ACADuser

I don't think that pipe came form CA. Looks like the real thing.

Yes, indicates a very old structure.

I used dividing walls on the first floor directly under the closet and it worked well in this case.

OK I get a call to day to change the 2nd floor closet floor elevation. Need the closet floor (cross hatched) on the 2nd floor to be lowered 7.5" and NOT change any other rooms! The ceiling above will remain in the same location, not come down 7.5" The entry into the master will have to have a thicker floor by 7.5" to accommodate trusses and make that portion of ceiling in the garage the same in North South direction. The step in the ceiling to the West will remain as is. What is the best method to accomplish this? (before I screw the plan up) 46th Ave Townhouse B.zip

Thanks all for all the interest in the thread. I just thought that with automated software you could do things automatically. Not.

Rod I took from you plan & tried to use in mine but fell short as I needed to extend the plate and add 2 more rafters. But I can not figure out how to edit your objects.

Because this job is an exposed rafter & Beam ceiling. How do you do an interior view without modeling the framing? The portion I am struggling with is out of sight though. I just thought it would be impressive to show that framing view on the plans.

I don't yet have the 3D skills to work with primitives to accomplish this. Way too time consuming. I can convey the intent in a 2D plan & elevation views. Just thought a 3D framing would be nice to include in the plans. Shane, Looks like you are close to having figured it out. The room needs to be conventionally framed exposed rafters for that rustic look. I think GC will use t-111 with the decorative side facing down as the first sheeting layer on the roof & then a 1/2" plywood layer to complete the structural requirements. I just wanted to show the framing technique for the framers & the GC. This picture is as far as I could get. Funny how a seemingly simple construction technique required a very skilled CA operator to pull off. Thanks for all the interest.

Why do I get all the hard ones? Just got back & Wifie is waiting dinner. So I'll try again in the morning.

The attached plan has an existing truss roof that I am attempting to add a conventionally framed addition with open rafters. CA will frame the main part but will not frame the roof over. When I manually replicate rafters over the existing trusses the frame through the trusses. I added a Truss plane but no luck. If I trim to the valley boards CA added the tails penetrate the roof plane. In a real roof over the existing roof remains and the rafters die into a 2x6 laid flat on the existing plywood. http://homebuildingaddition.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_0028.jpeg Can this be done? Lefeber Addition.plan

Oh you should take Glenn up on his offer. Will save you a ton of headache.

Imagelit this is good place to start http://www.chiefarchitect.com/getting-started/ Start with the House Design. The setup seems like a lot of work but after you do it save the plan file as a template file. The setup is necessary and will save you work & headache down the road. Your set up will change over time & with different houses but you can save the template file again to update your base template and save to non-standard houses if you thing your will build that again. Your template file will mature with you as you learn more tricks & develop your standards. The template file will save you a ton of man hours in the future. But don't worry about getting everything set in the file at first as your knowledge grows the file will change. Just the wall types & some basic settings are enough to get your started. I would share my template file but I use inches You will want to develop your own standards though. Define the ceiling height for the first floor, you can not define other floors until you create them. Wall definitions will give you a fit at first but modifying the default walls is a must if you want them to behave as you want them to. Actually it is easy to draw a box or two and see the 3d views come to life BUT to get what YOU want takes some homework. That's all the time I have to spare this morning. BTW I'm a newbie too. Just a little ahead of you.

Well said Gheppto I use the Sledge hammer approach, just keep pounding on it (CA) until it submits or breaks. Great help from the form folks, Thanks

Holy Crap Batman! And with no Auto Update for layouts or an "Update All Layouts", what if you changed a few walls? I'm gonna tell him it can't be done at this time. (:

New to the framing aspect of CA so I see the walls have a label. In this house I have about 80 walls on the 2nd floor. The GC asked if I could print out the wall framing elevation view for every wall. I have not found a tool for this. Ideally a landscape print out on 8.5x11 sheets would be nice, just like you get from the truss company. I have no wish to create a new Layout file & send the view of some 130 walls to each layout. Has anyone tackled this before? Thanks

Well yes it should. Just started playing with some framing today so I was searching post.

Sorry Glen no slight intended. I just don't see a clear explanation of how Chief works. It appeared you had a similar problem. Sorry for my misinterpretation of your post. I don't draw/create the 2nd floor first. I don't always know where the floor height need to be before I create the floor plan. So the defaults & set up are only a guesstimate. The plan is dynamic until the concrete is being poured. I need to know how to raise & lower rooms and sections of a house without screwing up the remainder of the plan. I spent 20 minutes with a closet 2nd floor where the closet & entry to the master bedroom were even with the main living area and the master was dropped 2' along with the master bath & shower. The garage under all this space was all one elevation. Every time I tried to adjust the closet floor the master bedroom ceiling would drop. I tried everything I could think of. (no auto roof or foundation on) Well the adjoining unit was a near mirror and it's closet was correct. I used the eyedropper tool to copy the room data & apply it to the other closet & a miracle happened. That changed the closet without messing up the master bedroom. It's just extremely frustrating that this remain a mystery to me an others.

Some cautions: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/08/02/windows-10-vs-windows-8-vs-windows-7-whats-the-difference/

CA should (IMO) show a complex example to demonstrate the inner workings so the USER can understand well enough to make full use of the software. When someone of Glen's experience can not use the DBX for floors to solve what appears to me as not so unusual a condition then the help file & the video's have fallen short. Anyone that builds, creates, or attempts to draw a house on a non level site or tri-level house and is more that a simple BOX will run into issues with the floor & foundation DBX. I only use 2d autocad so I can not speak for the other software's. So no one is asking for examples for ALL conditions just more than is being offered. I'm not jumping on you Perry, my frustration is with CA as I too have spent may hours chasing the illusive settings that will put the floor where it need to be & get the foundations at the correct heights. Currently I turn off automatic roof & foundation. I Build foundation once & modify I from there. I open the zero floor level & uncheck all the Floor boxed as I never have a basement or crawl space with a floor. In the first floor I check "Floor under this room" and uncheck the other two boxes. That's my basic starting point. And to those watching that are not aware be sure to uncheck DEFAULT when changing settings, not doing so can cause changes else ware you did not expect. Interesting thread, I hope those experts will set us all straight on how to use the Room DBX properly.

What i find appalling is that such a mature software does not have a clear & concise guide on how to properly use the dbx to control the floor & ceilings. The information only addresses the most basic of conditions.

When my projects are too large I use E size sheets. Everyone hates them but better than breaking up the floor plan with match lines. 1/8 scale is some times the answer but requires many enlarged details to see some of the important stuff.

I think CA ignores CAD paper space layouts, all 22 sheet.. All you will see is Model space. The model space tab only. What I do is block all imported cad so I can turn on & off. If you do not block make sure you keep that CAD import on it's own layers. This way you can manipulate the cad stuff.

As far as I can tell you can only import Model Space into the PLAN file. Layouts in CA are not like paper space in ACAD. What you get in CA are copies of views placed in CA layouts. Some of these copies update automatically like from plan view. All other views do not appear to update reliably. So without an "Update All Views: command it is a PITA to step through 20 layouts to activate the view & close to refresh that view in the layout. The text from ACAD needs to be edited so you can copy & paste into a CA Add text dialog box. No direct copy & paste of text objects. It can be tedious. That is what my understanding of the situation is. Maybe some experts will improve on my methods so far.

Wow Thanks. That should keep me busy.

Very nice Jon. Thanks. I'm more into structural elements of the building so I'm struggling with the interior design aspect. With 3D views the old 2D symbols on the plans are not cutting it. Customers are wanting more.