glennw

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Not me. That's Steve Moyes. I think my picture is on the back cover.

Late August/September 2015

Or....You should be able to make it a Solid Railing and Follow Stairs.

How are you adding the backdrop and what type of view are you using? What layer do you have turned on?

Just to clarify what David said. Whilst each camera does have it's own defaults, they are not called Edit Active View. Camera defaults and Edit Active View are 2 different things. The camera defaults are used pre generating a 3D view whilst Edit Active View are used post generating a 3D view When you use Edit Active View the settings DO apply to all camera types if you change the view type once the view is generated, ie. changing the view type from vector to standard.

I think you have several problems. You need to uncheck Retain Floor/Ceiling Framing. Have a look at your Floor Supplied by the Foundation Room Below and Room Supplies Floor For The Room Above settings. You have it set differently for different rooms. Floor Supplied By the Foundation Room Below would normally be unchecked on the main floor level.

I think you should contact Chief Architect Technical Support with the steps to reproduce.

Also be aware that not only the monitor will make a difference to the displayed color, but the orientation of the colored surface and the shading will make a huge difference to the perceived color. For vector views, the Shading Contrast setting will also make a huge difference. This is not shadows, but rather the result of the Shading Contrast setting:

Is this what you are after? I managed to do it without much trouble. Post the plan because there could be all sorts of settings getting in the way.

Chad, There is a setting called Offset From Wall, but it may not be much help.

I don't have any trouble getting one row of beams if I set the beam spacing to a value that is anything over the depth of the deck. Admittedly it is not really exactly where want it. It would be great to have control over that location.

I will have one guess without seeing a plan. There seems to be something funny going on with those 2 small internal side walls. The corners seem to be different on both sides.

The molding cables are a completely separate entity than the railing wall. Draw a molding polyline in plan the rough shape you want next to the railing wall - it is easy to drag into place later. It should default to zero height - if your deck is zero, great. Otherwise you can change it's height so that it is referencing the deck height. Add a molding as shown in my pic - I used a round handrail molding. Copy and offset them vertically at the required spacing - mine are 100mm. Drag the molding polyline so that it is located in the middle of the railing wall. I always find it good practice to make the railing wall the same width as the actual railing wall.

It sounds like you have already done it. Keep in mind that you don't set wall heights - walls build up to the roof. All you need to do is set your ceiling height to 4' and then set the roof pitch so that the ceiling height at the high end is 8' - you could do it by math, cad detail, or trial and error. The roof will pitch off the 4' ceiling height (approx) - you ay need to fine tune.

Why pony walls - I don't think you need pony walls. Set your ceiling height to 53" (or whatever you need) and auto build the roof. Turn off auto build roof. Set your ceiling height to the flat ceiling height.

Are you after something like this? Do you only want the subfascia and not the eave fascia?

More details needed. What shape, materials, size,..........etc

Have a play with Preferences>CAD>Line Properties>Endcap Printed Length and see if that helps.

What I quite often do is use an open rail type which supplies the posts and rails, and then use a Molding Polyline for the cables. It only takes a minute or two to copy and space a round molding for the cables.

Sorry for that Larry. I think I quoted a quote in your post.

If this is your opinion of Chief after using it fo 20 years, the my guess is that you have not learnt to use the program properly in that 20 years - especially when you say "where it is all eye appeal dimensional accuracy is not necessary or important" just isn't correct. Do you really believe that probably thousands of users use the program in any given day and rely on it's accuracy for both documentation and construction would do so if it wasn't accurate? There is no reason why you shouldn't be easily able to duplicate existing conditions - you just need to learn how to use the program.

I meant to include this one as well. It shows how to set the top and bottom heights and lock them.

George, In this plan, I have duplicated your stairs as free standing - no need to muck around with rooms, etc. Are you going to build a terrain? You can use polysolids for the paths - drawn from a side view. GLENNS 2083640283_ElevationinCadImpoortLindfield.plan

George, I haven't downloaded your plan yet, but will do so. I can't see any reason why you would need external rooms to do that arrangement of stairs. I wouldn't do it that way. You should be able to draw the stairs on the floor plan you want them to display on and then use the settings like Top Height, Bottom Height, etc. You could then use poly solids, slabs, or some of the terrain tools, etc for the paths.