Michael_Gia

Ok, I guess my coment is from the perspective of a builder like myself. I don't design custom millwork. So I don't need that level of precision. No offense

Dumb question, and I'm not trying to be facetious but why is this level of precision so important? I mean at the end of the day you are providing instructions on how to build a house. The individual sub-trade, in this case your stair carpenter knows how to build a staircase and railing. He needs the number of steps and the width and he'll figure out the rest. Your customer understands that this is simply a visual representation of the general look of the home in 3D, so unless it's for personal ocd reasons (and we all have that or we wouldn't be using a program such as Chief) then what's the point? I personally draw a line at, "if the carpenter has enough info to build it" then I stop there with the details. - Michael

I think OP is talking about forwarding the URL link to the 3D model and not the App. And yes anyone can forward that link and they will be able to open the model up in their browser to view. I've yet to see a customer go through all the hoops and loops to download the app when they can simply use the web browser on their desktop or laptop.

1) - Go to floor 1 2) - click on Defaults > Floors & Rooms > Current floor, and set your desired Rough Ceiling height as Greg pointed out. 3) - Repeat process on floor 2 and then for basement. 4) - then go back to floor 1, and for each room, open up the dialogue box and go to the Structure Tab. Click on the default checkbox for Rough Ceiling (E), and all other Defaults. 5) - repeat for floor 2 and basement. You can also use the Match Properties tool to set all room defaults quicker for each floor. (This is all in case Greg's answer wasn't clear enough)

3D Viewer is the greatest thing ever! Takes 2 minutes from start to emailing link to client. The only thing I wish it had, was the ability to measure in 3D like in Sketchup. Unfortunatly converting to sketchup is cumbersome as the sketchup file is monstrous. Also which client has sketchup?

I really wish Chief had the ability to measure in the 3D Viewer File Model like we can in the Sketchup model.

If you break your landing into sections, shouldn't it generate railings wherever you want?...

And I can't use accented French text. It's like typing on my commmodor 64 from 1984. Or am I missing something?...

Someone please post a demonstrational video for op... Personally I have my default "locate elevations" down to the bare minimum - top of footing, highest rough ceiling and highest ridge. My "top of footing" is set to 0, as this is the accepted "0" point in our neck of the woods. Then I just add in the other floors and elevations by dragging new points to wherever I want. I find it quicker than picking off unwanted points.

..."but once you get to a point where pre-scripted options dont work you have the ability to explode any 3d object and finish with basic (but robust) generic shape tools." Can everyone please hit the like button on Johnny's comment please? I feel Chief put this "like feature" in order to be able to quickly sift through all of our regular day to day wining with something significant. So more likes and it gets priority. I would love his ability. Imagine having the option of exploding any object and being able to modify and nudge things into precisely what you need?... Great comment!

Get real comfortable using molding polylines and p-solids to cover up these and many more issues in Chief. I had a plan once that, I swear, would've been quicker to build entirely out of soffits or cabinets instead of walls/floors/roofs. I'm exaggerating only slightly.

Late to the party, but I place the "Electrical Meter Socket" symbol and adjust its dimensions to roughly the size of an electrical panel box and then block it together with the Electrical Panel symbol. This gives what I think you're looking for. (If I was more experienced I could figure out how to make the opening on the top look circular again after it was stretched to an oval as a result of adjusting the dimensions for the symbol.)

Thanks for mentioning the "open symbol" approach. I always forget that's there. I've become programmed to always "open object" instead. Then when I don't see any parameters that can be adjusted I assume there's no other option.

Nevermind, use a soffit. Is that the "proper" way?

Is it only possible to place exterior light fixtures on exterior wall types, or can I place them somehow on other objects such as p-solids or soffits etc...? They don't seem to want to snap to anything but exterior walls. I'm trying to place an exterior wall fixture on a brick column that I made out of a p-solid. Front porch stuff.

The man has a way of dumbing things down so the rest of us can understand. Really appreciated.

That was easy. Takes quite a bit longer to import, but it cleaned up nicely.

Hey thanks! I'll give that a try. Or maybe I can cheat and simply tell my customer to do that himself. If he's as proficient in Sketchup and 3DS as he says he is, it's probably a no brainer for him. Is this triangulation phenomena a common thing when exporting from most 3D modeling programs or is it a CA issue?

I've exported a model successfully into Sketchup by way of exporting from CA as .3ds and then imported in Sketchup. Works great and I can zoom around, and all my textures are there, however all the wall surfaces etc are composed of multiple triangles as if they were facets of a cut diamond. Anyone know how to get rid of this? I know that I can go through every surface and explode, heal and so on but it seems this would take an eternity. Is there a magical one button solution? The reason for the export was so that a customer who uses sketchup could work/play with the model.

"Dynamic cad detail from view", would be amazing.

Use "cad detail from view" from the CAD menu. First generate a vector view that's closest to what you are looking for, maybe even click on cad detail (for some extra detail), then remove or add lines and patterns to your liking. This also dimensions quite well.

Thanks Joe, I will try that on maybe my laptop first to see how it goes. I think I'll wait a few days to build up the courage though. I should've come here first instead of calling tech support? That's a sad state of affairs isn't it?

iCloud works the same as Dropbox or any other cloud service. But if you want your user library to be available on other devices then it must be placed in your iCloud or Dropbox drive, which sits on your hard drive and is mirrored in the cloud. When I say that I move my user library to the cloud I mean I place it in the folder that is in my iCloud directory. I don't put it in the cloud myself obviously. That's an automatic feature of iCloud/Dropbox. I don't know why everyone keeps drawing attention to this distinction. The point is, if you move your user library to the cloud (the drive sitting on your local hard drive which represents the cloud drive you are suncing with - much longer to say) then you might have a problem on your hand with Chief not being able to locate your plan/layout files on that same cloud drive.

Yes, you are correct. The cloud files are simply local files that have the added functionality of automatically beaming up to the cloud when your computer is idle. However, Chief as most programs add whatever line of code into each file so it can find the bloody file (I'm clearly not a programmer) but this file id tag becomes messed up when you play around with the location of your user library location setting in preferences at least when it comes to that location being in iCloud. Maybe the problem is only with iCloud, but the support guy said it was a problem or can be a problem with any cloud storage option.

I moved my user library calibz file based on instructions from tech support. The way that I was told was to move your user library to the new location first. Then open Chief and change the "My Data Folder" to point to the new location. Then shut down Chief and re-open. It worked at this point and was able to work on a plan located on iCloud. The next morning I tried opening a different plan (on iCloud) and I got the error message "unable to locate said plan". I could still open any plan and work with Chief so long as that plan was not located on ICloud (where I keep all of my projects). So I could open old plans sitting on my local hard drive or even Dropbox but not any plans located on iCloud. I appparantly "broke" Chief's ability to find iCloud plan file paths. And it's irreparable apparently. Soooo... I changed my "My Data Folder" in preferences back to its original OOB setting to the local drive that Chief is installed on, moved all of my projects from ICloud to Dropbox and everything works except for my ability to ever use iCloud again to store plans. And I'm back to exporting and importing my user library back and forth between desktop and laptop. ...and I'm too chicken to try anything else such as deleting Chief and re-installing, or as Joe suggested, move my entire Chief X9 data folder to Dropbox. Which again is not advised by Chief. The program actually automatically creates or re-creates all of its pertinent sub-folders automatically in the new "location" for user library that you set in preferences, and not the other way around. That's why they tell you to close Chief right after you change this preference, and re-open. Of course I'm retracing my steps from memory of the instructions from tech support, so it's impossible to be sure 100% that a) I followed or understood the instructions correctly or b) I did everything right but can't remember exactly what the hell I did. That's why it says "Note: For Advanced Users Only" in the preferences dialogue box under the "Folders" tab. but I do know that it worked at first. I also know that when I called back tech support they told me they are aware of this issue and it happens on occasion which is why they recommend we don't move our user library to any cloud service for now. I spent some time with him on the phone trying a few different things with no avail. Hence my cautionary post. In short, if moving your user library to the cloud worked for you, you're lucky, otherwise don't try it, for now.