glennw

Bob, There should be no need to start over. It is to adjust levels in an existing plan. But can you be a bit clearer on what you want. Does it have to do with how to set the floor/terrain levels? Can you ask a specific question.

Todd, You need to select the "exterior room" and then select the Make Room Molding Polyline button.

Scott, Yes, but in this case it didn't need to be a room and my solution fixed the problem. Let's wait until someone comes up with a plan where they need a room and it causing a similar problem. We could then look at that particular case rather than complicate this one. There may be a different solution for a different situation.

The other thing that will happen when you fix up the main layer wall definition is that you will not need to use a polyline solid to wrap the wall ends at the bottom of the stairs. The wall lining will wrap automatically

OK, I think I have it. Go up to level 2, display and select the attic wall over the garage doors. Nominate it as No Room Def. Works for me.

Kevin, I can see what the problem is and am still having a play to try and find the cause. If you open the wall dbx for the wall below the window, not on the 3D view of the wall that the external lining continues up to the top of the level 2 floor. So it is the external lining from the wall below that is causing the problem in the window. If you to a 3D overview and select the wall the window is in and pull it down from the top, the problem gets fixed. I am still not sure what is causing the level 1 external lining to continue up past the level 1.

Rob, You have all 3 wall layers designated as Main Layer. You should only have the centre framing layer as the main layer.

Ray, Maybe you were using a different version, but in X6 the rail showed on Level 1.

You have the railing designated as "Follow Stairs" on the Rail Style panel. Tip: You will get faster dynamic rotations of the 3D model in Render mode if you turn off "Legacy Shadows" in the Render Preferences.

Better to post the plan.

Yes, Rich, you said it better than I ever could. One of the posters was saying how much time and money Chief cost him in learning time. I think of it more as an investment rather than a cost.

AgChief, You need to make that wall a No Room Def wall - the shadows won't generate in a room. You may need to open and close the Sun Angle Specification dbx to update the shadow.

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.