glennw

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.

The trailing text is the thickness of the main layer in the newly created wall. In this case 11".

I am not 100% sure of your requirements but if you make the invisible wall between the 2 decks a no room def wall, or delete it, the deck framing will build correctly. It looks like that wall may have only been there for you to design the roof?

I can think of two reasons straight off that may require the stairs to be built in a room definition. 1. If you have any winders in the stairs - probably unlikely with external stairs. 2. If you want to break the stairs and see the one flight going up on the lower floor and down from the upper floor, you need to build an open below room on the upper floor. Or...use some other tricks to get the same result.

Let me know if you want to do a Zoom share screen and I will run you through the basics.

I think you know what my comment on that would be! Can you post a plan - save me drawing one? I prefer to do it manually by using 3 stair sections. The auto stairs use 2 stairs and stair landings for the winders and landings. And you only get 2 winders - easier with manual.

Post the plan. I vaguely remember seeing this or similar more than a few years ago, but can't for the life of me remember the exact cause. It was something like a room with a higher ceiling, or a taller door, or......... I won't be able to sleep now!