Doug_N

Hi Glenn, Happy New Year! Not really if you look at the details that I have posted. The way that the outlooks were modelled were out of correct rotation. Why? I have no idea because when I fiddled with the roof structure DBX it stopped doing it, and rotated them to the correct angle. The OOTB copy still requires notching the gable rafter. Most framers around here reduce the depth of that rafter so that the outlook can cross the rafer without cutting.

When doing instructions for framing a roof I realized that the CA framing model is somewhat strange for the outlook detail. Maybe I am doing something wrong but here is what I was hoping for, VS what CA is generating. Something like what I was expecting. How Chef actually models it. Here is a clip from a framing manual. And finally here is a cross section of what I was hoping for and what I got. So a couple of questions: 1) How have you detailed outlooks - what is the practice in your area? 2) Have I overlooked some setting in CA that does this automatically? Edit: When playing with the roof structure DBX here is what I discovered. Here is the original DBX And here is a revised DBX Swapping the dimensions for width and depth. And a much better result! This still would require a note about notching the rafters I suppose or manually reducing the depth of the rafter to make the outlook members more like purlins. Any comments? Outlook Framing.plan

Hi Alan - Happy New Year's Day!! Hope the new year is much much better than the previous year for you, your family and all of our colleagues here in Chief Architect user forum. You make a very good point on this aspect of project planning. In the Greater Toronto Area this is called a pre-consultation meeting and there is a fee for the meeting. The meeting is entirely optional unless the project meets certain application complications that are determined by, from the best I can figure, someone using a crystal ball. In any case, these meetings can be exceedingly useful because you get a list of contacts in all departments not only from the responsible municipal authority that will issue the building permit, but also other parties that have a veto, such as conservation authority, the department of urban forestry (yes you need permission to harm a tree in some areas), the health department if there is a private sewage system or well, and the region or country for trucking load permits etc.

Thanks Ryan, Happy New Year by the way.

I fixed the roof problems, then the room sort of fixed itself. I think this is a good start on getting your solution. Joe makes an excellent point of adding a floor to control some of your other structural issues. Once the roof boundaries and intersections where fixed, then I created a wall on the second floor that was a siding type to enclose the side of the attic room. And there it is, the wall that was giving you grief. Your wall was an interior wall and was generated by the program. It intersected the roof, so it was cut along the bottom. Hope this helps. Merry Christmas from the Frozen North. Best to you and your family. Doug 693753679_MichaelHackRemodeling.plan

Gene, thanks for that info. Good idea. So then the resilient channel helps to prevent the cracking of the tape where the ceiling meets the wall? I have heard that is an ongoing problem with using the bottom cord of trusses to support the ceiling. The cord moves vertically with the varying strain on the trusses, but the walls don't move, so the ceiling to wall joints crack.

Speaking of truss designs, how do you attach drywall to the ceilings in a truss construction? How is this detailed?

And don't forget the size of each parking space. Every jurisdiction has their own standard from parking spaces, for inside parking, for outside parking, for accessible parking and for loading zones.

I also think that you should consider the ceiling joists. In Ontario Canada, there is a requirement that ceiling joists must be treated as floor joists (for load) if the attic space is accessible by stairs.

Yes he makes barkups

Yup

Generally the cross section and spacing is indicated on the symbol, then a dashed line with label indicates a boundary or beam depending on context in the label.

Hi Michael, In a lot of cases the framing is not actually shown so the only way the direction of the joists is known is by the joist direction symbol so in my jurisdiction. The framing for the second floor is show on the FIRST floor framing plan if joists are actually show in a framing view. Doug.

Hi Glenn, The joist lines are just there for the framer. What is the problem with the bearing lines? Does this contribute to the problem that I am describing. Doug.

For sure Mick.

I have created a tech support request. I should have thought of that. Thanks Mick.

I posted this in suggestions as well because there is a flaw in the framing generator that results in a quite serious and dangerous joist design. This is something that can be fixed manually, but when working on a big project it is a great feature to be able to make wall and room adjustments and have the framing keep track. If structural errors keep creeping in, it is hard to keep track of them and fix them later. If you forget, and the framer is not really paying attention.... well hopefully it will be an obvious problem in the real world, but then you are relying on the good sense of the framer to fix a really bad desine error. This has happened before around floor openings, so on this one I thought I would post it in case i am doing something wrong. The joists that join onto the inside leg of the stairwell are cut with a short joist running at 90 deg to the other joists taking away all strength of the floor assy. It would be nice to have the framing model avoid this. Maybe this is a mistake in the way I have set up the framing options? If so if someone can tell me what I did wrong, that would be great too. Scarborough Second Floor Addition.zip

Not so easy for a building that is joined at some angle. Rotating the axis to make the axis parallel to a line for such areas would be a great additional feature. You should post this in the suggestions area inho.

Hi Dermot, There is a myriad of situations that require a room area to be divided that have nothing to do with an actual physical barrier. For example CA does a great job of calculating room areas. For example, a room divider can separate rooms that are divided by purpose and not by construction. Common ones are kitchen/dining room, or dining room/living room. These room size calculations are used to determines the minimum size for a window size as required in the Ontario Building Code (pretty much the same as Canada's National Building Code).

Going to post a suggestion about making a room divider "permanent" by clicking an option box. Let's see where that goes.

Hi Steve, So i was interested in this problem because it has happened to me a few times. One of the fixes is [Auto stair case], but in most situations the staircase results in just a temporary opening because a lot of adjustments are required after the fact. That led me to do some tests on my own using your plan. I discovered that you can't put a defined room divider at the top of the stairs because CA just changes that to a 4" interior wall and makes it invisible. (Why does CA do that?) So I opted for changing the wall at the head of the stairs to a glass shower wall (1/2"thinck) and then adjusting the position of the wall to the riser face and BINGO, gap be gone. I think this is just a bit of a technical problem and CA should add an option to be able to use a room divider with zero width and make it sticky, so it doesn't swap out to a standard invisible wall. Just saying. The problem isn't, or doesn't seem to be with your room, or with your particular plan file, no, it seems to be a programmed constraint. Zero wall thickness is swapped out for a standard wall thickness if it joins a thicker wall.

As Kbird said the trusses aren't really CA trusses, you have made them yourself. So you could take the top cord,copy and paste in place, Then shorten the bottom end one of the copies to end just short of the birdsmouth Shorten the top end of the second copy to the same place and then change the depth of that part to match the rafters. Kbirds method is a bit more elegant though.

I think this is what you are looking for This can be set in the default dbx change the default ceiling plate for exterior walls to the beam size. You can make the wall so that the main part of the wall is invisible, air for example. Just a bit of a quick work around that I came up with between clients today.