ACADuser

Thanks again guys.

Looking very good now. Rods added & angled line was the roof plane bleeding through.

Had to pull the roof plane back so it did not touch the exterior wall.

Shown below in Vector View which makes line errors pop.

The front has some slabs that I could not join but I am moving on to another project.

Thanks for all the help.

Most every item has been solved from all the tips I've gotten.

Only one wall issue remains on the  tight side of the picture.

Any tips on how to add two angled 1" rods to the canopy on the left?

Wall Test.zip

ACAD (sorry don't know your name) you also have many many Layer sets that renamed each time you send a plan to Layout. Very few use this 'feature'. If you uncheck the box below you'll be able to mange your Layer Sets much better.

 

layer set new 1.PNG

Larry,

Thanks for the tip.

Is there a global setting for that or do you set it once per drawing secession?

Thanks

Alan

Thanks Perry, that did the trick for most corners.

Thanks For the tips All

I changed the Stucco wall to include a 1/32" exterior layer that hid most of the lines.

Still have a angles line that must be ties to the roof surface somehow.

Wall Test.zip

Plan attached. I want  clean corner, one line. Not any end wall showing.

Have to leave, dinner time here.

Later

PS This is one of my first projects but I am working on three others, early stages.

Wall Test.zip

OK all this talk about correct models yields a clean layout makes me ask what to do to clean this up.

Item 1 is the end of the right wall coming through on the front wall. Wall type is CMU Stucco with Drywall on the interior (stock catalog wall)

Item 2 is a joint between floors, this front face in actuality is a contentious CMU wall & no seams.

But most all 1st floor to 2nd floor walls should be seamless on the exterior.

Webbed floor trusses are part of Chief's basic tool kit, just set the floor joist depth to the depth of the truss you want, but I couldn't find a way to pitch them for a roof structure. That would be a good question for the forum.

 

Do a google search for dropped ceilings https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=suspended%20ceiling%20chief%20architect quite a few articles, and there's a training video too #311 show one method.

 

"In CA all cleanup efforts are lost when changing to a revised section"

 

For me this was the hardest transition - working with 'live' sections. Once the model is built correctly (this is by far the most difficult part of Chief) the 'live' sections change with each change to the plan, no revisions are lost you just move annotation if needed and the sections can include any CAD detail you choose.

 All these thing are workable in Chief, but its not automatic.

Remember the better your model is the easier it is to cut the sections and elevations without cleaning up any mess so spend extra time to get the model clean.

If you do have some cleanup, do it in the view you send to layout, and not the layout itself, then when you have changes they will stay put.

 

For me, some foundations give me some trouble but by doing an auto detail, that will give me a p-line that I can then manipulate and get the foundation correct, and it stays put. If you added a new footing to that plan just change the p-line to what you need.

Thanks Larry, the carpenter will have a good time with those trusses. The Architect insisted on them to save money.

I found a ceiling article but this project is in permitting so I won't spend any more time now. Too much on my plate.

I'm working on a three story town home & the inability to show half the stair in one floor & half from above is killing me.

Perry,

I agree, clean model improves elevations & sections but I still see lines that need to be deleted.

I'm learning as fast as my old brain will let me.

The details shown are quite easy to duplicate in Chief and the changing sections are right in Chief's wheelhouse. Easy to change and modify if you understand Chief's way of doing things and that's by far the key, IMO,  to this whole discussion.

 

You say everything except for the floor plans are ACAD? Does that mean that all the sections are drawn in ACAD - by hand? No one who understands Chief would even consider that - way, way, too much work and changes must be a nightmare. Chief cuts usable sections from a properly built model (heavy emphasis on 'properly') in seconds. Annotated in minutes. Change the model the section changes, adjust accordingly, sections changed. So, so easy.

 

Anyone who is proficient with Chief would have absolutely no problem recreating the pages you show and not fall behind a proficient user in ACAD either, might even be faster in Chief.. But, and it's a big but, you have to understand how Chief works. If not then it seems cumbersome and inefficient. If so then creating thousands of details and changing/modifying sections is a genuine no brainer - again if you understand how Chief works.

 

One issue is that Chief's focus is very narrow. I've done commercial plans and plumbing isometrics and the first plan I did with my assistant ACAD user he was looking for an ACAD tool and of course I had to ask him what he wanted to do and said, "Really, it's that easy? It's better than ACAD." Granted this was for only one tool but there's a thousand Eureka moments waiting in Chief when you discover how the tools work, which I believe was Jim's point above. And even though Chief is residential focused it's not bad for small commercial either.

Well I'm in my second month with CA so I look forward to the day when I can do that in CA.

The sections and details are quite easy in ACAD as I use LISP & dynamic blocks for lots of things.

And the Stretch command in ACAD is very easy. So changes are quick for me. In CA all cleanup efforts are lost when changing to a revised section.

I haven't found Web trusses and can't seem to figure out Drop ceilings but time will tell.

The issue I see with sections is that 3D to 2D leaves a lot of clean up requirements but that may be me too.

One of my current projects is a one story office.

These details are ACAD while the floor plan is CA. I don't see myself doing all this in CA.

The sections have changed several times, so doing mods with CA sections when line tweaking is required would drive you nuts.

JMO

Too bad they don't fix the CAD environment.

There are a lot of little things that bug me too and I'll list them tomorrow. Too busy today.

If I need to go back to the chief plan from a spec'd date I see on a pdf or dwg, those files are in the archives.

What archives are you referring to?

Ones you saved or CA saved?

OK, I see, but the current version never has a version number in the file name.

I can probably live with that.

Thanks

When I send a PDF file plan to the client I would normally save any future changes to a file with a new revision number.
But when I do that the Layout file is no longer linked to that plan file. I have been saving a new layout file with that same revision number.

How you you keep the files in sync?

Yes Joe that is what I expected CA to provide seeing how automated the software is supposed to be.

Thanks Tommy that will be my last step. But in the design phase the stairs keep moving so to speak.

I added a closet under the first floor stair & now every time I mess with the stair they jump inside the closet & I have to reposition them.

PITA, can I turn that off?

Problem with plan view is stair from 2nd to 3rd floor is longer than 1st floor stair.

So in plan view of the 2nd floor the top of the stair covers the 2nd floor landing & confuses everyone who looks at it.

Thanks for the tip.

The dimensions are critical and I have had to move them at least 3 times due to changes in the room layouts.

When they stop moving I will need to create a presentation set with part of each flight showing on the 2nd floor.

For now I changes the 2nd floor stair layer name so I can toggle it off & on.

So there is no stair schedule or table to show rise/run & number of treads?

Thanks for the pointer. It is not as easy as it looks!

MacDill TH-2UnitA.plan

I saw a video explaining how to show part of the stair from the second floor & part from the first floor & now that I need it, where has it gone?

Also I want to put text with the stair data, rise run ets., in the section view. Is there a stair table to be used?

Thanks

OK got it by deleting the CMU partition wall again & re drawing it.

Thanks

Looks like the copy & past, hold position may have caused the problem.

Not sure. All is well now.

Plan would not upload and jZip will not zip it. I will restart my computer.

In the attached plan I created the floors with the auto floor tool & added walls to the first floor.

Wanting the elevator / Lift to be exact I copied the first floor along with the CMU partition wall. Then

went to floor 2 & 3 & used paste, hold position.

Then the ceiling heights needed to be changed so I use Floor Defaults to change the heights.

At this point I added stairs.

For some reason the ROOM is not recognizing the wall so the 2nd floor is one big room.

On the 2 & 3 floor I deleted the CMU partition & redrew it. That fixed floor 3 but floor 2 is still

one large room.

How to fix this ?

Thanks, that did the trick.

Using default values to create floors 1,2,& 3 I now found out they want different ceiling heights on each floor.

Can I change the entire floor ceiling height? (without selecting each room & changing one by one)

Larry, that's a heart breaker!

Did you move your entire C drive to the SSD? & Chief resides on it?

I read something about moving Windows Cash file to the SSD as well but that may be automatic.

I'll see if I can find that info.

So there is a way to use common names through the plant chooser.

Open the plant chooser & enter the common name.

Click the COMMON radio button & a list of matches populate the pick list.

Highlight one and click the VIEW button below

another window pops up with the display of the plant.

If it is 2D it will indicate that in the dialog, if 3D the dialog will be dimmed and not say 2D.

I think this is correct.