CJSpud

There's a similar balcony .... Mediterranean Balcony ... in Chief's X8 library.  I think it was in earlier versions as well.  Just type "balcony" in the library search window and it will come up.

I am assuming this is what you found:

This tool is covered in one or more tutorial videos by CA but trying to find it using any reasonable search terms leaves one wondering where the #$%* it is buried.  I couldn't find any video titles I thought would show it being used so I watched a few "best guess" videos and Nada .... not there.

CHIEF .... are you listening .... you guys really should make searching for topics within your tutorial videos more user friendly.  Out of a possible 10, I am only going to give you a 5 in this regard.  Please fix this ... it will really help a lot of users out to be able to easily find things in your (our .... I paid for them too) videos.

When using the Match Properties > Load Same Values tools, if you've got a bunch of text (e.g., room names, dimensions, etc.), dimensions or 3D objects within rooms, and especially if the rooms are small (like closets, half-baths, etc.), it is extremely helpful to lock or turn off some of those layers before using this tool as you will have a hard time clicking within room areas to load those values into.  In some cases, you may have to zoom in very close to find some free space that is "clickable" for the room to be selectable to load the new values to.

Also, when you click on the Load Same Values tool, if some rooms are grayed out, that means they already have the values you are trying to load into rooms that don't.  Not sure if that is clear to you but you'll figure it out.  Sometimes doing some camera or section views is helpful to verify that the room spec's (floor & ceiling elev's, e.g.) have changed to the settings you are after.  Hope this info helps.

Edit:  I see the Load Same Values (or whatever it used to be called) is now called APPLY PROPERTIES.  Sorry about that glitch.

There's a "Match Properties" tool that is very useful for matching floor heights, ceiling heights and other properties for several rooms on a level.  Go to Help (F1) to read about how it works or maybe watch one of Chief's tutorial videos on the subject.

Probably need to fix the ceiling height of that little room below the goofy roof planes.  Maybe David found it .... I just watched about 1/2 his video.

Not sure that this is the issue but might be worth a try.  IF you didn't make the curved wall (I am assuming I am seeing a curved wall next to the curved part of your lower stairs) tangent to the straight wall that the upper part of your stairs is built against, select the curved wall segment and then click on the "Make Arc Tangent" tool on the edit tool bar (I would use the wall center option) to square up the curved wall end with the straight wall end.  If that's the problem, I am not sure that you can edit the stairs sections to fix your problem or if you should delete the existing and try redoing them.  If you know what you're doing, I think you could edit the existing.  There's a couple of videos you may want to watch on curved stairs and curved walls that could be helpful if you haven't watched them recently.

Michael:

I didn't see your post so I responded as shown.  I just copied and pasted the OP's points in question.  Been awhile since I tried using the quote box thingy.

On your gable ends, you need to pull (drag) your roof planes out to match the outer face of your siding material before your attic gable walls will fill in correctly.

• Bath house with metal building structure of metal studs
• need exterior gable walls to go to bottom of roof
• need dropped 2'x2' layin 8 ft ht ceiling (mechanical needs to fit in attic) 
• Need metal joists in Laundry room to span other direction toward restrooms.
• Wall where toilets are will not change to have tile on the inside ?
• Needs to be metal standing seam roof.

1.  Build wall framing.

2.  Depending on which is in the correct position, either move the gable walls up to meet the roof or move the roof down to sit on the walls.

3.  Looks like you already have a dropped 8 ft. ceiling with laying panels as described (???).  Don't have a clue on your mechanicals which you haven't provided any information on!!!

4.  Edit your existing joists (lengths) in areas as needed.  You can make a copy of one of them, rotate 90° and then edit length/position as needed and make extra copies.

5.  Turn off main layer only for tiled partition walls; fix your outside wall definitions to include tile where needed.

7.  Change roof material to metal standing seam from library.

Take a look here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?q=roller+door+&backendClass=entity

Chief is continually expanding its library content.  Obviously there will be many things that some users want/need that are not in the library.  Give em time .... if the demand is there, they'll get it added to the library.

I just tried it and do not get that problem.  Can you send your plan?

CJ:

Not sure what the ceiling looks like behind the camera, but why not do a drop ceiling to the left of the fireplace and even up the rest of the ceiling so all sections match?  I am assuming the rest of the ceiling would be a square or rectangle if you followed my suggestion.  Just a thought.

Michael:

Great video ... you're becoming a true master of Chief and we all get to benefit.  Thanks.

Thanks Dermot ....

To show your plate heights on your roof framing plan, I think I would try to show all the walls under the roof framing, or in the minimum, the walls' main layer.  Then, you can place a point marker on each wall section with text showing the plate height for that section of wall.  I have done it this way on some plans.  Where the plate elevation changes along a wall section, you might consider placing a CAD line across the wall and adding text that describes the line as the location where the plate height changes.  Just make sure you have markers with the correct plate heights on either side of the break line.

The primary way to show plate heights is on your elevation views, which can include sections through the interior of your model used to accurately detail any elevation changes in specific locations.  You can obviously add as many sections of your construction plans to demonstrate how it is to be built.

Joseph:

Are the views you sent to L.O. saved?  (did you click on that save camera icon?)  If you did, then you should be able to find them in your project browser and resend as needed.  I always save my camera views sent to L.O. and rename as is appropriate for my project. 

Monica:

Here's a plan with my stab at your corner sink.  You will note that I had to adjust the height of the sink I used with Transform/Replicate and also that I used a reduced-height sink base with the drawer area deleted.  When I did this, it created a gap on either side of the sink where an extended stile is needed.  The base is 36" wide while the sink is 33.5" wide [i probably should have used 33" instead].  The base cabinet stiles are the 1.5" wide default value.  I used partitions I placed in the plan to fill the gaps on each side of the sink ...  positioned using the Point to Point move tool and resized (L x W) .... only placed one and then copied/reflect about center of cabinet to get the one on the other side.  If you go to the project browser and look at the cross section camera view, you can see how I resized the height of those partition fillers next to the sink sides [the red oval areas].  Also in the cross section camera view you can see how the toe kicks didn't join .... this might be an X8 bug .... I didn't report it or do any other testing to see if I could repeat the problem in another plan or instance.  I did create a custom countertop by selecting all 3 cabinets and then clicking on the custom countertop tool.  I had to edit the shape using the line break tool for the sink and had to drag one of the handles to the corner to fill in behind the sink.

Hope this helps.  Not perfect ... others may do this differently.  I am not the greatest with symbols so there might be something better that can be done with the sink I used to get it to cut a hole in the countertop and also to get it to set at the desired elevation without all the manual manipulation I did. 

Here's a ray trace of the results:

Here's the plan file for my experiment:

Corner Farm House Sink Text.zip

Monica:

In the morning .... I am off to bed.

Do you need to add some extra width for stiles on the sides like your photo shows?

Alan:

I am not seeing the same results as you are.  My exterior elevations seem normal to me.  Not sure what to say about your problem.

David:

I think PH is porch height but, I could be wrong.  I think the OP needs to attach the plan rather than a PDF of the roof (truss) plan.  Perhaps a little more information would be helpful as well.

Looks like the cabinet on the right is invading the space of the center cabinet.  In plan, check to make sure the cabinet side is in the right location and has the right dimensions.

Jim:

I am looking at your plan trying to figure what's going on .... ???  If I select one of your house foundation walls and make a copy and place it out away from the house, it displays (correctly ... I think) just like the garage foundation walls.  Not sure what has changed at the house such that your brick layer isn't displaying.  Will try some more.  A section through your screened porch looks weird at the foundation wall area.  Have you done any thing with those walls with the material eye dropper or perhaps moving the foundation wall up/down in elevation view?  Have you tried deleting the foundation and then rebuilding it?

Terry:

I think you will get an update prompt when you open X8.  If not, if you open Help on the toolbar, there's a selection for updates.  I don't have a clue if it is worth doing a Libraries update ... I have done this and am missing textures for many items in some parts of the library.  All your previously updated/downloaded libraries should stay with your new update.

Maybe a week or so ago .... probably closer to two weeks the way time flies.  I will give it a try and see what happens.

I haven't read all the posts in this thread but I have found there's a bunch of library textures missing.  For example:

I believe there's some missing in the siding libraries as well.  I haven't really done much looking in the libraries to see how extensive this is.  I just did the X8 new release update a few days ago so unless someone in CA has recently did a bunch of updates, I assume my libraries are current.

Not sure what quickly means for you, but like all major software packages, you'll have to put in some long hours of study and more importantly practice in order to attain a reasonable level of proficiency using Chief.  As far as training goes, I find that Chief's training videos and knowledge base articles are good sources to learn from.  Another option to consider is purchasing Terry Munson's book and workbook on using Chief.  If he hasn't just released it, he will soon be releasing a revision of his book for X8.  Obviously, ChiefTalk is a good place to learn some nifty ways to work with Chief.  For example, Joe Carrick and Gerry Teacher have provided some great stuff on using macros to improve work flow and save time.  Almost everyday someone is posting a helpful video on some aspect of using Chief right here on ChiefTalk. I think there's a lot of stuff on Youtube now, including ChiefArchitect's Youtube site. 

Lots of routes to go, including those already mentioned but, IMO, the best way to learn Chief is actually using the program and all its tools. 

Good luck and welcome!

PS:  I have no experience with other CAD programs so Chief is it for me.