Michael_Gia

I’m a big fan of your construction docs, actually. They are the nicest I’ve seen in this forum without a doubt. I feel your comment is a little like what people used to say about horse and buggy when the car was first introduced, though. I just want Chief to really improve in the con docs creation department.

Weak points of Chief: We need to be able to snap to any line/point or part of a parametric object, and in any view or whether in plan or layout. You shouldn’t have to open a separate program to work on a layout. Archicad has everything in one place, plans, layouts, sections, PDF plan sets, etc... And yes, you can link stuff from other plans. How about being able to dimension between any two point on an elevation or cross section? How about a measure tape tool that actually works at any zoom level? Not inherent to construction documents but it is part of the process. I’m only pointing this stuff out because it seems that Chief isn’t really working on our ability to produce construction documents in a coherent way. Their effort is visuals aka rendering etc. I don’t need anymore advancement in the pretty pictures department. Chief is already great for that, I believe.

AutoCAD is hardly comparing apples with apples. Chief has its strengths but for construction documents we’re way behind Archicad and Revit.

Compared to what? I’m curious.

We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.

Construction docs are not Chief’s strong suit.

nevermind, apparently this Offset feature doesn't work very well if there's no room definition. also weird but maybe that's a Mac thing as well.

I'm trying to understand wall offsets in the Wall Type dialog box. See screenshot how the wall below is not lining up the way it should be according to the Wall Settings indicated. Test 2020.plan

How about, design it in Chief, build it, and then take a photo afterwards? Might be faster? (kidding)

Select all your roof planes. With the "Transform/Replicate" tool raise your roof whatever height you want in the "move" "Z" plane. If needed, you might need to draw in some attic walls if they're not on auto rebuild already. Or, maybe think about building a new floor level for that space.

I dabbled extensively 1 year ago. Short List of Archicad quirks: - Forget quick and easy kitchen cabinetry. - Baseboards? Archicad? What’s that? Interior trim is almost impossible. You won’t even find an instructional video on this. The closest thing they have works like Chief’s moulding polyline but it doesn’t recognize door and window openings. You have to trim those out. - You want a room label? Ha ha ha! Archicad uses “zone stamps” although infinitely more powerful and customizable they are a real chore to implement. - Let’s say your garage door sits between your foundation level and ground floor. Archicad will not cut an opening on a different floor level other than the floor level that the door was drawn in. You have to go back and cut a hole in the foundation wall if your garage door was drawn on your main floor. Chief Superiority: Chief is by far the quickest route from plan to 3D. Chief is by far the quickest route from 3D to framing. So, other than trimming, cabinetry and framing Archicad is on another level, that is, if you want to put in the time. Other Archicad strengths: Collaboration, Dimensioning, and Construction Documents. If you’re coming from residential stick framing don’t switch. If you do, You will be back and will be $5000 poorer.

Make it yourself? Save the image on your computer. Goto your User Catalog >Right click >New >Material Pattern Tab: Give it a name, Texture Tab: Texture Source: Browse to the saved image. Scale: X = 6”, Y = 6” Bump Map: Browse to same image. Ok paint image on object.

Archicad.

Use the trim and extend tools. You can also use point to point.

That doesn’t look like a foundation plan, by the way. I don’t know about you guys but my foundation plan only has foundation walls footings and bases for columns etc. If I include anything else on that sheet my cement forms contractor will shoot me. I draw my bases on the foundation plan on a foundation Layer Set. In general, if you draw your plans in Chief the same way you would build that home, you’ll run into less of these kinds of problems.

It’s most definitely a Mac thing and especially if you have an external monitor hooked up to a MacBook. It still needs to be fixed even if we Mac weirdos only make up a small percentage of users on this forum. Show us some love, people, and support...

This is why Chief takes so long to get around to fixing long standing issues. Whenever someone displays dissatisfaction or frustration you can always count on the Chief fanboy brigade to come along and downvote. This is why we can’t have anything nice.

Actually Chief’s programmers are especially gifted at this toolbar random scrambling phenomenon. It’s the only software I’ve ever encountered to exhibit this bizarre and maddeningly frustrating trait. It’s enough to drive me insane sometimes. Worse is that even when you call into Chief they all act like they’ve never heard of this, so don’t bother. Maybe it’ll be fixed in version X1000000000000...

Release of what?

I’m out of my league on this one. I thought you were doing floor framing. The last time I did a flat roof like that, I just drew one rafter and then use the “multiple copy tool to get my rafters. Then I use the “roof blocking” to draw in a beam. (It’s just easier for me) Then I select my roof blocking line and use the “trim objects” tool to trim my rafters to that point. Copy the newly trimmed set of rafters and then “copy in place” and reflect about. Extend and modify the rafters to fit the roof plane. This is a very manual way to do what you’re looking for and not very efficient, probably. Sorry.

If you run a bearing line in the middle and rebuild your floor framing then Chief will split that span for you along that bearing line. Then you can decide if you want butt ends or overlapping joists. 1) Make sure you’re on the right floor level 2) Menu-> - Build - Framing - Bearing Line (draw your bearing line across your floor) 3) Menu-> -Build - Build Framing... - Select Floor - Check the box for “Build Floor Framing” (Chose spacing, lap or butt over etc... - hit “ok” tada! (that’s if I understood what you were looking for)

Hoi Benny, the 0 just gives you the absolute thinnest line display thickness on your monitor to make it easier when you zoom far in for precise measurements etc. For example, when placing cabinets and you want to zoom in real close to see if 2 cabinets are just touching or overlapping just enough to mess with dimension strings. You won’t find this kind of information in the help files. Which is the reason we have a user forum. Glen must be grumpy today. (kidding)

I personally have that set to 0. I think most do.

The bottom chord, Michael. You’re by far the brightest guy on this forum, I’m not sure why you’re struggling with this. There’s nothing to figure out or solve or develop macros for here. Chief just can’t do cantilever trusses, that’s all. If you zoom close into the bottom right image, you’ll see how the trusses sit on top of the wall and extend out past the exterior wall to create the eave/soffit.

Below is a typical prefab truss order. Zoom into the bottom right image and you’ll see a cantilever truss system. I hope to one day see a checkbox for “cantilever truss” that should give me this condition automatically. You know, what we all thought “Trusses (no birdsmouth)” was supposed to do. And then maybe “raise off plate” should simply mean, I don’t know, raise off damn plate?... As in the distance between my top-plate and the bottom of my cantilevered chord?