Evolution

I added a logo to the layout page template I created for these projects. I used copy and paste of our co. logo. Resized it, pasted into page -0- of my layout templates and it looked great when finished.  If I tried any other way besides pasting as a picture the logo is just a big black square, so I thought I was using the correct method, however; after closing the files and reopening each day since, when first opened, the picture of the logo is just a black square, and I have found no way to adjust it to use it, and the printed test page also prints it as a black square. So each time I close the layout file and reopen it I have to delete the solid black square, and replace it with a fresh cut / paste of the logo.   Any suggestions?

7 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Bob,

Did you note that I said to do this in the "Floor Defaults" first before anything else.  That eliminates the need to modify every room.

Yes, I did. Thank you!!!

1 hour ago, solver said:

All Off layer set. Turn on Ceiling Planes.

 

YOU da Man ERIC! Big as life and twice as ugly.  Problem number umphundred fixed!

43 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

In another thread I gave a simple (and IMO the correct way) to lower a ceiling.  This works for the defaults as well as for individual rooms but I would first use it to set the defaults correctly for each floor:

• Change the Floor/Room Defaults by selecting "Ceiling Finish"
• Note that it is probably just a single 5/8" thick drywall which causes the "Finished Ceiling Elevation" to be 11' 11-3/8"
• Insert additional layers to increase the thickness of the "Ceiling Finish"
  • 32-1/2" Air Gap
  • 3-1/2" Fir Framing (ceiling joists)

Essentially this causes the drywall to be moved down 36" because the "Ceiling Finish" is applied to the bottom of the "Ceiling Framing".  Because this is the default for the entire floor you will only need to modify the "Ceiling Finish" for rooms that need to have a different finished ceiling elevation.

 

So, in Bob's case the Default Floor Ceiling is set at 12' which causes all the walls to be 12' tall.  By having the above settings for the Ceiling Finish the Finished Ceiling Height would be 8' 11-3/8"'.  Adjusting the "Air Gap" dimension to 44-1/2" in an individual room would make the Finished Ceiling Height in that room to be 7' 11-3/8".

 

I think you can get the idea.

Yoda, that's exactly the way I've been doing it (KB - 01050). Glenn Woodward put me on that about 5 years ago when I was doing a lake house that had umpteen dozen different ceilings, and heights.  I used the CP tool only to create a couple of ceilings in that plan the Owner wanted to be barreled. 

Thanks for your support! I honestly don't know how that other ceiling mysteriously appeared......I swear I didn't use the CP tool in any of those rooms, but I'm determined to get it right!!

1 hour ago, javatom said:

I believe that is the cross section slider tool.

Did the CS Slider and that helps me see what is going on.  So Eric I used your suggestion and I believe I've got all my walls fixed the correct way. But, Dermit, I've tried and tried and cannot find a custom ceiling plane I created.  There are only two rooms affected by the crazy ceiling.  I opened both of the rooms dbx toggled through the settings and never found a ceiling plane that was created with that specific tool.  I used KB - 01050 MANUALLY FRAMING A DROPPED CEILING to create the different ceiling heights in the individual rooms that have differing heights. SO, how can I find this custom ceiling you say I must've created?

14 hours ago, solver said:

Make a copy of the red brick wall and change the brick to the cream. Use the new wall on the bottom of the pony wall.

 

Walls are fixed.  But, Eric, admitting I'm dumb as-a-box-of rocks, how did you do the clip showing the wall section like you have?   I've tried everything and haven't found it yet?

5 hours ago, Dermot said:

The short answer is that you have a custom ceiling plane.  These don't magically appear by themselves so you must have drawn this at some point.  Just delete it and then reset your wall heights back to default.

 

The longer answer would have to include all of other things in your plan that I thought were either strange or wrong.  I see nothing in your plan that requires all of the manual work that you are doing.  The lowered ceiling looks like it could be handled through your room defaults and you could probably even use the automatic roof tools. 

 

I saw a number of problems related to your walls though so I would consider working on getting those right first and then worrying about your ceilings and roofs.  I'm not sure why you painted a brick material onto a Siding 6 wall but this probably is not what you want. You can't change the structure of a wall by painting a material on it.  You should probably reset all of your wall materials back to "use default" first and then fix the wall definitions.  In addition, it looks like you are having some wall alignment issues with the pony walls.  In general, Chief does not really like pony walls that are thicker at the top then the bottom and this is why your interior walls have gaps at the bottom when attached to them.  You should try to model your walls as close to how they will be built in the real world to avoid these issues. 

 

I would then focus on your rooms.  If you ever find yourself trying to change all of your rooms by editing each room in your plan, I would suggest that you are doing it the hard way.  You should probably reset the room structures back to "use default" and change the default room for the floor instead.  You might want to use the "Reset to Defaults" tool as a start.  In general, you should only edit the room structure of an individual room when it is going to be different from all of the rest.

 

Once your walls and rooms are correct, I think the roof will be easy.

 

I would highly recommend that your review some of our training videos and help articles.  You might also want to consider some of our various training options:

 

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/training/

 

I have two different color brick as you can see from elevation.  I attempted the pony wall with 6" Brick using Red brick 5 for the upper wall, and Crème Painted brick for the lower, but no matter what I did when I changed the lower wall to the crème the upper wall also changed,  I needed to get it done down and dirty for a quick presentation last night to the City Council and the only way I could figure at the last minute was to change the lower part of the PW to siding making it as thick as I could, then painting the crème brick on it.  I know that's not how you do it, but I still haven't figured it out.  IT worked well enough to show the council to get the go ahead. It's hectic in a one man office when you suddenly have three projects you've been working on suddenly all become Fire cracker hot, because someone else decided they were in a hurry and put me in the hot seat. This is the most I've used the software for a long time.

Just now, Evolution said:

First test print of layout page just fine.  Now when I attempted to print the second and third they just print a little postage size layout in the corner of a full 12"X19" sheet?  I checked my printer settings and nothing changed so I don't know what to do from here? I hate to bother you guys with stupid stuff like this!

MPD_Plan.zip

MPD_LAYOUT_FILE.zip

Won't let me include other files so I'm adding them here.

(Solved)

First test print of layout page just fine.  Now when I attempted to print the second and third they just print a little postage size layout in the corner of a full 12"X19" sheet?  I checked my printer settings and nothing changed so I don't know what to do from here? I hate to bother you guys with stupid stuff like this!

MPD_Plan.zip

MPD_LAYOUT_FILE.zip

14 hours ago, SNestor said:

I didn't have any problem lowering your ceilings to 9'.  You may have missed one or two of the "chase" areas on your plan.

 

I've attached the corrected plan and a couple pics.  There are some walls that extend to 12'...I didn't mess with those.

 

  

 

MPD Plan - fixed.plan

Thanks Steve, not sure how you got it to work? I did go back and check all the column "chases", but they were all set for 144" like all the rest of the rooms. I also went back and checked both rooms (each side of the wall with the quirky angle) they were also set for 144". I noticed a couple things on the "fixed" plan you did, one is the front eve connection with the lower roof over the porch / entry there is a hole in the attic wall? You'd think all I had to do was grab that corner and pull it up and that would fix it? 

Thanks for the great help!

(Ceiling Plane Issue Resolved) Thanks to Eric, Steve, Dermot and all other contributors. 

Well, one issue fixed and new one pops up. Needed to get the walls to 12'. Perry's quick response help me resolve it quickly by Selecting roof plane, and raising it to the 12' by means of Transform / replicate.  Took several section views and all looked good.  Then I started lowering the ceiling in each individual space to 9'. Look good to start off but one room so far has a sloped ceiling plane even though I specified flat ceiling in each space (double checked it) so this doesn't make sense?  I attempted to raise the corner that is sloping of that one wall, however; and that worked, but when I pulled another section the section shows the CP is still sloped although in the Perspective Floor overview the wall appears to be level now.

MPD Plan.plan

2 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

You need to move the roof planes up in the "z" direction using the transform -replicate tool to get the taller walls

Gosh Perry, that was too easy!!!! Problem solved!

Wish lowering the ceiling to 9' was that simple! 

SOLVED! Thanks to all, but Perry's answer was quick and easy!

Started off with Walls at 9'.  The existing building Ext walls are 12'. They want all exterior and interior walls 12'. Ceiling Height to be 9'-0". I was going to change all walls to 12' by changing room definition to 12', then go back and do a lowered ceiling to 9'-0" but even thought I changed the rooms to 12' the exterior walls will not change.  I even attempted to grab the exterior wall height and drag it up to 12' but it doesn't work.  The info I found in other threads is not working (but I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly?). I tried selecting all wall with shift select but that doesn't allow me to change wall heights either. So, what am I doing wrong? 

MPD Plan.plan

On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 11:01 PM, Kbird1 said:

 

The Framing Wall Method works in your Plan too ...once I built a MonoSlab Foundation for the House ...... I didn't finish it but here is the plan to take a look....

 

M.

 

 

 

Home 2_MHD Screen Walls.plan

 

.

Mick, first chance to get to this, and this is what I was attempting to accomplish. Thanks to all for the help.  How do I mark this as being the best answer?

I'll give it a try when I can get back on it, maybe Monday?

The plan I'm doing is an addition to our existing PD. I imported the original DWG file from the Architect. I attempted to do Cad to walls but that didn't work, so I'm drawing walls over the base plan that I imported.  I have the wall angle issue (the original question) worked out by drawing a cad line over the interior wall line of the DWG plan and drawing new walls so the interior side lines up on the cad line, then opening each wall dbx setting the angles and lengths to match each similar wall. 

Now, I need to draw the existing roof overhanging the lobby.  There are two support columns, and a gable roof over the aluminum storefront entry. I also need to covert the angles walls to look like aluminum store front and suppose I will have to drawing fixed windows for each, removing casings, sills and lintels inside and our for each? Changing the material to aluminum etc.? Any advise?

MPD Plan.plan

Thanks Mick! Wish there was some way to fix it without redrawing the entire plan! 

If you are doing a monoslab foundation, do you still need to actually create a foundation from the first floor etc. When I can get back to this one, I'll see if that affects it.   

Thanks all!

(Solved this one my self. Used a CAD line to outline the walls in the DWG file from the Arch.  Then opened each CAD line DBX for angle and length, then the wall DBX for each wall, setting the length and angle per the info retrieved from the cad lines.  Long way around but it worked!)

Had to jump on another project for the same client I'm doing FS 2 for.  I started modeling from imported DWG files and at the front of the existing building is a radiused glass wall. I started drawing it with straight (exterior walls) which is the way it is built in real life. It is actually a number of straight sections of Glazed Aluminum Storefront, which in order to model it I was going to use windows ceiling to floor converted to glass no casing, sills, lintels etc.  I keep getting the error message that the walls are not connecting.  I've selected each wall and used the join tool but they're not joining for some reason. I know its got to be a simple fix, but I haven't found it yet.

MPD Plan.plan

Brief explanation this project is an addition to an existing metal building. The trouble area is the work and living space. The existing building is PEMB and the additions will be stick build. In order to draw it, where the new extension are to be built, the existing wall panels and internal structure will be removed. The new additions will be added plan east and west as you can see.  The area that intersects the new additions was drawn with a room divider.  I created a new wall type I named 10" PEMB wall. I put in wall breaks where the existing walls and additions intersect. When I first completed the floor plan, the condition at the eave intersection with the new addition did not exist. I had to revise the layout slightly to satisfy the Clients space needs. After that revision the conditions noted in the attached suddenly appeared as if the walls are no longer there? I attempted several different times moving walls in and out, but that didn't fill in the missing walls above the additions.  I pulled the roof of the new additions back where they intersect with the existing taller building but that didn't allow the wall to fill in. I am definitely open for suggestions.  Exact same problem exists on both sides of the building.

FS 2 Zipped.zip

3 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Try to go into File>Print>Drawing Sheet Setup and change the drawing scale to 1/4" = 1ft.  Not sure if there's a reason it was changed to 8ft. or not, but I suspect that's what caused the problem.

Well, Michael that fixed it!  But here's the deal, from the first print to now I am POSSITIVE I did not change that print setting!  BUT I'll take the blame.  I still believe CA does it's own think now and then, for instance on another plan I closed one day everything was fine.   The day before I had added some columns to a porch staring with one, I opened the DBX, set the bottom to floor height, the col length, and floor to top height saved and closed the file. The next day I opened the same saved file did a Perspective Full Overview and three of the columns and changed position one up off the porch, one sticking up through the roof, one bottom below grade. I opened each one and set them back to the original settings and they were fine, but I have no idea how they changed in the first place. 

Thanks for the help!

 I know if sudden changes take place with a plan most of the time it is because the user (us) made them, or at least that sounds good! I have previously printed plans of the attached project for owner review and the line weights were great.  Suddenly I opened the plan file I was working on (the very same plan file) I had saved a copy, and am now working on the copy, but when I opened the copy the line weights of the walls changed and even opened or sent to layout, they are not correct (too heavy) and I've opened and closed the file several times to see if that made a difference.  So I went back to the original file that had the correct line weights, but now they've suddenly changed and look the same as on the copied plan!  I opened tools and checked the line weights of the walls I zipped the file (too big to upload) if you want to take a look and see anything obvious.  

Thank you!

FS 2 Zipped.zip

21 hours ago, SNestor said:

Joe is 100% right...change Patio to Porch. 

Thanks Joe!

Steve, I did that yesterday before I gave up, that didn't work? I had to put it away and get back on another job today.

11 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

If you make the "Patio" a "Porch" with "Railing Walls" you can get the model to work much better.  PSolids are not the way to go.

 

Note:  A Porch has a floor, walls and a roof.  That's a good place to start.  Then edit the walls to get the screened in area.

I give up today! I tried it again but to no avail! 

1 minute ago, Joe_Carrick said:

You might want to change the "Patio" to a "Porch"

Joe, I tried that about 5 hours ago.  I just need to do the PLS for my self.  I have a plan from about 4 years ago of a lake house I did (Glenn Woodward helped me figure out the roof on it). I did a screened porch on it and didn't have one minutes problem (CA 6 or 7) but for the life of me I can't duplicate the process on this. Go figure!