Designer1

Does anyone know how to best create sleeping porches as far as the screened openings go in Chief? I know we have windows and we have pass throughs but what is the best way to get them screened in? Do we manually place them in or? Ive never done one in chief so I thought I would ask before embarking on this design. Thanks!

Hi Robert, Thanks for the reply. Ive never posted a plan but thought it might be too big since its near 5,000 square feet, so I deleted everything other then the entry to limit to size of the plan... I wasnt sure if there was a size capacity for uploading. Thank you! Stairway.plan

Does anyone know what the best solution for this design scenario is in Chief? Here are my three options that I see yet three problems also... 1. Leave the stairs open underneath... issue is then you have to have the cumbersome railing there all the way down to the beginning tread which looks crazy. 2. Keep the stairs closed underneath... but then it cuts through the staircase coming up from the floor below. 3. Manually draw a wall underneath the staircase going up but then that requires the 4" of wall underneath which impedes the space of the corresponding staircase below coming up. In most build situations having the same staircase isnt a problem and you can overlap and create a wall or leave it open. With this design Im having issues with all the above. Please let me know if you have any recommendations. Thanks! Chad

Thanks so much Glenn!

Does anyone know how to remove these polyline marks? The tick along the edges and the plus mark in the center? Im working on an older plan and havent seen these before with chief. I know there must be a setting that is allowing these to show but I selected no labels but that didnt remove them. Any ideas? Thanks! Chad

Thanks Glenn! I guess there was an interruption while downloading the chief x9 update and so I was downloading both at the same time and I guess the other two new libraries got installed but this one needed to be installed one more time. Thanks again!

Does anyone know where the new bonus grass texture library goes once downloaded? Since it was labeled 'bonus' I looked through all my bonus libraries but didnt see it. Thanks, Chad

Chopsaw, sorry about the delay in response.... yes your right most the first floor windows have a large window with a smaller transom on the top... some are up to six windows mulled three on bottom three on top. Whats the best way to get the best results for windows mulled like this?

Yeah for me if I just focus on one of the mulled units and type in -18 in the offset... if I select single label it follows the offset. If I select show all components it ignores the offset. Im going to try a bunch of mulled units to see if its just one or all of them that are doing this. Im wondering if there are any settings I might have selected thats causing that to happen.

When I go and change the mulled unit to show all component labels it then moves the call out to the undesired space within the window....this is after changing the defaults and also unchecking show all components and going to the bottom and move the offset. Does anyone know why once you click show all components it overrides the default and specified offset in the mulled unit label dbx?

Thanks for the visual details Chopsaw. Thats great Im so glad this option exists!

Joe, nice recommendation, I agree with you Curt, it would be nice if they could display all the labels and lay them out so you can see them...nice tip I never noticed that before, is that an X9 feature? Perry, I couldnt find the mulled unit label to display all labels dbx selection you were talking about. Do you have to group select in order to find that? Thanks!

So I went back to the plan and looked at all the mulled units. I have some french doors with a transom window above, I have a front door that has sidelight windows plus a transom window, then all the first floor double hung windows have a transom window above and all these combos are mulled together. What is the best way to do this... unmull all the doors and windows and have the call outs automatically call each individual part out or is it proper standard to have the mulled units as one on the schedule?

Dennis... by the way I run into this a lot. The secret to this is I keep several past versions of chief on my computer and if an update occurs where I need an old texture I can export it out of a past version and import it into a newer version. This just happened to me a few months ago with a countertop I was using. Good luck! Chad

Thanks! I just figured it out...FINALLY! SO neither were working because I had so many first floor window units mulled together with transoms they one, didnt register as windows and therefore couldnt group select using the window tool and second they werent responding to the changes in Y axis measurements because they werent 'windows'. I didnt realize that mulling the windows together made them register as non windows but I guess thats the case. What a learning curve Im on with these construction documents...fun stuff! Thanks again guys for the input! Im sure Ill have more questions as I go.

Hi, Thank you all for your suggestions and recommendations. Im still having issues. If on the Y tab on the label area of the window dbx I change it to 60", -60" or 0" it stays in the same exact position. So what Im doing is making adjustments to the offset going to window/door schedule and re pulling in a new schedule after deleting the old. Regardless of what Im typing the call outs stay in the same location. I cant figure out what Im missing here. Dermot, when I tried it using this method you describe it wants to make the windows a cad block but doesnt allow me to make any changes to the label. Im doing all this in 2d view by the way and Im on X9. Geesh, I wish I would have learned this end of chief way back in 2003 when I first learned Chief.... this catching up stuff is cumbersome. Im so use to being the chief wizard (well actually only the chief engineers are the true wizards knowing the tricks and short cuts) but this makes me feel like a newby all over again.

Great thanks a lot!

Hi, after using chief since version 9 and Im on X9 Im starting my first set of CDs on chief. I feel it would have been optimal to stay in line with the learning curve with all things chief. I know chief top to bottom with all aspects BUT the working drawings and layouts...now learning that from scratch is feeling tedious but its my own doing since I didnt take the time from day one. With that being said does anyone know how to relocate the schedule callouts at the doors? I know you can select each one and relocate but all of the door and window callouts are awkwardly placed like the window call outs go through the exterior walls into the centers of the windows. I noticed there are many options to customize but I didnt see any 'offset' selection to move it lets say 18" off the wall. Does anyone know how to do this? Also, Ive watched a ton of the training videos but cant find the right one that can best teach me the layouts for CDs. Some ive watched are talking about tools of the layouts and what the buttons do, while the others are so far ahead they assume you already know how to put them together in chief. No critique on the training videos, I think there great, just wondering if someone could recommend one that might help me best? Thanks! Chad

Thanks for all the replies! Yes, I forgot to say I was working with X9. Dermot... do you know what version of chief this separate trim option came to be? Was this option designed for instances like when you have a balcony with double glass doors and once you put a railing up both sides of the door (inside the house and inside the balcony railings) both sides register as 'inside'? I have had problems with this over many different versions but didnt know how else to fix it. I understand if I select balcony or porch as room type it should register as an outside room despite being within the railing but it didnt always work this way.

Eric, I just found it! I found it on the general tab second to the last on the page "Interior doors...seperate trim and materials on each side" BUT...the dbx only appears when you select a door or pass through on an interior wall....if you use the same tool on the exterior the option goes away. To me this is so strange why wouldnt you have that option on all walls both int and ext? I have had issues with this when I have an exterior wall to a balcony and then even when the balcony area is called out as a balcony or porch because its enclosed by a railing it registers as an interior wall and sometimes it will show up as both materials the same on both sides regardless if you say otherwise on materials tab. I wonder what version of chief this option came out or has it always been there and Ive never noticed it before?

Thanks for the reply Eric. Im familiar with the materials tab and adjusting the materials in that respect but I saw a dialogue box that you could select to make sure they are divided versus just having it colored the same. I guess I will just ask tech support next time I have another question to call about... I just remember that video so vividly and cant replicate that dbx option anywhere.... its more of a principal thing for me versus not being able to change the textures. Thanks so much for your time replying!

Hi, I remember watching a training video on chiefs website about a selection box on the door dbx that you can select two separate textures for interior vs exterior of the door.... meaning I can have a wood finish on the outside and white on the inside of the door. I cant seem to find the selection box on the door dbx nor the training video I watched so I can find it... go figure! I must be in a daze because Ive looked at the door dbx and cant find it but remember one of the training videos had this very selection box..... was I dreaming about this? haha.

The other request was for the full mirror lighting like around the mirror... like Hollywood make up counters of yesteryear. Now they have mirrors for the sink area where its moved up from the wall a few inches and LED lights are put behind the mirror to make it glow so the light isnt as bright as the huge bulbs surrounding the mirror. Does anyone know how I might show this in a rendering? Just a light sources behind the mirror thats pulled from the wall some?

Whenever I need those ceilings I use the polyline solids to carve out the perfect size and shapes and then use the color tool to match the walls.

Nice, thank you both for the suggestions. Yes, its a tight space, yet the space thats there is wasted yet can only really be utilized if you switched around some of the plumbing fixtures which wouldnt be worth the cost. I will pass on these ideas. I tried to go on houzz but havent looked at pinterest yet, I will do that. Houzz didnt have anything when I did a search for the vanity. Thanks again!