JiAngelo

You are using concrete walls.  These do not have an exterior layer (which automatically extends to the floor below)  

• OPTION #1 - Add an exterior layer to your default walls,
• OPTION #2 - Open the Wall Specifications DBX, select "Structure" and check "Go Through Floor Below" under Platform Intersections.  close the dbx and your views will upgrade.

Try option #2 on one wall and you will see the difference immediately.

Couple of thoughts,

1. Table 602.3(6) is an alternate to Table 602.3(5), which is an illustration for Section 602.3.1 Stud size, height and spacing.  There is a limited exception (2) that allows 18' 2x6's @16"oc & 20' 2x6's @ 12"oc where the tributary span is less than 6'  (which means 12' span between bearing points)  Unfortunately my building spans are usually 15'+ for 2x10+ joists)
2. Table 602.3(5) footnote (a) restates this as follows, Increases in unsupported height are permitted where in compliance with Exception 2 of Section 602.3.1 or designed in accordance with accepted engineering practice.

We once had an inspector refusing to allow us to "double every third" joist (which equates to 12" on center but allows standard mechanicals to be run between the joists.)  After consulting with other inspectors, he allowed this "accepted engineering practice" that was not "per code." 

Lastly, have an engineer give you a blanket statement regarding the spans you actually use and include it with your plans.  We've done this before as well.  A one-time cost is then offset by multiple future uses and both you and the inspector are covered in case there is a question regarding the practice down the road.

Good luck.

You are essentially building a "split-level".  Typically this is a 2 story home where one side is often 4'-8' lower/higher than the other side.  A duplex would be another term that could apply, each unit having a different base elevation. 

TO DRAW THE ENTIRE BUILDING IN ONE FILE, 

Figure Phase 1 is the primary building so all floor elevations of your subsequent building are based in reference to that one.  So when you draw the phase 2 part of the building, before dividing it into rooms, increase the floor elevation by 4' (per your example).  I'd box out the second and basement floors and define them and make sure they are proper height in relation to the adjacent floors (open a cross section to verify).

I'd also complete the roof and make sure the exterior looks properly and ties in well with the phase 1 roof.   The reason is that if you have all the rooms divided up, and you need to make a change (like from 4' above to 3'6" because that works out better), then you will have to open each room on each level and change them individually - and if you miss one, the level below will give you fits.

TO DRAW THE BUILDINGS INDIVIDUALLY

We've also drawn the buildings separately using a dividing wall, exported them as models, then imported them and placed them side by side with the shift in elevation.  This doesn't work as well on splits because the roofs don't plane out very well when there's a +4' difference between the two.

We've had situations where one unit has 9'/8' ceilings 1st floor/2nd floor and 2nd unit has 10'/9' ceilings because the terrain sloped 2' between one unit and the next.  The roof's planed out together and the front doors/garages were +/- 2 feet on each unit.  This way the models looked coherent when placed together. 

Duplex method is nice if you want to separately account for room schedules, living space, etc....  The entire building in one file gives back total square footage and it is hard to tell which room belongs to which level.

Hope this helps.

I've been wanting to automate my title block for years.  In addition to Joe's macro I added another that subtracts 1986 from the current year to give me a %years_open% value.

Thank you Joe for the answer and RGardner for asking the question!

Make sure your NVDIA drivers are updated to the current ones.  This has turned out to be the culprit every time Tech Support troubleshoots this with me.  Happens on X9 & X10.

You can draw it fairly easily using slabs, then coloring the slabs.  The bolts would take a little longer .

To draw the text, I switched to orthagonal view, selected an isometric view, then copied region as a picture and special paste this image onto a CAD Detail window.  The isometric places the object at a 30 degree angle.  You can then draw lines and place some of the text (see attached) 

But I'm as curious as Chopsaw as to why?  If that's the image you need, cut and paste it into chief and use it.

Hope this helps.

Tracer,

Your plan file doesn't include any terrain. (the terrain was turned off.  I found it)  It also shows the retaining wall at the end of the garage (farthest right) while your PDF's show the retaining wall at the left edge of the garage where it abuts the house.

Couple of tips.  Create a terrain hole for the main walkout area bounded by the retaining walls  This is the simplest way to drop the terrain down to the walkout patio floor height.  Place the highest elevation point outside the wall (or 1" inside the wall) and the lowest elevation you want on the other side of the wall (or 1" inside the wall so that both points are 6" apart on an 8" wall.  This makes chief drop the elevation within the wall itself so that you don't see the terrain rolling downward. doesn't always work as good as a terrain hole, but pretty close.

Now that I could see the terrain, you needed to change the shapes of your elevation regions to create the slope following the wall angling downward - so that the terrrain lines are perpendicular to and following the elevation changes in your wall.  I just quickly drew some elevation lines -1' every 2' to match your wall slope approximately.  I created a hole over the wall and expanded it over the lower region, then used a slab on grade textured to match the terrain to make the grass butt against the lower wall.

You need to play around with it a little more to get it to your liking.

Hope this helps.

John.

MAYNARD_TUTTLE_11_21.17-2.plan

(3) 30" Dell monitors.  Each 2560x1600.  They've outlasted 3 computer rigs.   I have fourth monitor, but I need a longer desk...

Sorry, "Locking the roof" is a term I use with clients. It actually means we're  done moving exterior walls and I can turn automatic roofs "off"  to hand draw / modify  any roof planes/dormers/overhangs  that aren't drawn as we want.

The back master plane is the trickiest.  Practice pushing and pulling them like you would a slab or soffit. Just along a different axis following/matching the peaks, valleys and overhangs of the adjacent planes.   

Coralie,

I didn't catch you'd included the plan in your first post.  I downloaded it and fixed it  See attached.  Couple of notes.

1. You need to leave the back left master bath wall as a hip, not a gable.  It explodes the roof.
2. Changed the front right wall of this left master to a hip, not a gable
3. put room dividers on the right bedroom rooms that split the vault-flat lines (like the hall, half the W/C and the left side of what looks like pantry?
4. Set all the rooms you want vaulted to "no ceiling" just roof on the structure tab.
5. I added roof planes at 25 degrees in the back room - extending out so that you can see the scissor.  you can move these back in or set them to 37 degrees if you are conventional framing.
6. Same for the roof planes in the front right bedroom.  I set these to 25 degrees and extended them out so you can see the scissor.
7. On the left master, I left the planes at 37 degrees.
8. Look at the 3d view and turn on Glass House and spin it around I think you will see how the ceiling planes all come together.
9. For the last part,  I turned off automatic roofs and extended out some roof planes to force the gable on the back side.  I had to clean up some of the remaining roof planes.  Not sure how to walk you through all of it.  It's just something I know how to do from lots of practice.

Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

It was fun working in metric  

The Dunk-Fixed.plan

This is without any porches covered with roofs.  The back gable is scissored within the main truss.  I used 8/12 pitches.  (see first 3 attachments.)

The fourth attachment removes the hip and uses a common truss with a scissor on the back end to achieve the gable in the back area.  It destroys the front right gable, but I think this could be worked around with some half trusses.

The last attachment is my drawing over your sketch extending the lines that control the roof points (disregarding your interior for the moment.)  I changed all my gable roofs to 4" yellow so that you can see them easier.

Once you like the roof, lock it, and redraw the interior to match what you want - noting any bearing points that need to follow through to the foundation.

I hope this helps.

Very impressive.  I like how the mounting posts are independent of the sign itself.  Easier to clean and store.  .

I place the roof plan layout of the first floor on the page,

Select it, then cut and paste an identical layout box over it,

open that pasted box and change the Plan View Tab to the 2nd Floor.

I then extend the 2nd Floor Box right side all the way to the right of my layout page.

I then extend the 1st Floor Box top side all the way up to the top of my layout page.

The last two steps makes it easy for me to know which box I've selected if I need to change anything.  For instance, sometimes I will toggle additional interior walls to show if I need them to determine interior bearing locations, etc..

The attached picture shows a home with 3 levels.

• Box extended Left is 1st Floor Roof Layout
• Box extended Up is 2nd Floor Roof Layout
• Box extended Right is Attic Roof Layout

 Hope this helps.

Yes.   Using elevation splines,  then break and move points to match the image,  open and input correct elevation data

That's the simplest answer.   I spent half an hour Sunday trying to verbally outline all the steps,  gave up and just did it in the other half hour.

First step is to draw the perimeter per the North/South vectors shown on a survey.  The radius edges will drive you nuts until you've practiced it a few times - I can't explain it,  I just know how to do it.   Then snapshot the Pdf image and paste it into chief.   Then scale it to match the perimeter you drew,  lock the image layer,  copy the perimeter in place a few times,  convert one copy to a terrain,  then draw the elevation splines,  making sure they cross the edges of the terrain.  Add trees and a house.

Once you've rotated the entire terrain,  you can draw the house inside the setbacks and chief will auto set the first floor to a standard height.   If you have a walkout,  you can modify the terrain to show it properly as well. 

I'd hoped this would save you some frustration and give you something to play with and try to match.  

Great idea. 

Steve,

Here's your plot plan.  It's in Chief X9 Beta.  You can delete the box house I drew on it.  The Audio/Video layer has the image of your PDF locked on it.  You can turn this off/on.  A copy of the initial plot plan and image (minus the elevation data are on a CAD detail named "PLOT".

On the plan I added a terrain large enough to include the roadway, then drew elevations 2140', 2132', 2130', 2120', 2110', & 2100'.  The 10's are in blue E/L line type.  The 2132' is red.  Chief's then drew in the 2' natural gradients which closely approximate the lot's fall, but if you want, you can copy and past the 2132' elevation over any of the other PDF elevations and then adjust the spline, adding break points as necessary to get the proper curves.  Remember to open the line and re-enter the correct elevation for any new locations you add.

I've drawn a 3 sided fence around the perimeter, a road with a cul-de-sac and for fun I dropped in some trees.  I drew a 1st floor box set of walls so that I could look at the elevation in 3d.  Without the box chief wings it and you'll need a lot of luck to find an empty terrain in 3d view.

If you take this plan, unlock the Audio/Video, select all, and open the transform/replicate object tool, you can rotate everything 158d3'0"  (enter that in the rotate angle box.)

This will rotate the lot so that it is facing downward and everything you draw is parallel to the N68d03'0"E front property line.  Meaning the house will directly face the road.  I've shown this in the PLOT cad detail.  you can practice there first.

Once you are done drawing the house, you can place a footprint on the PLOT cad detail (turn off the Audio/Video layer) rotate the footprint to match up with the plot plan shown at the true angle, turn on all elevation details and you will have a good representation to place on your layout pages.

I've included some isometric views of the lot and a zipped file of the plan.

Let me know if this works for you.

MCC28.zip

Thanks Joe.  Just tested it and works perfectly.

Love the idea....but what's the use of an "Object Specific Area (%area%) that doesn't round?

• My old method, a text macro %ObjectArea% [=area.round] was context "Reference Object" and didn't work on labels.  Re-contexting it to "Owner Object" broke the macro on my other referenced objects, but it then started working for use in polyline labels.  In the short term I've created two duplicate macros labeled %ObjectArea-Owner% and %ObjectArea-Referenced% - cumbersome but it works.  I'd rather not have to duplicate all my macros - but I love not having to chase and ensure the arrows and referenced objects remain touching when I'm moving things around.

Next, unless I'm missing something, Labels are all the same size, they all map to the same layer "Polylines, Labels", so their text properties are identical and, thus far, I cannot find how to differentiate them - so again, I'm forced to find a work around, versus just plain working..

Last, when are you "chief" guys going to hire Joe Carrick? - He seems to be the only guy out there explaining what the manual you've refuse thus far to provide for Ruby and Macros....And I'm tired of piecing it together by scouring this forum.  (For instance, I just found Joe has posted a method which tests and thereby combines both my separate macro's above - I just don't have time to learn it just yet cause I have to get some actual work done tonight.) 

Very frustrating.    

Started working on a new plan yesterday that I began with Chief 7's profile.plan so it was labeled untitled.  Forgot to save it and the program just crashed.  Re-opened the program and I can find the archives of the other older plans I had open at the time, but I can't find the untitled.plan's backup in the archive data folder.  Any ideas where it could be?  I'd like to not have to redo all the work.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the responses.  I've tried exporting rendered, perspective, etc.. no change.  Also tried upping the DPI to 9600, no change in filesize or appearance.  I've tried increasing the dimensions and weird things started happening above 3,000 width.

Regardless of the PPI settings, 72, 144, 288, 360 - all my saved image files are identical in size.  I've attached 3 sets of both ISO-FrontRight.jpg & ISO-FrontRight.png and LVL1.png saved in varying resolutions.  I can't find the difference.

Additionally, this new "Export Picture" dialog opens with some default settings.  Change them, and it re-opens with the default settings again - yet there is no where to set these values in the "Defaults" or "Preferences" dialog.

In X6, I clicked "Export Picture" icon and just started typing the filename in the "Export Picture File" Dialog, hit enter and voila - done.

In X7, I click "Export Picture" icon and either A) FIND "Export Picture" Dialog with my mouse and click OK, then start typing the filename ...  OR hit the enter key, then start typing the filename...

Extra steps to accomplish the same task is not an improvement.  Please move this to the "Defaults" or "Preferences" dialog - or give me a separate icon that just gets me to the filename dialog.

Let me know if I'm simply doing it wrong?

Does anyone know if it is possible to change the angle of the automatic isometric views generated for the 8 locations?  (both Top and Bottom - Front-Right, Front-Left, Rear-Right, & Rear-Left views - the buttons are located under the 3D Menu.)

The current angle appears to be about 45 degrees above looking down and I'm guessing about 15 degrees above is the views I actually use  (meaning the 8 buttons are useless unless I can pre-set the angle to something I'd actually use. 

Thanks.

John.

Thanks Joe.  Splitting out Steps 3 & 4 did the trick.  I kept trying to do all of them at once and it didn't occur to me to try mulling to a mulled unit, which comports with Chief's horizontal or vertical requirement when mulling.

Glenn,  I was doing it wrong (see above).  As a result, selecting all was saving 4 separate units to the library.  Copying from another plan would have required opening an elevation to ensure I'm selecting all the entryway units.  Too many steps.

FYI - I made them all out of doors, including the transom.  It now shows up on the door schedule as a 5482MU.  Very nice.  Thanks again.

Most of our plans use a 6 panel front entry door with 2 sidelites and a rectangular transom.

Too often, clients are getting hung up on the Panel Sidelites, which look like leaded glass. (see the core catalog door styles under  Doors & Doorways > Entryways > With Transoms > Rectangular)

I know its silly, since our spec's and models the clients tour all have panel sidelites & transoms, but some clients press it and I'm forced to draw 3 doors, (2) 1' glass doors flanking a 36" entry door.  I then have to remove the hardware on the door sidelites, close them, then add a window above and center it across the door units.  

Because the window above isn't on the same plane as the doors, CA won't let me make this a mulled unit, or save it to the Library as a unit.

Under Elliptical Transoms and Without Transoms, there are "Grid Side Lite" options, but then I'm still forced to draw a window above the door and make it a transom.  I'd prefer something I can just drag and drop.

Oddly enough, the interior view of the stock Catalog doors would work (see attached examples of the 5480 Rectangular Transom Entryways.) I've also attached a picture of what I'm forced to repetitively create on every new plan.

Any ideas that would save me time would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.