glennw

Scott, Please explain? Did you take the blue pills this morning?

Wynsong, Yes, it is a pity that we have to waste so much time learning how the program works.

Rich, I went searching for the language setting under Options but couldn't find it - I think it defaults to Australian - it must be a Windows setting.

OK, so that wasn't a good example that you quoted, but you did use it as an example to demonstrate your position. And you then said I am not try to pick on you. I am trying to understand exactly what you are saying. Anyway...On to the material list that you post above. You say that you are confused by it - but you don't explain why. From what I can see, it is a normal materials list. It would be interesting to see the plan and material list together. It can be customised to display or hide the information you want. What I see is a list of all the various walls in the plan listed by their height and wall type. You can display or hide columns, or even the whole of the General category if you don't want it at the top of the materials list. You can assign rows to different categories...and on it goes. I'm by no means saying the materials list is perfect, but maybe you need to do a bit more study to understand how it works. Things like roof area are really easy to get. Select all the roof areas you want to include and open the dbx. Go to the Polyline panel. There should be more than enough information for you there. Or...you could use the material list. I just checked on a simple plan and the roof dbx gives me a Roof Surface area of 40.89sq m. The material list gives me 40.92sq m. Close enough for me!

Wynsong, Can you explain what you mean by this?

Here is my take on the sandwich board. Same as Larry with some curves and artwork. http://screencast.com/t/QAMUySH5n7BI Johnny, I think you are wrong. Can it model a multi-layered wall with materials and framing, EASILY? AND have all the smarts that a Chief wall has?

Time to read the manual.

The wall board will wrap around the end of the wall if the wall is contained within a room.

In a 3D floor overview you can use the hotkey W to increase the field of view and N to decrease it. Or, Go Preferences...Render...check Zoom Using Field of View. Then in a 3D floor overview use the scroll wheel to change the field of view. it looks like you are zooming, but you are really changing the field of view. Tile the floor plan so you can see the camera and the 3D view and you will see the field of view on the camera change.

Hey Perry, I wish I had one of those "vertical" slab tools.

I just has a Skype session with Scott and the topic of the "virtual slab" came up. This is the floor system that is displayed by default as soon as you create a room. It has always been referred to by (some) users as the "virtual slab". The "virtual slab" is not really a slab at all - it is just an indicative floor with the thickness and materials as set in the Floor Structure of the Floor 1 defaults or on a room by room basis. It can have multiple layers and multiple materials so that as soon as you create a room, these defaults are applied to the floor. So...it is really a "virtual floor" without any smarts like framing or footings. It's just that the Floor Structure Defaults make it look like a slab (4" of concrete) . This "virtual floor" exists until you create a foundation. As soon as you build the foundation, you then have more control over this "virtual floor". The reason that you can't specify framing, footings, etc, prior to building the foundation is that those things are specified in the foundation level (level 0) for the floor above. I have been using Chief for years and learnt a couple of valuable things after having this play - thanks Scott.

d dot, After placing the new wall and calling it a foundation wall, Chief doesn't seem to build the footing properly straight away. You need to Rebuild Walls/Floors/Ceilings or select a room and open and close it's dbx to get the footing to update. I also notice that your footing under the wall adjacent to the garage is not centred on the wall above.

I agree with the safety issues, but here you are anyway. The stairs have to be identical in every way, so better to draw one and then copy. Use the Wrap option in the stairs dbx - Style panel. Change the stair's fill style to transparent to see the door swing.

Bill, My solution didn't use an invisible wall layer or invisible wall. What you see is what you get.

Default Settings...Rooms...Deck Room...Deck Room Defaults dbx...Deck panel...uncheck Automatically regenerate deck framing.

d dot, My solution doesn't use the "virtual floor", it uses a monolithic slab built on level 1. It is a monolithic slab with "walls with footings" around the perimeter and monolithic slab internally - a "hybrid" concrete slab. There is no slab step on level zero because there is no slab on level zero. Just draw a cad line if you need to show the step in the slab ABOVE. You don't see a slab in a level zero floor overview because there is no slab to see on level zero. Why would I expect to see the slab on level zero when it is on level 1? If it was a timber floor, would you expect to see the floor in a floor overview of level zero? Why should a slab be any different? The slab is on level 1 - where it should be. If you really need to show the level 1 footing on level zero, draw 2 cad lines.

OK, got it. Well...pretty close. Ed, I used the brick ledge, but not the extra wall layer. Tile the section and floor plan and try dragging the dotted footing lines in the plan and see what happens in section - cool. I think the only thing wrong is the chamfer on the left hand side of the footing. Because the same chamfer setting applies to both sides of the footing. Footings X6 final.plan

Probably a breach of copyright until you actually purchase the plans.

Here you go. Footings X6.plan

This is about as close as I can get. Done automatically with Auto Detail. I can't get the footing centred under the wall. Probably easier to do it with cad if you want 2D or solids if you want 3D. It's not worth the effort otherwise. Footings.plan

I don't understand your reply - the views are distorted how? A picture of sketch of what you want would help.

Do you have permission to use that plan?

You could try using the ..........Rotation option in it's dbx.

simonas, Not sure I follow you, but the Text Style column for the Labels layers controls the ....text style for labels.

What does Chief need to fix? Before you can calculate a quantity for a material, you need to define it and add it with a new wall layer in your wall definition. Use the Area Material Type and add a paint layer to your wall definition. You can give it a thickness of zero. Now use that wall definition for the 1 wall you want to change. The paint quantity will now appear in the material list as a square area. The easiest way to change the color of one wall in a room is to open the wall's dbx...Materials panel...Interior Wall Surface. This will NOT change the material list though. Andy, You just beat me to it. Keep in mind that the Interior Wall Surface material doesn't count in the material list. It is really just painting a finish appearance onto the wall's inside layer (in this case, the plasterboard).