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When ordering to a building site your square footage might give you a quick guide for the total. In reality you would use an order list or an invoice that your dry wall supplier would give you. I was taught how to take it off by hand by the sub-contractor including the fasteners, glues, coatings, tape, etc. I could build those formulas or macros into a ML template if I really wanted to now. Back then we did it all by hand and calculator, the AI of the time. Edit: If you want to be dead accurate, take your plan to your supplier and ask them to teach you how to make an order for your plan. Then build that system into your ML template. You can also use a quick cost estimate formula that will cover your total square footage and all the accessories. Of course once you have acquired the experience and know what it will actually cost in reality. Then don’t forget to update it when there is a price increase too.

Ages later. An absolutely awesome tool added to CA for internal footing beams to go under monolithic slabs. When it comes out from under the slab it creates a wall on top, I am not sure for what purpose but there must be a logical reason for that.

All good ! Most countries have its share of deadly animals. New Zealand is pretty safe but they have many strong earth quakes and active volcanoes the we just don’t have.

Yes Top Right ! A bit like Florida’s retirement area. Been to Tampa and there about in 99. Nice place.

Hi @mtldesigns My thoughts, are your roofs on separate layers or on the same one ? If not you could try putting the old roof on a new layer “called existing roof” and then see if it still happens. If it still happens then, it’s try something else .

Yeah cool ! Can always ask them for the extra information that you need to complete an external render with landscaping and proper ground levels. Plenty of videos on terrain landscaping available.

Hi @decorators3has this house been designed to comply with your local building regulations yet ? Once you have done so then will know to represent the house in a render correctly. With all the levels being set in the right place in accordance with your local authority. Sometimes we need to consult a suitably qualified builder or even an engineer in certain circumstances. We are happy to help people model their buildings with Chief Architect. Since building regulations vary greatly in different regions and counties we can’t accurately explain what external finishes and levels are applicable for any particular type of dwelling and construction method. First thing to consider among other things, is the method of stormwater disposal. Sometimes this requires a consulting engineer. Once you got that figured out as well as any other building regulations that affect the design, then you can set your external landscaping and or paving levels etc. I hope this all makes sense in going forward with this design ?

I wonder if it is possible to create a material with a single cross pattern in it and edit it with the reticle ?

Yes It is always good for us to have go. This video also might help with importing a DWG site survey plan into Home Designer Pro if you decide to go down that road ? Here Scott shows us how to go about it in detail with Chief but it might also work with HDP ? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1056/import-a-surveyor-dwg-file-for-a-site-plan-or-terrain-perimeter.html

Good Day @Caveman, Home designer Pro can be rented for $79 USD a month. See the link the below. You can then import your pdf files into HDP, resize them to scale to work on them, as you require. Easy to do with all the training videos available. I encourage you to have a go first and then ask us for help here or on the home designer website. I am also not asking for a miracle from you I hope ? What is $79 USD in AUD ? Cheers ! https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/

Hi @cavemanwfire, Apart from what @Renerabbitthas outlined. From what you have told me in that you need to have the contours extend 5m beyond the site boundary and that this is a plan for a subdivision. The only person qualified to submit for a subdivision in Australia, is a registered surveyor as you would be well aware of. It would also be quite difficult to extract the extended contours from google maps as well that go beyond your boundaries. It can be done though but this type of work is familiar to a surveyor normally. Like Rene says, this is basically 2D CAD work and can even be done by pdf editing software. Or we can import the drawings and trace the contours but when they go outside the boundary by 5m, this is where the difficulty lies. I think it might be wise to bite the bullet and DIY it .

Hi @cavemanwfire, You can rent CA for a month or so to finish these plans. Plus your surveyor or your engineer can email DWG files of those drawings and you could easily import them into CA to finish them off. It wouldn’t take you very long to do as you are already very familiar with the work needed to be done. Hope you are doing well now.

Yes these are definitely good but there are others out there too that might be a good fit. Let’s see some pics first from @Mucasuma. Yes some who use Chief can do amazing curved design work. It depends on what you want to do or how far you want to go with curved design. When it comes to sculptural design, other applications may be a better fit for it ?

Hi @Mucasuma, Can you please post a picture of what you are hoping to do with Chief Architect.

Not tornado proof BTW . Structural connection details are not shown here for the wind speed category either ??? I don’t know what USA timber framing requirements are for this region but you would think that you would need more than just nails for the uplift force ???