CJSpud

Edit the framing after you build the wall framing.

Yes ..... if the scale will be different you'll have to make changes to accommodate what you need. Elevation views are dealt with in Chief's structural tab for rooms in your model. Setting defaults ahead of time is very helpful.

Here it is: http://www.indyblueprints.com/videos.html Scroll down near the bottom of the page.

Antoine: Allen Brown used to be on the forum quite a bit years ago but he's a pretty busy guy. He used to have a tutorial video on his website demonstrating the technique he used to produce what is shown in the 2nd image. I don't even remember the name of his website (was Indy Blueprints or something like that but it seems to me he changed the name). You might be able to find him in the forum members under Brown.

Here's what Chief says about importing 3D symbols and file types supported: Importing 3D Symbols Chief Architect supports the import of 3D surface and 3D solid objects saved in .dwg, .dxf, .3ds, .obj, .stl, .dae, and .skp formats. See 3D Data Import Requirements. For most file types, there are three ways to import a 3D symbol into Chief Architect: • By selecting File> Import> Import 3D Symbol tool. • By selecting New> 3D Symbol from the contextual menu in the Library Browser. See Using the Contextual Menus. • By dragging and dropping the file from an operating system window into floor plan view. 3D .dxf/.dwg files can only be imported by selecting File> Import> Import 3D Symbol . See Import 3D Symbol Dialog. Symbols imported by clicking and dragging are imported for use in the current plan, while those imported using the Import 3D Symbol dialog can also be saved in the library. See The Library. To drag and drop a 3D symbol file 1. Open the plan in which you would like to import a 3D symbol and remain in floor plan view. 2. Open an operating system window in front of the Chief Architect program window. 3. Resize and position the window so that the Chief Architect program window can be seen behind it. 4. Click on the desired .3ds, .obj .stl, .dae, or .skp file and drag it into the Chief Architect program window. 5. When your cursor changes to a +, click in the drawing area to place as many copies of the symbol as desired. When you are finished, select a different tool. Symbols imported by clicking and dragging are imported as generic stand-alone interior fixtures. If you wish to assign different characteristics to a symbol, use the Import 3D Symbol dialog to import it. Here's a video showing how to import a 3D symbol (window well) into a CA plan: https://video.chiefarchitect.com/player/player.php?id=1336&th=1&autoplay= Here's a link to Chief's knowledge base articles on symbols: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/database.html There are three pedestal type round wood tables in the 3D warehouse with the following file designations: small+dining+table.skp (SketchUp2016) wood+table.skp (SketchUp2016) turned+pedestal+table.skp (SketchUp2016) None of these look exactly like the one in your photo but are similar in appearance.

Newell: It doesn't appear to me that you have your walls dimensioned correctly for the as built? Is some of what you are showing part of the remodel?

Lew: Do as suggested .... holding the point of your mouse cursor right at the bottom of your layout page .... you should see a heavy black line flash on when you've found the center. If for some reason you can't find it, you could go to your zero page and place a vertical line on your page, center it and then assign a no material (or whatever it's called ... invisible) line style. Then you should always have something to center on for any of your LO pages. You could use something like an invisible point marker rather than a line if desired, but the line can run from top to bottom of your page so it would be much easier to find.

I want those cars in my driveway. Super work!

Johnny: Although I have never messed with the dimension defaults much, we do have the ability to set up the defaults for dimension extension lines. Perhaps that is something we should both look at changing as it does take extra time to clean up a plan if we have too many things occupying the same space.

Would be nice if we could select the label and then "move to front" or be able to by default or user selection, be able to have labels automatically moved to the front. Would be a good one to put in the suggestion forum. I am constantly moving labels around or moving dimensions extension lines to clean up things.

Depends on what parts of the plan you want to know the square footage of. For example, if you want to know the total footprint square footage, you can select the outside room of the model, convert it to a polyline and then find the area in the dbx for the polyline. In the example below, you can see that there's a difference between the footprint area vs the living area. You need to read up on living area if you are going to use it. I NEVER use it for anything. Actually, I often refer to the Living Area when developing a plan, just to see about where the plan size is, but never use it for any final work. You can use macros for all sorts of area related stuff. You can edit the location of the outside room polyline if you want to check interior conditioned area(s). All sorts of options. Joe and others have done some great macro work for plan areas.

If your plan will have different roof heights - and I am assuming that means ceiling heights as well, just build the model and assign the correct ceiling heights by room as needed. Assuming you've assigned wall types (e.g., gable walls) appropriately, you should be able to just build the roof for your model automatically. Depending on the model's complexity, you may have to do a minimal amount of editing after taking some 3D camera views and examining the results. Sometimes after doing this procedure I will spot a roof plane or two that just don't look good so I will go in and edit the shape as needed to get rid of the roof anomalies. I don't like to put something on paper that will drive the roof framers and/or the truss manufacturer crazy because of what I did with the roof. Below are a couple of 3D views of a simple 3-room model with all three rooms with different ceiling heights. I designated two of the exterior walls to be gable walls and then let Chief build the roof automatically. Note there's a triangular wall area that Chief didn't fill in that needs some editing. Also, I do not like the way part of the roof turned out so this is something I would try to fix by editing the shape/dimensions of the plan to clean up the roof appearance and make the build easier.

My first laptop years ago (Dell Inspiron) was sort of a pretty good computer at the time but compared to today's cell phones and all sorts of other devices and computers, it is minuscule. Still use it once in awhile for other things but not Chief. I think 12 is the last version I put on it and have a dongle for it. Some day I would like to get one similar to your pick ... probably not too soon though. Hope you have fun with it.

Manual roof framing or are you considering attic trusses ... or a mix of both?

If you ever intend to add some extra software in the near future, especially some that takes up some space, you might consider a bigger SSD. I started with a 128 GB SSD on my desktop and fairly quickly outgrew that one and now have a 250 GB SSD. I think I would opt for a 512 GB SSD vs the 256 GB if it didn't kick the price up too much. Keep in mind that the published value (GB's) isn't the same as what you can actually put on an SSD (or HD) ... it is always less.

Not that it matters if you have things the way they need to be, but you can download the Chief Premier trial version and see what "most" (???) of the commands and tools look like compared to your version.

I could see you adding a dormer to a single story plan IF you had a vaulted or cathedral ceiling in that large room. If you just want a fake dormer in the attic area, use the floating dormer tool for that ... but it will only live in your attic space and won't be seen from the first floor. As I see it right now, with a flat ceiling for that room, this isn't a good application for placing a dormer. Your roof normally would bear on your first floor walls at your standard ceiling height, unless you are trying to create something unique. You might be better off thinking about adding a 2nd story, making the ceiling height really low [so the roof is essentially bearing on the first floor walls; then making the 2nd story "Open Below" and going from there .... and possibly using custom ceiling planes if necessary to get the look you want. Without know exactly what your design goals are, it is hard to give you good advice about what needs to be done.

Ms. Try this in a practice plan with roof and walls built if you don't want to do it in your actual plan. Draw an interior wall across your upstairs room; open the dbx and in the roof tab - put a check in the box to call it a knee wall. Not sure that this matters but I designated the small spaces under the roof (behind the knee wall) as attic. Next place an auto dormer with your roof style etc. setup in advance. Resize it as needed (width) using the grab handles and/or temporary dimensions. You can adjust the window(s) as required once you get the side walls where you want them. If you do it this way, and then take a 3D exterior perspective view, you should see your side walls filled into those triangular areas as required. Same with an interior full camera view .... everything should be filled in OK. Note that once you place your auto dormer, Chief cuts an opening in the knee wall where the side walls are built. Hope this helps. I first attempted doing this manually and wasn't getting good results .... had problems with gaps in the drywall etc. ... way too much monkeying around trying to get things to look right. Transform/replicate is a tool I use all the time. Very easy to use .... read about it by clicking the tool and then hitting F1. Great for making copies or moving things.

If that is a dormer, I would suggest you watch tutorial videos from Chief on that subject: https://video.chiefarchitect.com/?search=dormer From the Knowledge Base on the CA website: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/database.html You should be able to pickup information that will help you from those two links. Even having done many dormers previously myself, I often finding myself reviewing the process by going to some of the "how tos" in those links.

Per Scott, etc., click on "Define" to change the units. If you really only want to change the "Text Style", the image below and the red arrows leads you through the process: You can make as many unique text styles as you want by copying and renaming the default text style (or any of the other saved text styles that come with Chief) and then editing the font, font height and other characteristics as desired.

Last two guesses: 1. Drink more coffee. 2. Save the plan, close, turn off Chief, take a hike, come back and try again .... all will be well!!!

Yes, the trees are there ... now grayed rather than greened.

That was it for me .... I had it checked. With it unchecked, no colored trees in LO. Thanks.

Alan: Why add the 3 manually when Chief has 3-way switches with the 3 already there?

Can't you just annotate what is suppose happen with the switch downstairs. There's a limit to what is practical on what can be shown, especially when you have a switch on a lower level controlling a light on the ceiling or wall of an upper level. I would just put some text in describing where the wire is going to and leave it at that. I am assuming your lower level plan has the switch showing ... and you'll need to annotate the wire from the switch to the light on the floor above for the lower level as well. The same thing could happen with flood lights under an eave or on a gable wall that are switched from the floor below. Edit: To keep your floor plan(s) from getting too cluttered with annotation, it would probably be better to have some sort of label or callout pointing to the wires going between levels and the switches and then have the label descriptive off to the side somewhere.