Fun2Learn

I noticed that there are many pre-set templates that came with my X6 (with names like "Colonial", "American Casual", "Cottage", etc.) Is there a way to easily find out what the differences are between all of these without having to open each one and go through all the defaults and preferences menus manually? In other words, is there a list somewhere so we could know which template we might like to use? Just wondering! Thanks. Phyllis

Hi Joe, I agree. I always hated hand-drafting stairs, (the tread widths (and risers in section) are so hard to get exactly even!) That is one of the reasons I was so hopeful that the computer would do all the "work" for me without having to do to much "fussing around" to fix details! It is so amazing what Chief can do--I don't want to seem like I am whining about the program in general. I know it will keep getting better and better. Who would ever want to go back to a 2-d only program? I appreciate all the great ideas being shared on this forum--yours included! Thanks, Phyllis

Glenn- Wow--you just thought of this today? You ought to get some sort of Chief Work-Around Award! I just tried it your method and it worked great for me and was easy--even for a newbie like me. Heh- if I can do this, anyone can! ( I did have to re-watching a video about working with layer sets, though, to figure out how to add the new layers and plan sets, though! ) I first put in a complete stair and made a note of the top height and riser height needed for the number of treads I wanted. Then I deleted that stair and put in just the open-railing portion of my final stair, using the riser heights noted earlier, and made a note of what the top tread height was and made that the bottom height of the second stair. Then I put in the top-height for the second stair, using what I had noted earlier, and everything connected!!! Easy and quick. The only tiny imperfection (and not a big deal, considering the benefits of using this method for everything else!) is that, in cross-section, the stringer is split into two (an easy fix with Cad, I would think?) I think it looks fine in camera view, though. Also, you will notice that in my particular plan the railing and the wall handrail on the left don't connect, even though I had checked that I wanted smooth railing transitions in the dbx. Perhaps that would be corrected if I split the stairs at another spot, rather than right between the two railing conditions. The wall railing on the right connected just fine. I am guessing that your method works because the computer is being "tricked" into treating these two parts of the same stair as if they were two separate stairs, rather than what Chief would classify as "sub-sections" of the same stair! Hopefully Chief can use your idea and build it into the program with the tweaks needed to automatically connect the stringers in section, and the handrail transitions in camera view, so that they appear the way they would be actually be built. But for now, I am satisfied with your solution and will use it! You mentioned that you could see the handrails in plan if you turned them on in the display. I don't see them in my display menu. Do you mean if you manually draw them in plan with CAD? (And, by the way--does anyone know how I can move the open- railing over so that it centers on the wall to which it is attached?) I hope you don't mind, Glenn, but I copied your first post above with the "solution" under another thread I had started about Stairs under the "suggestions" forum so that Chief and anyone else interested could see it. It really went along with the discussion under that post! I also posted a link back to this thread on there. Thanks again so much. Phyllis P.S. I purposely wanted to show the entire stairs as solid lines from the second floor, though I am sure it would have been easy to change the lower treads to dashed, as you had done on your second floor plan. P.S.S. I did have to remove the automatic up and down arrows and manually draw ones in--not a big deal, but that would hopefully be another advantage (having arrows automatically end- up in the right spots) if Chief could make this method more of an automatic part of their program! P.S.S. Note that I added a ceiling light , per your suggestion, DSHALL! I probably should have added another though!

Glenn--Thank you so, so much for taking the time to post this fantastic method of handling stairs and for attaching the helpful pics and file! This is a brilliant solution! (I wonder why this isn't in the Chief Architect Reference Manual or explained in any of their training videos?? I think I had watched every single one of them that came up when I did a search on the topic "stairs".) I also wonder why the support tech person hadn't thought of this solution when I had called? Maybe you are one of the few who have discovered this method?) Now, if Chief could just tweak the program to allow this to happen a bit more automatically, or at least set up the stair dialog box or defaults to make it more obvious that your method is even a possibility (since, obviously, not everyone is aware of this solution) it would really improve the "user-friendliness" and intuitiveness of the program. I am still not very knowledgeable about layers yet, so it is very helpful that youhave attached the file so I can see how you set them up. This is fantastic--you have made my day. Now I feel so much happier again with my wonderful, new Chief software. (Now if Chief could only also allow the option to show the handrails in plan.......) Thanks again, Glenn! God bless ya, Phyllis

Rob (and anyone else who is interested)-- I I finally found a better way to create a partial open railing stair--and allow the upper treads of the stairs to show as dashed lines while the lower show as solid (like you mention above, Rob!) I had posted a suggestion I had to improve the stair tool by allowing stair "sub-sections" to be independently edited, (like stair "sections", which are separated by landings, already can be. Be careful not to confuse the two terms.). If you scoll down the thread, Joe Carrick posted a method he uses for straight stairs--he creates a "tread-sized" landing to separate the stair into "sections" (He uses the term "sub-sections", but he meant "sections".). The two sections can then be edited to have different widths and fill and line styles, (you have to check the "allow stair sections to move independently" box in the preferences dialog first). Joe pulled the sections apart to edit them separately and then put them back together again. But then Kilgore made the comment that you can use the "shift-click" method (not to be confused with the "click-shift" method!) to select each stair section and edit it independently without having to pull it apart and put it back together again. I tried it this method, and it works pretty well. I found that I had to make sure that the "winders" box was unchecked, though, or the landing and stairs didn't " behave" when I tried to make the open-railing section wider! The only problem is that the handrail at the wall had a break in it where the tread-sized "landing" was, but maybe that can be fixed somehow with a railing setting somewhere? Here is a link to the thread: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2354-solve-stair-problems-by-allowing-sub-sections-to-have-differing-fill-and-line-styles-widths-and-other-settings/ Hope this helps. Phyllis

I forgot to add: Now I just have to figure out what to do about the top three treads --do you see them there hanging down from the ceiling? I needed the space under them for the hallway. Any suggestions? Should I just draw a wall and move the bottom up ? Is that even possible? Or should I just use a polyline solid and pretend it is a wall? Phyllis

Ok everyone-- I think I found a good solution: I called Chief's tech support tonight and the woman I spoke with came up with a good solution for creating the partial open- railing stairs ( more realistic looking than the one in the Chief manual (with the "stringer on steroids",as shown above) and without having to uncheck the "open underneath" box, which doesn't really create a real wall with moldings, and doesn't work if you DON"T want a wall under the top-most treads, either, as in my plan above.) Although the Chief tech hadn't tried this before, she thought it would work to use the break wall tool and then designating the part of the wall that should go under the open- railing portion as a "no locate wall" . (Is this along the lines of what you were suggesting in your earlier reply, David? ) She thought that you would then could take a wall elevation and adjust the height and slope of the top of the "no locate wall". However, I played around with this idea and discovered that you don't have to adjust the height of the "no locate" wall. You can just drag it under the stairs and it stays there and adjusts its height and slope to fit!!! Whoppee! (I am not very good at adjusting polylines yet, so this is wonderful!) EDIT:Note, after I wrote this post, I discovered that the wall under the stair stringer only stays in place as long as you don't so much as even think about doing anything else with the stair, such as clicking on the stair, opening the stair dbx, or trying then create a stair well for the basement stairs underneath!!! I ended up manually lowering the wall to fit under the stringer, following the angle, just to be "safe" and prevent it from popping back up to a full height wall later if I did something. It was a lot easier to do than I thought, though, so that was ok! As I have been playing around with the various ways and the best sequence to achieve a partial open-railing stair, I have discovered (as most of you all probably already know) that stairs in CA are so "flexible" that they seem to be very unstable--one little change in the wrong order seems to send these walls and stairs out of whack or the wall that is tucked under the open-railing portion becomes full-height again.! I guess this is because the stairs are so easy to reconfigure that the downside is that you can mess them up easily, too--esp. for us newbies. Once the are "messed up" , it seems like they never look quite right again until you redraw them! Good thing that the stairs in Chief are so easy to redraw--I must have redrawn these about 30 times tonight. Some of you probably already know this method, but for those who are newbies or never tried this (it wasn't even in the Chief manual, after all, so I assume there are others out there who don't know this, either), here is what seemed to finally work the best for me, and be the most "stable", was to: 1. Set the stair defaults to the narrowest width and check the winders box and set the max. contraction to 5" (as Jay suggested above) (I discovered I needed 6" if I put brackets on the stairs) Getting all the stair defaults in place BEFORE you draw the stairs seemed to work the best for me. 2. Draw the full height wall that the open railing will tie in to. (I had object snaps on. Drawing the full-height wall first before the stairs also worked well and made it easier to get it exactly where I wanted it, but it works ok to draw it after the stairs, too.) Then click and drag the stair into place. Create the stairwell at this point. (I found that if I created the stairwell after everything was done, the wall under the stringer will become full-height!) 3. Select the stair edge that will have the open railing and drag or use the click-tab method to get it in place to align with the outer edge of the full-height wall. This will make the part of the stair that is going to have the open railing wider than the portion between the full-height walls. Then you can use either of the following two methods: 4. a; Drag the full height wall towards the beginning of the stair, stopping at the second tread (since Chief doesn't allow walls under the first two treads.) The wall should be cut off under the bottom of the stair stringer. Though in plan it looks as if it is a full-height wall, you will see it is under the stair stringer in elevation and perspective views. -- Use the break-wall tool to break the wall at the point where the full height wall changes to the wall under the stair stringer. . --Then select the wall going under the stringer and change it to a "no-locate" wall (and , if preferred, change the wall-type definition so it shows as just a dashed line with no fill. You can also uncheck the display of no- locate walls so it doesn't show in floor plan, but I found it just looks like a "gap" in the floor plan, and doesn't show the treads going over it, though you could easily fix that with cad lines I guess.) Or--if 4.a. gives you problems (as it did sometimes with me--not sure why.) the 4. b method below seems to work well all the time: 4. b. (Alternate method) Draw another wall next to the open railing portion of the stair (but not touching the stair or the full-height wall yet. Make it the length needed to go from the end of the full-height wall to the second tread. --.Open the dbx for that wall and check "no locate" ( and define it as a new wall type with no fill and dashed lines, if preferred) ---Then drag it over and "under" the stairs until it snaps to the full-height wall. It will automatically adjust to the height and slope of the stringer 5. Voila! You now have a partial railing stair, with both a full-height wall and a perfectly aligned, true wall with base molding, underneath the stringer of the open railing portion. Hope this helps someone. If anyone has a better way to do this, or some suggestions to tweak it, I'd love to hear them, as this is such a common stair type--at least around here! Thanks.

I forgot to attach the snip I took of page 542 of the Chief manual, in case anyone is interested. It makes it easier to understand what I am talking about. Phyllis

Jay--I just looked at your picture more closely and noticed that the base molding stops where the full height wall ends. This makes me wonder if you were able to achieve the wall under the open tread portion just by unchecking "open underneath"? In my case, that doesn't work because it would put that "surface" underneath all of the stairs, and I want to be able to walk underneath the top two or three treads (remember the other portion of my original question where I stated that the door to the basement steps were set back from the top of the second floor stair .) I just found, on page 542 of the CA x 6 manual, directions for how to draw the scenariot we have been discussing-- they call a "partial railing" stair. Their solution is to a stringer big enough to cover the entire open railing area. If you want 8 treads open, like I do, that is a heck of a big whopper stringer, not to mention it still doesn't look quite right, as that isn't how these kinds of stairs are built. You want to be able to see the stringer and the wall surface under the open tread/railing area should be flush with the full height wall. It would seem like a great option to allow stair sub-sections to be treated differently as to width, wall vs. open railing, and line and fill styles. That might solve a myriad of stair drawing problems: the upper most subsection of a stair could be shown as transparent and with a dashed line and the bottom sub-section with a solid line, just like it would be in a traditional drawing. I would think it would be a simple thing to allow in the program, since Chief can do so many more complicated wiz-bang kind of maneuvers and other kinds of "voila" magic with stairs, but I don't know much about computer programming! Maybe someone else has come up with a great work-around? Thanks, Phyllis

Jay--if you draw the stairs as one section, how do you get only some of the treads to extend over the top of the wall? (Pardon my ignorance!) Is there a certain click sequence or edit handle you use? Too bad about the handrails not "being included" automatically in plan view. I imagine most building depts. want to see some hand rails, so I guess I will have to get better at using those cad tools! Thanks again, Phyllis

Thanks again, Jay. Your picture is exactly the look I was going for as far as the stair to the second floor is concerned (part behind wall, part open tread). Did you draw the stair in two separate sections? Are you able to adjust each section separately? I drew mine as two separate sections, but the program is making them act as one : If I check "winder" for one section, the other section automatically is checked as a winder, and if I try to drag one section over the wall, the other section goes along too and either they both are behind a full height wall, or both sections become open tread. Is there some setting somewhere I need to adjust to allow them to act as separate sections? Also--is it possible to show the handrails instead of the newels and balusters on the stair? I can't seem to find the setting for that. Hi, Ross--I agree with your comment. It seems like it would make thing so much simpler. Or at least allow separate sections of a stair, that are connected to each other and not separated by a landing, to act independently!!!! (If you could also have the upper part of a stair show as "invisible" in plan, then the floor plans would allow you to show stacked stairs easier I would think. Just my newbie opinion.... Thanks, guys. Phyllis

Thanks, David and Jay. Jay--if I do what you suggested, the entire stairs moves over on top of the wall. How can I get just part of it to move over and leave the other part behind the full-height wall? In other words, I would like to have the lower treads (maybe the first 8 or so) be wider with an open railing and open treads, and then the upper treads be narrower and fit to the inside of the full height wall. Is there a way to have a straight run stair operate as two separate sections? If I draw it that way, it shows up in the dbx as two separate sections, but if I change the tread width for one, it automatically changes the tread width for the other. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Phyllis

I would sure appreciate your help! I have been struggling for three or four days trying to figure out how to show, on the first floor plan, both the door to the basement stairs (along with the top of the basement stairs) as well as the bottom of the stairs going up to the second floor, as shown on traditional floor plans. I am especially confused about how to show the basement stairs when they are set back underneath the top two or three treads of the stairs going to the second floor. In other words, the basement stairs is shorter than the stairs going up. I think that I have watched all the Chief videos on stairs and read all the help info. This is just a straight stair situation. I tried drawing the stairs to the second floor as two separate sections, but it won't let me show them with different line styles (I wanted to show the upper part as dashed). Some earlier posts I read about stairs (from the old Chief Talk Forum) made it sound as if people were having to draw stacked stairs in 2-d cad in order to get them to show correctly for permit sets and construction drawings. YIKES! I hope that now a days there is an easier work-around? Thanks, Phyllis P.S. I would also like to know how to widen just the open-ended treads (the ones going up with the open railing shown in the picture), so that they would die into the wall. I am not having much luck using the winder option or trying to treat it as a separate section of stairs. P.S.S. I started watching the stair videos on Chief Tutor, but there are SO many of them--if anyone knows of a good one that addresses this issue, please let me know which one! Thanks so much!

Thanks, Joe, for taking the time to explain. (Please don't apologize for "rambling"--I appreciate the explanation and it definitely wasn't too long or too much! The more info, the better!)I hadn't thought about the need to get the drawing done quickly just so the contractor could get the job in the first place. You must have a pretty good eye for design. I imagine not all contractors do as well with the design end as the construction end (and judging by some of the poorly designed remodels I've seen - or ones that could have been improved greatly with just a little more thought and attention...but don't get ME going on that one, ha, ha!) I also see myself as primarily working on typical, middle-class type home projects, so I appreciate your feedback. I like helping average people on a budget improve their homes--I've already helped a few friends with additions and remodels. I think I can quickly look at a home and come up with ideas for improvements and additions---as a matter of fact, I consider it an "occupational" hazard that I have a hard time NOT mentally redesigning (or at least tweaking) most homes I walk into anyway! So it sounds like you are saying that , in your construction "niche" market, a main selling point for drafting services would be speed of providing a preliminary design plan, and someone to take the as-built measurements? Is that correct? I would also like to provide design services--or at least help "tweak" the contractor's initial design, maybe. So do you think then that there would be a market for this? I would think contractors, unless they really love designing and drafting (as you seem to do), would rather delegate that task out so they could concentrate on the construction end. Thanks, Phyllis

This came up in one of the "Residential Project" training video series that I was watching today. The trainer demonstrated having to go to "delete objects" and then selecting the automatic dimensions for deletion in the DBX so that you wouldn't get duplicate dimension strings when you regenerated the automatic dimensions. So, if that is how he had to do it, and he is the "expert", I assume that is the only way to prevent the duplicates. If there is another way to do something, he always seems to let you know about it in that particular video series, which seems to be very well thought- out and planned- out. I'm a newbie, so I am not sure if I understood what you were asking correctly-maybe you already knew about this--but I hope this helps someone. Phyllis

Thanks, Joe. I can see why your business has done so well, based on your great attitude toward both the customer as well as your own financial needs. Do I understand you correctly that you are still a contractor that does his own drawings, or have you switched to doing drawings and designs for other contractors--just curious. I am hoping that most contractors would prefer to hire someone else to do their drawings, though, so I can hopefully get some work, LOL. I am hearing "loud and clear" from you all to not "sell yourself" short when it comes to charging for your services--something I would probably be prone to do, so this is needed and appreciated advice. Thanks again, Phyllis

Thank you, thank you, thank you SO MUCH, GlennW--that reset worked like a charm! (I wonder what I did to get rid of them? Oh, well...) (Before I did the reset, I did try what you suggested, NIcinus, but it did not work. Thanks anyway.) Phyllis

I am going through the "Residential Project" tutorial with my new Chief X6 and when it said to open the aerial view, I tried to do so, but nothing shows up! I read all the "help" info on it, but can't seem to figure out what is going on. I tried the project browser and it also will not open (or is lost somewhere). The Library browser works fine. I did just download the lastest Chief update this morning, but I assume it probably isn't a glitch in the program, but rather my own newbie ignorance. I have checked everything I can think of. Any thoughts? Is there some toggle switch I haven't yet found? Thanks. Phyllis

Thanks for all the responses and good info and food for thought! Thanks for the document link, Richard. I downloaded it and will try to wade through it! Thanks, Lew, for highlighting some pertinent parts of it, too. Thanks, Jon, for the interesting link to the article about the "interior designers" getting arrested--how ridiculous!! Now I understand why one interior design blogger, whom I follow online, made a point to state that she is not an "interior designer" but a "decorator". She stated that she could not advise clients to tear down walls or rearrange their kitchens, but could totally transform their space with the right wall color and toss pillows! (and she is quite good at that --she is a well known "color expert"). So perhaps, since she is very visible on-line, her attorney advised her to state that up front that she is not a "designer". I don't think the public understands the difference at all and uses the terms interchangeably. Now as far as an architect goes, that is quite a different thing entirely. Most people understand the difference between a licensed architect and a draftsman, right? Can you go wrong just advertising that you provide residential drafting services? Thanks, Phyllis P.S. I am having too much fun learning on my new Chief Architect X6!!! I can sit here for hours and not realize how much time has gone by and have to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour! I feel like a kid on Christmas with a boat-load of new toys to try out! Those extra training videos (that I couldn't access with just the trial) are great. I just discovered the residential project series, and that is a fantastic way to learn!

Doesn't this get confusing to the contractors? I mean--if they accidently look on the demo plan instead of the remodeling plan when they are ready to start putting in new walls, they may inadvertently start rebuilding the walls that were just taken out, since they are both shown in black fill! Just wondering....

Thank you SO much!! I hadn't paid that much attention to all those other settings on the adjust material tool so I didn't realize that before! I got it to work! I was able to change the hardwood direction as well as try the tile at a 45 degree! Phyllis

I have been searching this forum and all the Chief help topics/videos and can't seem to find the answer to how to change the direction of floor covering material, such as hardwood and tile. The only thing I can think of is doing a floor material region and rotating it--I haven't tried that yet. I thought I'd ask here in case there is an easier way. Thanks. Phyllis

Thanks again, Lew. I never heard about that "greater knowledge" thing before. I will have to look into it. Phyllis

Thanks, everyone. Yes, I was talking about the I-pad/I-phone app. I thought it might be nice for recording measurements of existing buildings and then importing into Chief for remodeling projects. I was going to try it at least. In the instructions for Room Planner, they mention something about X6 users already having accounts with Cloud storage access, so I wasn't sure if it also meant that Room Planner was free for owners of X6. On the web page for the app,it says "Free for a limited time" anyway, however, there are about 4 or 5 add-ons that would bring the price up to $10 or more. I couldn't tell if each app had separate features entirely, or if the "higher level" apps contained all the features of the lower-priced ones, or whatever. I called Chief sales and they said that the Room Planner is totally separate and that you would have to purchase those "add-ons" if you want them--they are not included with X6 or SSA or anything. It looks like you would have to purchase at least two of the extra features for the app at least if you want to use it to record dimensions. Has anyone used Room Planner to record as-builts? Just wondering.... Phyllis

Thanks so much, Designsyko! Sounds like great advice. I love your caution about being careful about "using Chief "live" with a client" --that is something that I wouldn't have thought about probably until it was too late, LOL! Yes, I could definitely see a client wanting to have you try every tile, floor and wall color, furniture arrangement, etc. while they are sitting there with you since it looks so easy and fun! So if I understand you correctly, it sounds like you prefer fixed fees for some things, or find they are more profitable? Do you charge by the square foot, or ? What is the typical going rate for a permit set, for instance, for a remodeling job? Any suggestions on where to find a good contract sample or E and O insurance? Is insurance needed if you aren't actually stamping the drawings as an architect or contractor? Perry- (By the way, I love your user name, "Drawzilla") I know what you mean about a "lonely" existence. About 1990, I tried starting my own little architecture practice shortly after getting my architect's license. I had a new house project for a friend (basically tearing down the existing tiny house and building new--lots were that valuable in Silicone Valley). Drafting seemed to take so much time, and I felt so isolated--this was before the internet and before CAD (at least CAD that was practical for my needs and budget, at least.) It was so hard to get information (I didn't even have those huge volumes of SWEETS catalogs--remember those anyone?) and connect with anyone else. Contractors and others were hard to get a hold of before cell phones and email. I couldn't stand it! I didn't have any kids at the time, either, so it was too quiet around my house. Now I enjoy the quiet of being home alone while they are at school or work, LOL! And with the internet and email, and Chief Architect, I feel that it will make the world of a difference--like going from being a "monk in a cell hand-copying manuscripts" to using on Microsoft Word 2010 on a laptop connected to the internet. Yes, I remember some of the early CAD programs as the firm I worked for tried various ones that were coming out. Apple even gave our (about 50 man) company in San Jose 3 free Macintoshes (1980's) to try using for CAD. There were a lot of "start-up" CAD developers at the time. No one seemed to be sure which one would end up being "the one." My firm came to the conclusion that CAD was only cost effective for producing multi-unit housing floor plans, where we could make one floor plan and then copy it many times. Otherwise, hand drawing was the fastest. I remember even testing out several CAD programs over the years for the company, but none seemed to really meet our needs effectively. Then they hired a young man who knew AutoCAD, and put him and his computer up in a loft by himself to work on the larger projects. He was treated like a "computer nerd", and no one paid much attention to him and his "mysterious" computer program. HA!!! He probably had the last laugh and eventually became on of the most valuable and highly paid employess in the firm when everything started going to CAD, I imagine!