glennw

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).

Ray, Try Preferences...Reset Options...Reset Side Windows. Drag it to the other monitor.

That's it Larry - simple.

Larry, Thanks, you did it perfectly - except that you moved the Marker instead of copying - no big deal. Looks like once I get Jing going I then need to open a Screencast account? Alan, I don't know what this means:

Larry, I don't believe that is quite what he is after. He wants to line up the Markers vertically, but away from the ends of the lines. This can be done using the Extension Snaps. Toggle on Tangent Extensions, Intersection Snaps and Endpoint Snaps. Turn all other snaps off. Select the Marker. Click Copy. Place the cursor back over the Marker until you get the 4 headed move arrow cursor - this is important because it won't work if you try and drag the copy with the Copy cursor. No need to use Paste. Drag the Marker down and across to the end of the line (the one you want the marker level with) to establish an extension point. Drag across to the right until you get the extension vertically down from the original Marker as well as the horizontal extension from the end of the line. Note that the 4 headed cursor has to be in the copy of the Marker circle to be able to see the extension lines. Click to place the copy. It's a little hard to see the extension lines sometimes if they are under the cross hairs (if you use crosshairs).. You can get them to display better by having an Aperture on the cross hairs - then it is easy to see the extensions in the aperture. You then need to spin around three times and click your heels. Sounds a bit fiddly and complicate, but is really quite easy to do. Larry, I have downloaded Jing. How do I post the .swf file for viewing? Can I attach the file directly to this message or do I need to go through Screencast? Any help appreciated.

Or...select it and then Shift Select it again.

Probably better to post the plan. It looks like you have used a label macro (File Info...%file.name%) in either a text box or for the label on a layout box.

I assume the mobile apps are Room Planner - not Chief. There is already an apple version of Room Planner.

Wynsong, that just turns off the icons in the menus Len, that will reset the toolbars back to factory default and lose any customisation. I'm not sure if it will turn the toolbars back on either - it might, I don't want to try it and lose all my toolbar setup. Looks to me like your toolbars are toggled off, try.......View...Toolbars