CJSpud

Todd: YIKES ... why mess up a perfectly simple roof with a decorative dormer??? Your roofer must come from the area sanitarium! Does your customer "really" want more STUFF on that roof???

Thanks Ray. I haven't had to do very many electrical plans and to be honest, I think I just used the "stick pin" to make multiple copies of the different outlets and switches the last time I did one. Do you have an AFCI label for all required outlet locations or are those covered with AFCI circuit breakers in the panel? I am a little out-of-date on those requirements. I just read a decent article on AFCI's at: http://www.codecheck.com/cc/ccimages/PDFs/AFCIsComeOfAge.pdf Not exactly sure when it was written and it sounds a little dated, but a decent article on the history of AFCI's if someone is interested. The code check site also has another article on safety glazing that I downloaded and saved.

I was experimenting with using the Build > Electrical > Auto Place Outlets functionality in X7 and ran into some interesting behavior discoveries. 1. When I auto placed outlets in the kitchen room, Chief ignored the room divider that I have separating the kitchen room from the living room and placed outlets in both rooms. 2. Chief "also" placed a default light over the kitchen sink even though the light obviously is not an outlet. 3. For the cooktop and hood, Chief placed GFCI outlets for both appliances on the wall behind the base cabinet that the cooktop is installed in. 4. I have a 48" base cabinet to the right of the cooktop and Chief would not place a GFCI outlet above the cabinet anywhere. 5. For the island, I used a couple of 36" bases on one end and put a 32" kitchen sink in one of those to see if Chief would put a light over it (like it did for the sink base against the wall ... it did not ... therefore, I am assuming Chief only places a light over a kitchen sink against a wall. 6. In the attached plan, in the bath, I placed a double vanity that I had created in X4 or X5 and saved to the library as an architectural block. When I did the Auto Place Outlets for the bath, Chief did not add any electrical outlets or lighting to the bath. Next, I selected by double vanity and change the layer to Cabinets, Base and then ran the Auto Place Outlets tool again and still no electrical got placed into the bath. Next, I exploded my double vanity into two separate base cabinets with sinks and ran the Auto Place Outlets tool one more time and Chief this time placed default default "wall" light fixtures over each sink but didn't place any GFCI(s) on the wall. 7. Curiosity is getting the best of me now. I place another base cabinet (24" wide) with a round sink from the Library on the wall in front of the toilet and then run Auto Place Outlets again to see what happens. Chief this time puts a light and a GFCI on the wall behind this cabinet and again puts lights above each sink of my saved and exploded vanities with sinks (from my user library) but still no outlet behind either of these vanity cabinets. 8. Next, still in the curiosity mode, I place a base cabinet (no sink) between my exploded double vanity cabinets on the left wall and the tub/shower fixture ... then ran Auto Place Outlets again. Chief now places a GFCI outlet to the right side of the newly placed base cabinet as well as the same results as reported in #7 above. 9. I tried several other sink/cabinet combinations to see what Chief would do with them when I ran Auto Place Outlets when each as added to the bath room: a. A base cabinet with the "Flair Oval Vessel Sink" placed on the countertop (unblocked) does get a GFCI on the wall but no light above. If you block that sink to the base, I didn't get an outlet or a light. I am not sure why that sink doesn't become associated with the base cabinet when placed on it and the placement doesn't want to attach to the center of the base cabinet either, which I think it should. b. A base cabinet with a kitchen sink placed in the bath room will get a ceiling mounted light but no GFCI. c. A base cabinet with a "Bowl" sink (small sink - possibly for kitchen islands ??) place in the bath room gets neither a wall or ceiling light nor an outlet. d. A base cabinet with a "Bowl (undermount)" sink placed in the bath room yields a ceiling light but no wall outlet (go figure!!!). e. A "Chunky Pedestal" sink from the Library placed against the wall yields both a default wall light and a GFCI on the wall. Out of curiosity, I bumped the sink 1" away from the wall and still got the light and outlet when running Auto Place Outlets. If I continue bumping that sink out away from the wall, I lose the ability to get a light and outlet when it is 4" away from the wall. f. When I placed an "ELU1511" (oval sink - possibly another kitchen prep sink) in a cabinet, I get a ceiling light overhead but no outlet. Conclusions: I think the one observation that baffled me the most was why my library saved double vanity didn't generate any wall GFCI outlets, even when exploded to individual cabinets? Another was why wasn't I able to get Chief to place a GFCI to the right of the cooktop above the 48" base cabinet? I think there's some inconsistent or improper behavior going on with some of Chief's library symbols that could use some cleaning up. I only sampled a few so I don't have a clue how the rest will work in a plan. Hopefully, the Chief content developers will take a look at all their library symbols that have functionality with the Auto Place Outlets tool and make sure they all function in a logical manner. AutoPlaceOutlets.zip

Thanks Gerry. Ray: Would you please include "macro" or "macros" in the key words for your thread? I am thinking this might make searching for posts on macros a bit easier (maybe ???).

Perry: Thanks for providing your reasons. You guys from CA get to have all the fun!

Jintu: Another great ray trace ... thanks. Did you use a bump map for the HW flooring? Looks like it has a bit of 3D texture to it.

I have always used Floor 1 as the "above grade - main level" floor with subfloor (or slab) elevation at "0". Basements AND foundation are Floor 0 for me. I use Floor 1 when I build the terrain. This has always seemed less confusing to me. A long time ago I did one plan as Joe is suggesting and didn't like working with it that way so never tried it again. I know there are some users who use Floor 1 as the basement level but I just couldn't find any significant reasons to work that way. Here's an image of a preliminary foundation plan for a project I am working on where I am using Floor 0 for both my foundation plan and the basement level plan in the CD set. As you can see, my foundation anno set and layer set are set up to only display the items that I want shown on the foundation plan. My way of thinking presently is that the basement walls are ALSO the foundation walls and the only real difference that arises is when I have a walkout basement wall that needs a deeper frost wall under it. That shows up in the elevation views so I have that aspect covered IMO. Maybe Joe and/or others can reiterate what the advantages are in working that way for them. I am not going to say that I will continue to work the way I do "forever" ... I may someday switch to the way Joe recommends, but not sure when and if that will happen anytime soon.

Timmy: It is hard to tell exactly how the roof of that building was built but it could be possible that there are parapet walls there with a low-sloped roof behind. Such roofs are often drained in several locations by scuppers (holes) in the parapet walls which match up with the low spots in the roof surfaces behind them. Sometimes roof drains are installed for drainage as well. If you didn't want parapet walls then your roof structure could be built using trusses built such that the top chord is constructed at the 1/4:12 pitch you want. They would closely resemble parallel chord trusses that are used for roofs and for floor structures. You just need to specify the direction the roof will drain towards and input the proper spec's and Chief will build the roof that way. If you have SSA and are a little unsure of how to proceed, I would suggest watching some of Chief's roof related training videos.

What are the spec's you require for the roof? Pitch (slope), thickness, framing, materials???

Thanks ....

Perry: Do you use all three or do you prefer one of those vs. the others?

I think the problems with anno sets and layer sets that can come up is dependent on how you work on your models and your con docs. If you start jumping around in your plan absent an active layout for your model (e.g., working on the main level (floor 1) and then going to floor 0 to work on floor framing) and you forget to change to a different anno set, and then you add some annotation or dimensions to your plan, then I think you can start running into all sorts of combobulation problems with the those things getting on the wrong layer set if you aren't careful. I think my problems arise because I don't have my layout working (in the beginning) such that much of my "combobulating" is done within the model (absent a layout). If I had my layout active early on, then "I think" double clicking a layout view to go back to the model (which means you're locked into the proper anno set and layer set for that view) to do a little more work with that particular anno set will guarantee that the correct anno set and assigned layer set are being used. I think it is possible to work on your model without a layout active but you really have to watch your P's and Q's (layer sets and/or anno sets) to get all your models information correct (text style, text height, line weights, colors, etc.), but I believe working correctly with anno sets (and an active layout) makes it much easier and less risky for errors. Maybe that's right - maybe not ... maybe I am still all screwed up ... but that's my 2 cents based on my present level of understanding. I still need to do more experimentation to improve on my work habits. I would prefer to keep the number of anno sets I use down to a minimum and maybe have more layer sets as needed ... still a work in progress for me. I think I need to go watch Scott's anno sets for dummies videos again. I know I could certainly use a refresher. I would suggest Scott hold another anno set/layer set webinar if I knew he wouldn't blow his main fuse, but knowing he'd rather be out on the links with Joe beating a little round thing around the country side, I won't.

If you click on F1 (Help) and search under "Ceilings - Trey" you'll find the information below (X7 ... X6 should be similar): If you go to Chief's website and find a link to the Knowledge Base, you can find this article: http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00738/ A slightly different technique is used in this article but if you do as Joey explained and just place manual ceiling planes around the edge of your ceiling opening, you should get the desired results. Just remember to set the slope of your ceiling plane as needed (the dialog is still calling it a roof plane but it's basically the same thing but uses different materials etc.) before you place them. And another similar article: http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00201/ If you wanted a trey ceiling to go all the way to the inside of the outer walls, this video explains how to do that: http://video.chiefarchitect.com/?search=trey If you have access (SSA) to Chief's training videos, here's a good one on several ceiling styles you can create with CA: http://video.chiefarchitect.com/?search=ceiling There are dozens of other related videos you should watch if you just plug in a search for "ceilings" ... once you've watched all those and done a little practicing and experimentation, you should be able to create just about any type of ceiling you'll need. Good luck.

Called TS and they'd forgotten to update my SSA status. I am good to go now. Libraries downloaded. Not sure which end of the horse bookends is suppose to go against the books??? Some nice stuff in the new libraries. I finally got my Samsung 840 EVO SSD installed last night and things are definitely a little quicker but Magician says I am SATA 2 when I should be SATA 3 so I need to figure out if my MB has that connection available. I am happy ... Thanks Kerrie (sp???) at TS.

I normally use Mozilla and it doesn't work for anything I send to Tech Support. I was using IE last night when I was trying download the libraries thinking that had something to do with it. My Mozilla is working for accessing the libraries this morning but I just noticed that Chief thinks my SSA expired on 2/1/15 (my normal expiration date) even though I renewed it at the end of December, 2014. Guess I need to refresh their memory with a phone call.

I think you might have to go into LDO's and copy the text style and change it's name to 3/32" and its height to 12 for the layer(s) your dimensions are on.

Please fix the unending loop I get in when trying to download the recent libraries that have been added. I am logged in but the little SSA dbx pops up and doesn't allow me access to download the libraries. On the upper right of the page it shows that my logging option is to "logout", therefore it seems to know that I am "logged in" but that's about as far as it goes. Again, please FIX this loop de loop so I can update my libraries. Thank you.

Or something like this: I think I would just use PL solids and/or geometric boxes to do this project. Do you really need to worry about the framing with treated lumber if it gets covered up. You can always detail how it will be done with a CAD detail. I used a deck railing/fence - panels - with the bottom railing raised 4" (above the terrain). Then I had to cover the railing with PL solids for the 1x6 trim. I also had to make a copy of the siding material and rotate it 90 degrees. On the inside I again used PL solids to assign the interior material. Probably a simpler/better way to do this ... I didn't put a lot of thought into what I am showing.

Rob: I haven't closely looked at the island yet but for the cabinets against the wall with the range, you have a very small amount of base cabinet overlap under the microwave. If you clean those up, I believe those countertop lines will go away. If I were doing that design, I would try to keep the cabinet sizes to standard widths. You also have a small wall alignment problem behind the range wall where the 2x6 wall meets the 2x4 wall in the vicinity of the arched doorway to the right. I did see that your icemaker may have had its width change ...???... if not, you've left a gap ... maybe you did that for fit? You have two cabinets ... behind the DW and sink ... in the island that are a tad out of alignment. I fixed those but the vector view lines in the island countertop still show. I even zeroed the backsplash thickness thinking that might have something to do with it ... but that wasn't it. I think I would contact tech support and see what they say. The only other thing I can think of is that for some strange reason it has to do with your (and mine) video card. If I do a floor overview in vector mode, in some positions I can see module lines on either side of the range but as I rotate they disappear. I don't see this happening on the island however. You should remember to shift your kitchen sink faucet over so it's centered on the sink (or the large sink basin?).

Todd: Library Browser > User Catalog > Right Click - New > Material > Define Material dbx opens There are many sites where you can find textures for free. Here's the online wire mesh images link - some pretty nice ones there. Not sure how well you'll do finding a corresponding pattern depending on what your client is wanting. https://www.google.com/search?q=wire+mesh+textures&tbm=isch&imgil=DgbtqS65U6GftM%253A%253BDg4hAJFptSwKSM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.featurepics.com%25252Fonline%25252FMetal-Wire-Mesh-1124623.aspx&source=iu&pf=m&fir=DgbtqS65U6GftM%253A%252CDg4hAJFptSwKSM%252C_&usg=__IrN5w_5HeVzSVcMYGtwTSyMUejo%3D&biw=1280&bih=590&ved=0CEgQyjc&ei=u77CVPy2E5OxogSuxYHgDg#imgdii=_&imgrc=DgbtqS65U6GftM%253A%3BDg4hAJFptSwKSM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.featurepics.com%252FFI%252FThumb300%252F20090323%252FMetal-Wire-Mesh-1124623.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.featurepics.com%252Fonline%252FMetal-Wire-Mesh-1124623.aspx%3B450%3B450

Todd: Nice work. I love the countertops ... look great ... and those pendant shades have a really nice shine to them. Not sure I am a fan of the curved frig doors etc. but a really nice job with the overall design IMO. Edit: Are some of those cabinet panels suppose to be glass? If so, I think they'd look better if you could see through them a bit. If not, forget my comment.

Alan: Thank you.

Nice Jon. I really like the textures of the chairs in your 1st one.

I spent a lot of time awhile back experimenting with cable rails on stairs and never did like the fact that things just didn't seem to work with them the way I expected them to. You should, IMO, be able to assign a cable rail style for the "stairs" railing and have it build/display correctly. My experience is that it won't work that way ... the cables end up vertical. I don't recall if the example I was previously working with included a wall under the edge of the stairs to create an enclosure. You might do a thread search and see what you can find. This bridge may have been crossed by someone prior to you, in the event you don't get a reply from one of our stairs gurus fairly soon. You might end up having to use a cable rail symbol on the edge of your stairs in order to keep your wall under the stairs.

I have seen some improvement over the years I've been using Chief but I agree that there are many instances where, if one is really paying attention to those details, they just aren't right. Nevertheless, for the most part, I am very pleased with the displays that Chief generates. If I was going to complain about appearance, it would be those elevation view lines that show up on the exterior finish that seem to be related to the floor system design behind the exterior finish. These can be cleaned up at final in LO but I would obviously prefer to not have to do that. Here's what I am talking about: