What is the difference between a coffered ceiling and a tray or tray ceiling?
A tray ceiling (sometimes referred to as a trey ceiling) is a raised area in the middle of a room that takes advantage of the attic space above the room. It can be as simple as a vault that follows the roofline to a flat raised area or something more elegant that takes advantage of moldings to decorate the edges of the raised area. A coffered ceiling is more like the ray trace picture in this article. The coffered ceiling divides the raised area with beams and moldings. Sometimes this area is part of a tray, and sometimes it is simply the support mechanism for the floor above. This article describes one way of accomplishing this task in Chief Architect. Often there is more than one way to accomplish a task in Chief. See article 201 in this database for information on doing this task using polyline solids and moldings.
