glennw

My guess is that the lines or the layout box are not exactly horizontal or vertical. Open their dbx's and check, or ........post the plan and layout.

From the manual.

Posting the plan would help.

I don't think that you will find a pattern that adapts to the perimeter shape as per your pic. Patterns are regularly repeating and as such are uniform in the area they fill. There is the Insulation box, but you can't edit the enclosing box to other than a rectangle. You could use the Spline tool to draw it manually.

I think things might work if you delete the minus from in front of the latitude.

And that is why I am very careful to make the distinction between Chiefs levels and the actual floors in the model. I can draw a floor plan on Chief's level 5 and have it appear in 3D as if it is part of the model drawn on Chiefs level 1 - just by manipulating the floor/ceiling heights.. ie, floor level 1 does not have to be drawn on Chiefs level 1. I think I did a video a while back demonstrating this where half the single storey house was drawn on Chiefs level 1 and the other half was drawn on Chiefs level 3, BUT, in 3D, it looked like just one large single storey house.

Todd, If it were me, I would draw the foundation under the basement (and nothing else) on level zero. I would draw the basement and the foundation under the garage on level 1. I would draw the main floor level and garage on level 2. I would not draw both foundations on the same plan level as they are separated too far in their height. But, this may not suit you as I think you want to draw both foundations on the one level (say, level zero). You can do this no problem by manipulating the heights, but you will then have to draw the basement under the main floor on it's own level (level1). Then draw the garage and main floor on level 2.

The bottom line that controls overall line weights is Print...Drawing Sheet Setup...Advanced Line Weight Options. Changing this setting will effect every line weight in the plan. This setting is a default and as such is saved with the plan. The default setting of 1=1/100mm equates the line weights to the old Rotring pen sizes (you youguns wouldn't know anything about that). So that a line weight of 35 equates to a line weight of .35mm After that, you can specify line weights by layer, OR by object through the Line Options of the object's dbx, but the relative line weights are all controlled by the Advanced Line Weight Options.

Why not just use the standard Exterior Casing that is integral to the window.

Todd, There are a couple of ways to handle that. You can uncheck "Hide Terrain Intersected By Building" in the Terrain Specification dbx. You can then use a "Terrain Hole" to manually clip the terrain where you want. Or you can change the floor level that you draw the terrain on. You will only get the terrain clipping if the terrain is drawn on the same floor as the overhang. This option is not always possible though - because you may want the terrain drawn on the same floor as the overhang. But keep in mind that the floor you draw the terrain on has no bearing on the height of the terrain. You can draw the terrain on level 4 but have it display in 3D so that sits at the same height as level 1 floor.

Lew, This is probably the worst advice that you could give for this situation.

Frank, Defaults...CAD...General Cad...Options...uncheck "Use Line For Framing".

Mike, Probably better to stick with the manual slabs that you have drawn already and don't worry about auto for this exercise. I think an auto slab would have to be edited anyway. Have a look at the attached plan. on level zero, I manually drew 2 new footings abutting the kitchen and garage. Size them as needed. You can then specify the 4 footings and the slab to be Pour 2. This separates that new slab from the existing slab. 2016-14-5-6-2016 GLENNS FOOTINGS.zip

Johnny, Still not sure what you exactly want, but do you realise that you can change the properties for the Cross Section Lines layer to so that the cutting plane lines appear differently, ie, different color, weight, etc.

Do you want something like this? You can do this with Slab Pour Number and an auto mono slab.

Johnny, I have read these posts several times and still don't get what you are asking for. What is wrong with the back clipped section? Isn't that what you are asking for? BTW, they are both the same tool - Cross Section/Elevation camera . The only difference is the Scene Clipping option has been turned on with the Backclipped camera.

Johnny, As far as I know Chief will change both the Annoset and Layerset as you undo. The Annoset and Layerset will change to match the ones that were present when the object was drawn. This helps, for example, when you have drawn objects and then changed layersets so that some objects are now on a hidden layer. As you undo, the layerset is changed so that the objects now become visible before they undo. Makes perfect sense to me - Chief takes you back to the same state as when the object was drawn. http://screencast.com/t/fsMTTskq

. Perry, I can see your nose growing longer! There are probably several ways to do this. I use the Faces for the various site covers and assign an appropriate material to them. Generate a materials list and they are totaled in the Exterior Trim section of the ML, but they can be moved to any section, or just used as is. I have a Layerset with the Material List column set to include only the Faces so that when I generate the ML, only the faces are included. Doing it this way, I can see and control the various areas - I don't trust macros and would always have to do a manual check anyway. I can assign different materials to different faces for different types of site cover, ie, roads, buildings, landscapes, etc. The Ml will auto total all the faces with the same site area material, ie, the same type of site cover. It will also total all my various site areas (various materials) as the Subtotal if I give them a Price of $1/unit. Not for everyone, but works for me.

They look like circle or arc centers to me. Try toggling off Arc Centers and Ends - although it may not work for an imported cad block. If it doesn't work, you may have to edit the original cad work in the cad block.

Christopher, I notice in your screenshot that you have "Trusses (no Birdsmouth)" checked. That looks like the problem to me.

IMHO, FWIW, I would do what Joe is suggesting and draw all the internal walls using cad, or cad blocks, etc. Balancing all the suggestions and problems I have seen with the plan, I believe it is the best way to proceed. I am not a fan of having multiple plans and bringing them together using symbols - never have been. I just tried deleting all the internal walls and the plan flies - no slowness at all - instant 3D view, instant editing, etc. The advantages of doing it this way would far outweigh any disadvantages caused by doing the internals in cad.

I don't think that is it. Try opening the Layout Box Specification dbx, Label panel, check Suppress Label. Or, turn off the Layout Box Labels layer.

Robert, How far is your object away from absolute zero? I suspect that it's a long way as I can only duplicate what you are seeing under that circumstance. If so, move it closer to absolute zero. These pics are using X8. No problems when I move the object close to zero. A long, long way from zero - really bad Closer to zero - not as bad Close to zero - OK

Johnny, I'm not 100% sure, as it is a little hard to see what you are clicking on at times. But, I did notice something that may be the cause of the problem. One thing to be aware of is that if you already have a manual or auto dim to an object, Chief will not create a temp dim to that object. I notice that you place your dim from the roof to the wall. But, when you select the roof, you get a temp dim. This would indicate to me that the End to End dim you placed isn't dimensioning to the roof, but perhaps some other object - otherwise, you wouldn't get the temp dim. You will also note that when it does work, you don't get the temp dims - indicating that you have indeed dimensioned to the roof edge. Give me a call if you want me to have a look over Skype.

It is quite easy to get Chief to display m2 in the dbx's by creating a new Unit of Measurement and making it the Default Unit. But it seems that Chief doesn't use this when it reports things like Living Area and Room areas.