glennw

I figured out one way to do it, but with 50 windows it may take you some time. This is a single standard wall and standard window which works well both inside and outside. The window remains a standard window so that it can be edited in the normal way. The big problem is I have only been able to do one window at a time at this stage, but I will have another play at duplicating the window easily. Although once you have the method down pat, you could probably do them quickly. Are all the windows different sizes? Rendered: Vector:

I think I am going to let my post stand as is, apart from 2 points I want to clarify. Because they were Chief users. Who said anything about importing and changing real world data for method 3? I certainly didn't say that, nor didn't even imply it - that is your assumption. All the cases I have seen using the plus/minus method, the user has entered the elevation data with plus/minus values - they haven't imported and edited real world data. Method 3 is mainly used when the user doesn't have a level survey but rather measures existing site heights plus/minus from, say, an existing structure - usually the floor level of an existing building. Not at all an "incorrect method" or "bad practice" but rather a legitimate method that users should be aware of.

Why hit and run with a down vote. The least you can do is give a reason so that we might all learn something.

Gene, Just to complicate things a little. There are at least 3 ways to define the relativity of these heights (model/terrain) that I know of. 1. Use real world heights for both the model and terrain heights - what you originally asked for. 2. Use model heights based on zero and use real world heights for the terrain - what you ended up doing. 3. Use model heights based on zero and use terrain heights plus/minus from that. I would guess that 99.9% use method 2 - this is the standard way that Chief works and probably the most practical. In all the time I have been using Chief I have used method 1 maybe two times (at the clients request). I don't ever remember using method 3, but I am aware some users like it. You are probably better off leaving Flatten Pad unchecked and using other terrain elevation data (like Elevation regions) for which you will have more control.

I don't think they are 3D roof tiles They look like the Red Barrel Roof Tile material from the Chief library.

Change the Material List Calculation to Area.

Trim Framing To Soffits.

What I want to know is how do you stop the pillows from falling down when the bed folds up?

It looks like it is a solid railing. If so, change it back to a normal wall and edit the height and shape of the top in a section view.

Not joshin' you. I will explain what I did when I clean things up a bit, but a lot of it was trial and error. Does the railing have posts to beam, although you mention both newels and a beam above? There are going to be some things that will be hard to get 100% using standard Chief practices. I assume that grey beam across the large span is above the railing beam? What is the storey with that post in the centre of the large beam? Yes, a Zoom would make it a lot easier. I see you are in Naples, Florida - I am in Sydney, Australia and I am flexible with times. What sort of times are good for you?

Gene, Something like this - very difficult!!!

Post the plan please

I was just pointing out that if you draw your walls the wrong way (inside out), Chief will auto reverse them when you close a room, with this setting checked. Best to leave it checked. I wanted to make you aware that this can happen and may explain some things. Best not to spray materials onto walls as it can cause some of the problems you describe - better to change the wall definition.

Uncheck Automatic Rail Openings. Leave Allow Wrap checked. So are the wall and steps curved or a series of straight segments - it looks like they are straight? Draw your stairs going down from house to terrain with alt. (I am not sure that is absolutely necessary but I did it anyway.) It is important that all the stair sections are exactly the same, so best practice is to get one section as you want and then copy/paste as needed. They should auto wrap together. There is a different process for curved stairs. Draw your straight stairs as wide as you need. Select them and click on Flare/Curve Stairs on the Edit toolbar. You will get a triangular grip at the top and bottom of the stairs. You use these to pull a curve into the stairs. You can do a different radius for top and bottom if you want.

No, I was talking about the Automatic Walls>Auto Reverse Wall Layers toggle.

It is way too hard to follow what is happening without running commentary. But if Chief is reversing your walls, you may want to look at the Auto Reverse Wall Layers setting. In the Materials panel of the wall Specification dbx, you should probably change the materials back to Default. See down the bottom of this dbx - Use Default Material and Chief will get the material from the wall definition instead of here. .

I think you are tying yourself in knots. What you say about the external siding being visible inside the wall is normal for a rendered view. The pic below shows the same wall definition for all 3 walls. The left hand wll has the drywall removed using the Delete Surfaces tool. Notice that you can see the siding texture on both the inside and outside of the siding layer. You don't seem to have a siding layer in your wall definition so I am not 100% following you. You would be better off posting the plan with a explanation of what you want.

Larry, You can dock the custom toolbars without being in customise toolbars mode if you don't have them locked. The fact that you don't have the row of dots on the left hand side of the toolbars tells me that you have toolbars locked. Go to Tools>Toolbars and Hotkeys>uncheck Lock Toolbars. I find it easiest to dock the toolbars if you grab them by the line of dots rather than by the title bar.

Or, you could draw the shape with cad and then save to the library. Then use a Molding Polyline using your new molding.

Larry, Why not just dock your custom toolbars to the left hand side of the screen. If you right click in a menus title bar, and then click Toobars, you can toggle any toolbar on or off on the fly, as required.

Larry, Go here and edit the "Toolbar Name".

Have a play with the settings on the Jamb panel in the door dbx.

You need to create a new material for each color and assign the desired Material Color on the Pattern panel. This will only affect vector views. Or, if you want the colors in a render view (in lieu of a texture), delete the Texture Source on the Texture panel.

Try changing your Resize About setting.

Something like this?