country

When she said garage "front" I thought she meant the garage roof fascia, not garage floor. Garage floors are always lower than the main floor (at least by code here). If it is the same fascia height then all is very simple, just different bottom chord heights (and more money for the truss guys).

She said in Post #1 that they want the porch fascia to be 12" higher than the garage fascia. That is what I don't think works. I would ask for a photo, sketch or a copy of the truss plan for a similar house before I even started drawing this. If it has been done before they will have a truss layout plan.

As you have discovered, you cannot do this with only 5 roof planes. How would you draw it in ACad?

Another AHA moment.

I asked about this a while ago in Suggestions. Hopefully it is on a list because scrolling beyond the window view makes drawing so much easier. (As in VWs).

I had a major log out problem but contacted Support and they did their magic. No more problem and I really like Win 10.

My laptop (Win7) wouldn't update from the update icon so I went to MS updates and downloaded from there. It worked just like every other update and is running fine. It just took some time and patience even with the SSD.

That was the one thing that saved me when I started learning CAD and using Vectorworks. It works the way you would build it. You set the main level or story at 0 and all the floors above went in a positive direction and if you changed a height the floors above moved up or down accordingly. Lower floors were just lower floors in a negative direction. Chief just doesn't work the way I think so it is just a matter of being careful right now. Chief with VWs structure setup would be near perfect for me. A good explanation why it is that way may help but I seriously doubt it is going to straighten out the learning curve. I'm sure I will get lots of AHA moments out of watching/listening to the workshop.

I can do beautiful 2D and half decent Renders in Vectorworks but Chief thrills my clients. A vast majority of them cannot picture the final product in 2D and even with my limited knowledge I am able to show them spaces with Chief that they can relate to. It definitely takes more time now but I can see that improving rapidly as I become more familiar with the program. Vectorworks just sent out a great deal on upgrading but after looking at the new features (and definite lack of residential improvements) I am sticking with Chief. Big learning curve mainly because of Chief's structure setup (top down building) but very happy clients trumps all. I'll just have to adapt.

Mike I always have my Construction Master close by for the Dbx's too.

I have always worked with the Main Floor height as "0". The basement has always gone down a - amount and the upper floors go up a + amount. This top down approach is giving me headaches but if I make a sketch with each floor level I can usually work it out. Definitely counterintuitive though.

The OP may have wanted to put a floor in and then the foundation level. I will ask the question about doing this in X7. Could I just copy the Main level up to a new second floor and do the walkout on floor 1 if I wanted to?

After I posted I did wonder if you put it in. Great idea. I have personalized the templates and changed everything for the Canadian codes. I am now getting all my different size layout templates in order. The plan and layout template help was fantastic. I have just finished my old program and also paid my annual SSA bill so am now committed to getting this right.

Last time I started a site plan and went to enter the 0-0 coordinates I notice there was a mark at that point already. I was zoomed in fairly close. Maybe I need a vacation too???

I'm glad Scott asked. I had no idea how to add Macros. I'll give it a try later.

I never used an arrow in my "manual drafting days" either. Never wrote the word post either..... 6"x 6" angled beside a cross block seems adequate for all the contractors I have ever known.

Thanks for the Vid and the laughter with my lunch. Can't imagine why the text can't be left indexed instead of centre. I guess they wanted it centred on the post!!!

Scott I think a video on framing labels would help a lot of users out.

Words to work by. Thank you Joey. Chief seems to promote the use of rail walls for decks so I presumed they would work in plan and not just 3D. I am just going to use CAD blocks for my current plan because the elevations look good but your way from now on.

Thank you. I searched and searched after I read that Scott and Perry use lines instead of solid beams.

Joe's "suggestion" would work for me. Setting them all individually was irritating. Now if you can show me where to set my 2D beam display as a single line it will make my day.

Why do they bother showing videos and explaining in a manual if you can't show it in plan? Now I get to do it the old fashioned way that I should have used to start with. A lot of wasted time. Thank you for the info Scott. Do people that do a lot of CDs have a list of things that don't work for them? Don't get me started on framing labels that totally obscure the posts they are noting. Something to add to My List. I'm sure there is a way to offset them but.......easier to type it in.

Thanks Bill. I'll give it a try in the morning.

I have searched for some way to show the posts and beams that are part of my deck rails. Everything looks great in elevation and perspective views but they do not show in plan view. Am I missing something basic or do I have to frame these with actual post and beams to show? Seemed so easy until I started CDs. with complete dimensioning and labels. The day went downhill from there. I will continue searching for answers to my other problems but I have given up on this for now.

Use room dividers or invisible walls.