CJSpud

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.

Not exactly a duplicate but "reasonably" close .... assembled using Library components.

No building permits required in the County I live in. Of course some of the stuff I see built around here is definitely not what you'd see being built in Kalif4nia.

I am not all that knowledgeable about OR building codes and plan requirements but suspect that you may be dealing with seismic requirements for most areas on the west side of the state. If so, a structural engineer's stamp might be required. Should be easy to find that out.

Could come pretty close to that if we could rotate the measurement values. We would need behavior for displaying the dimension values similar to what the story pole tool gives us.

Cheryl: Almost looks like you have a light source there that's causing that .... maybe???

Larry: A couple of tips after watching your first two videos: 1. You were having trouble changing the dimension of your PL solid because you were clicking on the actual dimension # instead of the dimension line itself. I always click in the middle area of a dimension "line" to get the dbx to open up so I can input a different dimension. 2. When you created your PL solid truss member and tried to make it parallel to your 4:12 roof pitch line, you selected the bottom edge of the PLS and then clicked the Make Parallel tool. All you really did was make that one edge parallel with the roof pitch line. What you needed to do was, after selecting the PLS edge was to double click the Make Parallel tool and then you'll get an option to rotate the entire PLS. Doing that will maintain the symmetry of your PLS. To be honest with you, I didn't know about the #2 tip until not that long ago. Hope that helps you (and maybe a few others who run into the same difficulties). Have a great day.

Larry: Are those rammed earth walls in some of the photos? There are a couple of rammed earth homes in my area but nothing like that home. Nice work.

Can I safely assume that the living room part of the structure will have a crawlspace since you have an I-joist floor system in the structure dbx for this room? Since you haven't built the foundation I thought I would ask. Please clarify.

Try grabbing it and dragging it to the end handle of the line or perhaps to the next closest break point ... and just "drop it" on the point you choose ... but I believe it needs to be the next closest point on your line from the point you are trying to get rid of. Some times when you are doing this you'll actually miss the point you are trying to drop the point you want to remove onto. In essence, you've created a very short segment between the two points. The only way to figure that out is zoom way in and/or drag the "drop point to the side or something and you'll quickly be able to see what happened. Definitely not the greatest solution in the world but it works.

Michael: Your dilemma reminds me of how much time you can consume trying to shop for something on the Internet ... hours later you feel like you've run a marathon and you still haven't totally figured out what you want to buy. No suggestions from me .... just like you, I hate trying to find some things in the Library. Maybe the FHB tip guy will come up with "a better way" ....!!!

Yes, please start your own thread. Also, close your plan in CA, zip it and attach it for the best help.

Click on the break you don't want and drag it off to the side to get rid of it.

As a final alternative, you could put breaks in the molding PL at the edges of any door openings (perhaps the exterior trim around the openings) the molding is covering up; then select the segment where the door(s) is located and then click on the option for "no molding on selected edge" (or whatever the exact terminology is). You might have to zoom in at each door location and fine tune the location of your breaks. You could have a section view or 3D exterior view open at the same time to help with this step if needed.

Mick: I was just playing around with the multiple columns in Word and not actually using Word to its full capabilities for the Text styles etc. with actual work product as you did. I need to to look at your file and then do some more playing around with it and see what I like. It definitely looks better than using the simple Chief text tool per Dan Baumann's tip, although that technique isn't so bad for creating fast/simple tables with borders etc. that essentially are spreadsheets.

Mick: I just did pretty much what Richard talked about ... tweaked the column spacing and margins a little ... used 11 x 17 ... did the smaller font sizes ... and then sent to Layout at 1/2" scale. Carmel: Thanks for the video ... a good method to use as well. I like to use various text sizes and bold (section titles) and standard fonts, some with underlining, so maybe Carmel's and Michael's methods may look the best IMO even though there's a little tinkering to get everything in the multiple columns per page.

Richard: Thanks for that info ... I don't remember seeing that earlier thread and your post. I have been having a play at doing what you are suggesting but with my MSWord skills being on the short side, it remains to be seen as to how well "I" can make this technique work for me. Here's an image of a test of this technique using a custom 11 x 16 page size for 5 columns then printed to 11 x 17 page size (seemed like that was my best choice when printing to PDF). I think I will do some more playing and see if there's anything I can do to use up more space at the top and bottom; perhaps seeing if Word will let me go with a bigger custom page size. The real test for me will be getting the various formatting techniques and styles to work in the text document.

Michael: I give that a look the next time I do one. Thanks.

For doing "simple" spreadsheets, you can fairly quickly create decent looking schedules using Chief's regular text tool. Not a perfect way to go ... just depends on how fussy you want/need to be. Dan Baumann recently posted this as a tip for those who are on his Chief Experts email list. You will probably have to do some editing when setting up one of these spreadsheets, but that is usually true of any spreadsheet. When entering the appropriate text when creating schedules such as I am showing, you just need to "tab" to get to the next column. Pretty simple once you've done one or two. Here's a few more images of an example showing the process: If you have a title that you don't want being split by lines between columns, you might be able to keep it in once cell (perhaps) using 2 lines in the row, by futzing with it. I had that in the above example for a moment and then something else I did to the column sizes negated it and I couldn't figure out how to get it back. Have fun if this method is useful to you. PS: As you can see, I didn't win the spelling bee!

Here's a detail showing the McMillan "embedded" joist hangers. This is what my associate used for the shed roof on the side of his new ICF shop. Assuming your floor loads don't exceed the capacity of these hangers, they appear to me to be a more positive way of hanging a floor system to the foundation walls as compared to typical "nail on" hangers. The I-Joist pockets are even more positive as far as what they are bearing on ... literally on the concrete in the wall itself.

The best joist hanger is the one that meets the specifications your plan calls for. Simpson StrongTie products are the most popular around here although there are other brands. There is also an embedded joist hanger available on the market that an associate of mine used to support some shed roof type trusses on his new ICF shop. Another method in use in my area are "joist pockets" ... a pocket manually created in the foam layer of the block that includes a short piece of PT lumber as a base for the joists to bear on (similar to what might be used for the end of a structural beam connected to an ICF wall). I suggest you use any CAD details available from the block manufacturer for your project. If you can get them in a .dwg format, you can always import them into your own CAD detail and then modify them as required for your project. I don't know of anyone who makes custom details for others. I suggest you learn to do that yourself, then you get exactly what you want/need.

Not sure where you are with your CA "self" education but based upon your post, it sounds to me like you should go to the following link and start looking through all the videos and seeing which ones cover the areas that you might be having trouble with - then watch them and practice what you learn. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/?utm_source=Chief+Architect+Premier+19.3.1.8+x64&utm_medium=software&utm_campaign=Resource%3A+videos I could also tell you to hit F1 and find the topics you need to review and read about them ... but who likes to read the manual? ... to me viewing the videos leaves a more lasting impression as to how to use the program. By the way, hitting F1 will take you directly to the appropriate section of the manual if you have a dbx (dialog box) open and are trying to understand what the different parts of the dbx are all about. This is a very direct way to get help in Chief. Your choice as to how to proceed in learning Chief. Blindly using the program often doesn't yield the best results ... although it can be a good way to learn ... providing you do so in a constructive way. Practicing by trial-and-error is the best way to learn as opposed to asking for help on the basic operations of Chief. That is not to say that you shouldn't ask for help when in a bind. The Chief offices are not open on weekends so ChiefTalk is the go to place for weekend help. Don't be shy ... ask your questions. But PLEASE .... make a good effort in trying to find solutions to your questions by searching in the manual; checking out the many videos available to watch; research topics on ChiefTalk; perhaps consider spending a little extra money and become a member of Chief Tutor or Chief Experts ... or get Terry Munson's book and go through it as laid out. Besides all that, there are many expert Chief users who will do GoToMeetings with you (or Skype sessions) to help you with your problems. We are very blessed to have so many resources available to us to assist us as Chief Architect users. Good luck .... you will get un-lost eventually ... keep plugging away. Chief has a lot of horsepower under the hood and you will not learn it overnight.