glennw

You create a Wall Cutout Polyline by opening the symbol specification dbx and on the options panel, checking Inserts into wall. While you are there, enter the Depth as 6". Select the window and on the Edit toolbar click Edit Wall Cutout Polyline. Oh, I had to change the Y Position Origin Offset to -6" to get the window in the correct location in 3D and cut a hole. That all works for 3D. You will probably have to create a new 2D cad block for the wall hole in plan view. I see you using the Edit Wall Cutout Polyline in the video. If you don't have a Wall Cutout Polyline, why are you using Edit Wall Cutout Polyline? 1966953791_version6 GLENN.plan

I can't see the edit toolbar - it is cut off. Why are you using a passthrough to make the wall hole? The Wall Cutout Polyline does that.

You don't have a ceiling finish specified, therefore there is no ceiling. Room Specification dbx>Structure panel>Ceiling>Ceiling Finish.

You can use the Delete Surfaces tool to temporarily delete the parts of the symbol you don't want. You can then save what is left as a symbol for reuse.

Elevation Regions are your friend - the site will auto grade between regions. Terrain retaining walls are your enemy, as are Elevation Points. Use Terrain Breaks with elevation lines top and bottom instead of retaining wall and then add a normal wall. Control the house height with the Subfloor Height Above Terrain setting. How do you want the house to sit on the site - it doesn't look too bad. I also try and avoid the modifiers like Flat Region as you don't have absolute control of their height like an Elevation Region.

Select the roof plane and open the dbx. On the Options panel, uncheck Flush Eave. Same for the other hip roofs. You only need Flush Eaves on a gable roof. So you could use Edit All Roof Planes.

Hide Camera-facing Exterior Walls? Increase the Field of View? Use Invisible Walls?....... I can't check on it now, but I think it was possible to start by drawing the camera view inside the room and then backing the camera out of the room which maintained the room lighting - I am a bit vague on this though but will check when I am in front of Chief next time.

For the corner. Select the pony wall. Edit Wall Layer Intersections (edit toolbar) Drag the wall grip so that it forms a 45deg joint between the 2 walls. For the floor gap, Select the pony wall and open it's dbx. Structure panel>Platform Intersections>Go Through Floor Below.

You can get them touching. Defaults>Window>General panel>Options>Minimum Separation>change to zero.

I think it was new to X12.

Open the dbx for the wall General>Options>No Room Moldings Interior.

You have a ceiling finish specified. The only problem is that it is set to Insulation Air Gap

Mick, I am pretty sure they get added to the ML as Exterior Trim.

Why so?

Ah, you are talking about in elevation - not the 2D cad plan block?

Rob, Without going through all your posts and dissecting each one, it would appear that a lot of your temp dim problems can be corrected by using the Temporary Dimension defaults along with General Wall Defaults settings and current dimension defaults. Take for instance, the above situation. If you select the big grey wall going left to right and on the left, you want the temp dim to go to the right hand side of the vertical yellow wall. Note that the wall grips are at the bottom of the selected wall. This would indicate to me that you have the General Wall Defaults>Resize About set to Outer Surface (depending on which way you drew the wall). If you change this default to Inner Surface the wall grips will change to the top surface of the wall and your horizontal dimensions should be as you want. For this one: Set your Temporary Dimensions>With Wall Opening Selected, change to Automatic instead of Locate Primary Wall Side: So,...have a play with the Temporary Dimension Defaults, the General Wall Defaults and the current dimension defaults. PS. Sometimes it depends on what side of the wall you click on as well.

Not sure that I understand what you are saying. Why is the thread titled "Dimensions"? Are you double licking in the room to open it's dbx? Have you tried clicking in a room to hi-light the room. What do you mean by: It sounds like you can move the cursor - so how is it stuck?

Gene, A few more details would help. What bonus library and what particular trees? What sort of 2D block do you want? A lot of the plants I looked at had closed polyline blocks. It is very easy to create your own 2D filled block.

You can always turn off the Floor Surfaces layer in the cross section. That way, you get an accurate model.

Steve, Great video as usual, but probably MUCH easier to do a simple roof like that using the auto roof tool. Build a zero height second floor and control the dormer with a room on the second floor. The big advantage of doing auto is that the model is very easy to change if you want to see how variations will look - or, if in a very unusual circumstance, the client changes their mind and wants some changes! I realise that it was an older video not necessarily made for this particular situation.

In the 2 end walls dbx, go to the Roof panel and use the Dutch Gable Wall option. Auto build roofs. Or..it looks like there may be a double pitch. In which case, in addition to the above, open the walls dbx for the 2 long walls and enter the Upper Pitch options. Auto build roofs. Here is a very quick one:

Tony, I am based in Sydney. Let me know the scope of work with maybe an example of what you want. I may have some spare time during Covid to help.

Rob, You may already know that you can easily record a spin around the model with fairly good results - but I will run through it on case you aren't aware of a couple of things. Set up your 3D view and in the camera dbx, make sure the Incremental Move Distance and Incremental Rotate Angle are set to small values like 4" and 1deg respectively. The smaller these settings, the smoother the movie. In the popup Walkthrough Options you get some additional options. You may want a higher frame rate or less compression. You can then Save Video As and change the recording format - .mp4, .mpv, iTunes .mp4). You can now use the left and right arrow keys or Spin to record a movie. This has to be better than recording the screen with a phone. Here is a very basic quick one you demonstrate the smoothness in a flyaround using Spin. It is about 7MB. The beauty of this method is that it is all done quickly right in Chief - no toolbars, no clipping....... Don't forget that Walkthroughs have their own default settings. Spin movie.mp4

Auto roof builds OK if you make the Segment angle At Curved Wall about 14 deg or more. The auto roof on the left hand side of the curved wall needs to be fixed by selecting the curved wall and using the Make Arc Tangent tool to fix up the walls and build the roof over the bottom left corner.

Kevin, I think you answered your own question in your first post. Either make the roof overhang smaller or make the small step in the wall a bit larger. You should probably do that anyway so that it can be built properly without a very small bit of the roof that would need to be sealed where it projects past the adjoining small wall. Chief doesn't want to build it the way you have it drawn, and you probably shouldn't build it that way in real life.