javatom

No.

scan it. Import it and scale to correct size then trace over the walls.

I did a quick version of it.

Open your room DBX and set the floor structure to default (do this for every room). Open "build framing" and tell the floor to auto frame. They will appear. The items you are currently seeing as floor joists are just cad boxes.

I often have to make gray items darker for this reason. If you have your pdf printed, it will look even lighter (depending on your printer service). You just have to adjust for it as you create your plan.

You already have a second floor. You just need to draw in the walls for the room above the room you are calling "storage".

You have to create walls on level 2 for the porch that is on level 2. You just have level 1 wall that are really tall. By the way, you do not have a way to get into the "storage" deck.

You can control the scale by clicking on a corner and holding the ALT key down as you move it.

see attached pic

You have a series of things going on here. You need to get a handle on matching some ceiling heights, aligning walls, etc. For instance, the room with the stairs has a different ceiling height than the others. On level 2, you need to make the wall of the open below area jog around the stair way. That will eliminate the patch of ceiling you are seeing. There may be other things but that will get you started.

You also have a tree sticking into the house.

You will eventually get up to speed on using the program. In the mean time, I have an idea for you. Make a copy of your plan and name it as a "work copy". If you will be doing a change to the house that you are unfamiliar with, try it on the work copy until you are comfortable with how you did it. IF it messes something up, you have only changed the work copy and not the actual plan. If you happen to get it right on the work copy, you can often cut/paste in place to the real plan.

Pretty vague question.

Use a macro ceil. = %room.height.ceiling%

One of the strangest ones I've seen went like this: A multi page pdf that was well made, flattened and ready to import, needed several of the pages rotated 90 degrees (the original PDF looked fine). I did not trouble shoot it. I just rotated them, made the client happy and moved on to the next project. I will agree with Perry though, on projects that I originate and control, I have never had an issue.

I guess I should clarify this a bit. Chief says it's ok. It is ME that is recommending against it. I personally never import PDF files but I work for dozens of other designers that use this practice. When I work on their projects, I notice trends of what works and what can cause problems. This one is a gray area because it sometimes works up to a point.

Although it can be done, importing PDF files into chief is not recommended. Your just at the tip of the ice berg of problems it will cause. Your file size will soon be to big to be functional.

Your walls are displaying correctly. Are you wanting to eliminate the fills and lines of the individual layers of the wall? If so, that is done by defining the wall. It will change on the plan after you change the wall definition.

Field verification is the only way to go on this. Expecting accuracy of what is behind the drywall is an unrealistic expectation. A good understanding of how buildings are normally put together, is usually very accurate. I'm not sure if punching holes increases the accuracy enough to justify the costs. I'm envisioning a project that has been gutted except for one sheet of drywall. Plans created based on this could still be wrong because there may be something unforeseen behind the one sheet of drywall. A GOOD builder understands this. A BAD builder will whine about the accuracy of the plan (they are usually the ones that build only new homes).

Check your room definitions. You have a layer of drywall within the structure tab AND a finished layer of drywall. The doubling up of ceilings is confusing the framing. Delete the one under the structure tab and rebuild the framing and you will be fine.

It could be a previous auto frame and then you changed some walls, ceilings etc. Try rebuilding the ceiling framing.

I'm not sure that can be done in the real world. It would mean a metal sheet would have to twist. I'm not a roofer but I would check with one before I started figuring out how to model it.

You can always export the floor plan as a DWG file.

I believe that is the cross section slider tool.

OK I'll be the one to ask the obvious question. Why don't you have your architect do this for you?