Elevated Structures - How to Design RCC Rooftops

Summary

This article walks you through how to design flat RCC rooftop inside OpenSolar. You will learn how to draw an RCC roof with an automatic parapet wall.

Flat RCC (reinforced cement concrete) rooftops are currently available for India, with support coming soon for Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Step 1: Create a New Project and Select an Indian Address

1. Open OpenSolar and create a new project.
2. Enter an Indian address for the project location.
3. Navigate to the Design tab to open the design studio.

Step 2: Draw Your RCC Roof

The RCC Quick Roof is designed specifically for Indian flat rooftops. When you select this roof type, a parapet boundary wall appears automatically - matching the typical look of an Indian residential terrace.

4. In the design studio, select 2D Manual mode.

5. Select RCC Roof Type from the toolbar on the right-side section. 

6. Click on the roof outline tool and trace the outline of the flat roof.

7. Click on Done once the Roof is traced. 
8. The parapet boundary wall will appear automatically around the roof perimeter.

Note: The parapet wall uses a default height of 4 ft with a 9-inch width, matching the standard Indian residential rooftop construction. This helps the design look realistic from the start.

Common Questions

The parapet wall did not appear after selecting the roof type.

Make sure the roof type is set to RCC. The automatic parapet wall only generates for the RCC roof type. If you selected a different roof type, change it to RCC in the roof settings.