CharlesVolz

Chief Architect 3D Design, Design Assistance & Training I am currently available to take on more design and training jobs. I can assist you in your design work or you can refer customers to me. I pay a 10% referral fee for referred customers. Just email me or give me a call at 210 744-7489. Here is some information about me and how I work: I am a creative designer and a proficient Chief Architect 3D Design software user who has acquired unique experiences and perspectives from my collection of work as a designer and builder. I have degrees in structural engineering (BS Rice University) and architectural engineering (MS University of Texas at Austin) and have planned, designed, developed and built various, diverse projects over my 30-year plus career. I utilize the latest technology to work with customers live online and to record "how-to" videos for builders, designers and DIYers instructing home design using Chief Architect. I offer design assistance as well as training for beginners to intermediate using Chief Architect versions X10 to X16 and design assistance for all newer Home Designer products. I have worked with homeowners, builders, designers and architects from all over the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and England. I offer money-saving proficient design assistance as well as training in using Chief Architect software. I am available to design your home from concept to working drawings, assist you in learning Chief Architect and/or improve your existing home design. Whether you need a home designer or just a few hours of training, I can accommodate you. Call me at 210 744-7489! Thank you in advance, Charles

Here are my notes from previous posts, the manual, etc: Older Chief Architect Versions: X9 does not support reading in plans with the .pl# or .la# extension (files from any versions older then Version 10 (2005). CA 10 (2005) creates *.plan files.). To open these older plans in X9+, first open these files in X8 (or use the free client viewer for Chief X8) and save them which will be in the newer format as a .plan or .layout file. X8 will open plans back to Chief Architect 97 (released August 1997). Version 9 is required to open pre-August 1997 .pln files. Keep X8 (or X8 Desktop Viewer) until all old plans are updated. Chief Architect Viewer (free) allows you to actually view files from any version of Chief Architect from X9 back to Version 10. You won't be able to modify the model but you could at least create camera views. Notes: 1. If you no longer have access to Chief Architect X8, Home Designer 2017, or an earlier version, the X8 Desktop Viewer can be downloaded and used for this process. Once installed, continue with Step 2 below. 2. Plans created in versions prior to Chief Architect '97 (version 5) or 3D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 will not open successfully in Chief Architect X8 or Home Designer 2017 and earlier versions. 3. Chief Architect never could open drawings from 3D Home Architect® 5.0 or later, as these programs were not created by the same company. Notes from Help: 1. After an older version file has been opened in the newer program, the plan may not appear exactly as it did when it was initially created. For example, textures and 3D symbol objects from the discontinued version may not be recognized. There may be missing electrical and other object defaults, and warning messages may display on opening the file, as well as taking 3D camera views, in regards to these objects. While you could try to replace all of the missing textures, objects, and defaults using materials and symbols from your current Home Designer Library Browser, the real advantage of being able to view the older file is to reference dimensions and object placement. In order to have all of the capabilities available in a current version plan, such as Wall Types and other features, recreating the plan in the current version of Chief Architect may be necessary and is recommended. 2. Plans created in versions prior to Chief Architect '97 (version 5) or 3D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0 will not open successfully in Chief Architect X8 or Home Designer 2017 and earlier versions. Chief Architect never could open drawings from 3D Home Architect® 5.0 or later, as these programs were not created by the same company. More information can be found in the X9 Reference Manual or the X10 Reference Manual on Page 54, "Compatibility with Previous Versions", and on Page 1338 and Page 1369, respectively, "New and Improved Features by Chapter - File Management".

Nice Robert!

If you are talking about the drywall not wrapping, check your wall layers and make sure you have an interior/exterior layer and that it is not set to zero thickness.

I don't see any walls that disappeared.

Make sure you get enough solid-state hard drive size and number for your needs. I bought an Alien Aurora R12 a couple of years ago. Now I wished I had two SSHD slots allowing at least 4Tb each. I will get two slots next time for sure as that lets you move data quickly for upgrading and/or backup from one drive to the other.

Stairs' square footage interesting thought regarding ANSI Z765-2021 Square Footage - Method for Calculating: The area of stairs is included in living area for every floor they access. Many builders and physical-minded people usually want to count the stairs in a 2-story build once (not twice), even if you have storage under part of the stairs. But if you consider a 10-story building with nine flights of stairs, then you see that counting the stairs on every floor might be best.

Revision1. This is a mouthful: Door and Window Label Offsets & Sides (affecting materials & hardware): CA’s convention of offsets in the X and Y directions should probably be "distance along wall" for X and "distance from wall" for Y since their positive direction is determined by the “start” to “end” direction of the wall. All walls, whether exterior or interior, have an interior and exterior side and follow CA’s convention of the exterior side being on the left as you travel from the start to the end of the wall. That is why exterior walls are drawn in a clockwise direction. This allows CA to orient the exterior cladding on the outside of the building and allows us to specify and manage different materials for each side’s surface. Reversing Layers of the wall also changes its direction from start to end. The Reverse Layers edit button “flips the orientation” (per CA) of the interior and exterior layers of a selected wall. It actually flips the walls in both directions (vertically and horizontally in plan view), which is the same as the wall rotating 180° (sans the doors and windows) which changes its direction from start to end. Its wall type definition is not affected by this change. Neither is the location, hinge, swing, opening direction, etc. of doors and windows in the wall. But the interior and exterior sides of doors and windows in the wall are exchanged which affects their materials and hardware sides and their label offsets.

i would clarify, this isnt the same, because if you had a door or window in the wall then that door or window would be in new location if you rotated the wall in place. also would clarify "Neither is the location, hinge, swing, opening direction, etc. of doors and windows in the wall. " handles it, but I will reorder/edit. Thx Rene! Charles

Yessir. Thx!

All good stuff! So much so that I added the following to my CA Tips which I wanted to share here: Door and Window Label Offsets & Sides (affecting materials & hardware): CA’s convention of offsets in the X and Y directions should probably be "distance along wall" for X and "distance from wall" for Y since their positive direction is determined by the “start” to “end” direction of the wall. All walls, whether exterior or interior, have an interior and exterior side and follow CA’s convention of the exterior side being on the left as you travel from the start to the end of the wall. That is why exterior walls are drawn in a clockwise direction. This allows CA to orient the exterior cladding on the outside of the building and allows us to specify and manage different materials for each side’s surface. Reversing Layers of the wall also changes its direction from start to end. The Reverse Layers edit button “flips the orientation” (per CA) of the interior and exterior layers of a selected wall. It actually flips the walls in both directions (vertically and horizontally), which is the same as rotating the wall 180° which changes its direction from start to end. Its wall type definition is not affected by this change. Neither is the location, hinge, swing, opening direction, etc. of doors and windows in the wall. But the interior and exterior sides of doors and windows in the wall are exchanged which affects their materials and hardware sides and their label offsets. EDITED! NEW VERSION BELOW! Feel free to pass on any edits. Best, Charles

Great tip Steve! I want what you were having when you discovered that one! Best, Charles

That room has two ceiling heights in different areas. It could be a wall alignment problem. Joe knows: Post the plan.

1. I assume by your question's wording that your reason for thinking of doing so is budgetary. not space constraints. 2. Like John said. You cannot achieve your goal by just proportionally reduce the size of cabinets, appliances and supply lines, plumbing fixtures and supply/waste/vent lines, doors, windows, wall thickness, hall widths, stair width and length, etc. due to the availability of items, the workability of others and safety and code requirements. 3. Furthermore, shrinking a floor plan does not save a proportional amount of cost as some people might think when they start the process. Kitchens, baths and laundries usually contain a majority of the more expensive items like cabinets, plumbing fixtures, appliances, countertops, lighting, electrical outlets, etc. So one would have to reduce those items and not just take floor space out of oversized living areas and bedrooms. Taking floor space out of large rooms is the least saving per square foot in cost. 4. Other items that can effect the cost, but usually minimally like reducing floor areas of large spaces, is reducing ceiling heights and roof pitches and overhangs. 5. Structural schemes can save money. Basically, columns are cheaper than beams. Shorter spans are cheaper than longer spans. Trusses, if easily available, can save money and time (more money) over stick-built roofs and floor platforms. 6. Materials for, and types of, cladding, millwork, doors, windows, cabinets, countertops, appliances, plumbing fixtures, etc. can make a significant cost difference. 7. The shape of the house determining the exterior's perimeter per the interior's area. 8. The foundations type and materials versus the soils, weather and terrain can make a difference in the cost. 9. The function of the home's layout may be studied to find wasted space that can be eliminated. Sometimes completing a programming chart where spaces are determined that they need to be "adjacent" to, "near", or "far" from every other space in the house will uncover a flaw in the layout that may affect efficiency. 10. I expect this process to require the owner to prioritize items, areas and spaces over others. These are just some items that come to mind after reading your question and thinking about it for a moment. I suggest a qualified designer take a holistic approach to reducing the cost as needed. Again, I am assuming that the cost is the problem, that the size directly. Another (partial) solution may be to build in phases. Like build a detached garage later. This is my least favorite solution because: A. It will cost more later due to inflation, but also because it is now a smaller different type of job. A small portion of a larger job benefits of the material costs, the speed and sophistication. B. Different companies and crews typically do garages vs houses and they usually cost more and are less attentive because it is a small job and less sophistication and size is required. C. Not building a portion when a big effort is made building the rest can mean that portion never gets built or becomes a negative drain on the owners caused by years of delay. Building a garage separately can be a headache. (Ask me how I know.) Best, Charles

Howdy Rob, I would love to help you. But I find it less than meaningful (and wasting both of our time) if you do not post the plan. Best, Charles

Add water...

A layout viewport has settings that were defined when you sent that view from plan to layout. More than one viewport can have those settings, or Plan View. You can manage those and save the different ones you need as Saved Plan Views. If you do not manage them, they will manage you. When you change a Plan View, that change is reflected in all view ports or Layout Boxes using those settings. When I help someone on a plan where they have a layout file linked to a plan, but no Save Plan Views, I just go to layout and open the camera views linked to the Layout Boxes. That gets me to the plan file with the same layers selected/unselected as the layout shows. That is a Plan View, but it is not being managed as a Saved Plan View.

Not a glitch at all. Powerful tools. Search Help or CA videos for "Linked View" and "Save Plan Views".

Here you go! Montana Cabin 1.001.zip

This is what I use. Numero Uno for residential. ANSI Z765-2021 - SQUARE FOOTAGE.pdf

This way may be easier to measure the existing stairs close enough in the field. I am still assuming that the stairs curve along a single arc as shown. It is using the Intersecting Chords Theorem which says that the product of the lengths of the segments of any two intersecting chords is equal. When you use perpendicular chords you can measure A, B & C close enough and calculate D and thus the radius of the existing stairs.

Sounds like to me you need the radius and the tangent (angle) somewhere along the curve (or arc). Just call me so we can chat.

If the existing is truly is a radius, i.e., is a single arc then do this, then measure from the center point to the staircase to get the radius. Once you have that, I usually draw CAD line in CA to snap to with the stairs.

Post your plan! Otherwise we are all guessing. Guesses: You did not apply that molding to the wall of your 3D view. You did not use black material for the reveal molding and white for the base molding. Best, Charles