Fun2Learn

Hi Folks. Can anyone recommend (or warn against) any of the Chief Architect "pay- per- view webinars" and "on-demand" training videos? They cost about $33 each for SSA members. (I am disappointed that they aren't free for SSA members!) If you already know the basics of Chief and have watched all the free to SSA member videos, do you think they worth the time and money? I am looking for an inexpensive way to learn how to draw/model more complicated or more custom details,structures/interiors, etc. in Chief. Which ones are worth the money and which aren't? I have another part-time job, and I haven't had much time to "play around" with Chief lately, trying to figure this out on my own, and have gotten frustrated with trying to learn this on my own. I CANNOT afford the more expensive training courses, tutoring, etc. Heck, I am not even in back in the architecture /drafting business yet, so there is not "company expense account" or even "tax deduction" I could use. I am an "old-school" former architect who knows how to hand-draft, who wants to get back into some aspect of the business, after being a stay-at-home mom for twenty years. It is very frustrating to spend hours trying to get chief to do something that I could do with a pencil in 5 minutes!!! Thanks for any advice on these Webinars.

Perry- this is an old post, but I think the issue (or at least the main one) was that I wanted to only see underneath the upper portion of the stairs and show those treads as dashed, while keeping the lower ones shown as solid lines and I didn't want those to be transparent as I didn't want to see the wall underneath the open treads, etc. (In other words, I wanted to show it as in traditional drafting with everything below a certain height as solid, everything above as dashed (and transparent in effect) ). Glenn's solution solves that pretty well, as well as the issue of having only part of the stair with open risers, etc. (This stair got tricky because the basement stair didn't line up exactly,, etc.) I agree NRST8TRKR--this was just a "playing around" to learn Chief plan. Actually--it was the plan created from following along with the Chief Training Video residential design series, but I moved the stairs because the architect in me just couldn't stand the original location of their stairs and just had to try and "tweak" it a bit (they had the bottom of the stairs about 4' away from the back kitchen wall.) That opened up a bunch of questions for me about how to do stairs in Chief. (By the way, I think the whole residential video series was excellent and very helpful for getting "up and running" with Chief, but the house plan they use for it is....well, let's just say it could use some improvement, cough, cough. ) Phyllis

Scott--you are so kind! I don't want you to have to go to any trouble, however. I just wasn't sure if it was on a you tube channel, or on Chief tutors, or in legacy Chief talk, or whatever. If I knew where to look, I could search for it, but maybe it would be too many Chief versions ago anyway! Thanks so much, Phyllis

Thanks so much, Perry! It looks like turning on the "auto framing" didn't mess up the manually drawn floor trusses, either (from the section you posted.) In one of my earlier attempts to do the framing, I ended up with 2 x floor joists automatically showing up underneath my floor trusses (giving me a very low ceiling!), so I think I turned off the auto framing. Would I be able to put a plywood subfloor and carpeting on this automatically somehow, or would I just have to draw it in manually if I use the ceiling plane tool? (The first floor stair's sloping ceiling actually forms a sloping floor in the closet above (the ceiing doesn't actually slope where you have shown it in the section you posted, but that is ok--I get the idea. The results look great!) I appreciate the time you took to help me! Phyllis

Scott--I tried to find the post in "legacy" Chief talk forum, but I couldn't find it (didn't want to spend too much time, though). I think the reason you (or whoever else it might have been )may have suggested using a roof plan was because they needed the floor above to be sloping as well. Where would I search for the video, if it is still around? Thanks, Phyllis

Thanks, Scott and Perry. I will try the ceiling plane tool and make sure the framing layer is turned on. Phyllis

Thanks, David. So, are you implying that this kind of unusual ceiling/floor situation can't really be achieved automatically to be shown completely correct in both 2-d and 3-d in Chief ?(at least for now--maybe X7!) If that is so, I guess now I don't feel quite so incompetent with Chief , then! I guess I don't mind having to do the manual "clean up" or work-around if I just KNEW that was what would be required, before spending so much time trying to figure it out. I guess I should have asked y'all sooner before I spent so much time trying to get it all correct automatically! I did ask Chief's tech support, and one man was trying to help me, but then another tech support agent took over the "ticket" and said that this was beyond the scope of SSA and offered their extremely expensive (to me anyway) personal tutoring. I am so thankful for this forum! Thanks again, Phyllis

What is the best tool to create a sloping ceiling over a stair? I have two situations like this in my home (I'm trying to draw the "as-built" for practice with Chief). The --sloping ceiling over part of the first floor stair also creates a sloping floor in a closet directly above it. The other sloping ceiling is over part of the basement stairs--that one doesn't impact the floor above. (The floor structures are 18" open-web floor joists, so the ceiling/floor "sandwich" is rather deep and I manually added the trusses in the framing plans.) If I use the ceiling plane tool, I don't get any framing. I have tried the soffit tool as well. I did a search on the old Chief Talk forum and found an old post where someone (I think it was Scott Hall) recommended using the roof tool, so I tried that over the first floor stair and set the roofing material to "carpet" (good thing the computer is "dumb" and didn't question that , ha, ha.) Anyway, with each of these tools, in section I am seeing problems, such as the floor trusses and flat ceilings extending into the sloped ceiling area, even though my manually drawn framing stops the trusses at the sloped ceiling areas. Any suggestions as to which tool will give the best results? Are there any videos that anyone knows of that show a good way to do this? Thanks. Phyllis Elsner Home.plan

Thanks, Jon. I've bookmarked it and will peruse through it later. One of my favorite architecture books is my facsimile edition of the 1932 edition of Architectural graphic standards--I wonder if it is in their archives? It has a large section with great details and cross sections on real masonry fireplaces, interior wall paneling (the REAL kind), etc. I wonder if a copy of my old 1970's Building Construction by Francis Ching is in there---I loaned it out to someone and never got it back, ha ha. I liked it better than the newer editions for some reason. Phyllis

Thanks for sharing, Alan! Phyllis

I do! I hated all the eraser crumbs everywhere and the gray smudge of lead all over my hands, and shirt and desk (not to mention the page you were working on as well!)--and staying up to the wee hours of the morning before a project was going to the printers, checking and double checking that the current revisions got updated on all pages and all dimensions strings were accurate, etc., etc. Yeah, I guess we have it easier nowadays.... Of course, the upside was that I could ALWAYS get my pencil to easily draw whatever I wanted it to--unlike this computer, that I haven't totally figured out yet--but hope springs eternal and I keep trying, LOL!!! Of course, the instant 3-D I can get with Chief, in living color with shadows, too, is something I never really could not do very well with a pencil--that makes it all worth while...

I've been reading this discussion with a bit of "deja vu", as I was asking a similar question about a year ago as I was researching which CAD program I should invest in. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the instant "wow" factor (from clients and potential clients) that you can get with the 3-D in Chief. To illustrate my point, here is a little story of what finally convinced me to buy Chief: This past summer, one of the design bloggers I follow mentioned wanting to add a new porch to her rather humble home and she had photo-shopped a picture of a porch onto a photo of her house but wasn't happy with the results. She asked if there were any architects or contractors out there who had any ideas how to improve it. I saw instantly what could be done to greatly improve the design, and since I was trying to learn how to use the free trial of Chief anyway, I used it to sketch it up several ideas. (I had to learn how to do roofs and other things as I went along!) It was done rather quickly, and I then sent some screen captures to the design blogger and she posted them online. The designer was ecstatic about the results and so were most of her readers; she got over three hundred enthusiastic, positive responses posted about them that day (much more than usual.) People were amazed at the 3-d images, as well as the basic transformation of the home they portrayed so clearly, praised what I had done, and some even asked for my contact information! My point is, that, in spite of being merely a novice with Chief , the average design- blog reader was very impressed with those 3-d images! Think about how the "Property Brothers" use their wonderful 3-D images to convince people to buy a run-down old house ad let them fix it up! Try doing that with old 2-d autocad drawing--NOT! I know that there are other 3-d programs out there, but for the price, Chief seems to have the biggest "bang for the buck" so to speak. (FWIW--I tried the free trials of Revit (out of the box, definitely lacking in "wow" factor) and Softplan. I'm not sure why, but Softplan's 3-d (looking at their samples gallery) just didn't quite look as "wow" as Chief's either, though better than Revit's. ) Just my 2 Cents.

Thanks, Jon. These are vertical moldings (casing that has to be applied manually around an unusual opening), so I have to use 3-D moldings which have to be applied in section, correct? How do I change the default molding to something larger so I can grab it easily? Thanks, Phyllis

I checked the "extrude Inside" polyline setting and it doesn't make any difference whether it is checked or unchecked. (this was a vertical molding line applied in cross section.) I am coming to the conclusion that it must be a computer quirk in the program or something about my particular plan. Thanks anyway.

HI ADCADUSER. This isn't the video, but a link to a thread where Glennw had a good solution using the layer sets and using different "stairs within the stairs "(setting the bottom and top heights so that they perform as if they were one stair with different stair subsections). Here is a link:https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2295-fantastic-new-solution-found-re-how-do-you-show-partial-open-railing-stairs-and-how-to-show-the-door-to-the-basement-stairs-underneath/ HOpe this helps. Phyllis

I just double checked to see if reversing the wall layers would help. I tried reversing the wall layers of one particular wall that was giving me problems with the molding, then applying the molding. The molding appeared in outline only (no color) and could not be selected. Then, just for the heck of it, I tried reversing the layers again, while the molding was still on there. After I did that , I could see the white color of the molding!!! However, I still could not select it until I deleted the wall surface ( 1/2" drywall--nothing fancy or unusual). Oh well, I can probably work around this, but just wonder what is going on. I was wondering if it is a quirk of x6, but if no one else is experiencing this.... Thanks again for trying to help, Phyllis

Thanks Lew for the suggestion, but I have already tried to use the tab key to cycle through to select--the molding is definitely at least partly underneath the surface though. Perry--I will try to see it the inside outside wall thing is perhaps the problem. I forget that even interior walls have an interior and exterior side. I am not sure yet how that affects moldings, but I am going to look at my plan now and will get back to you all! (I did ask Chief tech about this and they didn't have any definitive answer, though they did have a good work around for one particular area I was having problems. However I would really like to understand what is actually causing this behavior as I am having it in other instances as well.) Thanks much, Phyllis

HI. I have been having problems with 3-d molding lines . I have been consistently having problems with the vertical 3-d moldings (applied in cross section) being installed under the drywall surface on certain walls. Although I can often see the outline of the molding, I can't select it unless I delete the drywall surface; then I can see the color and details of the molding and can then select it. This has happened on several walls. Also, I have noticed that sometimes when I draw a 3-d molding line, it actually puts the molding on a wall 30' or so behind the original wall on which I was trying to apply it, despite making sure I was well back from the edge of the wall! I also am having this problem as I am trying to put additional trim onto the outside of a decorative column surround--it keeps putting the trim under the wood surround! Is this just a quirk of the program that I have to live with? Any ideas? Do you find it better to draw a line and then convert it to a 3-d polyline, or draw a polyline solid and then convert it to a molding line or? Thanks in advance for any helpful tips you can give me. Also--is there a way to change the default molding that is drawn when you draw a 3-d molding line or polyline? Thanks, Phyllis

Windows 8 is a good example of what you are talking about, D.Scott--"fixing what ain't broke" and needlessly complicating everyone's lives who were perfectly comfortable with the "older" versions of windows (like me) and then needed a new computer!!! Newer isn't always better. Another case in point (though not computer related) : I just recently read an article that explained why all the composition shingle roofs in our area now have unsightly black streaks of mold on them: when the shingle manuf. switched to using lighter weight fiberglass in their asphalt shingles they needed to add something so that they would meet weight requirements. They added limestone powder, which , it turns out, is a perfect "food" and growth medium for mold/algae. Maybe they should go back to whatever it was they used to use in asphalt shingles! (You folks out in California might not have these molds issues, but on the moist east coast it is a big problem.) Don't know if that problem ever got fixed recently or not. I also heard that the composition (fake) wood deck materials (like Trex) also have had similar mold issues (another supposed "improvement" over good old pressure-treated wood!) Just my two cents, fwiw. Phyllis

I've had that happen, too. I thought it was just because I was rather new at Chief and figured out that I'd eventually figure out what I was doing wrong. Glad to know it isn't just "me"! Phyllis

Thanks, Tommy--now I don't feel so bad! Phyllis

Thanks, GlennW! You were correct. At first I misunderstand what you meant by "level"--I started checking through all the various plan sets and couldn't find it. So I ended up checking with Chief tech support and they explained that if you created a terrain perimeter while you had the 2nd floor open, that is the only place it would be visible in the plan views. ( I think Chief should mention this fact in their help menu.) Lo and behold, I went up to the 2nd floor plan/level and there it was!! In hindsight, I should have known what you meant by "level" ("DUH" for me), but it never occurred to me to be that simple of an answer (or that Chief could be so "silly" as to show a terrain with an elevation of -24" up at a floor plan level with an elevation of 96")! Thanks and have a nice weekend. Phyllis

I can't figure out what happened to my terrain perimeter. It seems to have disappeared and things like "elevation region" buttons are "grayed out". I have used the "zoom out" to include everything button, and I have also checked the display layers to make sure that the terrain perimeter is checked (it is). The terrain shows up in camera view, and it shows up there and looks like the usual default size. I checked the help menu, but can't seem to figure this one out. Any ideas? (I could post the plan, but am hoping someone will have a simple idea of what to fix before I trouble anyone to "dig into" my plan. Thanks, Phyllis

You might want to check out this thread https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2295-fantastic-new-solution-found-re-how-do-you-show-partial-open-railing-stairs-and-how-to-show-the-door-to-the-basement-stairs-underneath/ from a few weeks back. Ignore all the discussion at the beginning (I was the original poster on this one) and look at Joe Carrick's method for stiars with landings , or GlennW's method (shown as the "solution found" answer) if you don't happen to have a landing. Hope this helps. Phyllis

Wow- do you two mean that you actually create the volute handrail out of a "landing"????Sounds pretty amazing. I'd love to hear how you do it! Thanks, Phyllis