Gawdzira

You can import .dwg into a chief file. For the layout I would import the .dwg into a plan file and then send that plan file to layout. This is not the best way to deal with the title block. If it was me, I would use that plan file info in layout to trace in layout to create the title block cad lines in the layout file.

Save them to your library.

Don't use floating dormers. Just cut the roof back and put in manual roof planes for the dormer. The dormer side walls will be attic walls. But that is just me possibly because I don't use the floating dormer.

I get frustrated by the lack of ability to resize the window seat using the dimension strings. I am very much used to adjusting wall positions using the dimensions. In order to position and size the window seat I end up placing some cad lines to snap and center to.

Are you working in X6? If so, try using the window box tool in the window menu. There are a few things I don't like about this new tool but for the most part it is working well.

Post your plan file if the layer is displayed and that did not fix it.

Try zooming in closer. If no, try turning off the extraneous layers and turning on the layer "Main Layer Only" for the walls. If no, draw a cad line 6" away from that corner and snap to that first, then snap to the wall location.

Those roof planes need to connect not just crash into each other very closely. Use the hot key "2" (default) to connect. in plan view select one of those roof planes on the adjoining edge and then hit the hot key, this will highlight the adjacent roof and then you can select the proper edge to connect.

The roof DBX gives you options for one to lock and one to change. You probably want to lock the pitch and change the fascia height to match the more dominant roof plane. It will make your plate height change on the sub dominant roof plane.

I have my layout referencing a seperate file for the as built/demo plan from my remodel plan. In the remodel plan I have a (locked) layer that is the existing walls shown as dashed lines. Any time a wall is moved on the remodel plan it exposes a wall to be demolished.

I am trying to get my windows to "pop" in elevations sent to Layout. I have was hopeful that the Exterior Casing layer would actually affect the line weight of the window casing in the vector views but it appears to not do that. In the attached image I have the Exterior Casing layer line weight set to 222. If I turn off the Exterior Casing layer the window casing goes away so there is a direct link.

One way to achieve what you are looking for is by using the Reference sets. You need to learn a bit about these to make good use of their potential. Basically, once you set up a reference set you can use it to display objects on other floors.

Check the file I uploaded and go to the Foundation Layerset. The reference display set is properly set in this file and I altered the reference set to only show the footings for the posts. You can make multiple reference sets so that you can use others for the various files that get sent to Layout.

Backing up, you really, really need to study Annotation sets for about 10 minutes so that you can produce drawings in an efficient manner. Not using the Annotation sets is ignoring one the most valuable production tools that you paid for when buying CA.

shuey 2nd house tweaked ref display.zip

Upload the files to DropBox if the forum is problematic. Either way,

1.save and then close out the files in CA

2. zip the files

3. the upload feature for the forum is 2 steps, first you select the files then there is a button to upload the files

For larger files I usually use Drop Box. Easy to set up a free account.

I believe you may want to post your plan and layout files in order to get a good response to your questions. It is all guess work at this point without looking at what you have done to organize the project.

I am getting gorgeous exterior ray traces in about 2-3 mins with minimal set up other than figuring out where i would like to the sun to shine. If you don't get paid enough to produce those renders than you might want to raise your rate.

My work flow is this:

Existing/as built plan (this is a unique file to my remodel plan file) -> hide all layers an only expose Walls Main Layer-> Cad detail from view -> select all the lines of the cad detail and change them to line style dashed with line weight of 10 -> assign the lines to the layer "Existing Walls Dashed" (this is a custom layer) -> block the cad lines together and assign that block to the "Existing Walls Dashed" layer -> copy and paste in place into my remodel plan file -> lock the layer "Existing Walls Dashed". Any walls that don't change will read normally. Any walls that do change expose the dashed lines and therefore delineate the removal of an existing wall.

The whole process takes less time to do than the time you just spent reading my post. As long as you read all the way to the end, the end, the, now.

Two good sources below.

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/65-chief-architect-help/

http://www.chiefexperts.com/

When I  was first learning the software I bought several hours with the Chief Architect Training. I would work for about 8  hours and then have an hour booked to deal with the questions I developed. Someone like Dan or David will have a lot of real world project experience to go from and can probably customize something to your needs.

When I first bought the software I also bought 4-6 hours of tutoring that I used in the first 2 weeks with the  software. I considered that an essential cost.

Dennis is better at reading before I get my coffee.

Even though you have not offered an image or a plan file I am going to be really, really generous and make a guess based on the horribly inadequate information you have presented.   Is the segment you are trying to close have a spline that would connect with a straight section? If so, CA does not like to close these.

The hot keys are completely customizable so you can transfer a lot of your habits to the keyboard. I have not used Vectorworks so I have not input regarding your main question.

When I chose CA (about 8 years ago) it was based on the price for what it had to offer. I have been very pleased with my choice. For a residential design specific office it is a great program. You will need to some time to get up to speed but you will be able to be very productive once you have your main file set up to your specs.

@ Dermot, thank you for your informative post.

@Lew, do you really consider being knowledgeable in how to work the tool at your fingertips a "workaround"?

The project I have up is a fairly simple model but I have no issues viewing in Standard mode with shadows on. Very smooth movement. I have a GTX 660 card. Specs shown in images. I had my hardware edge smoothing setting at none this morning but I don't notice any slow down (with this model) with a better smoothing setting.

You can use the edit area tool to grab what you need and move it all to the correct location. Use the point to point tool for the move. The edit area tool has options for selection criteria.

As far as to why this happened it is referred to as a U18. That is a problem with the User about 18" away from the monitor.

These are my results using Open Office. I work almost exclusively with Rich Text so this is the first time I pasted a table in with plain text. I would like to be able to either remove or accentuate the table lines but I have not found that magic pill yet.