CJSpud

Rich: Thanks ... not sure why I didn't try that.

Nice video Michael ... thanks. If you can figure out how to scale it down a little (too big for my screen), it would be perfect.

If you were only talking about fills used to distinguish different flooring types, e.g., then you could "globally" turn those off by unchecking the Room layer. I don't know of a way to globally turn off fills for multiple different object types in CA.

Thanks Wendy ... GREAT videos ... please do more when you have time. Very helpful.

Only seems to apply to Russ' image ... not to the rest. Is there a way Russ could have locked that image from any more 'blow up' viewing? I don't think I have ever had this happen before.

Just tried to look at Russ' last image and got a "you don't have permission to view ...." message with no image. What gives with that? I am still logged in as there is a "Sign Out" on the ChiefTalk tool bar.

I went back and played with the stairs and non-stair railing and ran into the same issue ... floating baluster ends. Seems like I have got them to go all the way down in the past but can't remember what the solution was. I believe Russ's last image was with a regular stairs railing ... that's why his balusters go all the way to the treads. I haven't tried Yosuf's suggestions yet.

nuficek: Here's the plan ... you did all the work, I only did a couple of minor adjustments. Circural_stairs.zip

Scott: My 3D floor overview was of the stair opening on the 2nd floor; and you can see through the floor at the stairs symbol on the 1st floor. Here's another view of the stairs looking at the 2nd floor in a floor overview: And here's a full camera view of the stairs and the manually created opening by the OP taken on the 1st floor: The only thing I did differently is changed the 2nd floor open below room connection to the larger room's wall; and I made a slight change in the dbx so that open below was used twice, i.e., checked for "Use Room Type". I agree with most that using a spiral stairs symbol (from Chief) has somewhat limited use. Hopefully, when Dermot and the rest of his crew are done with the stairs tools revamp, maybe we will be able to do some of these things much better. How's the User Group meeting going. I looked on Facebook and didn't see your mug shot in any of the posted photos, unless you are wearing a disguise. Would have liked to have been there but the wildfire that came within inches of destroying our home has kept me tied down here. The danger seems to be over now for us, but there are at least 60 families without homes now and one woman lost her life due to the fire activity. Hope you're getting a lot accomplished with the group and look forward to hearing about the good stuff you have to report on.

You were very close to having it right ... just needed to monkey around with it a bit more: Here's the dbx: Hope that helps.

In examining the plan view using this method, the Chief programmers should make sure that the railing is drawn "over" the stairs treads such that the tread lines "do not" display on top of the railing. Please fix this Chief. Thanks.

Russ: Here's a quick sample of a stairs with a manually drawn "follow stairs" railing that might be the look you want. Hope this helps. Good luck.

What does your stairs look like? Spec's? Plan? Welcome to the forum. Tip .... uncheck the stairs railing and then draw your own railing over the stairs and then check it for "following the stairs" ... then you can move it over as close to the edge as desired and keep it from showing that it goes to the floor surface.

There's a couple of threads on circular stairs that were posted earlier this year that you should review. Included were at least a couple of good videos by other users on creating circular stairs. Do a search and you should be able to find them.

The right one looks like a piece of the roof plane to me but ....... ???? How would I ever know????

Video worked fine the 1st time for me. Thanks Joey.

Ditto ... very nice job Kathleen.

Mick: Did you do any poking around in Preferences to see if there are any solutions going that way? Did you see Dermot's post in another thread on the topic of metric units? Not sure if what he said helps you without looking at it.

Ditto .... I have only one memory stick and I can't remember where I put it. Better go get that cup of coffee now.

Great question but extremely difficult to answer. On a good day, with my morning cup of coffee racing around in my tummy being chased by 0.8 pH digestive juices ... MAYBE 30% to 40%. Chief is one of those programs that to be very proficient with and take advantage of most of its features and tools, you need to put in an hour or two extra pert near every day of the week studying/practicing [David Potter has mentioned this] ... at least for awhile until you get all or most of that 'important stuff' into your brain such that it comes natural, like muscle memory. The real power in being proficient with Chief is knowing the tools well enough to be able to improvise when needed to get the desired results without having to pull all your hair out. [i don't have much hair under my hat by the way] The problem with CA is there is so much under the hood that it's virtually impossible to remember it all. Keep in mind that if I read a book or watch a movie today, I may not remember too much about it in a day or three. I think I have a memory flush valve that needs to be removed and hard-piped.

Jon .... very nice. If you had some blades of grass next to those nice looking boulders, it would perfect. Thanks for posting.

I had the same thought Scott.

CAD details via CAD Detail Management are available to use (you create them) in both your Plan file and your Layout file (i.e., shortcut is Shift - V): You may or may not find it convenient to use both.

Here's a plan with a nice terrain that was done by user Roger Rhines using a much earlier version of Chief ... perhaps a version with fewer terrain features than X6 or X7. I think Roger posted this plan in a thread that was about accessing a basement garage with a driveway just as Roger did it. It is worthy of a little study to see how he used elevation lines and points to get his results. I haven't looked at it in awhile and I can't remember him using elevation regions, which I agree with David, is a very quick way to do your basement walkout terrain. Anyway, more than one tool to get you the results you need. The general rule is try to produce your terrain with a minimum amount of elevation information. I often find that easier said than done. Chief has a good video or two on building the terrain for a walkout basement if you have SSA. Good luck. Sunken Driveway & Road_Terrain_RigerRhines.zip

I have never tried this but "maybe" it would be possible to do the different roof styles and keep them in the plan by just putting each roof style on it own roof style layers. You would need several different distinct and selectable layers for each roof material (roof planes, ridge caps, trim, gutters, labels, etc.) so that you can change each of components to its specific style layer. Maybe you could build a roof style and then turn off all the plan layers except the roof layers, select and block them and put the block on its own layer, to be turned on when you want that specific roof displayed. I wouldn't know if this would work until I tried it .... maybe it would be too confusing for Chief ... maybe not??? I think I would just rename the plan and change the roof (and anything else needing a change) as needed for each plan style. I know there have been prior threads about altering materials in a plan to show different build options, but I don't recall what was said or recommended. Might have been in the old forum. It is a great question IMO for those who are designing for large developments/production builders where variations in the design of the same plan are offered to customers.