CJSpud

As near as I can tell, this is a flaw in the program. The skylight "should not" be cutting a hole in the soffit of an overhanging roof above. I think this should be sent in as a suggestion for change. I have looked at as many settings as I could find for the roof and skylights and I haven't been able to find one that fixes this. Strangely, the skylight will only cut a hole in the soffit above, not the roof plane above the soffit. Go figure. OK, where's Glenn .... he probably knows how to fix this with a setting somewhere?

Mary Anne: Here's the zipped X6 plan for that simple model if you want to look at the railings, newels, settings, etc. Gazebo-MaryAnne.zip

My example didn't include a second story but with the gable wall on the side where I attached the gazebo, I hope the OP can see how using the deck tools should work quite well for her. Hopefully she's making some good progress with her project.

Mary Anne: Welcome to ChiefTalk. I think that if you connect your Gazebo to the house with railing walls, you can accomplish what you are trying to do. Make sure that the room created by the railing walls is checked for roof above (and possibly a ceiling depending on the design spec's). The railing wall newels can extend up to a beam supporting your roof. You can resize the newels in the dialog when opened. You can also change the style of newel if you don't want to use a fancier one from the library. Study up on railing walls, porches etc. I agree with Bill .... watch all the videos you can. There may be some articles on the Help Database site that you can read/study as well. As Alan said, the best way to get good help is with documentation, whether it is images of what you want to do or an actual plan with your work progress to date. Below is a quick sample of what you can do with railing walls. Both the open front porch as well as the gazebo have railing walls. The roof was built automatically by Chief. Don't forget to post some images of your project after you get it built. Good luck. PS: The gazebo shape is very easy to do since Chief provides that for us ... look for "Polygon Shaped Deck" in the deck railing tools. Pick the number of sides you want and the length of each side. We used to have to do this in a more cumbersome manner.

Glenn: Thanks for that information. I am not sure that I totally understand your explanation but I will check out your plan and then do some more experimenting and see I can figure out how to use this tool when doing cutaways.

Bill: Thanks for the reply. I too experimented with the material region tool and also got funky results. I was experimenting with a Chief 2x6 siding wall and could remove the outer two layers (maybe 3 actually if you include the housewrap) but that is all I could get rid of. I even tried to put a material region over part of the first region area but that didn't work at all. Until I understand it better, my opinion is that it is not very user friendly if you are trying to remove layers and it appears to me that it is limited to removing two layers (with some actual thickness to them). Could one of the Chief dudes who worked on developing that tool chime in and give us a clue whether or not it can be used for removing all or almost all of the layers in a wall (or maybe a floor too .... I don't think it will work on ceilings but ???). Or maybe Glenn can give us some feedback on how he accomplished what is shown in his image. I have no problems with adding at least a couple of layers over a floor or wall area ... but ... trying to cut a whole or several layers out of a multi-layered wall definition just doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe I just don't understand how to use the tool .. or .. maybe it has limited functionality for removing layers. Still in the dark.

Looks pretty good to me ... nice job. What did you do?

Sometimes the bottom line on getting your roof planes right, especially where different pitches are involved, is getting your fascias to display where you want them. If different fascia heights are called for, then you may have to deal with your settings on a roof plane by roof plane basis depending on what your design calls for. My posts were mostly an effort to explain how Chief builds a roof and how the vertical rafter depths play a role in where the roof baseline ends up. For those that already understand that, then you probably know as much or more on how to build roofs than I do. For those that didn't understand these relationships, then hopefully I helped some users graduate to the next step in roof building, which I believe for most newer users, is knowing (and understanding) how to build roofs manually. When I first started using Chief back in 2001 with v7, I wanted all my roofs to build automatically. I had virtually no experience with CAD programs at the time so admittedly, I wanted Chief to magically do almost everything automatic. I had a fear factor about learning how to do roofs manually. A trip to Coeur d'Alene and an hour with Mont Stephenson was what broke the ice for me. It is actually a very easy process if one can just learn some of the basics of how Chief functions depending on the settings being used. One thing that I still do on a regular basis is create simple test plans, input the settings I believe are correct and then view the results with a cross section of the roof/wall connection. This takes very little time ... you aren't messing with your project's plan ... if the results are satisfactory, then I know what settings to use in my project plan. I think for the most part Chief's roof tools work very well and I have been able to deal with all the roofs I have had to build without problems. I may be testing that statement a bit with a project I am just starting that has several circular turrets and steep roof s on them as compared to the rest of the plan. Lots of exterior detailing etc. ... something I have not had to tackle in the past. I suspect I will be doing quite a bit of sectioning of roof connections to make sure things are building the way I want them. Looking forward to the challenges this plan has for me. By the way, I understand that Mont is now retired. I wish him well ... he was a builder for lots of years and it took a toll on him. I appreciate your getting me over the "roof hump" way back when ... good luck and best of health to you.

Not sure how Bill did his but I would create a special wall definition that has invisible layers outside of the framing (the sheetrock could be missing or invisible on the inside as well) ... could even so something similar with piece-meal roof planes. I will be curious to hear how Bill did the OSB exposure ... nice job Bill.

Does anything happen if you zoom/unzoom your view?

Even when using Roof Baseline Polylines (RBP), you still need to understand what Chief does under the hood when using them. In my example of using a 5:12 pitch with trusses checked and the top chord being a 2 x 4, Chief will build the RBP at 112-15/16" if the entry in the Raise/Lower from Ceiling Height (RLCH) is left at the default '0' value. I should have clarified that in my example I have the ceiling height (rough) set at 109-1/8". Therefore, getting back to the vertical rafter depth (VRD) part of how to position a roof, for a 2 x 4 at 5:12, the VRD = 3-13/16" [i.e., Chief built the RBP to the top of the top chord above the outer main layer at the top of the wall .... 109-1/8" + 3-13/16" = 112-15/16"]. The graphic below is shown only to show the VRD of the top chord of the truss. The extra 12" wouldn't be shown if I redid the graphic. Without knowing what goes on under Chief's 'hood', an inexperienced Chief user is going to being burning up some extra time to get their roofs positioned at the proper elevation. The only other simple way (but this takes a little time to do) to get your roof planes at the desired elevation is doing what Scott suggested .... take a section through the wall/roof connection and use CAD and dimensioning as required to see how much you need to move the roof to get it at the desired heel height. Maybe it would be nice if Chief had a simple little graphic that would be accessible in the menu on the left side of the Build Roof dbx that would show users how Chief does this magic, similar to the graphic we get in the structure dbx when selecting and opening a room's specification. Maybe we would need two graphics, one for trussed roofs and one for raftered roofs with birdsmouths. Obviously, there could be a many configurations that couldn't all be addressed with the graphics, but the idea would be just to show the user something simple to help them see what happens with the settings. Maybe this should be addressed better in the manual (or Help) ... the information is there but you need to do some digging to put it all together. Searching in Help for Roof Plane and/or Baseline will yield some good information. I find that there should have been at least one more graphic shown (and the equation) for a trussed roof. Actually, the rafter graphic shown might have looked better if the rafter was shown with the complete birdsmouth cut shown. Maybe I am getting a little picky about this ... sooner or later, if users spend enough time working with this stuff they will learn what goes on when Chief auto builds roofs after all the settings have been plugged in.

Robert: To expand on how to control the heel height, first you need to decide what size truss chords that you want displayed when you build a truss. The Chief degaults are 2 x 4. If you plug a number into the raise/lower setting Glenn mentioned, you need to understand that Chief will add that setting to the vertical rafter depth (truss top chord) to arrive at the total heel height of the truss. The heel height is measured from the top of a wall's outside main layer to the top edge of the top chord vertically above it. If I have a roof with a 5:12 pitch and I want a 12" heel height, the setting that I need to put in the raise/lower box in the roof dbx is the desired heel height minus the vertical rafter depth (VRD) of the top chord. For a 2 x 4 top chord at a 5:12 pitch, the VRD is 3-13/16". Therefore, the setting to put in the raise/lower box is 8-3/16". If you don't do it this way, and just plug in 12" in the raise/lower box, you'll end up with a heel height of 15-13/16". In this case, Chief's 12" measurement is from the top of the wall (outer main layer) to the bottom of the top chord directly above it. I created myself a table of vertical rafter depths for various 2x sizes and for pitches from 1 to 12. I often refer to this when setting up the spec's for roofs in my projects.

Thanks BeeoHat ... glad I could help. And thank you Bill ... I thought I knew what the simple solution to BeeoHat's problem was and it sounds like my solution was what was needed. On many occasions I have either misunderstood what a person's question was or I didn't completely read the post and got off on the wrong direction with my answer. I am going to have to pay more attention to dishing out reputation points myself as I get a lot of good tips from other users for using Chief. That experience that is passed down more than likely took a lot of practice and study in using Chief and everyone that passes their knowledge on to others needs to be thanked .... and given some of those reputation points. I guess I will have to read up on how to do those RP's ... is that what the green arrow does?

If your small gable is the only two roof planes you want to change, select both of them, then lock the fascia top setting and plug in your new pitch. Since your gable is to be steepened, you'll need to rejoin the gable roof planes to the main roof planes by selecting each gable roof plane near the valley intersection - hit the number 2 key (shortcut for join roof planes) - then select the larger roof plane on the opposite side of the valley .... then repeat the process for the opposite side. That should be all there is to it.

Larry: If you want to only see the sink and not all the base cabinets, in the Ref Display layer set, change the base cabinet line style to the "no line" style ... make sure the interior fixtures layer is on ... than you will only see the sink and not the base cabinet(s). If you don't want to see some of the other interior fixtures, you'll have to assign them to a different layer.

It would really be nice if we could click on the edges of the roof sheathing, sub-fascia, fascia and shadow boards in a section to make adjustment if desired. In my example I would prefer to have Chief build the roof sheathing down to the outside edge of the shadow board.

Gene: Your drawing image is a little bit different than the one I just did. Your sheathing doesn't seem to extend far enough down to cover the sub fascia. What I am wondering is why the roof sheathing doesn't build down over the fascia and shadow board in my image? I am also wondering why Chief built the wall sheathing and siding up beyond the top plates. Both of these issues would result in a little bit of error (maybe??) in the materials list if the calc's are made based on what I see here. In my example, the 18" overhang would go from the outside stud main layer to the outside edge of the shadow board.

Ditto ..... maybe he forgot to save it????

CutePDF has been working well for me for printing my construction documents. That is all I use it for. I have a friend in a different business who is really liking BlueBeam.

Steve: Here's a link from doing a search on stainless steel (SS) on the legacy ChiefTalk forum: http://www.chieftalk.com/search.php?searchid=206209 There's a bunch of threads shown and not everything is specifically targeting SS but lots of good info to wade through. You should probably stick with information that pertains to X5 or X6 as it "may be" more appropriate for Chief's current ray trace engine. Nevertheless, other good info is good on all sorts of subjects related to ray tracing.

Steve: I would suggest that you search the forum on this subject. It has been kicked around a lot and there are some threads with some good information in them. You either are using a bad texture and/or you aren't using correct settings. I too have struggled with SS in ray traces and it is a tricky thing to get right. You'll get some good info from those prior threads and with a little help from others, you'll get some good information in this thread as well. I am heading off to bed now or I would direct you to one or more of the better threads. You should find one or more SS textures to try if you find the right thread(s). Good luck.

Timmy: Your retaining walls should look something like I am showing in the 3D full overview below: In my example, I created a sloping terrain but made a flat elevation region in the area of the house and out in front of it. The flat region stops right about where I have started/ended my curved retaining wall. It probably would be nice if we had the option to specify how much above the terrain we want a retaining wall to build but we don't have that yet.

My mother use to say, if you can't say a ................ Darn! What was it she used to say? Gene: I just did a test and I could get Chief to generate vaulted ceiling joists in a simple ranch plan with a 4:12 vaulted ceiling and an 8:12 roof over it. I am not sure if there's a particular order of how it should be done but you might want to experiment a little for the next time you have to do this.

Joe: Thanks ... I assumed that is what you meant confirmed after rereading your 1st post. It is hard to understand why we don't have the option to show the door in the half-open position like the symbol shows in plan. I have customers that like the 4 and 6 panel standard door styles and I occasionally get requests for Sante Fe styled doors with the broken arch in the top panel frame.

I don't think you'll find that stuff in Chief's library. Have you tried the Trimble 3D Warehouse?