Michael_Gia

How hard would it be for Chief to offer a direct link to TwinMotion or Lumion? Wouldn't it be easier on the resources for them than their present route of real-time ray tracing etc?… This way they can focus on the meat and potatoes of what Chief provides us vis-à-vis drafting, 3D model and construction documents? I don’t understand their philosophy. I’ve really leaned heavily on Twin Motion lately and the biggest frustration is that there’s no live link. I can’t go back into Chief and make a modification and simply re link the model. More of you should get off your asses and invest a small amount of time with TwinMotion. It’s not that difficult. It will actually save you time.

Do you use a second monitor or just the iMac? Because I’m on a Macbook and experience the same but only when a 2nd monitor is connected to the MacBook. My theory is that because the resolution of the 2 monitors are not identical, Chief gets confused when redrawing toolbars, especially when you do something like open the Layer Display Options window and then close it. There are countless posts about this. I’ve called Chief ad nauseam over this and there’s no solution.

Here is what the reference display approach, the sales rep was probably referring to… (not sure this is enough for what you’re looking for, though)

Delete that dimension string and redo one using the manual dimension tool with the locate settings of your preference? It’s not that long to do.

Traitor! Kidding. Thanks as I’m sure this is always in the back of the mind of all of us Mac prisoners.

You could use a moulding polyline. You can have as many of them stacked, each with their own material and all in one molding polyline.

8 + 4 > 8 That’s why there is a gap.

Maybe post the plan? I didn’t realize that was 2 images at first. I was so confused. Cantilevers can produce some unwanted results. Post the plan and separate your images and I’m sure someone will solve your issues.

Ooh, I was downvoted. Gee, I wonder who that could be?…

They don’t apparently. They want you to submit a request separately. Then they won’t look at it either…lol. All of the ranting in this post will fall on deaf ears. Chief really struggles with this sort of “accurate” drawing features that are non trivial in all other software of this type. However, try drawing a roof ridge on a shingle roof in Revit and you’ll pull your hair out. I’m always debating which is more important, the pretty cabinets and trimming in Chief of the no-nonsense precise and efficient structural drawing in Revit. Especially when the purchase price of Revit Lt is the same price as SSA in Chief without the upfront purchase. I already spent the money so I’ll stick to Chief, is always what I settle on but it’s frustrating since Chief is so close to what I need but just far enough to make it painful on a daily basis. I wish I could just draw without the fuss.

I had some issues with 3D stuff when X13 first came out but not anymore. I don’t have the latest M1 type but it’s been great so far. I would however take rgardner’s advice and future proof yourself if possible? Happy shopping!

Why isn’t Solver moderator already? Or maybe make filling out the part about what version you have as mandatory when creating an account? Or automatically tagged on by Chief?

Did you try the “Edit Wall Layer Intersections” tool, located on the Edit toolbar? You can just drag the drywall layer over to cover that up. Here is a good article to help… https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00033/adjusting-wall-connections.html

The reason is because the exterior of the wall on floor 1 is not aligned vertically with your foundation wall. Chief can often give wildly erratic behaviour when walls are not aligned, that is, sitting perfectly one on top of the other. When walls are not aligned I’ve seen weird behaviour from items not even related to walls get messed up.

What tool bar?… joking, but yeah hotkeys for nearly everything.

I’m no terrain guru so I cheat at it. I use a terrain feature (with a negative value) to cut a clean rectangular/polygonal hole that includes my driveway and walkway and stairs leading to the front door. I’ll even go past these points to include areas that need to be “resculpted” by the excavation contractor. Then I draw in my exterior stairs and landings at the required height. For the driveway I’ll use a polyline solid and shape it as necessary. This way I can determine the slope from a cross section. For the parts of the land that need to be resculpted I’ll again use various polyline solids to indicate sloped sections. They won’t be pretty and smooth but they’ll at least give definite outlines and elevations to follow as a guide. I leave the smoothing to the excavator. It’s quick and dirty but it works. You can go mad trying to get elevation regions to do what you want. If you really want to smoothen out your p-solids you can export them to Sketchup, smooth them out there and re-import them.

Merci Ivan, pareillement. En passant, joli site web!

When you designate a room as a garage type then Chief just changes basically 3 items in the structure tab of the room DBX. 1) floor height drops. 2) stem wall shrinks and 3) the check box is removed from “floor under this room” to a check in “floor supplied by the foundation room below. It’s their way of helping you get started and creating the illusion that Chief somehow knows something magical, and then you’re supposed to say, wow! This smoke and mirrors approach often creates more confusion than anything else. Sarcasm aside, you should get real comfortable with pony walls. They are the proper way to define walls such as the ones you are describing here. They have another advantage as you can create step foundation walls without those walls re-healing or re-joining after you’ve split them to create a step wall. I also build in the Montreal area and I’m pretty sure you are looking to drop the brick line of your garage facade wall so it’s only 12” above your driveway so you don’t get that unsightly 42” of barren concrete just in front of where your poor client is going to park his bmw… The best way to do this again is with a pony wall. You’ll be able wrap that wall onto the side of the home for that first 24” which is also pretty common. Also, you don’t want to build a knee wall (because of compression issues) probably for the dropped facade of your garage wall which is what Chief will do if you decide to mess around with the brick ledge feature, don’t do that. Stick to a pony wall. Also don’t drag the exterior brick finish down and foundation up to create what you’re looking for, this is chaos. Besides being chaos you never really know the elevation of what you’re dragging down or up. As for the pony wall you do and this information can allow you to accurately place ledges/sills to divide, for example a lower stone wall, and upper brick or siding wall. You’ll know exactly where your window will sit above your sill. Hope that helps.

I don’t know what climate zone you’re in but I would have to extend my foundation walls another 54” below the bottom riser of your exterior staircase (a frost pit), and a drain. Also you can build a roof plane in the middle of the solar system for all Chief is concerned. Just move it wherever and add posts and beams separately if you want or use p-solids to create those. If you want the auto roof to build your roof then build an exterior room and define its floor elevation, roof and ceiling height as per usual. Maybe I’m missing something but it seems pretty standard.

File > Export > Collada. That’s the .dae format. I think it’s the best format. If you’re on apple then you even get the 3D model in the file thumbnail in the finder window. Another free option is TwinMotion. You should checkout Rene Rabbit's YouTube channel for Chief to TwinMotion tutorials. https://youtube.com/channel/UCbkgwAcrZQP0Ek0bNmqpgAQ

I don’t use the brick ledge feature anymore. I find I have more control by using pony walls to properly represent brick ledges. The brick ledge portion often has a different wall composition from the wall it’s a part of so I don’t want extra material where I don’t need it. Often for a facade wall, we’ll bring down the brick veneer sometimes 36” from the top of the foundation wall by inserting a 2” styrofoam panel when we pour the concrete to create the hollow for our brick ledge. The only way to achieve this properly in Chief is with a pony wall. TL:DR pony walls are your friend.

Well, I did respond to the original post, and that was to correct OP and everyone else that there was nothing wrong with the dimensioning approach in the image. The image shows a very common way to dimension. It shows dimensioning to the brick it doesn’t mean it’s measuring from a brick veneer but to the outside of a foundation. Of course I had to add in my very condescending tone with the rest of my comment but that’s just me…lol. There is more than one way to skin a cat, of course. You guys obviously deal with carpenters who can’t figure out how to place a 2x4 on a floor from a center line which I find laughable. You’re all harping about your precious design considerations, meanwhile you open yourselves up for a very dangerous situation where a support wall could be off-center. Isn’t that more important than Mrs. Jones getting her pantry at precisely 24” clear interior to accommodate her new filter queen?

Export to TwinMotion. You don’t need your lighting. Walkthroughs are so much simpler and straight forward on TM. For large projects with multiple buildings I will convert the buildings into symbols first then export into TM. I only have a MacBook and have no problem with large projects using this approach.

You guys do things funny. It’s not that he’s dimensioning the brick. If you read the whole plan then you should see a note that says the exterior surface of all exterior walls are deemed to be inline with the exterior surface of the foundation walls. This is for structural reasons. Also in this method (the correct method) all bearing walls are dimensioned from the exterior wall surface to the center of all bearing walls, beams and posts. Architects are not concerned about simplifying the math for framers. They’re concerned about proper construction. Dimensioning to lumber is careless design.

Here… https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/311/creating-a-suspended-or-dropped-ceiling.html