JiAngelo

I'm not sure if I have a proper answer. I reread your original post. I take it the dwg doesn't have contour layers you could specify as elevation data when importing? Don't you already have a file of just points? And a second file that now has them as elevation points? Then create the splines in the second and cut-paste them to the first should work. Does the county have a topography layer of the parcel on its gis website that you could use to judge placement of contours better? If the chief terrain is too busy set intervals to 2' or 5' might make it easier to see and trace. Start at 5' and cut-paste then switch to 2' and repeat if you need finer contours. You could also copy-paste any of those points you want to keep. I hope this helps.

Check with your county gis departments. Ours have downloadable files, others I've had to contact to have them email the data. Some require you purchase it for a minimal fee. Another source are surveyors. The county recorder has the plat on file and there you will find who the surveyor was.

Where's the dormer? That looks like a split level house where you walk in and go up or down a half flight of steps.

You can export just the current view to dwg if you want. Turn on/off the layers you want to see on each floor you export.

That's a dogear arch in doorways

Hello, I misspoke. I was using that tool to create piggybacks last week. Here's a link to a video of what you need to do using the clip tool. To snap to the compound shape you just need to select both members then trim the desired member to both in one click. The extend tool works similarly. Chief Architect Premier X16 2025-03-25 11-03-08.mp4 The video was too large to upload.

Use the merge and join tools in the lower right bottom to reshape the web connections

My bad. I also didn't know that setting existed. When I drew a custom countertop it still left the back of that cabinet hanging outside the wall. It only happens to one of the cabinets. The other truncates properly.

That's a countertop. Manually draw the countertop over the cabinets should eliminate that. You may need to replace the sink.

1. Turn on the reference layer for the floor below and draw the room over the red lines. OR 2. Copy the 4 walls below switch to the upper layer and paste them in place. Either way, then open the new room and select Open Below for the room type. It will now appear as one big shaft. And you can repeat this for multiple floors. Remember the openings you put in those walls belong to the floor they are on. Best if the walls belong to that floor too.

Gene, it took me a minute to figure it out. Draw your first truss and then draw a general framing member down the length of the ridge line. Next open a section view of the truss. Pick a distance down from your peak for your Piggyback Truss bottom chord height + 1-1/2" for laterals = Hip Truss top chord height. I chose 2'-10.5" and 3'. Next resize your general framing member to 3.5 x 1.5 and raise it to fit between the chords and copy them to either side like so, Next select the truss and break it at the 3' line and drag the peak down to the opposite 3' line. The truss should auto rebuild itself into a Hip Truss. Next go to plan view and draw a second truss farther away and still in the cross section camera view. Then return to section view and select the new truss you see drawn above the hip truss. Grab the bottom cord and raise it to the 2' 10.5" line. Next drag the tails up to the 3' line (so that the piggyback tails rest on the hip truss top chord. You may need to scroll and zoom to get the moved points in the right location. The upper truss should have rebuilt itself as well. Check this in dollhouse view with trusses turned on and next we have to fix the tails. Select a truss and open the cad detail page for trusses. Zoom to the piggyback truss. Below it draw a general framing member about a foot longer in either direction under the bottom chord. Move this member to 1-1/2" below the bottom chord. Then use the red circled "Join and Lap Ends" tool twice. First time click on one top chord, then 2nd time click on other top chord. (you may need to adjust the member depending on how they snap together) Then raise the tails to match the top of your member (1-1/2" below the bottom chord.) and delete the member. In plan view move the trusses so that one is on top of the other. Select both trusses and move them to one end of your building. While both are selected, multi copy them 24" oc.and make the necessary copy for the end truss as well. Then look at your seamless 3D views. Note, I actually moved my piggys to a copy of the truss Layer, so that I could turn them on/off separately from the hip trusses. Also, if you select the end hip truss and change it to an end truss it updates automatically. Last note, I tried this first in truss detail view and the hip created fine, but the piggys kept jumping around - it seemed like in detail view the bottom chord always began at the TOW. In cross section view it gave you more refined control to create the piggys. Hope this helps.

Nice Gene. We've had a couple clients install those a little higher to fill/rinse mop buckets.

That's a great idea. I'm wondering if we subtract the original from proposed would it give us all the fill volume required. And if we subtracted the proposed from the original would we determine the volume of cut required.

When I import a dwg or dxf file into CA I have to specify the points layer as elevation data. There has to be an underlying polygon that will either becomes a terrain perimeter automatically or I specify that layer is a terrain. Without the terrain the points never appear, just the adjacent data. When that happens I will create a terrain perimeter that encompasses all the data, then copy-paste this terrain to a new blank file. Now import the dwg/dxf and points will appear. Post the plan if this doesn't work.

Like @KevinWaldronsaid above, the CA cabinet libraries, including the manufacturer's provided libraries are not drawn with enough detail to be sent to a CNC machine. CA Manufacturer's Libraries, like Aristokraft or Kraftmaid, don't even have enough information within them for a 1:1 connections with 2020 Kitchen design software, which is owned by the same company that owns Mozaik, Cyncly.com. If you've ever used 2020, watch this demo and notice how similar they are in designing a layout. Notice it is using a Mozaik door library, and look at all the options that library comes with, including blum hinges, handles, drawer glides, and even choosing drawer/tray construction to be box or dovetailed - the level of detail is insane compared to Chief's libraries having only Doors/Drawer fronts, finishes and wood species. Look at the exploded parts view at 2 minutes. At the 3:30 mark it starts taking the parts of a cabinet and optimizing the cuts and placement on 4x8 sheets of prefinished plywood (or particle board) By 3:50 you know you need 21 sheets of plywood and at 4:00 they are showing you how you can manuever cabinet placement individually and then edit shapes on the fly to create predefined cutouts in a cabinet's sidewall. You should be able to export DXF's of your plans and elevations (for odd shaped cabinets like under stairs), recreate these in Mozaik using its stock library or one customized to how your friend intends to build his cabinets, This is the method we currently use for 2020 software pricing after configuring a CA kitchen in greater detail to match a manufacturer's available cabinetry options within each line. For instance, some cabinet lines don't offer fluted columns or hood detailing that Kraftmaid has and we must work around this. I hope this helps.