Evolution

Doug, they had it custom made in TN somewhere (from a real smith's shop I think) but I will send them an email and see if I can find out who did it?

Thought I might post some of the photos of the interior of my Lake House project.   The client is moving in and planning Thanksgiving dinner with their family for the first time in their new lake house!  The timber frame work, in the great room I used PLSolids to model.  I had a number of different sizes and it was really fun designing and detailing them in CA.  Also, the windows were customized in CA. I really love seeing it come to fruition from the design.

You may need to post the plan.  I can't duplicate it with a sample plan.

If you will follow this exactly you will be able to create a flat roof with parapet.  You can't set the slope on it (I don't think) but you can specify it the way you want it with notes. I did the practice plan attached just following this information: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00295/creating-a-flat-parapet-roof.html

KB 00295 Practice plan.plan

Did you follow this: It is important to note that when rotating the Plan View, that all of the text on the plan may need to be reoriented. This can be done by modifying the text defaults for the plan.

By default, all Text, Label, and Rich Text objects are set to rotate with the plan view, meaning if you rotate the plan view 45°, all text and labels will be angled 45° to match the new plan view. These different text objects pull defaults from a few different areas, so it's important to know what to modify depending on what text you want rotated with the plan and what you want level on the page.

Start by selecting Edit> Default Settings , click the arrow to expand the Text, Callouts and Markers section.
 

For standard Text and Labels:

1. Select Text Styles and press Edit.
   
    
2. Select the Text Style you want to modify and press Edit.
   
   

   Note: In the Saved Text Styles dialog, there are a number of Text Styles that you may want to modify. With exception to Default Label Style and Room Label Style, the various text styles are used in different Annotation Sets, so it is important to note what text styles are modified if you decide to change annotation sets later.
   
   Primarily 1/4" Text Style, Default Text Style, and Room Label Style will likely need to be modified.
   
   Default Label Style controls other object labels, such as doors and windows, and should likely be left alone.

   
    
3. Uncheck Rotate with Plan and press OK.
    

Check this tutorial out: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00295/creating-a-flat-parapet-roof.html

I kept trying and the plan file attached.  You can group select the smaller thinner soffits and adjust the floor to bottom height to set them lower inside the larger soffit band etc. Experiment with it and see how you can make it work for you.

molbhanu9 plan.plan

molbhanu9​  I drew a simple plan, created a poly line from the room, did a concentric drag holding the c key, to equal distance. Used the outline to place soffits around the perimeter made them one thickness used a hypothetical ceiling height (no ceiling over room) set the soffits lower than the ceiling, then drew a thinner soffit inside this box connected to the heavier soffit, did a copy multipaste each way to create the boxes.  Took about 10 minutes.

I attempted to attach the plan I used, but for some reason it won't attach.  I zipped the same file and it attached. Hopefully you can use the example ok.  I don't know how to make videos or I would have done one for you.  Probably by the time I get this posted some body else will have.

molbhanu9.pdf

molbhanu9 plan.zip

No data in my file? Ok, so I  reposted, see if there is now?

Metal Building.plan

Anna, nothing takes the place of practice, and CA has a lot of great training video. Check these out at, https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/

Jerry, I fiddled around with my plan a little more, and modeled from PS's a red iron beam, blocked them, then did copy-multipaste and they didn't turn out too bad.  I don't have any more time to day to play with modeling the perlin or girts but you may / may not care to have the file but I posted the update anyway.

Metal Building.zip

Jerry, I had started the attached metal building a while back but hadn't done anything with it, when the client changed his mind. I opened the old file, changed it to a 60X80 but since most Metal buildings are 4/12 pitch anyway, that didn't have to change. I modeled the columns, but hadn't modeled any roof or side wall perlins. I saved it and you're welcome to use it if it will help.

Metal Building.zip

I copy and paste the web-address into my search bar and it opens fine (I then save it to my favorites)  without crashing. 

what I've been doing of late, is for the particular renovation plan, create a new blank plan, draw several walls (straight interior or exterior) place doors (either from CA or symbols I build or I import) in these walls as they might also be placed in my plan.  I do the same for windows, and some special windows I built specially for the renovation / addition portion.  I save any special information in each type DBX and if it is to be included in the schedule or not.  Then for all the existing doors and windows I have that plan opened in my split screen, select the door or window, from my template plan, and copy / paste in the renovations plan.  So far it's worked pretty good for me.

Boy I love you GUYs! I'd love to see David Michael Designs do a video on this one!?!?! he makes creating symbols and working out these kinds of things look  so simple.  How about it DMD?

Check this out. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?q=elevator&backendClass=entity

Scott, you will probably need to post the plan to get quicker help, althought there are geniuses on this forum that may be able to spit the answer out quickly!

Thanks to all-Sounds like bigger is better (at least for me). Memory on my Surface is good, which is important for running two screens, and having multiple files (say floor plan) and 3D open at the same time correct?

Thanks, again!

My current 22" monitor is ok for CA normally, or when I'm doing larger CA projects, or working on other documents (take offs and bidding) etc., the larger projects really get hectic trying to look at them on a 22". Some one said go 60" and that sounds great (except of course for the price) but what about adjusting the screen resolution etc, and is there a Max-Min that works for YOU best?

How much of the decision is hardware / software dependent?  I am running CAX8 64bit on my surface pro 4 i7.

Thanks,

I'm sure you will get a better answer than I can give, but believe I've seen similar questions about placing multiple houses on in a plan having to make 3D-symbols of each, and place them that way. Take a look at this:

KB 00344 Modeling a Subdivision or Lot with Multiple Structures ​for some reason I can't paste the link here but go to the CA site and check KB00344 

I always print to PDF first.  WOW does it make a difference!

Read up on this https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02882/using-3d-molding-polylines.html

It can be applied to build your water table. I did so on one of my project.

I also used a custom slab, can't remember how I managed to get the top edge to slope for drainage, think I took a section and beveled it, then saved it and so on. Of course I'm not the expert here.

If you post your plan one of the experts might build one for you and send it back for you to use.

I am not an CA expert, but when I did/do ramps etc., I drew it/them floor plan. I set up my site plan default to show the floor plan on that layer with everything turned off i.e. doors, cabinets electrical or such,  that I didn't want to display. Left drives, side walks, retaining walls ramps etc.,  turned on, in the site plan layer display and haven't had to draw any in with cad tools.

It happens to me every time I update Chief also. I just do like Graham suggests. My problem is the last two updates obliterated my libraries and I had to reload everything (my fault of course for not backing them up some where and some how I guess). I can't explain it, I just go on and roll with the punches now!

The owner sent more photos of the Lake house. WOW! it actually looks like my design!

I've been invited to spend the week end there when it is finished.....exciting seeing it come together especially after the shaky start with the weather almost destroying the existing house, but they got it back and the tie-in to the new structure works as planned.

Construction updates 5_2016.zip