Michael_Gia

Great video as usual but I always set my stemwall height by controlling the rough ceiling height of the room below. To have the most control I always set my minimum stemwall height to 0. Of course this is because I’m up here in the far north where we always build foundations at a minimum of 54” below grade.

I was a Softplan 14 user. Had been using the software since version 12, so probably from 2011-2013? Anyway made the switch and glad I did. The tool I missed the most and still miss is the “repeat edit” tool. Softplan is way too constrained in its procedures, example, select the roof, now select the move tool bla bla bla. No such thing in Chief. In Chief you grab that sucker from anywhere and start moving, stretching anywhere you want. You show it who’s boss. Way more ways to get things done in Chief, you’re only limited by your imagination. There really is no such thing as it can’t be done in Chief. There’s always a way. This forum is way more active and responsive. Chief’s free training videos and resources are much more plentiful with actual human beings as presenters instead of that android Softplan hired. (Sorry has to get that shot in) Chief’s roofs are more flexible and intuitive than the Softplan lollipop system. Standard 3D View, PBR, and the other rendering styles are much nicer in Chief. Convert to Symbol tool is better in Chief. Molding polylines are more flexible. Softlist is still better than what Chief offers unfortunately. Way better. Chief has had live elevations and the ability to dimension those live elevations and cross sections forever while Softplan only adopted this ability this year only. Far behind. Up until now in order to dimension an elevation in Softplan it had to be converted to dumb cad. Customization wise I would say Softplan is Apple and Chief is Android if we were to use mobile phones as a metaphor. (And this is coming from a self proclaimed Apple fanboy) Its time to jump ship.

I personally would like to have Chief expand the Storyplole Dialogue Box with a Tab to set your various “floor levels” where you can set the 0” level for whichever level you want. Let this be the only place in the software where you can do this. Then every other item’s level is determined by the level it references along with its offset up or down from that level. I think the Storypole is the best new feature in Chief in a while.

In your video where you are in the build foundation dialogue box you need to set the minimum stemwall height to 0. The reason why 13” worked for you is because it was less than the (minimum stemwall height plus floor thickness). Its not that 13 was a magic number. And to avoid this in the future always set minimum to 0. In an existing plan where the foundation is already built go into the “foundation wall” defaults and set minimum stemwall height to 0, or you’re going to have a really bad time. Now to set your stemwall height use the room dialogue box and set your (rough ceiling height + floor thickness) to get your stemwall height every time. Remember stemwall height includes the sill plate thickness.

You we’re violating that dumb “minimum stemwall height” in the foundation wall default. Not sure why they even have this. Everyone seems to want to enter their stemwall height there and that’s not the place to do it. Did i find the fly in the ointment?

1) First go into your foundation wall defaults and set the minimum stemwall height to 0. 2) In the 0 floor level default set your rough ceiling height that you would like. For the stemwall all you have to do is add your rough ceiling height plus your floor thickness to give you the exact stem wall height that you’re looking for. With no space underneath.

I didn’t open your plan so probably shouldn’t be commenting but whenever I have this kind of situation the culprit is almost always a dumb minimum stemwall height that I had set in the foundation wall default. Check that first. Also check your floor structure on the foundation and make sure there aren’t varying floor elevations and/or ceiling elevations.

That was a pretty lame demonstration. I usually enjoy Chief's video demonstrations and watch all of them. Even though they’re intended for new users I always pick up a new trick or two. This one seemed rushed and sparse in content.

I use: Go to floor 1 (doesn’t really matter witch floor) Make sure “All On Set” Layers is selected (and make sure everything is “on” in the layer settings). Edit -> Edit Area all floors Zoom extant to see all Make sure to have “Select Intersected Objects” selection tool (just in case) Draw a marquee around everything Select Reflect About Object tool Reflect about a cad line that you have already placed at the point on the plan that you consider the center. I also create mirrored copies of plans when I do Appartment blocks or Semidetached homes so I can copy and past in place a mirror of a completed unit. I find this easier than trying to mirror within the same plan. Not sure if anyone else does this. This is especially important for stairs because mirroring a staircase with winders or several different landings is not so easy. I find it more straight forward to have both plans open at the same time in a split screen and past back and forth between the plan and its mirrored version.

Ah!

What’s the cad block you assigned?

Couldn’t you just make one complete section, post-rail-Column, save as symbol?

Best bang for the buck is online training with one of the gurus on this forum. If you are already somewhat proficient with the basics, that is, you’ve already completed your first project. The guys on this forum are in your shoes, they see things from your perspective and have had to come up with work arounds for the several Chief quirks. Quirks that a Chief trainer won’t really mention. This is the one problem I have with Chief training videos in general, and that is everything always goes according to plan...no pun intended.

Here’s a video of a dude doing a lot more with P-Solids. More complex than what you’re trying to accomplish but it will teach you about rotating symbols and stretch planes and the effect they have. Look up creating symbols in Chief Architect on YouTube, there’s a lot on there.

Convert to symbol. Look up how to add stretch planes where you need them. Add to library.

If you have a window schedule placed then your windows will show the window label and not the default size as label anymore. Maybe this is what OP is referring to? Of course you can always uncheck "Use Callout for Label" in the Schedule DBX, but then the Schedule would kind of be meaningless.

Dont mean to hijack the thread but yet another reason to have the option to create construction documents from the plan file.

Export as Collada. Import to Sketchup and select merge coplaner surfaces.

We’re not even allowed to build those fireplaces here in Montreal anymore. Against code.

I’m surprised that textures are not as taxing as I thought they would be. This is probably why the Standard View is even snappier than Vector View. Puzzling since most other softwares of this type tend to bog down when you add bitmap textures to the model.

These issues are almost always because you have varying ceiling heights lurking somewhere. A closet, hallway, or some weird forgotten inadvertently created room from stray invisible walls. First go through and check your floor and ceiling height defaults. Check your foundation and minimum stemwall height default. Use the Match Properties tool to ensure uniform ceiling heights everywhere. Of course you are allowed to have varying heights in a plan, but if you do, you need to match those rooms areas above and below with invisible walls so they can be adjusted independently from the rest of the rooms on a given floor, otherwise you will get the kind of results you got here.

Love that niche tool.

I think Chief’s “Standard” View with shadows, reflections and “edge smoothing when idling” is the way to go for construction documents. Or even the water colour with line drawing on top. Fast, not fuss, automatically updateable. Set and forget. If you really want to have something to impress clients you need to export out to programs like Lumion or Twin Motion. Cheesy Raytraces are too time consuming for what they produce compared to these other rendering dedicated softwares, why bother? My two cents.

Perfect! Thanks a million. I guess I’ll simply set the roof overhang back the thickness of the shadow board so that the dimensions to the front of the shadow board indicates my desired overhang. Credit to Chief for even having this many features attached to a roof.

Hey thanks for the exploratory video. That’s right the gap I’m trying to fill is the front boxed eaves on those gables. I don’t have a problem with closing them and maintaining the double facia on the front of the Gables but then I lose the double facia on the side just adjacent to those boxed eves. You did make me rethink how I’m using the shadow board. If you notice I have it set back with a negative value. That’s because this is how we build them up here in Montreal. When we build a double facia we always leave the main facia where it is as it comes in from the truss manufacturer and then we tack on a second 2 x 6 to the back of that facia. This is why I have my shadow board behind the facia in Chief Architect