glennw

Michael, I just amended my last post as you were posting. There are a few weird things going on here.

Michael, I'm not sure if you are aware, but you can open up the Joist Direction Specification dbx that controls the ceiling joists and change the spacing and depth there and those values are reflected in the Joist Direction arrow label. But it's a bit weird because when you build the ceiling joists, the ceiling joist spacing obeys the setting in the Joist Direction Specification dbx, but it doesn't obey the joist size. The joist size comes from the room ceiling default.

Michael, I think we use different methods. My way: http://screencast.com/t/OYLlNqF6YXS .

Michael just beat me to it.

Following on from the other thread that covers this topic. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/12444-how-to-drop-a-single-rooms-ceiling-height-two-story-building/?page=2#comment-107039 In the lower floor room where you want to have the drop ceiling, you need to use the Ceiling Finish settings (with a framing layer and NOT the Ceiling Structure settings.

I would call that a bug.

Scott gave the correct answer back in post #3 by making the point that you don't use Ceiling Structure - you use Ceiling Finish with a framing layer. Dropped Ceilings and Raised Floors The structure of a dropped, or suspended, ceiling can be specified in the Ceiling Finish Definition dialog either for a room or the defaults for a floor. SeeFloor and Ceiling Platform Definitions. To create a framed dropped ceiling 1. Select a room and click the Open Object edit button. 2. On the Structure panel of the Room Specification dialog, click the Ceiling Finish button. See Structure Panel. 3. In the Ceiling Finish Definition dialog: • Specify Layer 1 as the plenum space. • Specify Layer 2 as the horizontal framing. Framing member spacing and width are set in the material definition. See Define Material Dialog. • Specify Layer 3 as the drywall. • Specify Layer 4 as the paint color. A dropped ceiling composed of a metal grid requires only two layers: one for the plenum and one for the tiles. and also it is worth remembering:

I don't think you will have muck luck displaying the sun in a camera view or showing what you want from the owners position. I would forget about seeing it from the owners seated viewpoint. I would place an object, or 3D person at the correct location. You can then take a camera view from outside looking into the patio. Through the Adjust Sunlight dbx, you can dynamically adjust the sun for date and time to see the shadow movements . You can also adjust the height of the beams/roof and see the effect on the 3D person. I will see if I can do a vid. I forgot to do the adjustments to the roof/beam, but you can change them and see the same effect. http://screencast.com/t/jiopiO7Q

On closer look it's not Graphite. It's not Flux either Johnny - check out the upper case W.

Looks like Graphite Light to me. You can download it free from http://www.fontpalace.com/font-download/Graphite+Light/ I used it all the time but now use Chief Blueprint

Try using a Box, Polysolid, slab, etc, instead of the Landing

Michael, What kind of object do they refer to?

David, I paraphrased the process but you should be able to figure it out.

I would use Edit Area (All Floors), Reflect About Object, Point to Point Move. Edit: Ah...I forgot...clean up!

You are probably drawing them on different floors. The floor you are drawing on in 3D is the current floor. Javatom just beat me to it - you have everything drawn on level 0. I would insert a floor beneath the current level 0. Then select the fences and check Generate on Low Platform, but I think that is probably just a workaround. Redraw the fences on your new level 1 and you don't need to check Generate On Low Platform..

Uncheck "Allow Rap" (at the bottom of the Style panel).

Johnny, If you check the material definition for the "White Board & Batten" material, you will notice that the Material color is white and the Lines color is a light grey. I think that Chief is trying to display your lines as something other than grey (in this case white) where those pattern lines fall within the shadowed areas. If you change the Lines color to a darker grey, they will display better in the shadowed areas.

Johnny, A plan file would help. Does it happen on the elevation screen view or just the exported image?

Scott, There are no framing details there to use.

Do you mean that those are the only 2 items you want listed in the ML list - like this? There is a slight discrepancy in the numbers because the shingles are measuring to front of the fascia and the roof area is measuring to back of fascia. It is easy to change it so that both measure to back of fascia, but not so easy for both to measure to front of fascia. This seems a bit of a waste to use the ML on this though. It is really easy to get the total roof area by shift selecting all the roofs and looking on the Polyline panel of the Roof Plane Specification dbx to get all the various roof areas including Roof Surface Area. And then just report this is a text box or similar.

Yes, it can be done. I will post back this afternoon when I get time to repost.

One thing to be aware of is that Snap Grid doesn't really do what you may thing in many cases. If I have an object in a plan which is off grid to start with and I have Snap Grid set to say 3' 0". I select the object and drag it, expecting the object to snap to the grid. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. The object will NOT snap to the grid, it will move and snap a distance equal to the snap grid setting (3' 0"). So it will still be off grid. BEWARE.

Normally you would: Build your crawl space walls on level 1 and your main floor walls on level 2. Auto build a mono slab foundation. In your case: Build Floor...Build Foundation with mono slab. You will now have a mono slab on level 0, a crawl space with wall on level 1. Now build level 2. You will need to fix things like floor/ceiling heights and structure types as well as wall definitions. There are any number of ways to get where you want, but the above is a basic outline. Let me know if you want to do a Skype session and I will run you through it.

I am not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain how Chief controls heights down from the ceiling?

Defaults...Framing...Foundation panel...Subfloor for Floor 1...Floor Structure...Edit...Structure Type