Michael_Gia

What do you mean by a framer dimensioning? Who's drawing the plans? Also, what about windows and doors? The center never changes. What is the edge of a window? Is it the window box? The window opening, including or excluding the air gap?

I just wanted to reply to something you said in your video regarding why anyone would use centre dimensions on interior walls. Two big reasons why most plans show the centre is that the centre won’t change even if the wall thickness might suddenly change. Also for walls to line up with support beams and columns, that definitely can vary at any moment, again the Center measurements will not change. Things always line up properly. You should always use center measurements. You’re playing with fire if you don’t. Your carpenter is well versed in splitting dimensions of 2x4’s, 2 x6’s etc. It should be second nature to them.

I’ll let the cat out of the bag here. It’s just plain lazy and a result of disorganization that general contractors get their carpenters to stick frame. In order to get roofs, floor systems and even prefab walls manufactured, requires precise plans to be submitted 4 to 6 weeks before you need them. This means you can’t change things on the fly because of inaccurate plans. It also means getting your clients to sign off on plans and tell them, “that’s it, no more changes”. Most guys don’t have the guts to tell their clients when enough is enough. We build in extreme conditions up here. This is why I get stuff pre-manufactured. Even my exterior walls and all support walls. They come wrapped in plastic so the insulation and lumber doesn’t get wet. I guess if I was building in Arizona I would do things differently. Hopefully I can retire in a place like that, but for now, I’ll keep battling the elements. If my comments come off as a little antagonistic it’s probably a result of this damn isolation crap. lol

You’ve are correct. Premier adds nothing, regarding trusses. The truss checkbox is a joke at the moment. Here is the simple and prevalent condition I’m looking to build. And I don’t want to have to take a cross section and measure how much I need to raise or lower my roof planes to achieve this. I would like a roof dialogue box to adress this in a clear and obvious way.

Unless you’re framing your own home, I don’t see the savings benefit of not going with manufactured roof trusses. Allowing a carpenter to build rafters on site for a decently sized home is costing you money in time wasted, mistakes, and questionable on site structural guess work. I don’t get it. This is why I don’t see why a program like Chief, which is so well suited to sending plans off to a Truss manufacturer, isn’t more geared to prefab roof trusses instead of onsite rafters.

That is indeed my gripe.

I still don’t get why Chief still assumes the majority of North American homes are built with rafter style roofs as if we’re all building log cabins in the woods, or dog houses... I’m sorry to offend some of you. My problem is still the roof dialogue box. The old “raise off plate” remained an unsolved mathematical formulaic problem to produce the kind of A-frame roof trusses that sits on TOP of the top-plate, producing a boxed eave with the underneath of the eave flat and level with the top plate. This is so we can have adequate heel height for insulation and ventilation. In X12 they included a handy diagram but it still does not seem to allow for easy manipulation of the values to produce the roof that 99% of homes built in the northeast and anywhere near the Canadian border are built. At least, I still don’t get it. TL:DR The roof is a big triangle that sits on top of the top plate. How hard can that be to program?

That was it. Problem solved. Thanks Humble Chief. ...and yes, they were polyline labels. Always learning.

Hello All, I want my labels to have a transparent background as opposed to the white box around the text. Is this possible? In the image, the lot numbers have a white box around them. I would like the numbers to have a transparent background.

It's because the first floor exterior wall bottom descends below the foundation wall top. Chief doesn't like that. If you use P-Solids instead of Material Regions for your cladding then you don't get the lines.

Gotcha.

Or keep “opening header lines off if you don’t want to affect other doors and just change the door opening line style for that one door opening since it’s on it’s own unique layer.

Maybe I don’t understand the question but I’m able to control my door opening lines. Here’s what I do: 1) put the door on its own layer. 2) select the door opening and click on “object layer properties” 3) turn off the display of “door openings” from the list. 4) turn on “opening header lines” and chose whatever colour or style of line you want. 5) bingo. Does this not work for you guys? Or do I not get the question? anyway I mentioned this yesterday in the workshop.

We need a "polygon" wall tool to handle these types of conditions. The way it would work is that the wall could be manipulated by reshaping the 2x4 main layer like it was a p-solid and then the exterior and interior layers would simply follow/wrap around. They have this in other programs. It's not really how stick framing is built on site and a polygon wall, if we could have one, would be more suited for how concrete walls are poured but I'd be willing to give up the framing integrity for the convenience it would offer. I do however appreciate Chief's approach to providing us with tools that truly represent how we build here in North America.

As a builder I have prices per square foot, or linear foot from all of my subs. All I do with Chief is get theses square and linear footages. For electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinetry, fireplaces etc, I give my customers budget amounts for them not to exceed when shopping. Of course, you have to have already built a few homes to gain this info. You also have to keep track of project costs for future reference. I'm assuming most of you are not building so in that case I would just call up a few sub-trades in your area and ask them their rates. For the fixtures, you can visit showrooms and pick out what you would need for a project or get them to quote based off a plan. I can't imagine the horror show it must be if you would try to play with Chief's estimating tools for this purpose. I would not feel confident giving a client a price based on software wizardry.

If you search videos for dwg, this comes up. It’s all you need to know. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/359/importing-a-dwg-and-converting-the-cad-lines-to-walls.html

Just want to say everyone should subscribe to Steve’s YouTube channel. The presentation and length hits the sweet spot for YouTube following for anyone learning. Even more advanced users can benefit because he always throws in a tip or two that you might not have known about or have forgotten about. He makes for a great ambassador for promoting the program to people who are only trying out the program or are lurkers who are presently using other software. More subscribers and more likes will give him more visibility. I love a lot of the other videos from guys on this forum but they’re often not for newbies and they don’t have the flow, form and polish of Steve’s videos. Keep up the good work Steve!

Born and raised in Montreal I fully endorse this comment. I also get wrongly corrected by fellow Canadians from primarily English speaking regions on how to pronounce French words on a regular basis. Very frustrating.

Balloon through ceiling for walls and make sure to check default wall top. Also automatic attic walls might help if that isn’t already checked. The top peak is just a result of your wall that isn’t inline with your main facade wall.

I appear to have offended the elite guard of this forum. That’s ok, I was just voicing my opinion. I understand that some would find my comment less than honourable but it is the reality of the matter. I’ve been a paying customer for 6 or 7 years with SSA to boot. I encourage any use of Chief as opposed to no use of Chief.

A lot of people first start out with pirated copies of software. When the software has proven itself useful and contributes to that person's business, then paying for a licensed copy usually follows. I'm surprised at some of the comments in this thread. If OP gives that copy to his close friend and because of that his friend eventually ends up buying a licensed copy with SSA then Chief wins in the long run. I don't see the harm in that. Most software companies not only know that but it's what drives a percentage of their business and keeps them on their toes.

Great question, which could easily be clarified with a little image in the Dialogue Box. I like that Chief is moving in this direction with floor elevation heights, they should keep it up. A picture is worth a thousand words, as for my comment, probably worth two cents...

Chief has a very narrow niche market - single user, residential stick framing, English only North American. In that regard no other program compares to Chief’s out of the box ability to go from plan to 3D renderings and construction documents. But, if you move away from traditional stick framing and need collaboration then Chief’s wheels fall off the cart. Actually Chief blows up at that point. (my 2 cents, of course)

Is this possible to do without step #4? Why is the face needed prior to drawing that particular roof plane? Great video by the way. I never understood or ever used “faces” before. Thanks.

I remember once I had a hot key for “copy in place” but over time I thought it was simply “copy”. I eventually discovered that I had multiple everything in my plans. I caught it and corrected it. Check your hot keys.