mthd97

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.

This is what I mean by saying we need a Story Pole System to save us all this trouble so that we have a straight forward easy to follow system to build our house models with ease. Not all these work arounds. At least tech support could provide us a Video on the correct procedure on how to build multi level houses like this for now, till they get a chance to fix the program up so this can all be done with ease, if indeed the program code is to blame?

Open up your wall framing detail, click on the member you don't want and delete the member from there. Also you can edit and copy members from there to make it look right in 3d.

If you are using X7 it could be video card problems search this site for video card problems, as they have been answered. If you can see the walls in 3d then that is not the problem so make sure the roof layer is set to display in 3d. If not then upload your file and the man above may fix it for you.

TV, Assign the basement room as a "garage" instead of a "utility" and see if this helps? For more advanced tricks and workarounds try and ask Joe Carrick the 3d Chief Master or Jim Laws the Chief Master 3d Model Clean up checker. Have fun!

Thanks Joe, we hardly use stem walls down under and you are quickly becoming one of the Chiefs of the Chiefers in the US. I like your logical work around methods. So HDPro 2014 must have been derived from X5 or KV would not have been able to do that Job. Thanks to Perry for pushing mono slabs to be further developed before X5 came out or KV would have had real trouble. Glen made it on the Panel and I am very glad we have an Aussie to help us with the way we do things down under. Can we draw a manual footing beam with reinforcement in it so that it will report to the ML yet? Our mono slabs have internal footing beams crisscrossing like a grillage raft slab but not so deep. We also have Waffle Pod footing systems with narrower footing beams like a grillage raft that we need to have a way of drawing with reinforcement being calculated out to the ML.

KV assuming HD2014 has these tools, in the build foundations dialogue box, check the radio button for monolithic slab then set the slab height as desired then hit the Edit Default Slab footing and open up the next dialogue box and set your footing sizes etc.See how you go and if HDPro 2014 will let you do this. If you need work arounds Perry H is the mono slab fastest gun in the west, email him or Scott H the fastest gattling gun all round Chiefer in the west. Oh! wait a second Chiefers whould be fastest bow an arrows in the west?

You have to specify the area in the room where it is open below.

Hi Wendy, its nice to see your name on the panel, congratulations. Have you got time to express your opion on the "Story Pole" post that Doug made in suggestions? I am a bit OCD about editing room module's in 3d with CA, how do you go about it? Does anyone know how they edit 3d rooms in Revit?

One of the main improvements in X6 was the ability to specify header type and size for openings that don't fit the usual build framing tab to a general opening per width size. You can however in X5 and less as mentioned here open the framing detail and edit the header size or copy to add extra headers to that opening. I have not checked to see if it will report to the ML after you have asked CA to create a new ML after your editing but I think it will after what others say here? There are also more framing improvements in X7 regarding double frame walls etc. Please check it out.

Oh really, I can't believe you guy's what is more important the Icons or how the program works? I like it as it has a retro feel to it and things always come and go in fashions and sometimes old comes back? I think as Designer's we should all be aware of that and I like the colors but we all have different tastes.

I hope, Jim is the Man to give us a video on his master class techinque for 3d model checking?

Wow! Jim is the man, those model checking techniques are master class. I think we should all watch a video from Jim on how to test your model? I would say Jim would also be very valuable to Chief for a Master Class Video's Series?

That's nice, you guys already miss him!

Very Nice detail of how it should go MickeyToo. I gave it a try but I couldn't even find the SL symbol but I found this post by Larry Sweeny who tried the same thing with our buddy Scott doing another MITMV or Method In The Madness Video to help us. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2183-skylight-problem/?hl=skylights Thanks Scott for showing how to place a skylight into a roof in this video. When the Ceiling Plane is not parallel to the Roof Plane you get the problems Scott was having but what would happen if it was parallel like in Richards case and is it any better now in X7? A feature like this needs to be carefully worked out before implimenting into CA you would think? Or Scott may go crazy from doing to many try fix it videos?

So to get this to work it looks there is more than one way to do this? And if we delete the roofs and reassign the walls types this should work with auto roof build? If the roof needs tidying up after auto roof build you go ahead and do that? I would first make sure that roof pitching point line has something to build from first even if a wall does not define this pitching point by even placing a temp wall in that spot and then delete those temp walls after the roof auto builds the way I want it. I use this method both in CA and other 3d CAD. I rarely need to clean up roofs for this method for relative straight forward roofs. I don't have much experience with shed dormer roofs and Cape Cod style roofs, I think we call shed dormers, eye lid dormers down under? Not only would I like to see Glenn do a video but I would like to see an advanced video in the training series to help with a problem like this in particular as this appears to be a common US style 2 storey home. I haven't tried this yet but if I was to place a skylight into a roof plane with a raked ceiling plane directly under it, would it cut hole into the manually drawn in ceiling plane? I guess it should if it behaves like a roof plane? Will give it a try in X6.

I think you might hold a very big key to helping Chief develop, since you are an Architect and have been around along time and have lots of experience in dealing with client issues that have helped allot of us here. Things like copyright and and other problems we encouter in dealing with clients has been very helpful to me in particular. I am a bit surprised that someone as experienced as you are in Chief to have had these problems with a relatively mild level of house customization. I would hope that you would report what would have made your job easier and faster in Chief for you, if you had some features from the other CAD we use incorporated into Cheif to keep it faster for us and others when we raise the degree of complication to a mild level as you have had with this design. Chief have listened to us in the past and will continue to do so and we have seen them add things into Chief that are good in other CAD programs. My main CAD language is in Chief and I am not so proficient in the other CAD as you are that's why I say you may hold a big Key for Chief becoming allot better for Architect's doing multi level houses with a mild degree of customization?

Hi Richard, I am curious to know about the advantages Chief offers you in modeling up a house like this despite the difficulties you encountered? Well done to you guys who helped Richard with these problems we appreciate your hard work to help other's. I hope I can follow your unselfish examples, I am not up to speed with X6 yet and we all have to watch X7 videos to keep up with X7, have fun.