mthd97

I don't know what others think but CA to me is very easy to learn and use. The problems come when you need a work around so that's when you need to ask and search on this forum. I have been using CA since V6 and that's probably why I find it easy? As I have been around and seen it develop with input from us users too!..All the best Terry with learning CA and I agree about having the training videos properly organised for the latest vesrion.

Not X8 due rating?

X8 is the Moon Landing Version?

Cool! That will help some of us make a decision.

Absolutely!

JC above is the customization wizard, custom kitchen designer Architect. He has lots of videos posted on this site for you to learn his tricks of the trade as he has helped many a user.

Extremely Funny! It is confusing but it all has to do with the way CA works with 3d room modules system of programming. Richard, if we put it in AC terminology our 3d room modules are created with "Zones" as you know and they are more simple than a CA 3d room module. In AC A Zone is basically a 3d polyline that represents the inside volume of a room definition. Other elements are not directly connected to the Zone in AC but they are in CA and thats is why CA works the way it does. CA needs revision and I hope when they do that, in a Story Pole Slab system to re-write the old CA code. Ask Doug Parks what he thinks?

Hi Ryan, have you got SSA, if so you can view some training videos on roofing online from the CA website that will show you step by step how to edit roof planes, build roofs and add automatic dormers etc. Specific to your problem you may have to change the settings of the upper dormer room and or the room underneath so the roof will not automatically build around it? You need to enter the room dialog box to change how the roof will build over the rooms in question.

Yes the macro is cool but I like the CA method shown in the training videos of how to define areas. This method of producing the room shape automatically from one click of the mouse with the moding polyline tool is by far the best method and fastest way of defining areas. You can even click on the outside of your floor plan and wham it follows the shape of the outside walls. Do it again then peel back the polyline to exclude the garage area if you wish. Also click inside a room and wham it follows the shape of the inside of a room automatically. Next, create a layer called areas and place all these areas on this layer and hatch the polylines as you wish turn layer on and off as you wish. All you need to do then is add in the area text macro simillar to what Richard has done with the cross box cad tool method and you are done.

X7 inc SSA primary licence for sale. Send me a private email. I am partly retired.

If CA could do what Softplan does with Softlist I think we would all be very happy with ML take off.

Just draw your framing plans in Chief and do it by hand or since you are in the US visit head office and ask for a job and show them how the program should work for ML. All the best and yes CA should do all the heavy lifting for us!

You can publish an accurate model and all the plans and framing plans and the ML data but unless you do your own accurate take off, all that ML data should not be relied upon. Please see the Chief Architect diclaimer about ML.

Wife Client, yeah thats a tough gig, have fun with it and in the end its your own mix. You can use the barrel roof tool for curved roof if you make that choice. You can search the styles you like online to pick up some ideas too?

http://artsandcraftshomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Robinson.jpg You are after an Arts and Crafts look with auto roof returns and barge end splays is that right? Over the curved bay window you could bring out a projected gabel or a multi hip projection same too for the other bay window. If you experiment and show your client, let them choose what they prefer? Check out the roofing video's to see how to do this. So far Scott H has been tidying up your roof model very well? I would make your model even more complicated and more Arts and Craft with a low broken pitch or dual pitch roof close down to the external walls. Or curve the roof over the curved bay window like this picture above? You might have a big job on your hands with this curved roof section part in CA, try get a curved polyline solid to do the roof and the curved fascia to see if it is possible? Well worth the effort to reproduce a feature like this if it is possible in CA?

From those new details above, that is the realistic way to do it. I did not pick up the existing rhombus footing from your first sketch. Now if we could edit a cross section of a footing from rectangle to rhombus in the cross section window and the 3d model was changed, that would be good for CA? I would use cadimage slab edge in AC if I needed extra tools to edit the monos slab footing to get that shape in your detail above from the cross section in AC.

Training Video 361.

I would have suggested that you would not need a pier footing just the monoslab designed to carry the external concrete wall a bit like we build cellars down under with sarter bars coming out of the edge beam of the monoslab for the external pier or wall or whatever the case is. Done in one pour, less concrete, less labour. I was looking at it from a builders perpective but I did not have all the details and what it would really look like in 3d. I would do the same only becuase of that rhombus shape in the pier or side wall otherwise I would use Chief if I could make the changes that I just mentioned above as well. All the best.

It's even more simple than that. 1) multi select all roof plane's open the roof DBX and elevate to desired height and all should move up 2 feet. 2) get the top floor and edit area to multi select and change to desired height in the floor settings DBX. (it is likely that rooms on this floor may have expanded to 11 feet now after the roof change so change them to 10 feet) 1) do the same for the ground floor if they have not moved to the 10 foot ceiling height automacticly. If you have drawn in ceiling planes for coffered ceilings you may have to multi select these and move them as well if edit area fails. If you use a method like this with multi selection and edit area you will save time on having to fix customised rooms and messing up roof planes? There are other tricks too but you have a fiddle with this method and make sure your original plan is saved incase you have to go back if you get a problem. If edit area does not work try the multi select or the parameter selection tool to change height properties of floors and see if this works. See how you go?

I would not like my chances of butting two foundation wall types up against each other in Chief Architect unless you can convert the monoslab produced by one of the foundation wall types into a polyline solid that will not interact with the other foundation wall tool producing the pier and beam footing in CA.Also regards otherCAD I would use the complex wall profiler tool for the pier and beam type set up on the external wall and then create a mono slab from the slab tool with the profile on your detail so they do not interact with each other. I am not sure but I think the complex wall profiler will also work on slabs as well in other CAD if I am not mistaken? We still have a 3d profiler in ArchiCAD from the old days that was designed to do a similar job as a cadimage add on tool now (used to be a goody tool once upon a time down under before AC V10) I think it can be done in both programs with a good advanced user? Keep us posted as to what worked best for you? I would use other cad becuase of that funny shape in the external P&B footing wall and I would not like my chances of bending it around a corner if the case need be. OTH you could punch a hole in a polyline solid to get that shape to go around a corner but that just gets messy and too time consuming for me.

Training video 1573 will give you the strategy using foundation wall tools to do the job for you and also you will need slab and or polyline solid tools as well. In other CAD you need to be a master of the 3d profiler tools, I have seen it done in 3d but I need to brush up on that skill myself. All the best.

If you have SSA, see training video 332 "Editing the Framing Detail" or whatever other Framing problems you are having search it in the training video's.

Thanks Mick, I will brush up to scratch by watching these.

No Chief quirks requiring work-arounds; just user error. What specific training videos do you suggest we watch now so we get the correct model building proceedure to avoid the problems myself and others have been having like these Jim? I really want to get this right so its not just user error? Do you agree that it should be more simple? I can get reasonbly complex models to work and have done so but not without work arounds and many adjustments, some that work and others that don't? Taking layers out is something I avoid as other 3d views from different angles can be affected as well. I guess I haven't got the time and patience or the gaming instinct to want to play lets fix up the 3d model so I can get recognition on Chieftalk? I prefer simple straight forward methods that get the job done right with little fuss and frustration that's all. I know 90% of the time I don't need to put in basements or stem walls just monoslabs and or on different levels. So probably other CAD suits me better in some instances when framing plans are not required of me. Thanks for your input and experience in using CA as we all can benefit from it.

Sounds like Jim is right about this since level zero according to Joe give us problems.When houses have this level of mild complexity and being two story, I prefer other 3d CAD because I can control the floor and foundation levels without experimenting with DBX settings in trying to get the model right. Other CAD might take a bit longer to draw in but in the end it saves time from fighting the program over problems like this. Oh yes, on single story homes and those with a subfloor or a basement then CA will suffice even with relative simple two story homes as well but when you get half or part levels I give up on CA. BTW all you users who work hard and persist with work arounds till you get the model to work, well done for your work ethic and patience. I expected that and did that in V6 - V10.