glennw

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.

If the house and terrain are correct, it sounds like you only need to adjust the Pad Elevation in the Terrain Specification dbx.

Z, Default Settings...Cad Defaults...Options...Use Line For Framing.

There is some sort of surface there as the shadows are being cast onto it. Posting the plan would make it easier to diagnose.

Are you thinking of Current Cad Layer? This can be a toolbar icon or hotkey. Or Cad, Current Cad Layer. It is no longer on the Layer Display Options dbx.

The other "offset" tool is set the Concentric jump distance to your offset and then Copy in Place and Concentrically move.

Edward, Then toggle off Legacy Shadows and Soft Shadows.

d dot, Just a heads up. I noticed on your last video that when it doesn't work the, the angle in the Enter Coordinates dbx is being reported incorrectly. Or rather, it is probably being reported correctly at some unexpected angle (like from the cursor start location to the cursor finish location, or similar). I can confirm that if you select the line and drag it from its center point, the angle reports correctly and it always moves the correct distance. If you drag the line from other than the center point, the angle is reported incorrectly and the line moves the incorrect (expected) distance. The distance is actually being measured along the incorrect angle reported in the Enter Coordinates dbx.

Jim, This may well be the solution to your offset problem, and is probably an easier way to offset anyway. Set your Concentric Jump distance to the offset value. Toggle into Concentric edit mode. Select the line, Copy in Place (as a safety measure so you don't slide sideways - this only works if your Primary Movement Method is set to Orthogonal in Preferences). Drag the line. It will jump by your Concentric Jump distance. That should work every time without fail. I would be interested to see if it works on your test plan. The critical thing with any method is to make sure that you have your Primary Movement Method set to Orthogonal and that you use Copy and Paste In Place instead of Copy/Paste. I believe there is a bit of a bug or a quirk here in that the Copy/Paste command seems to override the Orthogonal preference setting (you get a 4 headed move arrow) whereas the Copy and Paste in Place command respects the setting (you get a 2 headed orthogonal move arrow). I would have thought that they should work the same.

You can also override the wall framing material parameters and set different Stud Thickness and Stud Spacing in the Build Framing dbx.

You can create a new material by duplicating the color of the texture directly. Go Tools...Color Chooser. Select the eyedropper in the bottom left hand corner of the Color Chooser dbx. Click on the green siding that you want to match. Click Create Material. This will save a new material to your library named with the RGB values. You can now use this for your windows.

Jim, Yeah, thanks, I get that about the center point. I am still having trouble duplicating what you get unless I slide the line sideways. Can you post your plan?

Yeah d dot, I posted and deleted straight away because I realised what I posted was incorrect. That only moves the corner a specified distance, not a side.

Jim, What is the grip in the middle of the line you are trying to offset? Normally you get a grip at the point that you select the line. Can you post that plan?