CJSpud

David - very nice project.

Great thread ... thank you everyone. Think I'll tackle the saved plans head on when the new release comes out (if not sooner).

Thanks Rene. Just put this one to use in a project I am working on.

Thanks David.

Thanks .... for my PC I just go to the color chart and pick the shade of gray I want.

Is the brightness you are talking about the emissive setting for individual materials setting?

Another question: What line weights are you using for the edge lines and the pattern lines? I am using 35 and 10 right now. Just curious what others like to use.

Thanks ... you both nailed it. That works.

David ... or anyone: If I want to use shadows on my elevations, is there a setting somewhere where I can change the color of the shadows from a darker gray color to a lighter one? I thought there was a place to do that but haven't been able to locate it. I'd like to try using shadows but with a shadow lighter than what you are showing in your elevation example. Thanks.

I believe if you go to the Tips forum you'll find some nice videos Steve Nestor did on your topic. Here's a link to one of his videos:

From Help: OBJ Files Material definitions for most .obj files are saved in a separate file with the .mtl file extension. If such a file exists, the materials associated with the .obj file display in the list on the left side of the Materials panel of its specification dialog. If Chief Architect does not receive material definition information in an accompanying .mtl file, default material properties are assigned. Material definitions for .obj files can also include texture information in the form of image files (.jpg, .png, etc). In order to properly import an .obj file, Chief Architect needs the .obj file, the .mtl file, and any referenced texture files. If a texture file is not available, the material it is associated with is created without a texture. The material definitions associated with an imported .obj symbol are not available for use by other objects in Chief Architect until that symbol has been placed into a plan. The associated texture files are then copied to the user’s Textures folder. See Chief Architect Data.

How deep is the popout? How will the soffit be built? Any load bearing issues or is it just curb appleal fluff?

Here's a couple of options for you to consider: 1. TruStile Doors > Panel Doors >3 Panel Doors > TS3300 2. Therma-Tru > Classic-Craft American > CCA211 Homew [once in plan change the glass to the same material as the rest of the door]

Do you want "ribbed" (sometimes called delta rib) metal or "standing seam" metal? Note that in the library browser you can type in whichever type you want to use in the search box (see the image in Jim's response).

Michael: Didn't know about that setting. How about the roofing materials ... is there anyway to change those from the regular roofing material for an auto full return?

John: You are correct - Chief won't allow you to change the materials of an auto-built full return on the front of your building. There might be a couple of ways to accomplish what you need done: 1. Use a pony wall for your main level garage front wall type. 2. Use a materials region to put the brick on the garage front wall (below the roof return). I have not tried #2 but #1 does work. Make a copy of your brick wall type ... give it a name ... then delete the brick and opening layers (insulation air gap). This new wall type will be the upper (pony) wall of your garage's front wall. The lower wall type will be your brick wall type. You WILL have to manually build your Full Return roof on the front of the garage to get the different roofing material. For the pony wall, you'll have to check to see how high the lower wall (brick) needs to be to get under your full return roof. Make sure your upper full return roof edge extends to your attic gable wall siding material edge; also make sure your full roof return ends are 45'd to the corners of your side roof planes .... and you should be good to go.

More memory ... 8 Gb's seems like it might be a little on the short side.

Can you post your plan?

Rocky: Here's an exercise for you to try. Open a new plan with no walls, nothing in it. Now draw a roof plan in the plan. Ask yourself, why did it show up when there are no walls yet? Select the roof and open its dialog (specifications) box. Why are the settings what they are? Now, draw a cross section through the roof. Can you tell where the roof is located with respect to Chief's "0" elevation (usually the top of the subfloor ... structures with framed floors ... or top of slab for structures with slab floors. Go back to your plan view and off to the side of your roof plane draw walls for a small structure. Go back to your cross section now and see the relationship of the roof plane to the 4-sided structure's walls. Draw a CAD line horizontally from the top of one of the walls through the roof plane. Look at where the CAD line crosses the bottom edge of your roof plane. Now draw a temporary dimension or a point to point dimension from the CAD line's intersection with the bottom of the roof planes framing member to the top of that framing member. What is that measurement and what does it mean? Can you find that number anywhere in the roof specifications. Hopefully you'll start to understand some of trig/geometry/nuts and bolts of what goes on within Chief when you build a roof .... which all sort of magically happens based on "YOUR PLANS DEFAULTS". Everything you do in Chief when building walls, roofs, and other parts of a building's structure are based on the plans defaults. When you start changing defaults or "moving things around", the model reflects those changes. Chief will do the best it can to change the model based on what you do but that doesn't mean the model will be correct after you've made some changes. If you start getting warnings or error messages after doing something, Chief may be trying to tell you there's a problem doing that and you might have to "undo" and try a different approach to what you are doing. That's all a part of the learning process with CA. All Chief users eventually learn how to use the program efficiently. I was a little slow grasping roofs myself, especially manually building roofs. I ended up driving up to Coeur d' Alene and taking an hours training with Mont Stevenson (CA trainer) years ago and that session really helped me get over the hump with being able to build roofs as they should be. Even now, years later, I will run into a roof design that tests my abilities. Please take the time to study how to use Chief. Read the manual; read help database articles; watch videos; read the threads on Chief Talk; do whatever it takes to expand your understanding of this very powerful program. And most of all ... PRACTICE as you learn...!!! I hope Tommy and you have a good session. He's been using Chief a long time and really knows his stuff. Good luck.

You could manually create such a list - a legend of wall types if you will. I don't know of a way to automatically produce such a list in CA. Others have prepared similar lists for "fill types" for example. Have you tried doing a search in this forum or in the CA Knowledge Base or ??? It would be nice if there was a simple way to do what you are asking for.

Because that is where you have your walls located. Look at the difference in wall locations from Floor 1 to Floor 2 using the Reference Floor Display tool. Then fix whichever floor level walls are incorrectly located.

Thank you. I had the terrain and thought the trees (ponderosa) I had chosen came from the 3D folder. I was wrong ... should have checked that.

I haven't messed with PBR much but haven't been able to get 3D tree shadows with PBR for an exterior scene. Is this possible with PBR? If so, I wonder where I need to go to adjust a setting to get the shadows to show up. I have looked at some images posted by others of outside PBR scenes where there appear to be shadows so I am assuming it is possible. I can get the shadows with a ray trace - but not with PBR. Thanks.

Are you using dropped gable end trusses?

Sorry - deleted my initial response after looking at your post again. I often use three angled CAD lines close together to represent the panels as glass and don't worry about being able to see through the panels in elevation section views.