glennw

And, what's really cool is that you can do it in 3D. No need to edit in plan and then view in 3D - just edit the tops of the walls in a 3D view.

Use the Break tool to break the roof edge and then use the roof handles to shape as you want. You could probably use the Make Parallel tool to do just that.

"Edit Wall Layer Intersections" should do it.

You should be able to find it on theEdit toolbar. It has been there since X6 came out.

Bruce, There are two types of grid. The Snap grid and the Reference grid. You need to turn them both off.

No, you can't show contours in a 3D view. Bill's idea of using sidewalks sounds interesting. You can build a stepped or terraced terrain (as opposed to smooth terrain). This gives the effect you get when you build a physical model out of layers. No need to mess around with poly line solids though, you can do it with the terrain tools. Instead of drawing elevation lines, draw a Terrain Break at each contour. Place a single Elevation Point between each Terrain Break and assign an appropriate height to each point. I am travelling at the moment and don,t have access to Chief, but you may have to use Linear and change some other settings. Have a play and see what works. It would be a great feature to be able to display contours in 3D over the smooth terrain.

Mark, I am disappointed that you don't think it is a workaround. If it wasn't a workaround, Chief would have a command for it! Lew is right. Chief should be aware of every possible thing that we want to do (even the obscure ones) and we should have it now, in this version. We shouldn't have to follow any steps - it should just happen. And, oh yes, we want the program to stay simple and easy to use - no choices or options - Chief should just know what we want to do. Lew, tell us all again how you were a programmer for 30+ years as that seems to make a big difference. Did you even try out the method I described? If so, did you find it overly complicated or confusing? Is it something that you have ever needed or wanted to do?

Fix what Lew? Is something broken?

Try this. Select the object. Shift select it again. Convert it to an Architectural Block( on the Edit toolbar). Open it's dbx. On the General tab, there is a section titled Schedule and Material List, check Schedule and Material List and then check Cabinet. Generate a Cabinet Schedule. Open the schedule and down the bottom of the General tab under Objects To Include, check Other. The object will now display in the Cabinet Schedule. It sounds a bit convoluted, but only takes a couple of seconds, and avoids the export/import.

Lew, We can already control what floors are included in a schedule.

You need to close Chief before zipping.

Or just use the zip facility with W7. Right click...Send To...Compressed (zipped) folder. It's all I have ever used without problems.

Larry, The default materials for framing are set: • In the Floor and Ceiling Structure Definition dialogs for floor and ceiling framing. • In the Wall Type Definitions dialog for wall framing. • In the Framing Defaults dialog for General Framing, Posts, and Rafters.

Try unchecking the "Walls, Main Layer Only" layer and check your wall materials to make sure you haven't used an invisible material. Your wall diagram in the wall dbx shows a top rail wider than the wall that suggests that there are some wall layers not displaying (assuming you have automatic width checked for the top rail). Posting the plan would help a lot. Try posting without zipping and see if it posts.

View...Toolbars?

Dennis, I assume that you have your status bar displaying, but no ray trace progress in the status bar?

Joe, Lew's link has the update notes.

Preferences...Reset Options...Reset Side Windows.

Joe, Too simple - that works. I was trying a window and it didn't work. I just assumed that a door wouldn't work either. Good one. Sometimes it hard to see the wood for the trees. It frames with a square head - but no big deal.

Gerry, Do you mean a shape like this? This is not a polyline solid and it reports to the ML as square meters (or square whatever) - not cubic like a polyline solid. Oh, hold on, I think the area for the ML list may only be the plan area, not surface area - I will keep playing.

Gerry, What is a "curved MDF tool"?

Larry, Yes, in plan view it looks like a normal full length wall (no indication of the cantilever). It is a 2 layered wall with the main (inside) layer assigned "Opening, No Material". I also modified this material definition to a Gap Type material so that it doesn't display in vector view. You can use any material if you define it as a Gap Type material. The outer layer has the shingle material. In elevation, I then drew a Material Region (Opening, No Material) with Cut Finish Layers of Parent Material, and shaped it to the arch.

That's a hard one because an opening needs to be surrounded by a wall. This is a wall (doesn't use an opening) and gives you the look that you want - but can't do the framing.

Johnny, I am pretty sure I answered the same question a while back. I know it is doable, but I don't have Chief with me at the moment. try doing a search.