Ed_Orum

I have a building that is getting a detached garage. The builder wants to submit both the house and garage in a single drawing. So, I do not want the garage to inherit any properties of the main building. Can I draw it as a separate plan, with my garage defaults, but then send it to the same Layout as the main house without one plan's defaults and preferences trying to impose itself on the other plan? Thanks for any advice, Lane

It does seem that way!

I finally got it worked out. But, the process is cumbersome. Why aren't all of the defaults available from one source. Other programs do that, why not Chief? --Lane

I tried that yesterday with nothing but wrong frustrating results. When I opened the program this morning, the Edit Wall Layer Intersections tool worked. Beats me, it did not work yesterday. Maybe when the program closed down and opened this morning it cleared out something in memory? I have no idea. Maybe it just works on Fridays? But thanks!

First, this group is great! Thanks to everyone who has helped me keep the hair on my head instead of pulling it out! Now for my issue. In the first Screen Shot, I have two walls joining as they should. When I try to get the wall to the left of them to butt up against the joined walls, it takes over and invades the territory of the correct walls. How can I get these walls to behave? Thanks in advance, Lane

Thanks. First I looked to see if the windows were on the correct floor. They were. Then I made sure the walls lined up with each other. They did. But The problem was the lower wall was broken into two parts. Once I connected them the problem solved itself. Thanks JiAngelo and DB Cooper.

Hello This screenshot is from the right elevation view. There is a box on the second floor, left side where two windows show in the floor plan view. Why won't they show in the elevation view? I placed the windows with copy/paste of the windows that do show up in the same elevation view. Thanks in advance, Lane

When I was sending my plans out for printing, I had to send them as PDF files. However, the PDF's (I am using Adobe Acrobat) printed all the lines at the same black, no matter what I had in my plans (lighter lines here and there, transparencies, etc. Does Chief have printer drivers for different printers like it did many versions ago? Thanks, Lane

I will do so in the future. The answer was user error. Since the window opening spans the foundation concrete wall and the wood frame wall, I was placing the walls in the concrete wall vertically, but on the wood wall horizontally. Once I place all the windows on the concrete wall, the problem was solved. --Lane

Okay, got it. I would have deleted this post, but I don't see an option for that.

I am attaching a screen shot of part of my foundation for this particular plan. The windows on the vertical wall and the windows on the horizontal wall show different orientations. The double window line occurs on the exterior side of the vertical foundation wall, and on the interior side of the horizontal foundation wall. Is there a way to install windows backward, or do foundation walls have an interior and exterior side that could be causing the problem? Thanks for any insight. Lane

Yes, thanks!

Good morning. One of my clients e-mailed me this morning saying he downloaded the Viewer App so he can view the files without me sending a PDF. I have never used it, and have no idea where to find it. Any help in using it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lane

Hahaha....yes, in theory is the best! I'll give the theory a try.

Yesterday, amid several other problems I was having with Chief, a message box popped up referencing a drawing I did two years ago. When I created my template file, I thought I purged everything except the CAD details. Is there a way to "clean up" a file so it does not reference any other files or inherit any properties from that file? Thanks, Lane

I tried that too. I suppose that is why there is an option for manual framing!

I had that checked correctly. Maybe just another glitch with my program. Manual Framing. At this rate, my old paper and pencil drafting might be faster. Lane

Good morning. The object is to have 2x10 floor joists on the first floor. If I go to Default Settings, then Framing Member Defaults Management, I set the joist width @ 1.5" and the joist depth @ 9.25". Then, in the Build, Framing, Automatic Framing Defaults I set the joist width @ 1.5" and the joist depth @ 9.25" But The automatic framing sets the joists at 3" x 9.25". So which mystery setting did I miss when trying to set the joist size? (and why are there multiple location in which to set the joist size?) Thanks in advance, Lane

Thanks!

Earlier I had a problem with walls disappearing when pushing another wall against it. Thanks again to the great users in this forum, that problem was solved. Now, I have a plan where the foundation level was originally drawn with the footings at grade level, and the 10" Concrete foundation walls on top of the footings. This time I need to change those concrete walls to 6" frame walls, and have them sit on a slab with frost walls beneath the slab. So basically, I want Floor 0 to become Floor 1, Floor 2 to Become Floor 2, and Floor 2 to become Floor 3. Is there an easy or even possible way to do this? I zipped the file, but it still exceeds the 14 MB so I cannot attach it. Thanks in advance, Lane

Thanks, I never knew that about furred walls. I assumed walls worked in Chief like they work in the real world, and I really need to stop thinking that way!

Thanks! The layer the wall is on is locked, so I thought that would prevent the wall from being moved. Maybe Chief needs to have a disclaimer "Warning, objects that are locked actually are not". But now I know. I think for me the easiest thing to do is "Save As" and more or less start over. It's not that far along, and it won't be the first time I have had to do that as opposed to figuring out what the programmers had in mind when they built the program. --Lane

Good morning, I assumed the purpose of locking a wall was to prevent any changes to that wall, including its position in the plan. My problem this morning is I need to push a 2x4 stud wall against a 12" concrete wall. But every time I do, the foundation wall disappears. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? The screenshot is below and the zip file is attached. Layout-C-Mike Raucci.zip

Hello again, I have a 3" Minimum between windows in my plan defaults. But, when I push one window against another, instead of stopping at 3", the window simply pushes into the other window. Is there another setting for keeping windows separated by a minimum dimension? Thanks in Advance