glennw

Not 100% sure of what you want to end up with, but there are a couplr of ways that might give you what you want: 1. You can generate individual Roof Baseline Polylines automatically by defining the areas as different Roof Groups on the General panel of the Room Specification dbx. And then generate the RBP's. 2. You can set different ceiling heights for the rooms and then generate the RBP's which will give you a separate RBP for each ceiling height area. 3. Once you have a RBP, you can edit and copy it just like a normal polyline as well as being able to change the settings in the dbx. It would be good to be able to draw a RBP directly or convert a polyline to a RBP rather than just be able to only generate them automatically.

I don't think you are looking hard enough. There ARE roofing defaults (including roofing material) which are accessed through the roof default settings. They are in the Materials panel of the default Build Roof dbx This is also in the roof defaults dbx...Materials panel.

I would do that with a molding polyline with a molding added for each section. That way, they will all stay together as one assembly which you can move around and stretch to suit various width openings.

The default roofing material is in the same place in the Roof Defaults dbx.

Coralie, The easiest way to get to the current dimension default is to double click the Manual Dimension toolbar icon (as long as Edit Active Default on Double Click is toggled on). You can also display both imperial and metric dimensions at the same time by checking Include Second Format on the Secondary Format panel and selecting a metric unit. If you want to work in metric you should really use a metric template. Aren't you in Australia?

You can switch the Primary Dimension Format Units to metric and your existing and new dimensions will change from metric to imperial. But this doesn't change the database units, only the dimension units. ie, all the dbx's and other sizes will remain imperial. You can copy and paste between a metric and an imperial plan, but the correct scaling will be lost.

Scott, Although we are way ahead of you guys, Graeme is ahead of us by a couple of hours in NZ.

Johnny, While on level zero, you need to set the Stem Wall height to be the Rough Ceiling height + Floor Structure thickness (even if there is no floor in the foundation).

Or.. Select the objects start to drag in the direction you want to go. Hit TAB, specify distance and direction (various options are available. Or, Change your Snap Grid to 12.5" (I assume it is set to 1"). Select the objects and drag - they will jump in 12.5" increments.

Scott, Put my name down.

Johnny, It would help if you could post a simple plan so that we can see what is happening.

Coralie, Mostly (more often than not) you need to design holistically. ie, you need to consider what is happening to the roof as you are working on a floor plan. This would appear to be a case where it is unlikely that you are going to get a satisfactory solution given your floor plan and roof requirements. Something has to give to enable you to end up with a cohesive roof in lieu of a "patched" roof. Is this a new build or an alteration.

I think the problem with the auto interior dimensions is not that Chief is duplicating the dimensions, but rather, Chief is going around the enclosed room and dimensioning each wall. So that in a regular shaped square or rectangular room, you get a dimension for each wall. As it happens, opposite walls are the same length and so you get what looks like duplicate dims, but really, Chief is just dimensioning each wall. Try it with an L shaped room or rooms with more steps and L shapes in the walls and it becomes pretty obvious what is happening. And remember that some of the settings from the current dim style are applied to the Auto interior dims as well. Like formatting, setup, arrow, etc.

Curved roofs are easy to do with Chief using the Curved Roof option in the roof dbx. Read up about it in the manual.

Richard, That is definitely user error. When you raise the floor 6", the stem wall increases in height to 24" (the default 18" + the 6"), because you haven't told Chief to do anything else, the footing stays where it is and the stem wall increases in height to 24". Then, when you change the floor height back to zero, the stem wall height remains at 24", therefore it is lower than originally by 6". ie, the stem wall remains 24" high and drops 6" with the floor. When you change the floor back to zero, you also need to control the stem wall height by manually changing it back to 18", or check default if that is 18". How does Chief know when you do and don't want to actually change the stem wall height? You have to tell Chief what you want.

Joe, Isn't that what Spherical Panoramic Backdrop does?

If you post the plan, it should be very easy to build that roof automatically which would save a lot of time and effort. I see that the roof on the elevation you posted does not match up with what Alan is suggesting. Do you want the roof as per the elevation you posted (which would result from your initial sketch - and not an ideal solution as Alan pointed out), or as per Alan's sketch - which is how you would normally build it if it was a new house.

You can find a summary of the stair requirements here: http://nsw.hia.com.au/documents/2008/1.%20January/9th%20January/NAT%20BCA%2007-10%20Stair%20construction%20for%20class%201%20buildings.pdf Note that you need a landing at the top of the stairs min 750mm deep.

Coralie, Are you talking about no option to create an Auto Stairwell while on level 1 plan and selecting the stair? You don't get that option because there is already a stairwell created - it's the Open Below room above. By the way, you have a very dangerous situation created by that door at the top of the stairs. I think you need a landing in front of the door - it's probably a code requirement anyway.

Lew, No clicks or fussing with roof planes. Just auto build the roof - the cricket is built as part of the auto roof building. No settings to make, nothing to configure - it just happens.

Lew, Chief already does that automatically without a separate tool.

Antoine, I just did a quick run through and it took me about 50 seconds from go to woah. All seemed to work OK and I don't see a problem. I also don't see a change from X7 to X8. You obviously got the rotation (166.12deg) incorrect when you did the rotation. This angle may or may not be correct, depending on your frame of reference. Did you use relative or absolute and where did that angle come from - depending on the circumstances (and maybe in this one), you may need to use the complimentary angle - keeping in mind that Chiefs angles start with zero at 3 o'clock and go anticlockwise.

Chopsaw, With Add To Library unchecked and once the dbx closes, the symbol will be attached to your cursor. If you go to a plan window, you can place the symbol. But we are now getting off subject.

Chopsaw and Michael, It doesn't have to be a symbol - same behaviour with the polysolid - or any object. Chief has always worked like this. eg, if you want floor boards to run at 45deg to the room, you need to create a new material with the boards rotated at 45deg. Rotating the room has never rotated the floor boards. How would Chief know which way to orient the material unless you tell it? - it comes in as the default zero. Rotating a simple rectangle is a simplistic example - imagine you have an very odd shaped room or object that you have rotated and reshaped. How could you expect Chief to know what way to orient the material automatically? PS. OK, I didn't check with the symbol - I thought we were talking about objects and material orientation generally.

Antoine, I think I may know what the problem is. You are rotating the object that has the material applied to it, but the material isn't rotating. What you need to do is open the dbx for the material. Go to the Texture panel and change the angle to match the angle to 166.12 deg. The easiest way to open the material dbx is to use the rainbow tool in a 3D view. This will rotate the picture on the object you have used. I will do a vid. http://screencast.com/t/Fwxy2j2Xk