glennw

Johnny, I think you missed the point right back in the first post. The tool is called Slab Footing. It is for drawing footings for MONO SLABS - not foundation walls with footings. With the Slab Footing tool, you can draw perimeter footings to form a mono slab with thickened edge footings. You can also use it to draw internal integral footings under a mono slab. You can also use it to define a kerb (or stem wall) above the mono slab. To draw thickened mono slab footings, Chief uses a footing and then a foundation wall on top. The height of the foundation wall (stem wall) is normally the same as the slab thickness. The footing height is the height from bottom of footing to underside of slab. This was the method used by Chief when they introduced slab footings way back when - it defines a foundation room forming a mono slab. So...I think that you are trying to use the Slab Footing tool to do something that it is not designed for.

Johnny, I don't understand the technical term, "wonky". Don't forget that you can spec the wall as Attic Wall or No Room Def if it helps to fix any problems.

Johnny, Why not just use a thin wall for your plywood/siding and then a truss behind. The wall should auto cut to fit the roof.

Lew has the right idea. You first need to start with a complete floor plan. Then, when you separate the rooms into their own files, they will remember their position for when you want to recombine them into one plan. I just had a play and this seemed to work. Start with a complete plan file with all the rooms. Separate your individual rooms to their own plan files by selecting the room. Make Standard Area Polyline - this will include half the internal walls and all of the external walls. Edit Area. Copy. Paste Hold Position into a new plan - ideally a template plan with the same defaults as your floor plan. Do this for each room. Then, when you are ready to recombine all the rooms into a single plan, use the same method - Edit Area, Copy, Paste Hold Position into the new plan. The rooms will locate accurately and reform as the original floor plan - Paste Hold Position is the key. There are probably a few things that could be improved upon and refined, but that was my first try and it basically all worked.

Or...making the White wall material Emissive should do the trick. But be aware that what you want to achieve is really "faking" it. In the real world, the white walls probably wouldn't appear white.

X8 has been stable enough to install since the public beta. Chief will ALWAYS be working on issues as they arise and issuing updates - same as any other program. If you wait for it to be "cooked", you may as well wait for X9. But wait......you will have the same problem with that.

My Roof Overhangs display from the fascia to the Roof Baseline. This is what I am seeing with roofs turned off. But I could do this in X7, so I don't know what has changed. Joe, I am not getting this.

English, There are some great 3D climbers in the Bonus Catalogs...3D Plants...Climbers. They look good in raytrace, render and vector views

Johnny, I am not sure if you can do that directly. But once you have placed a wall from the library into the plan (just place a short length anywhere), it will become available in the Wall Type Definitions dbx. You can then select all the existing walls that you want to change and then change them to your new wall type from the drop down list in Wall Specification dbx. We probably need Replace From Library to apply to walls as well as other objects.

I think the problem is that the brick joint color is the same color as the bricks once the Shading Contrast does it's magic. This results in the brick joint disappearing in the shaded areas. So, either change the brick joint color, or as Chopsaw said, change the Shading Contrast.

Mark, The floor above the foundation can provide it's own floor if you want it that way. The foundation doesn't HAVE to provide the floor for the floor above. You can do ir either way.

Newell, You are not explaining yourself properly. Can you have another go at explaining what you are trying to achieve. Was Chopsaw close to what you want?

Michael, I have found that the same thing can be done by using the same wall def and just "Reverse Layers" for the alternating rail sections.

Scott, I wouldn't call this a mono slab. A mono slab has integrated footing and slab - this is a foundation wall, footing and slab. Foundation panel is the Foundation panel (tab) in the Foundation Defaults dbx (sorry, dvx in your case ). Similar to the Options panel This is how I would do it. http://screencast.com/t/O9FGd5HTe8

Mark, Try, Defaults...Foundation...Foundation panel...Foundation Type...Hang First Floor Platform Inside Foundation Walls.

Ahh...., there is another way. You can uncheck Floor Under This Room in the room dbx.

Johnny, Yeah, looks like challenge, but I will see how far I can go with auto. Where did you send the file to? OK, got the file.

You can change the marker text in the Dimension Line Specification dbx...Extensions/Markers...Marker Style...Elevation Marker Text. I have previously sent in a request to not apply additional text to the dim line and the marker.

I don't think you can get auto dimensions to do that. But you should be able to edit the auto dim lines and they will snap to the wall centreline. http://screencast.com/t/y9Fy6F8ruHQp

No problems Johnny. Give me a call when you are ready.

Johnny, So..... what you really want to do is offset the whole railing, posts, etc, from the edge of the deck? If I read you correctly. If so... Leave the Newels/Posts offset at zero. Create a new railing definition with an additional wall layer on the inside with Opening (No Material) and the thickness you want to offset the railing.

Johnny, I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I think the difference in the roof heights (assuming the same pitch) is being caused by the difference in thickness between the railing wall and the house wall. Try unchecking Automatic Birdsmouth Cut in the roof defaults and then draw your balcony roof.. Chief is making auto b/m cuts which will vary depending on wall thickness. It's a lot easier to do auto roofs.

Or....... select object, Copy and then drag.

Define the roof slopes in the wall dbx and then auto build roofs.

Scott, As far as I can tell, there have been no changes to the terrain tools. Maybe it's just that you are getting better at them!