glennw

Or, why not use the Fill Style Eyedropper?

I think you need to do a step by step so we know what you are doing.

You will need a 3D Molding Polyine. My prediction is that you will have trouble with the joints where a horizontal molding meets the sloping molding. They are not simple 45deg mitres.

As far as I know, having a black background does not affect sharing files with other users. Screen color is not saved with the file - it is a preference - each user will see their own background color. I don't think it has anything to do with printing either. Turn on Print Preview and I think you should see a white background even though you have a black background while drawing. Same for layout. A white line will not display on a black background, and I am pretty sure it will not print. A black line will display as white on a black background, but I am pretty sure it will print as black.

I can't see how countertop pier can merge with a wall? One way to stop walls merging with walls is to reverse one of the walls (Reverse Layers on the edit toolbar). This works well in this case because you are dealing with a single layer wall and means you won't need the room dividers. The circular planter is still not tangent. Pull back the end of the lower 21" wall away from the circular planter - about 4' should do it. Select the circular planter wall and click Make Arc Tangent on the edit toolbar. In the pop up, just leave things as they are, click OK. The curve wall ends should now be tangent to the 2 flanking walls. Drag the 21" wall back to meet the circular wall. Is there any reason why you set your level 1 floor to -7.5"? Try setting it back to zero. So...with the long curved planter wall - it is a normal wall, no retaining wall. You have dragged the top of the wall down and the bottom is the default when you drew the wall. The top of this freestanding normal wall will be the ceiling height set for the floor (Defaults>Floors and Rooms>Floor Levels>1st Floor>Absolute Elevations>Ceiling - in this case 97 1/8". The bottom of the wall will be zero height as this is Chiefs standard reference floor level for level 1. You now just need to drag the bottom of the wall down to where you want. If you want accuracy, you can use the Temporary Dimensions or you could snap the bottom of the wall to a cad line drawn at the correct height. A terrain retaining wall, on the other hand follows the terrain levels. The top of the retaining wall is determined by the height of the terrain on the high side of the wall and the bottom height is determined by the terrain height on the low side of the wall. So there are no default heights for a retaining wall - they vary as they follow the terrain. A retaining wall is really a normal wall with a terrain break built in (and follows the terrain). If you have a terrain with lots of slope and shaping, you can end up with a retaining wall with lots of break points along the top and bottom joined with sloping wall tops and bottoms, which make the wall pretty useless. That is why I warned you away from retaining walls. If you draw retaining walls over a flat terrain area (like a lot of yours), you won't have much of a wall at all.

The wall bottom heights all look the same height to me. EDIT: See later in my post. Any difference you may see could be caused by the fact that you have the long wall on the left designated as a Terrain Retaining Wall and the other walls are not TRW. I do not use TRWs because they cause too many problems. IMHO, it is better to use a Terrain Break to shape the terrain and then use a standard wall as the retaining wall. You can't use a Wall Cap to do pier caps - a wall cap will only run along the length of the wall. There are probably many ways to do the pier caps. The easiest way would to find one in the library. Or, try a Custom Countertop with a Molding. PS, another tip: Your semi-circular planter box is not tangent to the walls either side. Pull back the end of 21" thick wall from the planter as it is getting in the way. Select the semi-circular wall. On the edit toolbar, select Make Arc Tangent. Pull the end of the 21" wall back. Fix you paving, etc. PPS, Yes, I confirm that the wall that is designated Terrain Retaining Wall is causing the problem. That is exactly why I don't use that type of wall - because they follow the terrain. In this case, I think it is the Terrain Feature in front of the wall that is causing the bottom of the retaining will to move.

Make the wall a No Room Definition wall - works in X12. Post back if it doesn't work in X10.

The top and bottom heights of freestanding walls, when they are first drawn, are controlled by the default floor and ceiling height settings for the floor they are drawn on. In your case the floor is at zero height and the ceiling is 109 1/8" - the wall will build between these 2 values. The reason that the default top and bottom heights are greyed out is because the wall is already conforming to those default heights. You can change the top and bottom heights in a cross section/elevation view, by selecting the wall and dragging the top or bottom. You can also use the temporary dimension to do the same thing. Select the wall by the bottom and then using the temporary dimension will move the bottom of the wall. Selecting the wall by the top and then using the temp dimension will move the top of the wall. Once you have changed the top or bottom of the wall the default top height and default bottom height checkboxes will become available - because they are no longer at the default height. When they are available and you check them, the wall top and bottom heights will return to the floor and ceiling height defaults for the floor. Clear as mud.....

I did say it was possible - not the best way.

Steve, I think the default room wall material may be causing that. Open the room dbx and check what material is assigned to Walls. To get things back too normal, open the room dbx>Materials>Walls>Select Material>there is checkbox down the bottom>Use Default Material. Check it.

It is possible to have 2 kitchen designs in the same location. You can place the cabinets on different layers and control their display with Layersets/Plan Views. There are some minor problems when placing a cabinet over an already drawn one (even if it's on a different layer and hidden), but this can be overcome by placing the cabinet and then dragging into place.

Lower the floor height of the planter room - you may then have to raise the ceiling height.

You are sort of on the right track, but are over complicating things. I would make it out of normal walls and build a room - no roof, no ceiling - and fast to build. For the walls, uncheck Foundation Wall, Terrain Retaining Wall and No Room Definition. Height of walls are determined by the room's ceiling height. Dirt is a really thick floor finish - dirt material. Wall have already done the wall cap. Using a room, everything stays together and it is very easy to edit, change size, change materials, etc. Have a look at what I did to your plan - especially the terrain and the planter room. GLENNS Test on terrain walls.plan

This was a hard one to track down and I still don't know exactly why it is happening. To see what is going on, you will need to show wall and floor framing in a section view and turn on auto framing. If the thickness of the ceiling above level 1 is thicker than the sill plate, the ceiling will not build through to the outside of the wall. As soon as the ceiling is thinner than the sill plate, it builds through to the outside of the wall and causes the z fighting that you see. Bug?

Very easy to do with the Rafter Spacing setting on the Structure tab of the Roof Plane Specification dbx.

You could use a Roof Baseline Polyline for your first roof, copy it and raise it up for the second roof. Move it off to the side while you work on it and then move it back over the original roof This would allow you to customise the second roof as you wanted. I just had a really quick pay and it seemed to work. This picture is 2 roofs built off 2 Roof Baseline Polylines - one copy raised up and edited off to the side (white I joists) and the original roof (brown lumber).

OK

That should be possible using Wall Material Regions.

i thought you wanted the filled cores to display, not the rebar? Either way, it can all be done within a single wall definition.

Like this?

To solve the sill problem, I would just lower the mulled unit the smallest amount until the sill is buried into the floor and no longer visible - and then move on.

You could use a wall definition to get you most of the way there. This is a 3 layer wall. The layer lines have the invisible line type. The main (centre) layer is a framing layer. After you build the framing you can select a stud and copy/drag/relocate...as required.

Are you after something like this?

Eric, is that correct - it doesn't look right to me? Michael, Or here

Something like this?