Michael_Gia

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.

We will sometimes angle that first 2x10 to steal a couple of inches for head clearance but what you posted looks like a complete redesign is necessary. That’s why guys are asking for you to post the plan. I recommend you post the plan as well, guys on this forum will really help and you might learn something.

Just curious, when you need that level of detail, then isn’t a cad detail the way to go? I mean, you surely don’t expect anyone to zoom into a floor plan for spindle off-set dimensions do you? Even if your callout is at 1/2 scale? I think most guys would draw a cad detail and dimension it, when you get down to spindle spacing or railing offset or anything that requires that kind of precision.

Thanks for the video. It kind of highlights how Chief has become an unwieldy mess of anno sets, defaults, layer sets, and finally Saved Plan Views. I like the direction Chief is going in with Saved Plan Views but they’re not there yet. I will make more of an effort when they overhaul the whole system and maybe make SVP’s the ONLY way to set up a view. In other words, when you save a plan view everything about it is unique to that view. No sharing of layer sets or anno sets bereeen views. Each is unique and independent of any other view. Kind of like setting up unique anno sets for each view. I know a few guys who already do this. So why hasn’t Chief figured that out yet? It’s a mess.

Again, this video is more of a sales pitch for Saved Plan Views than it is anything even remotely resembling a how to video.

It’s actually quite brilliant. I think Chief is the only software of it’s type that requires you to create your construction documents from a file/program that lives outside of the program in which you create and draw your actual plan. It’s cumbersome. Go back and take a look at Renerabbitt’s post about this. The Project Browser should be where you organize your construction documents. Kind of like an augmented Saved Plan Views to include Notes, Cad, and Schedules all in one place along with which page on your layout they are to be sent to.

Drag and drop between two layout files will be huge.

I think if Saved Plan Views could be expanded to list not only plan views, but anything you send to layout and grouped by layout page then you could work on everything in your layout without ever having to open up your layout. Not sure if that’s clear but, in short I’d like to build an outline of my layout within my Plan. Then when my Layout is opened all the pages populate with all the “saved plan/cad/notes”. All that’s left to do is space them out on the page so that they’re not overlapping. Anyone get me?

I wish Chief would pay a guy like Joe Carrick to make a video on how he uses Saved Plan Views and how he incorporates them in his workflow to go from Plan to Layout. I understand them from an organizational point of view but I fail to see how they can improve efficiency.

I think he’s referring to “zoom” like in Archicad.

I know I should be using them. I almost wish Chief wouldn’t give us any other option but to use them. Just seems like a chore to me.

Maybe I’ve just gotten lazy, but I’ve gone back to plain old anno sets.

Thank you Dermot that made a world of difference. I forgot that framing was on. I also noticed I had every label under the sun turned on. So, I turned off all labels except window labels and this improved 80%.

Here is a plan of an 8-Plex. If you take a front elevation standard view, panning around is unbearably slow. Bear in mind it is what would be considered a large model for Chief, I think... https://www.dropbox.com/s/aa3pxdkmq5qb546/> CITY PLANS 625 St-Laurent.plan?dl=0