glennw

No problem, give me a call. Are you the Coralie Allan from the Gold Coast with a picture of a koala and Skype name coralie.allan?

I could do a Skype session on Tuesday (Oz time). Where are you located? Let me know your Skype name once you register. My Skype name is glenn-woodward

Lew, You can do this now. But in practice, how would this work? Wouldn't the roof just build the same? What would make it build differently? And what happens to it's relationship with adjacent roof planes. Could you please provide a practical example of when and how this could work?

Coralie, Sounds like you need to check both "Retain Manually Drawn Roof Planes" and "Retain Edited Automatic Roof Planes". You can then only check Build Roof Planes and you can't check Auto Rebuild roofs. I will have a look at your plan now. OK, just had a look. That roof is EASY to do with auto roofs - no need for any manual roofs at all. I could do a Skype session with you and teach you how to do that in 3 minutes! In the meantime, I will post a picture of a plan and auto roof that will probably take me 5 minutes all up. The secret to doing it all auto is the correct roof definition on the Roof panel of the Wall Specification dbx. It actually took less than 5 minutes: And I have also added a pic of your plan with the roofs all generated automatically. I can post the plan if you need it.

Coralie, That video was done on an older version and things have changed a bit. If you have edited a roof plane, it will be indicated on the General panel of the roof's dbx under Measurements as Edited. You can also manually check this box for any roof plane. In the Build Roof dbx, Roof panel, there are options for "Retain Manually Drawn Roof Planes" and "Retain Automatic Roof Planes".

Jackie, Follow Michaels instructions (and mine!). DON'T right click the polyline. Left click on the polyline and the EDIT tool bar will appear with the Break Line tool on it. It may not be at the bottom of your screen if you have moved it (mine is at the top under the top toolbars and menus). It is really the same as the contextural menu that pops open with a right click, but you cannot use the Break Line tool on the popup menu because you can't double click it - you have to double click the Break Line tool on the EDIT TOOLBAR! Then single left click on the polyline. Have another look at my video and take particular notice of the EDIT TOOLBAR - yours may be in a different position - I think the default is at the bottom where Michael said.

Edit...Edit Area (All Floors). Left click and drag a selection window around the area to move. You could then use either Transform/Replicate to Move the selection in the Y direction Relative to itself, or you could start dragging the selection in the correct direction, press Tab and enter the distance to move Relative to Start. You will then need to do any cleanup.

Todd, Did you read my post #5? Best to leave the buildings main floor level at Chief's default zero level and do what I described. If you try and do things by changing the actual floor level to 100', you will eventually get all messed up.

Jackie, I really can't tell what you are doing wrong because I can't see what you are doing. Wrong! Double click the Break Line tool and single click the polyline.

Jackie, I don't think you have been reading my posts correctly. You do not use the break tool to convert the molding polyline to a normal polyline. You use the Convert to Plain Polyline tool on the Edit Toolbar. To completely break an polyline or Molding Polyline: Left click the polyline to select it. On the Edit toolbar, double click the Break Line tool. Left click on the polyline to make the complete break. Move the end point node to confirm the break. http://screencast.com/t/hZYPqCQlR

Select the wall. On the Edit toolbar, select "Open Wall Detail". This is an editable view. Will that do?

Rod, Did you know that you can specify a hatch pattern assigned to a wall layer to be transparent?

Ah, you didn't say that it was a 3D Molding Polyline. The double click won't work for a 3D Molding Polyline. Select the 3D Molding Polyline and convert back to a plain polyline and then convert it to a Molding Poyline. You can then break it with the double click Break Line tool.

Then you are doing something wrong. Are you double clicking the tool and then single click the polyline? What version are you using?

If I understand you correctly, you need to break the closed polyline into one or more polylines and then apply different offsets to each polyline molding. You can't have a molding with different offsets on the same polyline. So...are you asking how to break a molding polyline? If so... Select the polyline. Double click the Break Line tool on the Edit toolbar. Click on the polyline. The double click on the Break Line tool will sever the polyline. A single click on the Break Line tool will only add another node to the polyline.

I'm with Perry on this one. In fact, I go a step further and try to actively set up things so that I can always auto rebuild the roof at any time without any manual editing. This is not always possible, but can be achieved in the majority of cases.

I am curious why you would use the hatch tool to hatch a wall as opposed to defining the wall with the appropriate hatch patterns?

Todd, I would always import, locate and rotate the terrain into the plan. As for your levels. In the Terrain Specification dbx set your Subfloor Height Above Terrain at 100'. Select all your Terrain Elevation data. Open Transform/Replicate Object...Move...Relative To Itself. Enter a value in Z Delta (either positive or negative) that will locate your 100' contour at the correct height in relation to your 100' floor level. This will locate your floor level at the correct height (100') and all the terrain levels will relate to that floor level. ie, they will loose their original levels and will now relate to the house floor level of 100'. I assume from your posts that this is what you wanted to achive. This is exactly what D. Scott has been requesting forever. It is easier to do than it sounds.

Alan, What I was suggesting is to use only one wall type made up of several layers (you can have layers with the same material). The overall wall thickness would be 12" and the inner main layer would be 4" thick. This wall would be used everywhere - you do not have to use different wall definitions and thicknesses. Place your windows and then use a wall material region the same width as the window to cut away some of the wall layers so that you only end up with a 4" layer above and below the windows. You can stretch a WMR from floor to ceiling (or more) and pass over windows without affecting them. If I get time I will do a video. Or...I could do a Skype session if you want a live demo. You end up with something like this. Note - this is all one wall (2 layers) with tile section above and below the windows being a WMR which cuts out the external wall layer.

Isn't it logical that if you don't have a sash, you have nothing to hold the glass. So no glass - and no lights.

Open the Room Specification dbx. Structure panel...Ceiling...check Use Soffit Surface for Ceiling.

Jerry, Try this: Open the Wall Specification dbx. Materials panel. Exterior Wall Surface. Select Material. Check Use Default Material (down the bottom under the icons).

Not sure I follow 100% without a plan, but I would try using a 12" wall with appropriate layers for all the walls and then use the Material Region to cut away a finish layer (Cut Finish Layers of Parent Object) on the 12" thick wall where the windows are (just the width of the windows) to get the 4"walls. A plan would help - maybe in the appropriate forum?

Further to my last post... The wall layer you specify with Alt-Q will snap to the grid (if turned on), so that you could specify the internal wall layer and use grid snaps. http://screencast.com/t/P0i8YeniX4

Keith_A, Can you post the Chief plan file, or at least part of it? Don't worry about the .dwg file if it is a problem. Have you tried the Edit Wall Layer Intersections tool? I think your problems are caused by you using single layer walls which don't allow for many intersection alternatives.