glennw

To get down to basics, it really isn't such a specific problem as you say - it has to do with the whole terrain and the information you have used. The fact that you have so much elevation data in the plan is only allowing Chief to process the information as Linear. Reduce the amount of elevation data and you will be able to choose one of the other Terrain Surface Smoothing options. As far as the retaining walls go, I repeat - do not use Terrain Retaining Walls - use a Terrain Break with a normal wall, slab, polysolid, etc.

My best pieces of advice when creating terrains are: Wherever possible use Terrain Elevation Lines/Splines instead of Elevation Points. Avoid using Elevation Points in the same are as Elevation Lines/Splines. Use Terrain Breaks with normal walls where you want a vertical retaining wall. Avoid Linear Terrain Surface Smoothing - in this case, you need to reduce your terrain elevation and rationalise it as Chopsaw said, to reduce conflicts. Use Elevation Regions wherever possible for flat areas and let Chief auto grade the terrain between the Elevation Regions. You also need to be aware that some landscaping tools like the Straight Road tool will actually influence the shape of the terrain. In the case of the Straight Road, Chief will automatically cut and fill the terrain to result in a road which is level in cross section. So if you want your parking area to follow your terrain levels, you may be better of by not using the Road tool, but using a Terrain Feature instead. Another thing is to ignore the name of the tool and learn what it really does instead of assuming it performs a certaain function because of it's name. There are many little things like this that you need to be aware of when dealing with terrains. This is a picture of a project I am working on at the moment - plenty of retaining walls, level and sloped areas. I will have a deeper look at your plan and see exactly what is happening and where the major areas for improvement could be. This is what a road does automatically to the terrain. I have just had a quick look at your terrain and the first thing that stands out (apart from your use of spot levels and Roads, is that your Elevation Lines have WAYYYY to many segments. Each segment node is really a terrain point. How did you draw those Elevation Splines - my guess is that you converted them from some other type of entity. You Elevation Splines are at 12" intervals - do you really need them that close together - over the whole site? I will keep looking.

I think I probably did the same as Mark. Draw a temporary wall from side to side across the back of the house to square it up. Make the rear section No Roof over and build an auto roof over the front of the house. Now turn off auto roofs and drag the rear hip roof down to cover the rear section of the house. Don't worry about the shape while doing this. Use the Break Line and Make Parallel tools (and dimensions for the correct eave overhang) to shape the roof plane around your rear walls. There are probably many ways of doing this including setting things up so that it builds auto. I think the above method would be one of the easier ways though.

Oops, Rotate/Resize About Current Point is the incorrect icon.

It is telling you that you need to rebuild walls/floors/ceilings. You can do it manually each time it is required, or you can toggle on Auto Rebuild Floors/Walls/Ceilings. That should also normally be left toggled on (in the same dbx).

That icon means that you need to build the terrain. Easiest thing is to toggle on Auto Rebuild Terrain in 3D View Defaults. In general, those icons are telling you that you need to do something, or they are a warning like the Angle Snaps one that is reminding you that Angle Snaps is toggled off.

Do you mean a different pitch either side of a different baseline height either side? Or...maybe a combination of both. More information please.

And why can't you use those as electrical connections?

Scott, You can determine which way the arc draws by the way you drag the arc. Say you want to draw an arc between two horizontal points (or a chord). If you start drawing the arc on one point and drag the arc upwards, the arc will draw in that direction. ie with the arc above the 2 points (or chord). Similar if you want the arc to draw below the 2 points. Also, the further you drag the arc away from a straight line (or the chord) the higher the arc (smaller the radius). You don't really need to have points already drawn, the same technique works just drawing the arc without any reference points or chords. Isn't it as simple as that, or am I missing something? Do you need me to do a video - although it's pretty simple. The way an arc works for an electrical connection is different from the above. The arc direction depends on wether you drag from the switch or the light first

There is no default for the hatching - it is hardcoded.

Ray, They were just 2D images - like the 2D plant images. 2D images have a setting "Image Always Faces Camera".

If you have Auto Rebuild Attic Walls toggled on in General Wall Defaults, Chief will auto build attic walls to fill the space above the default flat ceiling height.

They weren't 3D people. They were 2D images.

You have an Architectural Block on a hidden layer (Architectural Blocks) which is preventing correct cabinet bumping in that area. Turn on the appropriate layers for the doors, drawers, countertops, etc., in the 3D view.

Draw a Room Divider (or very thin invisible wall) wall between the 2 stairs - at the angle of the join (157.5deg in this case) and hide that layer. Uncheck "Allow Wrap". Use "Winders" for both stairs.

Maybe it is because I am on a mac, or maybe it's the 5K screen, but this is what happens on my machine: Chieftalk_format.mp4

Solver, Try dragging the width of the Chieftalk window wider and narrower. The format automatically changes depending on the width of the window - as Dan said it is part of the "responsive design" to automatically size for different device types.

And even more curious, why don't you have any floors in your rooms? They are Open Below rooms without any floor structure. That could be part of the problem.

Mark, That doesn't work for me. You may find this interesting:

That setting only effects the zoom when using the arrow keys. Zoom in a 3D view with the mouse wheel should be smooth without ant steps or jumps. Sounds like a mouse setting to me.

I have several 3D people. The only one I have sitting down is a child - the chair and child are seperate symbols. Would they be of use to you?

With the new "Inserts Into Wall" and "Edit Wall Cutout Polyline" tools you can cut any shape you want into a wall.

I don't think that there any two roofs with the same pitch - any reason for that?. That roof should be a piece of cake for the auto roof generator. Why are you doing it manually? To be able to fix the roof for you, we would need to know the pitch of each roof, the ceiling heights in each room and the overhang of each roof plane. Oh, and if you want the eaves to be the same height for different roof pitches/overhangs. Once you set the correct information in the plan, you can auto build the roofs.

Eric, Why use Photoshop? The texture size can be easily changed on the Texture tab of the material definition dbx.

Is there any reason why you can't just mull two doors together?