Richard_Morrison

After playing with this, you're right. This does not work the way I remembered it. "Walls, Main Layer Only" seems to be just a toggle now, with no functionality to the line weight or color.

The "Walls, Main Layer Only" line weight will kick in ONLY if you turn the "Walls, Layers" layer off. This can be useful in a framing plan, for example, where you only want to show the stud boundaries. Similarly, the "Walls, Normal" line weights will kick in only if you turn the "Walls, Layers" layer off, too. This is useful if you only want to show walls as a two-line wall. BTW, I don't think you can enable the "Walls, Main Layer Only" with the "Walls, Normal" function at the same time. If you enable, "Walls, Main Layer Only," the line weights in the Wall Definition DBX are not controlling anymore.

That's about the most diplomatic response I've ever seen on this forum!

Doors don't cut beams, nor should they. (If this is truly a grade beam.) They can cut stem walls, though, which is probably what you need in this location.

Make sure that the budget computer's power supply is sized large enough to handle a high end graphics card, which can consume a lot of power.

The keyboard is optional. But with it, you are essentially getting a new laptop. For about 1/2 the price of a new Chief license. In the overall scheme of things, with the time you can save, it's cheap. I love Apple. (And I'm a Windows guy.) EDIT: If you are dead set against Apple iOS, you could get a Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 10. A low end model might set you back about $700 and then you could get Bluebeam Revu for PDF redlining. (about $350). I have a Surface Pro, too, and it's a nice machine, and you can run Chief on it (except for rendering, which is really slow without a dedicated graphics card) but Morpholio Trace might bring back the fun of architecture. That's worth a few hundred bucks, eh?

Yeah, that old puck with the crosshairs and the tablet menu was amazing for AutoCAD. I've tried to implement a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet without success, but maybe I didn't give it enough time. I found it difficult to be precise with the point entry as a tap, and the lack of additional buttons on the pen slowed me down without the keyboard shortcuts. However, even though my main desktop is Windows, I have an iPad Pro with both Morpholio Trace and Procreate. An iPad with an Apple Pencil and these apps is AWESOME, and worth the money for these apps alone, not to mention having the LiDAR on the iPad Pro. I have no problem going back and forth between the iPad and Windows. The key to making this work is having a "paper-like" screen protector that makes using the pencil feel more like a paper experience. It also works really well with note-taking apps like Notability. I frankly wouldn't mind doing everything on the iPad Pro (recommend the 12.9 inch model), except keeping the desktop mostly for Chief. The iPad is great for taking to jobsites or meetings where you then have a camera as well as handwriting. In Notability for example, you can do a punch list that includes photographs of the issues, and email to everyone directly from the jobsite when you're finished.

Of course, they vary. But these details were supposedly developed for a U.S. market. I don't know of any geographic areas that don't have any wind loads, at least, that still would require shear transfer detailing.

The problem with this library, and frankly, many of the details in Chief Architect's own detail library, is that they assume no shear transfer and no uplift forces. If you put shear blocking between the rafters to account for shear transfer from roof to top plate, for example, you defeat the whole ventilation scheme in the detail. The waterproofing aspects are also a little sketchy. The concern, of course, is that someone who doesn't understand engineering and standard building practice may use these details unwittingly as-is.

You might try going to Amazon books and searching under "Architectural Working Drawings". There are a number of classics, like the ones by Wakita, Liebing, Spence, and others. Not cheap, but no professional education is.

I like this phrasing, and it's probably very accurate.

You can rent the current version for $200/mo. Couldn't you explain that due to inflation your fees are now higher years later? This might cover the extra expense of the software rental.

Why? Because people who need to draw walls like this are not Chief's target market, and never were. (And likely will never be.)

Hi Tom, Just saw this. I'm not here as often as I used to be. But, some general thoughts are below. First, for interior slabs, I certainly wouldn't use less than 5" and 6" would be better. 4" is a pretty chintzy garage slab, and likely to crack. I'd use #3 rebar, say at 12" E.W., rather than WWF. If walls are not loadbearlng or designed for shear, they don't need thickened footings beneath them, and don't need preset anchors or drilled expansion bolts. Powder-driven pins would be the typical way to secure these to the slab. In a nutshell, I highly recommend getting your structure fully engineered based on actual soil conditions and local seismic/wind values. HTH...

Really nice sketch!! I think clients respond well to these sketches since it looks like they're working with an artistic/creative type. (And they are!) Good point about the screen protector. I use that, too. No fun drawing on glass.