A step below the floor

The elevation is measured from finished floor, so a footing step whose top is below the floor is entered as a negative elevation.

On PDX050 this lesson ticked row 1, left it on Left with the default 10'-0" width, typed -2' for the elevation and clicked OK. The step was accepted and stored as -24 inches, and the panel solid lost 30,667.5 cubic inches: the footing step cuts the panel, it does not only dimension it.

What this lesson does not cover

  • More than four steps. The dialog has four rows.

  • Calc and Help were not exercised.

  • Metric. This lesson was run in imperial units only.

Watch the lesson

The video follows Try it on AAA039: row 1 on Left, 1’-9” and 6’-11”, OK, and the redrawn sheet. On that run the title block went from 126.2 to 122.7 KIPS and from 31.2 to 30.3 Cu. Yd. It does not reopen the drawing or show the PDX050 negative step.