JiAngelo

I had to first delete my ex. library to download a newer library.

Learn something new every day. That took me a minute Rene. I've always had a problem with backsplashes around windows and cooktops that soffits or slabs were cumbersome to address. I like how you can add underlying elements like thinset and backerboard to aid in material list calculations. And I can see using this to quickly to mask some of chief's 3D quirks or situations where adding skirt or molding lines are a bit cumbersome. A minor drawback is that the dbx for slabs, soffits & 3D solids allow one to set a uniform height from floor and the width/height of those objects, If you had door number plaques beside or on each door in a commercial office space, you could select all and change their size and location uniformly. It seems each material region would have to be changed manually via an elevation or 3D view. I also noticed in 3D view selecting multiples gives the highest height from floor value for all as a group, and overall width, but that isn't available when selecting just one. Still a great feature to add to the arsenal. Thanks.

For a straight decal - use create an image billboard. BUILD>IMAGE>Create Billboard Image. Unfortunately the sunlight is picking up the transparent billboard in the glass. See it's shadow on the floor. Right image is a cropping of the left's text only. The left image has a (2) transparent cropped billboards pasted in the upper area. All images are about a 1/4" forward of the wall you apply them to or else they fight with the wall's material. I grabbed rabbit's images above to show how quickly they can be added to chief. If you save the images to your library, You can apply it to a slab or 3D object, or furniture. Below is an image of a poolhouse I recently designed. the sail painting is from the library on a 1" thick slab, The right is actually the "waveform painting" from the library. i changed the border to black, then changed the waveform image to a chalkboard sign image in Chief's library as well. For me the slabs are a bit easier to manipulate than the billboards. I sometimes use soffits too, for shower seats and 1" thick soffits painted as wall tiles, Hope this helps.

Divide your front porch into 3 rooms, middle room is ~7'- 8' wide, no roof. Assuming 9' ceilings default, make your foyer 12' ceilings and you will be fairly close to your chief elevation. Use a moulding line to connect the front facia & gutters of porch 1 & 3. The roof returns to the front door don't appear to have gutters - might be wrong here. To match your photo, the foyer is really ~11-12' wide inside. 2' wider in either direction from the entry door. That will give you the proper massing. Goodluck.

Larry, I didn't articulate it properly. Take the original drawing you sent us and again select all. MOVING LEFT/RIGHT (1/16" increments) Move left 1 time and your left/right measurement's 1/2" error disappears in the upper right living room. It reappears at 8, 16, 24, etc... if you keep moving left. In Action History select Open Plan to revert back to original drawing. Move right 1 time and your left/right measurement's 1/2" error disappears in the upper right living room. It reappears at 9, 17, 25, etc.. if you keep moving right. In Action History select Open Plan to revert back to original drawing. MOVING UP/DOWN (1/16" increments) Move up 7 times and your up/down measurement's 1/2" error disappears in upper left bedroom. It reappears at 15, 23, 31, etc... if you keep moving up. In Action History select Open Plan to revert back to original drawing. Move down 1 time and your up/down measurement's 1/2' error disappears in the upper left bedroom. It reappears at 9, 17, 25, etc.. if you keep moving down. In Action History select Open Plan to revert back to original drawing. Now turn on Auto Exterior Dimensions. Repeat the above steps, returning to Action Step "Auto Exterior Dimensions" instead of "Open Plan" each time. Notice different measurements jump around, several at different increments from those outlined above. Return to Action History = "Auto Exterior Dimensions" and it is obvious the wall with 3 windows has a 1/16" problem. (move it down 1/16") Then select the following, The upper left bedroom closet wall - it has a 1/16" problem. (move it down 1/16") That closet's vertical wall adjacent to dead space - it has a 2/16" problem (move it left 2/16") The wall behind 1/2 bath? (door in room below closet rear wall) - it has a 2/16" problem (move it down 2/16") Now repeat the LEFT/RIGHT, UP/DOWN movements and you should see no errors at any of the aforementioned increments. Basically, a 1/16" grid only matches up with 1/2" rounding at a +/- 8, +/- 16, +/- 24, etc... progression from wherever on the 1/16" grid you draw.. And multiple walls on 1/16" at 1/2" rounding can exacerbate and create multiple errors over distances. It even hides those errors that cumulatively fall on the progression by accident or design. And speaking of design, Your redwood walls are a 4" stud layer with 3/4" int./ext. layers. Your existing interior walls are 3-1/2" stud layer with 3/4" int./ext. layers. You need to reverse the red wall and line up with the interior side to match the other two. Changing siding to 1" and keeping drywall at 1/2" would help keep you on the 1/2" alignment. If only your dimension defaults were set to 1/16" then every time you see anything but whole and 1/2" incremental measurements you'd see the error immediately and could correct it then, or wait until the end and correct it as I have shown. I hope this helps.

Absent the plan, my best guess is the floor below is offset and Chief is extending a truss support down to that level's top of wall. It might be simpler to open the truss cad detail (not the dbx), delete that vertical piece. Lock the truss envelope and uncheck special snapping to prevent it from auto adjusting back to having the vertical member.

Larry, change your General Plan Defaults snap unit to 1/2" before drawing should keep you on your grid rounding. To test this I drew a random rectangular polyline which measured 2'9" x 3' in your original plan file. I added dimensions with a 1/16 precision to show you what was actually drawn was quite different from what your original dimension defaults showed. Here I also discovered that Chief doesn't round up at 2'8 3/4", it rounds down to 2'8 1/2" And Bob, what you suggested is only better at hiding it. Changing accuracy to 1/0 reverts to 1/1 and then only displays whole numbers. It rounds 2'8 1/2" to 2'8" and 2' 8 17/32" to 2'9 Here's a comparison of all three precision methods. With less precision the errors can compound over farther distances. Notice 1/2" precision has a rounding error occurring between 5/8" and 3/4" And 1/1" precision has a rounding error alternately occurring between each of the 2' 8-5/8" measurements. One measures 2'9" the other 2'8" I'm pretty sure all of this traces back to the 1/16" grid this plan file was drawn on.

Larry, Thanks for posting the plan. I was wrong about your walls. Your interior wall has the stud wall painted white. Only the number 1 wall was off, but you fixed it in the uploaded plan. In your video, when you are fixing that wall, at the 1:20 mark you point to DIM 12' 5-1/2", click on it, and it reads 12' 5 7/16", to which you then state "that's close enough." Well, it isn't unless you decided to allow precision to be off or round itself in the defaults somewhere. While visiting your default dimensions "ANNO FLOOR PLAN" I saw it was set to Grid rounding - and I think that explains what you are demonstrating in your second video. It is like your walls weren't drawn on the grid initially. Click on Primary Format and you will see it is set for accuracy 1/2. I changed this to 1/16 and here's what your dimensions immediately turned into. To fix this, just change these two walls. The exterior wall with 3 windows, make that dimension 10' 1/2" The closet wall, change that dimension to 2' 6-1/2" You can check all your other dimensions but they should be correct now.

The walls are closer to 4' off the ground based on the switch distance to floor and angled wall distance to floor. If the roof is 12/12, and the ceiling plane is 8' draw another wall 4' inside the bedroom, and make this wall invisible and 12/12 pitch for roof. open the new smaller room and set default ceiling height to 4' and uncheck flat ceiling. If you did it right, the 4' walls roof plane will extend up and past the 8' walls roof plane. Your interior picture gives the contextual clues. The dotted lines are the invisible 8' wall location. It looks like your witches hat is then 10' ceilings. Its why you see half the roof triangle eave (below 8'), and not the other half (above 8') (see green arrows below.). It might be easier to draw the witches hat as an 8' tall room, the on the 3rd floor draw it again open below, 1' tall walls (2' including the floor = 10' overall) Set all witches hat walls to 12/12 pitch and maybe roof group 2 if it is fighting with the original roof. Unfortunately I'm not using Home Designer.

I think you need to check your wall locations. Circle 1 wall without drywall matches up with exterior finish material (NOT interior drywall) Circle 2 wall without drywall matches up with interior drywall (NOT exterior finish material) Second, you are missing some necessary measurements to make a proper comparison. Extend and find out the distance from 11' 8-1/2" to interior drywall of left wall (to compare with 14' 8-1/2" measurement. Do this with other locations, like the 6' 8" and 9' 6-1/2" measurements. I think you will find you are mixing/measuring interior layer (drywall) to main layer (stud) in several areas.

With any stair or ramp, in their DBX Choose Railing, then Style "OPEN", Include Top/Bottom & raise/Lower bottom = 2' Choose Newel/Balusters, then Type=ROUND, 2" width. Choose Rails, then replace both top rail & bottom rail with "Tubing Round" 2" Choose Materials, then replace newels & rails w/ BLACK (or another material of your choice.) This will give you the railing style you are looking for. For the handicap rails ends, it is a bit more fun. In 2D draw a moulding line extending from one end of a staircase. I changed my line weights to 1 to make things easier to see. Change Molding to "Tubular Metal" 2". Note, because I was lining up with the ramp snap point, I had to offset my molding -3/8" to get the tube to line up with the stair/ramp tubing. Open a cross section camera looking at the rail section. Raise the rail from the floor on which it has been drawn to match your rail height. Then highlight the molding and extend it around in a loop return. In 2D view mirror your railing so that it is 3/8" offset to match your initial. Switch to 3D view and paint it black to match rails. Select both moldings and mirror to other side of ramp/stair. Then in 2D view raise/lower moldings to match height of that side of the railings. Voila! If you zoom in close, the bottom rail has a better welded look than the top rail which is riding slightly above the rail. I couldn't figure out how to automatically fix that short of connecting the rail end pieces and making my own horizontal rail, using only the stair posts, no railings..

Doug, I can view the dwg in Trueview 3Dspace and see the LICCONTOUR2 lines have elevation data. But I can't figure out how to import this into Chief with the data. When I tell Chief LICCONTOUR2 is elevation data the import has nothing on that layer. Can you tell me the steps you followed? I've always had to have my surveyor send the file back with the cad block exploded, then when I import and specify that layer as elevation data it shows up in Chief. Thanks. .

Unless I overlooked an import variation, your surveyor did you no favors. Layer 0_ has elevation data for Perimeter Lot lines Driveway Road pavement. They are all continuous values ~3000'-3020' which makes no sense since each of those items should undulate with the terrain as it crosses a topo contour line. And his page border has an elevation value of 0" On layer 0_ there is a cad block with contours on LICCONTOURS2 and elevation text on LICCONLABELS exploding this layer reveals no elevation data is attached for the contours. You can import this with no elevation data, explode 0_ cad block Display only layer LICONTOURS2, Select all and manually convert all contours to elevation splines. Then display LICONLABELS and manually select each contour and set it to the text value in line with it. Or contact the surveyor amd have him send you a corrected file, unblocked with correct elevation data assigned to LICONTOURS2 and specify only this layer as elevation data when importing. Hope this helps.

I'm back home now. I'm assuming the layer you want to delete does not have a "+" sign in the Used column under the ALDO. By chance does it have a wrench or an "S" in its Used column? - I've found those are system layers that cannot be deleted, but can be renamed. In my ALDO there are only (3) layers that can be deleted when empty. Audio/Video Plumbing Text I will delete - which I created to test this The first two layers exist in my template file and are present in every new plan I create. Below are pictures showing delete only works on the blank used column. I did discover that if you select two layers like so, You can merge them. But you must select the wrench or system layer first, then the one you want to delete 2nd and it will merge with the first. If you try the reverse system will throw an error telling you a wrench or system layer cannot be deleted - and this will turn your text I will delete layer into a wrench. You can press undo if you do this accidentally. I hope this helps.

I'm not at my computer. But I use a couple of grouped bedroom sets and dining sets quite often and when those blocks are on i can toggle the electric layer on/off. I've made the mistake of breaking the block to move/delete nightstands only to find the lamps later on where the nightstands used to be. Alternately you can select a block (or multiple blocks) and see if the problem layer is in there on the active layer sidebar.

Perhaps the layer is being used inside a architectural block?

Based on the text. Tell Chief the upper story is 3' tall. No ceiling, but roof is checked. Ignoring the gambrel option, how soon do you want the upper story room to have 8' ceilings? A 12/12 pitch on all 4 sides (hipped roof) means the middle ~6' x 50' area of the 16' x 60' upper story is 8' tall. And a 12/12 pitch on only.the 60' walls and gable ends on the 16' walls means the middle ~6'x59' area is 8' tall and both 16' endwalls will allow windows. It matters not what you want your overhangs to be. Turn off auto roofs and tell chief the upper room is 8' tall. A dashed line will appear where your 8' ceiling starts to slope downward. And you can lower or raise your pitches to lessen or widen the available 8' ceiling high space. Are dormers an option on the hipped roof walls?

The truss design is called a space frame. http://www.cnxzlf.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/235.jpg Here's the original architects elevation, roof plan & sections pages The building is actually 15'5" tall to top of parapets (which are less than 2' above the roof steel decking.).

Sorry, I wasn't in front of my computer last night. There is actually a 3' parapet wall around the perimeter of this building. My phone didn't zoom in close enough for me to see it. If curtain wall is 20' tall, then Nook = 20' tall, and Study = 16' tall. Then make the upper porch room walls visible and pull them back to align with the Study perimeter walls. Specify the room is 3' tall, no roof, no ceiling. Also make your gables/overhangs 2". Here's what I drew up this morning - (fresh cup of coffee, tunes down low so as not to wake the wife ) Temporarily I made the Study perimeter walls railings with bottom rail 12' high to define a 4' area for those tubular trusses to be built within. I also specified 6" round posts to ceiling @ 20' on center, but these posts won't align with my curtain glass wall which I created using framing 4' on center. (I copied/modified the Glass Shower wall.) Similarly I tried creating a 4' on center exterior mullion frame over the glass, but that framing won't match up with the studs behind the glass. Chief does its own thing here. Lastly I started on the tubular trusses using a 4" 3d solid, but the pattern is even more difficult than I original thought. Need to think about this a bit more. But it is definitely doable in Chief. I found the floorplan and some other interior images online. It actually looks like trusses running in 3 different directions.

Easiest way to create a flat roof is tell chief the default pitch is 1/4" over 12 with 2" overhangs. (These need to be wide enough to stick beyond exterior wall finishes) Another way is to create a floor above, no roof, no ceiling, and make all perimeter walls invisible. But then you have to add your own counterflashing around the perimeter and create your tapered slopes. OR make all perimeter walls solid rails 2" tall with 0" newels. Then add a 1x cap to those walls. Tell chief the room is named Porch. It will make the floor 4" concrete (a clean known height that we can adjust later ) Paint the concrete floor your desired EPDM color and also paint those 2" wall & cap to match or paint them your counterflashing color. You can deal with EPDM slope and drains later. Now that you have your building shell.... draw another set of perimeter walls 1 foot inside all the way around. Make this wall invisible it is your tubular roof trusses perimeter support wall. The outer perimeter walls are your curtain walls. I picked one foot based on your pictures. Name the 1' perimeter wall room Nook. Name the interior room Study. On the nook perimeter walls, you can now create floor to ceiling windows OR You can create a new wall named GlassWall and set its framing the spacing of your glass. Next; follow Mtldesigns advice on building the trusses with solids or moldings. it is an 8 point offset lattice with 1 and 5 running 45 degrees across the Z axis to connect 3D to every other truss. This is in addition to 2&8 and 4&6 connecting 2D every other truss. 3&6 representing the top or bottom chord of each truss. Again, the 8 point nodes on the bottom are offset from the 8 point nodes on the top. Struts 1&5 run -45 degrees from top node to bottom of adjacent truss offset node. Update: there are 2 more struts on the z-axis extending above or below 3&6 as well.

Nice. Now add connecting roof here with valleys and slope to end 6" below window line.

I had to look that up. RCP = Reflected Ceiling Plan is an electrical plan view of the ceiling fixtures only - often called a lighting plan. I think I've been using the term wrong. It's always been on jobs that had 2x2 or 2x4 grid ceilings. I went back to a commercial project we did last year. Our sprinkler guys used this page to mark up their proposed locations as well to make sure they didn't conflict with anything else planned for the ceiling. The term is actually used for any lighting plan, even on drywall ceilings. I watched the video DB linked and I think your teacher's want a plan view of the lighting only and the 3D view of the interior space. At the 22:10 mark when the speaker is duplicating the tray over the kitchen islands, their floorplan view doesn't have the light layer turned on. They keep switching to the 3D view and talking about the lights, but you can't see them in the 2D view. Turning this layer on and having a legend would give you a "lighting plan" similar to what I've posted above, just not as busy. Then a 3D view of the 2D area, like the left photo above would demonstrate a "realistic or rendered view style" of the RCP 2D view.

RCP is recessed ceiling panels. Typically 2'x2' or 2'x4' ceiling grid & tiles, including HVAC vents, Lights, Wifi, smokes, & sprinklers locations. Like a classroom or retirement home ceiling.

One's we create in field we specify feet during export. One's we receive from 3rd parties are most often in feet, but sometimes in inches. It happens often enough that I verify those at first import. You will need a known distance between two real world points. This could be a road width, sidewalk length, property line boundary, etc...

My questions are, 1. What if in 2D you picked a rafter or an object not readily visible in the perspective view? Do you spin the model around or zoom through walls to find it? What if the layer is off in 3D? (Several are by default) 2. What if in 3D you picked an object on a different level than the current 2D view? Or it is off screen? 3. In schedules we can select "find an object in plan." In 3D view, selecting an item and having this option seems feasible. But in 2D, which camera view? -Every one you have open? What orientation of an independent view would chief generate? - especially something inside a small closet or bathroom?