RodCole

So that objects placed inside walls "Framing Hardware" can be seen in Wall Framing Plan View. This requires that the fill style be none or the symbols are obscured by the fill. I don't like the way the Hatch tool works, but it is the only option that I know of that allows for various types of fill styles placed on separate layers for display purposes and that allows for symbols to show inside the wall's main layer.

Another thing that can be handy when working with Hatches is to have the Hatch tool active and group select all of the walls you wish to either change the hatch fill style on or delete all in one process. It should not be necessary to tab to the Hatch when using this method. Thank tech support for this tip. It can be handy to place the Hatch tool icon on your toolbar if you think you might need it fairly often. I put mine at the end of the line of Wall tools. This way you can see that the Hatch tool is active, and just to be safe, check the status bar at the bottom of the screen as Perry mentioned.

I used to live in the Portland area, but not living there currently. I am up that way fairly regularly though.

I recently purchased a copy of "The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling" 3rd edition, by Charlie Wing. My father was a building contractor, and I grew up building houses and drawing plans. So, it is a little difficult for me to step back and see things from your perspective. The book provides a lot of information on a wide range of construction components and practices. But, from my point of view, it is rather basic. Which might just be what you are looking for. Any more might be a bit overwhelming for you at this point. Also, realize that the terminology that you are seeing in the dialog boxes has been provided to you by computer programmers, not construction workers or designers. So, don't worry so much about understanding the dialog box terminology. Try to look at it from the stand point of the possible construction practices that may be used. Then I would think that the dialog boxes may make a bit more sense, at least maybe they will .

I think that only works with their own proprietary file format. I could be wrong, but that is what I was given to understand.

I am going through a similar process with another manufacturer that uses a subset of Mitek's features as well. What I was told is that this capability is provided through the software licensing at an additional cost to the manufacturer. So, if the manufacturer has paid for the software capability, then they would still need to know how to go about exporting the trusses in 3D. As it was explained to me, the process is for the software operator to create the 3D view and then to do a save as or export to an available file format that can be imported into Chief. I have not gone through this process myself yet, but I am very interested in seeing how this actually works. Also, from what I understand so far, they can export to a file format that works with 3D Studio Max. But, that may not be the same as the 3DS file format that can be imported into Chief. If we can get the 3D geometry out of Mitek, then we should be able to convert the file to something that Chief can import. One of the things that I have been encountering is that depending on how the 3D model was actually constructed by the application, it may not display correctly as far as a complete set of surfaces that would be good for visualizing and for providing hidden lines as dashed when using more advanced modeling applications. This is of concern as well if you intend on exporting the 3D framing model out as a 3D PDF file for use in the field.

Please explain.

Think of levels as separate files, each containing all of what is contained on a single floor. What you are trying to accomplish regarding a load path, as I take it, can be done using unique layers and layer sets that are specific to the task. Reference sets are very powerful for bridging the gap between floor levels in plan view in 2D. Definitely check out the videos by dsh. But, if you want to show both the horizontal and vertical load paths in section views and 3D overviews, then you need to consider setting things up for that purpose. Attached is a pic of a plan I did a while back that shows the foundation, level 0, and the Wall Framing level 1. You can show what ever you want, so long as you set things up properly. Generally that means isolating the members you want to display so that they are not hidden behind other surfaces. Note: I could have shown the underfloor framing by turning those layers on and the floor surface layer off. Same goes for the level 2s layers. That is why you need to plan out how you want things displayed so that they are not obscured by other objects. BTW 3D rocks IMO. Love the 3D PDFs that can be done when exporting to other apps. Good luck.

I have been working with this for a while now. Where it really gets interesting is when you place dimensions and text in 3D on the appropriate layers for display in section views and 3D overviews. You can also make your own 3D symbols from the patterns if you get feeling ambitious. The toughest part of this process is getting the different pieces that are needed to be aligned properly when using Chief's symbol import processes.

I would reconsider purchasing another CAD program strictly for 2D work. As others have mentioned, Chief can already pull many of the views that are needed from the model. Where another, more powerful 3D modeling program than Chief can be useful is for modeling and pulling views that Chief does not do. Chief has been working toward producing detail drawings from the model for quite some time, and they are doing a very good job so far. There are still, and will continue to be areas that other programs can do even better than Chief in certain areas. Your field just happens to be one of those IMO. Don't overlook competitive upgrade offers from other companies as well. The savings can be substantial. The time you spend learning new software compared to what it can actually do for you is the real issue here. Why buy additional software if it will not actually do something that Chief does not already provide?

Brian I answered your original post. If you are interested, send me a Personal Message "PM".

I also would point you in the direction of Terry Munson's books, as Sherry suggested. IMO they will give you a good grounding in the use of Chief's tools. I just happen to work on things that are similar to what you are describing, but from the designer side. I have had a couple of years of engineering, but that was mostly to be better able to work with engineers. My suggestion would be that you do a bit of research on who you hire. My personal experience with a Chief Trainer was not all that productive. I haven't been doing any tutoring for a while now. That is mostly because people wanted to use Chief and Chief only. I spent a lot of time getting to know the type of tools that Chief has for doing the type of things that you are wanting to do, but decided on a different path for myself. What I do is combine the capabilities of a traditional CAD program, in my case TurboCAD Pro Platinum, along with Chief. I would also suggest that you consider exporting your models to other programs in order to take advantage of such things as 3D PDF files. There are many folks here that can provide instruction on basic modeling and plan production, as mentioned above. If you are interested in seeing how you could use Chief for a bit more than that you can send me a PM. BTW, I used to work in Sac for a few years.

The way I most often do this type thing is to create the original solid first, and then do a series of subtractions as needed. I used to even radius the edges of the form, but that does not show very well in vector camera views. Other than that, why not just create it in AC and then import it as a symbol?

1) Click the Multicopy button on the Edit tool bar. Then click the Multiple Copy Interval edit button on the pop up toolbar. This should open a dbx where you can enter the desired offset in the highlighted text box. The line should still be highlighted. Now drag the line from the edit handle to produce the number of offset copies you want. 2) Use the Trim and Extend tools on the Edit Toolbar. 3) Start drawing the line using your method of choice. Then press the Tab key to open the Enter Coordinates dbx. You can then make the appropriate selections and settings. BTW I use the Multicopy method all the time for offsetting objects. It does seem a bit of an odd way to go about things, but it works just fine. If you want more options, then use the Transform / Replicate Objects tool located on the Edit Toolbar right next to the Multicopy edit button. Hope this helps.

There are other apps such as PDF 2 CAD that will convert PDF files to either DWG or DXF files. The results that I have had so far were acceptable. Don't remember much about the details right now though. If you have a file you want converted post it and I will convert it for you when I get a chance.

I had a similar question regarding the number of PDF files that would be safe to use for 2D line drawing exported from other CAD programs and imported into Chief. I called tech support and was told that the real issue would be if you used very large files, not so much about having quite a few relatively small files. My files are actually fairly small and I have not had any problems so far. There is a lot to like about PDF files, but I am still curious myself as to whether there is some type of ceiling that one should try to stay below regarding both file size and the number of files in general.

My personal take on this is that it is actually a bit out dated for the reasons mentioned above. that being said, a clay model presentation with a few added touches does provide a level of detail due to the lack of color that can actually clarify the design intent by removing the clutter "color". Besides all that, I have always loved poster board models, and I still do. It is just that now they can be live, and show details that were never possible before. Mixing textures and clay surfaces is what really interests me these days. Just enough to make the model pop is what I am after. Gotta love it.

When setting up cross referenced cameras it compounds the work req'd for the cameras and call out numbering rather than being able to set them up and drag and rotate.

I take it that you are asking whether you can rotate a cross section camera callout view? If that is the question, then the answer is, no you can not. This is a real productivity killer IMO. As far as the temp dims are concerned, there is an icon on the left that allows you to toggle temp dims on or off.

I have a project that I am about to start that I will be doing this on. Just had my desktop hard drive crash. In the process of getting things installed now. If I happen to find something I will post it, but those were mostly promo types of things and not generally backed up like my projects were. Bummer, but I am excited about some of the ideas I have for this and it should come together in about a week to two weeks. My laptop does not have the right hardware for the presentation side of things. The basics are to export the terrain as a 3DS file and set up your UCS or Workplane at the elevation you want to make the slice. There are a few options. The easiest ones are to set the Workplane parallel to World and Offset as needed and then slice by Workplane. The other way is to Set the Workplane similar to a cross section and then Slice by line. I usually use the Workplane method. Once you have sliced the terrain, then extrude the profile that was created and, depending on the software you are using, there is an option to extrude the profile by setting the draft angle of the extrusion. I am working on my laptop for now and getting the other one set up as time allows. The simple example I showed is it. You just make more slices and turn off the terrain so that you are left with only the stepped slash extruded profiles. You can import this into CA as a symbol, but I generally don't since Octane is much better for this type of presentation. The slice process will create a profile along the slice and it is this profile that you then extrude.

There are other programs that can convert exported surface geometry into solids. You can then import the geometry back into Chief as a symbol. IMO Chief needs better ways to import geometry than what it has now. I would like to have the ability to import symbol geometry into Chief at it's exact coordinates and elevation from the other program.

To add more confusion along the lines of sdhall's above. You also can, and I often do, pull flattened views from other 3D modeling programs and place them directly into camera veiws to be sent to a Layout View. What I would love to see is the ability to have CAD Details represented as Camera Callouts that could be sent to layout showing the Layout page info the way Camera Callouts do. Lots of options, and might I say, more please.

johnny I only showed one slice, which BTW can be done using either by Plane or by Line. You can slice at the exact locations of the topo lines in chief and extrude each profile, with custom draft angles, in order to create a complete stepped topo model. If you want to go all out you can place a UCS or Workplane and place text in the modeling environment that will be converted to surfaces when you import the model into Chief as a Symbol. I like doing this process even if I am not intending on using Chief for the final presentation. It is just a slick way to get either text or dimensions into a rendered image. Sometimes workarounds can be very cool indeed. Nice one Chief ! The funny thing is that it requires that you use another app to create the text or dimensions placed in 3D space for this process to work. Generally this type of object is not visible in a rendering environment unless it specifically can deal with non-renderables. For the most part I do not use Chief for the presentation side for Clay modeling work. I prefer to keep the terrian as useful as possible in Chief. For what ever it is worth, getting to where you can get Chief's Terrain fairly close in the first place is a very good skill set to have all the way around.

There are ways of working with Chief models and Terrain and accomplish what you are after. Here is just a simple Terrain model exported from Chief and then converted to a solid and sliced. This model was only produced in order to illustrate what can be done using Chief and other programs in concert. There are a few hoops to jump through, but text when imported using symbol creation will convert the text to surfaces that will show in 3D views. What I like about this method is that you have a lot of control over the surface of the Terrain and the Draft angle of the sloping portions of the stepped slices. May not be a big deal to some, but I think it makes a difference. With a little effort you can also produce trenches for sitework as well. Where this really gets interesting is when the model is exported to Octane Render and either displayed in Clay mode, or if you separate the OBJ file from the material file and then you can use the Live Database to set material definitions on the fly as shown in your last image. One other thing that this method provides is extremely powerful lighting options as well. Very soon to have real time path tracing holographic capabilites as well. Cool as that is, don't overlook what others are trying to tell you regarding what you can lose regarding Chief's Library objects if you are not very careful.

Looks like my notes, but mine are on graph paper.