mgianzero

Yes, I am so glad this topic came up and is discussed in detail! Perhaps Gene's thread was sparked by my post earlier. Thanks Michael! Very concisely said here. I always found the paint can a little confusing and I wish the tutorial guide explained this more clearly. I will now mostly reserve the paint can for changing colors on things I only want painted - mostly changing colors on interior walls, and also on exterior walls when it is ONLY the paint color I wish to change. And even then, if it's a paint color that I use frequently, then I would change it in the wall type definition. I also used it in some places where masonry was painted a different color than original, which occurred quite often on this recent plan of mine. Great idea! For a quick look at something, use the can, but only on a plan that is temporary. Then change the wall types on something more permanent.

Mick, I believe we are saying the same thing. As proof, here are my setting now under defaults: But I was also mentioning something else, in addition, in my previous post. That is, if for any reason I wanted to change a walls material from the default option to something else, then I would do it as described earlier (I select and open the object, such as a wall, and change it under the materials option) INSTEAD of using the spray can. However, I am NOT changing this option under the defaults settings since I am only making a change for one wall as an example and not for ALL walls. But if you say using the spray can is the same thing, then what's the correct way of changing the materials / textures of just one unique wall - use wall coverings? I don't think I'd add another wall type with that new material in it, would I? Or should I just reserve the use of the spray can for paint color changes? I'm just trying to learn the appropriate way of doing things here. I've developed bad habits and now I'm trying to reverse that. Marc

YES! That worked! I thought I had tried that already with no success, but I may have done it too hastily and did not save it. Okay. That was an easy fix. And yes, I have learned that we should never really use that spray can. Instead, I select and open the object (such as a wall) and change it under the materials option. For floors, I change it under the "Floor Finish" option using the Edit button, if I choose something different from the default. Isn't that the correct way to do things? So what is the purpose of the spray can - just to take a quick look at something?

Doesn't seem to make any difference as my default exterior walls are stucco-4 and my default interior walls are interior-4 with drywall on BOTH sides. Not quite sure I'm following your logic here. However, CA doesn't seem to have a default setting for attic wall type. If I select attic wall option with either my default exterior wall or my default interior wall, it does not change the wall type, which I guess is what it's supposed to do. I really think you need to just open my plan and select a 3D view, preferably perspective or orthographic FULL views (not FLOOR views) because you want see the attic walls generated) and you will see what I am talking about.

I know it's a holiday weekend, so many are probably not browsing here. But with Covid, I'm taking this downtime to do some more Chief work. If anyone is looking here, I still have some sort of "bug" in my plans which has even puzzled a couple of CA "experts" regarding my attic walls problem. Here's a 3D render of my exposed attic walls which are stucco and should not be: I've included my latest plan of the house (not complete by no means) to see if this problem would go away with a redraw from scratch, but it's still there. For some reason, the attic walls do not seem to be auto-building with the correct "interior-4" materials on them but instead draw with stucco. This was drawn from my own Template plan so I'm thinking that might be my problem. But how would I fix that without having to start over again and redefine all my defaults with a new template. I'd rather take the educated approach and try to figure out what went wrong here. I'm hoping it's a simple fix, but it's not obvious to me. Here's my latest plan: House w: attic walls exposed.zip Marc

I'm not sure the etiquette here regarding posting, but I'm guessing I should make this a new topic, so I did.

Yes, I created my own Template and I think that's the core of my problem. I must have changed something there and I don't know what. I researched it a bit on ChiefTalk and saw that Glenn had suggested to someone to unselect "auto-build attic walls" and delete all the attic walls and the re-select to let CA redraw them for me, but the program redrew them the same way. So, I think I somehow changed something in my preferences or defaults to do that.

Yes, thank you Glenn! That's concise and now I can follow. I also saw Eric's personal video he made for me. I know it was asking a lot to do this, but that finally sinks in with me. Thank you. However, after watching Eric's video, I'd like to emphasize something he said in the video. -- "well, it seems like it's simple to do this, but it's not. And CA doesn't do what you'd expect." Again, thanks everyone for that clarification! I'm glad I pushed on this topic because it helps to solidify in my mind how CA works and how you can think of ways around little obstacles. It also gives me a little more insight into how the roof builder works, which was completely confusing to me the first time I looked at it. The "belt-line" roof plane wasn't that critical to my design, but I wanted to understand more of how the roof tool works. I wouldn't have thought to use a no floor, ceiling with invisible walls outside the structure like this. Well, this discussion answered my first question. Does any one have any answers to my subsequent question about the auto-generation of attic walls and why CA is creating the wrong materials on these walls, which show once my ceilings are vaulted? I've demonstrated this in two separate plans which I submitted here. Again, I've played around with it for days and the whole attic wall auto-generating concept is confusing to me too. If I knew what Chief was trying to do, then I could perhaps tell it to do it differently. Marc

Well, if you mean that I should make that room on the first floor with higher ceilings so that it looks as though it's on a 2nd floor, that won't work for my design because the house has a room on the second story with a floor under it. Unless I am misunderstanding here. Maybe you can relook at my plan in the original post and change it to work and send it back as proof that it works. I also recreated the same problem on a smaller model I attached to this post. Roof beltline : attic walls.zip I can get away with a belt-line roof on first floor if I do not overlap the first and second story common walls. But once I do, CA eliminates the roof plane between these two floors. Is this the bug you were referring to? Here's a pic from my sample plan with two walls close, but not overlapping to maintain the lower roof plane. This won't work for my purposes since wall dimensions for other measurements would be off. Also, my second problem that I mentioned before is the different materials on the attic walls on exposed vaulted rooms is still a problem. I was successful once when I chose "Lower Wall Type of Split by Butting Roof" option. But it doesn't always work. For example, in this small plan I've attached, notice even if I delete all the auto-generated attic walls and recreate them with auto-build roof option, CA recreates the same attic walls with stucco inside instead of drywall. Despite the wall types being selected appropriately. Are there defaults that are not set properly?

"Actually the way you would do it would be adding on the main floor and has nothing to do with the upstairs. Roofs build over rooms, even invisible rooms with no floor..." I guess I'm still not really following. So are you saying I shouldn't make a second story, but just add a room above? If so, how do I do that? For just an exercise, I took the single story home and added a second, one-room floor and it draws roof planes okay. But as soon as I move the second story wall to coincide with the first floor wall, it removes the 1st floor roof plane, which I don't want. See my plan as an example. Are there roof defaults that should be changed? 2nd story roof.zip

Yes, I got it. Thank you. Too much work to delete and redraw 2nd floor just to include roof belt in auto-building of roof.

Eric, I don't think you're following me here. I'm not asking how to turn on auto roof rebuild. I'm asking how to setup Chief to auto-build that specific roof return that I have to manually draw. So how do you do that on my plan? I can't seem to get that to work like you said I could.

I DID provide the plan file in the original post. All you need to do is change from plumb to square and redraw the roof and you'll get what I showed. Apparently when there are diagonal rafters drawn, CA has those rafter tails pierce through the facia boards. I don't see how to change that. YES, I got that to work! I didn't see the option that says "Lower wall type if split by butted roof" as an option until I scrolled lower and saw it. Thank you!

Well, I have some people saying this can't be done on this style roof like SNestor who says "Roof returns...really only work on full gable end walls" and yet you claim it works. I continued to play around with it and still can't seem to get it to work. Perhaps you can show me how this is done on my plan I provided the plans in the original post.

Yes, I know it is easy but a little frustrating. It would be nice if I could keep auto roof roof rebuild on and not worry about it. But, while I have some attention here on my roof design, perhaps I can get some other roof-related questions answered. 1). My facia boards are not really plumb, but rather square on this house and when I draw them that way, the rafter tails show through. See here with red oval. Why is this? I see no option to trim these. 2). I then vaulted part of the kitchen area and part of the exterior wall is shown inside the house like this (see highlights): So how do I cover up this wall with drywall without changing the same wall that is an exterior wall on second floor shown here?

Here's my plan showing two roof returns that I manually draw with Chief. One on backside of house: Another on side of house: Is there a way to make CA draw these automatically? I would prefer to do it that way since I am remodeling part of this house and have to redraw roof panes every time I change an option. House As Built (11-18-20).zip

Okay ... I did as you said and made my piers using countertops to get the caps I want. Perfect! But I had to use room dividers to keep the rest of the wall from merging with this pier. Don't know if that's the right way to do it but seems to work. I also tried to fix the circular plantar bed in the back to make it more tangent on the side but I think I made it worse as my pavers appear more disrupted than before as seen here: And lastly, to be honest, I'm still not fully understanding what CA is doing with regards to wall heights (particularly the bottom heights) and the default wall height settings. Notice in this area (another rounded plantar bed) I am NOT using terrain walls but I also don't want the foundation walls to show underneath. But if I remove the foundation walls, the plantar walls bottom heights are too high as seen here. (You can see the soil from underneath the walls. But if I happen to make these walls terrain walls (and set to default bottom height) it lowers the walls to the terrain. But I don't want them as terrain walls. So are the defaults somehow set different for these two walls types? If so, where do I change this in my defaults? I submitted my plans with the above changes. Marc Yard plantar & retaining walls V2.zip

Genn, I'm still struggling to understand the default bottom (and top) wall heights when I carry this concept to the backyard like here. Notice I have three walls and two have a foundation wall that sits higher than the third one. I want them all to default to an exact height like in the lower wall. I've attached my plan that I'm working on for you to see. Also, I don't mean to have this post get too off topic, but I did what you said regarding Cross Section / Elevation to make my lighted pillar higher than the surrounding walls like you said. But then how do I fix my cap to make it a 4 sided pillar cap like here? Again, you can see my attempt at this in my plan file. Thanks again for ALL of your help! Yard plantar & retaining walls.zip

Yes you've answered my question concisely again! I guess I just wasn't thinking the whole process through correctly. But now this bring up yet another question here. I have several plantar walls (some are retaining type and some are not) in the back yard that also do not fully go all the way to the terrain, especially if I choose to not use a foundation wall (or footing) beneath it. So how do I adjust these walls since they are not really defining a room with a ceiling and a floor? If I open default setting for walls and choose either exterior walls or foundation walls the "default wall height" settings are greyed out even. So how do I get my other walls to come down to the level of the terrain like the plantar room in the front? I still want to keep my subfloor height above terrain at my usual 7 1/2" because of my house that needs to sit higher.

One problem I'm having with this technique though ... Since I'm also placing a house on this terrain, I like to set the sub floor at 7 1/2" above the terrain. The one problem with using a room definition for a plantar bed is that the bottom of the walls sit higher than the terrain if you remove the footing and have the subfloor sitting above the terrain a bit. How do I avoid this without having to manually pull the walls down lower so they intersect with the terrain? Marc

Yes! I really like that technique! I had tried doing it that before but I was having some issues with it. I think I was trying to then use the terrain features and it wasn't working because CA thinks of the bed to be an interior room. I got around that by using a slab and changing material to "soil" to fill the inside instead of using a terrain feature. Thanks again Glenn! But I do love using rooms to 3D create unusual features. As a matter of fact, I ended up drawing up my pool with a variable sloping and curving bottom by using a room with a terrain bottom. Pretty cool what can be done with CA! Marc

By the way, I ended up modeling a pool using that technique. I can get a very realistic pool bottom that way. But still no way of place a pool cove on a 3 dimensional bottom like that I can think of. Then, my biggest problem, was trying to get this model incorporated into my existing plan that had other elevations and retaining walls. It gets very complicated to do. Still struggling with it. Any way, here is my pool with a variable bottom to it: I've also included my plan for anyone who wants to look at it. Marc. Pool (with terrain bottom).zip

Eric, May I ask how you created this object? I think that's what I'm looking to do. Did you use a combination of 3D solids with different materials on it? Marc

Hey guys, thanks so much for the prompt and thorough response - even with videos! Well, actually I mistyped when I posted this note. I meant to say that I used "retaining walls" and NOT "terrain walls" for my plantar beds ... I corrected that in my above post in bold. However, if I may be honest, both of your techniques (Eric and David) are using other ways to make walls which are ingenious, but I find even more complicated than mine. Just being honest here. For someone who is new to CA, I'm a little overwhelmed with this idea. I really wanted to use the traditional (not sure that's the right word) methods that CA has in place for creating my terrain. This way I can even find my objects easier and, if need be, place them in their own custom layers. I know it's not that hard to make these changes, but at least, with my method, these walls will default to the "walls" layer so there's not as much organizing that I have to do. My biggest problem with my technique is that it's very difficult to specify the EXACT height of my plantar walls (which are really foundation walls in CA). The only way I know to do this is use " Cross Section / Elevation" under orthographic views. Then I look at each wall individually and select them and change their heights. Is there an easier way to specify the exact height of these walls using my method? Marc

So I've been playing around with all sorts of wall types (terrain walls, retaining walls, non-retaining wall) and even countertops to make my exterior walls as part of a yard plan. Problem is, I'm trying to understand the quirky behavior of all these types of walls while trying to find the best way to make a raised plantar bed. We all know that CA has "Terrain Walls" as a feature, but this 3D object has very few options and no wall caps which I think is a big drawback. So, I figured I'd use retaining walls that would contain my soil. I know initially the walls will have zero height on a flat terrain. So then I place a raised "terrain region" inside my box and, viola, it raises the walls to my raised terrain inside. I next use a "terrain feature" to place soil inside my bed. Great so far. However, I want the capped walls to be higher than the soil. If I lower my terrain feature by giving it a negative height, then CA shows a flickering of wall materials along the inside walls. (Sorry I don't know how else to explain this besides calling it a "flickering" effect.) Also, if I then lower the "terrain region" all the walls drop to the same height which I also don't want. I did notice, however, that if I decide to manually change any or all of these plantar wall heights initially, then they will not change height again if I lower my terrain region. I guess by forcing a wall height by doing it manually makes it so the walls will stay where they are. Okay ... so I do that and it almost works. Only thing is, it can sometimes be difficult to manually set or snap these plantar walls to the same height. Only way I know how to do this is using the "Cross Section / Elevation" tool and look at each wall individually in 4 different views and make sure their heights are identical. And then I'm done! Whew! That's a lot of steps. Is there an easier way? Attached is my plan file as my example of how I did this. Marc G. Plantar bed.zip