builtright3

1 minute ago, Chief16Designer said:

It's no problem  but I would use exterior drywall 

Yes, Green Board, I'm assuming your talking about? Or is there another product I don't know about?

6 minutes ago, Ridge_Runner said:

Until the place goes up in flames and the mudslides start!

Or you can live in the fire safe areas along with the "Brown Cloud" (smog). LOL

As much as I don't like the congestion of CA I love the weather and resources are unlimited!

Mountains, lakes, oceans, deserts…. All close traveling distance

California Question

I have a customer that wants to do drywall with a hand texture on his patio ceiling. I have seen it done in Parker Arizona on a river house but not much out here in California. Is that a no no or is it ok to do?

The cover for the patio is actually the second floor above it.

This is not my design

It is interesting hearing about different peoples opinions and from different areas of the country.

If you really want to make the money in Architecture and/or Design (I say design because that is what unlicensed people call themselves) California is the place to be but as always California go's to the extreme with regulations and the homeowners pay for it. The cost for plans and permits and all the other red tape I find to be about 10 to 20% of the building cost. To me that is crazy! Before you would even begin a $100,000.00 job it will cost the homeowner 10 to 20k. I can handle 10% but anything more then that seems to be a total waist of money.

Example of waist of money:

The latest in the wonderful world of Whittier, CA is that before you can submit a plan to the building department for a room addition they make you pay a sewer camera guy to inspect your sewer line from the house out to the city lateral. The camera average cost is about 500.00 and the city charges you $280.00 for them to sit and watch the 10 minute long video of your sewer line. If they find damage to the line you have to fix it before you can submit plans to the building department for the work you want to do. Sewer line replacement or sewer liner cost start out at about 6k and go up from there. The job I am currently doing is 8k. And if the lateral out in the street (city property!) is damaged the homeowner pays for it and not the city!

It gets worse:

A contractor has to have a special license to work in the city street where the lateral is located and so there is another 6 to 20k depending on how far and how deep.

If you decide to go with a liner thru the pipe its easier but more expensive unless you are doing it out to the lateral and that is were you save the money. But!, If a plumber ever comes out and jets that line in the future or runs a snake through it you can damage the liner.

The inspection of your sewer line may not be a waist of money but the city fee of 280.00 is!

Not only the Architects and designers can prosper from all this, the contractors can also if they play their cards right. General contractors can have their hand in all of it

Ethical? You decide!

14 minutes ago, DianneDSC said:

Even if drawings are not required for permits, good design is needed and should be valuable to clients. Perhaps market and sell design solutions with 3d visualization. Also, construction documents for remodels and custom home design help convey what is to be built so builders can provide clients with more accurate pricing and be included with the contract. Potential clients and builders may need to be educated and shown the value in having professional designed solutions. It's not always about just what's needed for permits.  

I agree with you but if its not required by the city only people with deep pockets will pay the high cost for a designer or Architect. You have to advertise it the right area's. 

1 hour ago, Ridge_Runner said:

The easiest way for me was to use what you already know and use.

Go to the floor you want for the planview

Make sure the annoset you want is showing, which should set your layerset

As Michael says, this should now have all of your Active Defaults set

Now just hit the Save Planview button.

You just created a Planview that, when chosen, will set the Annoset and Layerset and the floor it was taken on. You can then, if need be, add a reference set to use, as well as the other things this thread says you can set.

It's just not that hard. 

Go thru your plan and set up as many new planviews as you want. I like to open several of them at a time in the tab structure. One click and you can switch between them or move them to other monitors, etc.

Thank you for saving me some time! I have my new plan template set up already. Very easy!

That's the part I have to figure out, is to set up my plan sets or views and to be tied into the right anno set. I haven't studied yet but if someone wants to shortcut me I would appreciate it.

In other words: How do I tie it into what I already have set up?

13 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

You’re more than welcome.  And sorry, I meant to answer your question but something important came up so I had to leave for a bit.

 

I believe there are a handful of good reasons to keep annosets around.  They can serve a unique purpose still and give another layer of options to work with (Rene gave one good example above).  Even if they didn’t though, I think they would likely stick around for quite a while for the “old school” guys and gals, for legacy reasons, and for larger companies with large databases who find it would be too costly to switch systems. 

 

Having said all that though, I also think that the vast majority of Chiefers could completely do away with them and they would be better off. 

Im already on it!

Plan views are very powerful and easy to learn (maybe because I already have been using anno sets for some time and understand them). Looks like Chief did a nice job on this. I'm excited to start using plan views as soon as I start my new drawing tomorrow. I already see several benefits from switching over.

14 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Ya.  You could continue to use Active Defaults and optionally Annotation Sets for this purpose  just as always.  This is one good reason for keeping Annotation Sets around for sure.  For the record, I wasn’t actually suggesting they get rid of annotation sets entirely because that can still serve as a good organizational/annotation object group control tool.  I was only trying to point out how they’re not really necessary anymore for what most of us use them for and how they’re a redundant control for most people’s workflows.  

Thank you again!

I'm pretty efficient with layers and anno sets but I can see how this new information could improve my production. I will study it further.

31 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

To answer a few of you guys at the same time re: anno sets...

 

Try to completely forget about the term Annotation Set for a minute.  I feel like you’re getting too hung up on that term.  Now ask yourself this question...Do I know EXACTLY what Active Defaults are (this is not some generic term I’m making up) and and do I know where that dialog box is?  We have always been able to change our Active Defaults without using an Annotation Set.  Nothing has changed.  Simply set your Active Defaults to what you want and then Save the Plan View.  No need to assign an anno set if you don’t want/need to (which most people don’t).  I’ve said this many many times before, but an annotation set is just a pre-set group of Active Defaults.  Change them all as a group using an annoset or change them one at a time, it’s really up to the user.  

 

As I also said earlier in this thread, right click on a Saved Plan View in the project browser.  Look at everything Plan Views remember.  All the Active Default items are in there.  Set them to whatever you want them to be...either right there or in the Active Defaults dialog, it doesn’t even matter which.  When you do so though, you are choosing not to use an annotation set.  Just because you see an annotation set dropdown doesn’t mean you need to use it.  

 

For the less experienced users.  Here are all the basics in a nutshell.  

-  Items are displayed using their LAYER and it’s related settings.  

-  LAYER SETS are a way to control the display of those layers differently as a group (roof plan vs. electrical plan for example).  

-  ACTIVE DEFAULTS allow you to select which text, dimension, and other annotation object defaults you want to use at any given time (these defaults may control the text style, dimension format, layer the annotation object is initially placed on etc.) as well as which layer your CAD objects are place on (referred to as the CURRENT CAD LAYER

-  ANNOTATION SETS are what you get when you choose to save a group of the afformentioned Active Defaults. Change the annotation set and the Active Defaults all change at the same time.  The annotation set can also optionally change the Layer Set along with the other Active Defaults.

-  Plan Views are much like Annotation Sets and can be set to remember EVERYTHING annotation sets remember but they can ALSO remember zoom settings, floor numbers, color on/off toggle settings, whether or not a reference floor is being used, which reference floor is being used, which reference layer set is being used, and there may be more things I’m forgetting.  In addition, Plan Views are also stored in the Project Browser which can make for a much more efficient way to manage your plans with or without a layout being open.  

I totally get it! Thank you!

I have one question:

Can you give an example of when we might still want to use an Annotation Set? Or are you saying that there is no longer a need for them at all? That maybe they still exist because of us old school guy's that are still using them? 

7 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

 

Thank You for clearing that up! 

24 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

Made a complicated video for everyone to scratch your head at..really I tried my best on short notice

Please allow 10 minutes for it to display in HD, otherwise the resolution will be atrocious! (YouTube needs 10 min processing time for HD)

 

 

Very interesting concept! Great Video!

I have a question:

If I wanted to have the electrical plan and plumbing plan or foundation and framing (any of these) on the same layout page how would I do that if you are using this idea?

I would like to be a part of a group on line session if anyone wants to put it together. I would love to learn more about plan views. I like the group sessions because good questions come out of it.

1 minute ago, LeeDrafter said:

thanks!! I don't know if points matter that much, but I want to be able to keep asking questions and getting replies  

I don't think it matters much as far as points but these guys are pretty generous to help. I know the program pretty well but most of them know much more than me and make me feel really dumb sometimes.

I hope solver helped with your answer!

15 minutes ago, LeeDrafter said:

By the way, I don't why my reputation rating is so low. I have always been polite and pleasant on this forum. I do try to research questions before posting a new topic as to not waste anybody's time. I also try to help with other user questions, but usually there other, more-experienced people answering questions. Anyway, I hope my low rating doesn't discourage discussion about my posted questions. I really appreciate this forum. It is a very valuable tool. thanks

I feel ya! I gave you a point olso!

This is the easy method

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zdf750vcnjzfw99/2019-02-06 10.53.36.mp4?dl=0

Sorry!! I seemed to have opened a can of worms with suggesting she learn the annoset approach. Actually I take that back, I like to stir things up! I learn more that way!!

10 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

 

I guess we'll be "Schooled" together then .

 

I may need to dig deeper but so far I only found the two Videos  I linked above....

 

M.

The program has came a long way since I started using it in 2004. Sounds like annosets are old school according to what Im reading here.

4 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

make sure your valleys are correct and re-frame just those intruding roof planes.

Perry Thank You! You are one of my hero's on the forum!

I cant have a valley because it is an open beam ceiling so it has to be an overlay. Its not really a big deal right now because all I have to do is pull back the rafters above the sheeting after the auto frame. It wont be seen in 3D anyway. I was looking to see if someone might know something I don't about a roof over lay but nothing new has came up yet.

Hoping that a thread like this might motivate Chief or give them a starting point to come up with something simple. This is a basic everyday framing technique that in my opinion should be a priority to Chief to fix it they can.

Like the "Edit Wall Layer Intersection" tool. I love this tool when it came out. As a guy that does additions and interior remodels these types of tools work best for me. Now we just need the "Overlay" tool or "California Framing" tool on the bar.

It doesn't seem like it would be that complicated for Chief to come up with something where that rafters will be able to over lay the roof sheeting some how but then again I know nothing about programming.

If you were able to put a wide wall on the roof and make it 1 1/2" high then you would have something for your roof base line to work off of. That may sound stupid but there is some truth to it.

8 hours ago, AndreaKDC said:

I'm having issues keeping my electrical plan separate from my floorpan, and vice versa.  When I change which layer set I'm working in it seems to affect my layout view.  Page 1 of my layout is supposed to be the Electrical Plan, Page 2 is the supposed to be the floorpan (with no electrical on it), and the same order for pages 6 and 7.  I've used chief for a while, but I'm new to X10- is there a change to X10 that is causing this?  Help needed!

Archive.zip

I'm a little reluctant to say this because whenever someone sends me in a whole new direction I get stressed out. As I looked at your layer sets I see myself a few years ago when I had a lot of issues with layer sets. It was strongly suggested to me by a few people on this forum to learn how to use annotation sets. Reluctantly I went ahead and spent about a week learning and setting them up and It ended up being the best thing I ever did, because once layers are set they hold well and you stay consistent. Saves me a lot of time and aggravation.

Thanks to people like Perry, Joe C, Tommy and a few others. They helped me through it and I'm very great full to them. Made a huge difference in my productivity and constancy. I don't think you will take as long as I did to set it up because I'm a slow learner and I want everything perfect so I'm my own worst enemy at times unless you share my same qualities LOL!!

You can set up an annotation set quickly once you understand it. 

2 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

Have you done much work with custom trusses ?  You can get almost everything you need except for the compound angle cut with a custom truss basically only utilizing the top chord trimmed off with a truss base at the bottom.

 

I don't use trusses in any of my builds but if It makes more sense to use them in my designs to get the look I want then why not use them. I will study the videos and the manual.

5 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

This is an old one but I don't believe there have been any other improvements in this aspect of the software since.

 

I can't really tell exactly what is going on from your  interior shot so if this does not work or does not apply let me know.

 

 

Nice Video!

Is there a setting that the rafters will cut at the roof sheeting like we do with a wall that cuts at the roof?

13 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

Solid's ?  I think I made a video a while back. Have you seen that one ?

Let me know if you find the video. I haven't seen it

Is there an easy way or a box I'm not checking to get rid of these rafter tails? I know I can shorten them by just dragging them back but I would think there is a better way. Would be nice if there was a box to check for "California Tie In Framing" or something. I have always been able to work around it but never found another solution.

Help would be greatly appreciated!