glennw

It's already April the 1st here in Oz.

Joey, Yes, you are probably correct - it is probably the anno set that is overriding the setting. I couldn't see the woods for the trees.

Alex, OK, I have had another look. Not only are they zero thickness (which may work OK), but they have a material definition of "Opening (No Material)", which will make them transparent. So...give them a thickness (even if it is very small) and give them a material that you can see.

Todd, I reckon that could be a bug - or it could be by design. As you say: Set the Current Cad Layer in plan view. Switch to 3D view. Come back to plan view. The Current Cad Layer has switched back to the default cad layer. Same thing happens in X6. It's worth a bug report.

Alex, You do have a problem with your MR's. I believe it is because you have made them all zero thickness. I couldn't even see them in a 3D view until I deleted one of the windows, then they appeared. I can't select them in any 3D view. I have no problem deleting them in plan. Go to plan view and turn off the display of all the layers except the Material Region layer. While you are there make that layer red with a 200 line weight. You should now be able to see the MR in the plan view where you can select and delete them. If you are using a MR again, do not make its thickness zero - how is a zero thickness meant to work? One other thing I noticed was that you have a lot of Layout Layer sets created. Unless you really wanted these for a particular reason, I would turn that option off. There is an option in the Send to Layout dbx called Make Copy of Active Layer Set - uncheck it. Oh yes, if you are going to play around with the layer sets, just make a copy of one before you start and use that one. Or in this case, use the All Off set and only turn on the MR layer - easy to go back then.

Not sure about HomeDesigner, but in Chief, you can control what gets included in the materials list by using layers and the Material column option in Layer Display Options.

In the meantime, this may help https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2295-fantastic-new-solution-found-re-how-do-you-show-partial-open-railing-stairs-and-how-to-show-the-door-to-the-basement-stairs-underneath/

Post the plan

Select the Wall Material Region tool. Shift Select the area where the Regions are and Delete. Or...in a plan or 3D view, turn off all other layers, select and delete. Or.....

The icon behaviour occurs because you haven't used the icon in that view yet. The icons only indicate the tool used in the last window they were used in, not the generated window. Make the floor plan window active it the icon displayed will be the last one used in that view.

To control how the foundation walls line up with the floor above, you need to make a setting in the wall definition. Open the wall Type Definition dbx ( for the wall above the foundation wall). There is a section called Wall Settings. Change the "Foundation to Exterior of Layer" setting. Auto build the foundation. As Joe said, you also need to configure your default foundation wall as needed.

Larry, I use the Advanced Search option in the Help file all the time. I particularly like "with exact phrase". I just tried it and it took me straight help for the correct dbx.

Bill, Not sure if I am getting you wrong or not, but I can snap to objects on a reference layer.

Larry, Defaults...Camera...General Camera...General panel...Options...Show Lower Floors in Floor Overviews.

Thanks Joe, My Break Line hotkey is BL and I did try using it twice and it didn't work. I don't think I was doing it fast enough cause if I do BLBL really fast, it works. Easier for me to double click the icon. Who would ever have thought to assign 3 as Break Line!

Scott, Yes, only good for a flat site where the footings are all at the same level. I guess the main purpose was to establish that there IS a stem wall involved and to demonstrate the relationship between the slab, stem wall and footing. I learnt a lot by going through the exercise.

Scott, Is there a Complete Line Break hot key - I can't find one. I know there is a Break Line hot key - but the complete break?

Don't try and build small wall sections either side of the garage door. Make it all one brick wall that includes the brick piers AND the garage door. Then use the Material Region to cut away the brick over the door.

Use the Break Line tool (double click) to completely break the polyline at the 2 points where you want to break it. You will now have 2 separate polylines. Select one of the polylines and use the Close Polyline tool to create an enclosed polyline. Same for the other polyline.

Scott, The stem wall is built between the top of footing and and zero floor level (that part of the stem wall above the slab is a kerb - you can see this when you drop the floor below zero). The slab sits hard down on the footing. So most of the time, you are not aware of the stem wall as it is hidden by the slab - but it is still there and you can change it's width. So...if I want to force the footing down lower away from bottom of the slab, you have to increase the depth of the slab - Chief doesn't allow another way to do this. BUT, I don't want a thicker slab, so I add another layer to the floor structure (under the concrete) and give it a no material. We are then lucky because Chief knows to create the chamfer under the concrete floor layer and not the no material layer. The horizontal line you see (which I can't hide) level with the top of the footing is the underside of the slab - or the underside of the "no Material" layer of the slab.

Joe, Sorry, I forgot to attach the pic.

Alan, Thanks for the tip - just our style! We will be there Tuesday 8 - the day after Labor day. 1 day too late!

Do yourself a favour and learn to use auto build the roofs. On a plan like that, it is a no brainer. Group select all the walls that the steeper pitched roofs sit on. On the Roof panel, enter 10" in the Pitch box. Turn on auto build roofs.

Alan, I am spending a couple of nites in Carmel in September (after going to Idaho with D. Scott). I might ask you for some tips if you have the time?

Ralph, No need to redraw the plan. I don't know why the wall layers would flip, but very easy to fix. Select the wall and on the Edit toolbar, select Reverse Layers. You may want to go to General Wall Defaults (Alt+Q) before reversing the walls and specify what wall layer you want the walls to reverse around.