WendyatArtform

Absolutely Glen,

and Joe, I agree that setting is so hard to find .

There would NEVER be a setting in Chief that makes sense only to an engineer.  Oops, she said that out loud.  ;-)

Oh Scott, you still love me!  ;-)

To be clear, I did not mean practice INSTEAD of books and videos.  I meant practice and experiment as you go.

We sell predesigned plans to some 50+ builders.  We did 350+ homes last year, probably hit 500 this year, in addition to a growing number of multis.  My tips:

Saveas is your friend - but make sure you keep track of your plans, plan names, etc.  And/but....

Don't be afraid to throw out the garbage now and then.  Remember that you have your archives if you really do have to go dumpster diving.  Keeping every what-if you ever came up with will kill you.

Don't move the house!  Ever.  Then....

Master the use of Edit Area and the various ways you can Copy and Paste/Hold-Position plan to plan.  You can do a phenomenal amount of mixing and matching plan to plan with these tools.

Edit - one more tip:

Be accurate with your original.  Set your grid snap to a big number first (like 24", 12" - for your main walls), then maybe 1/2" at smallest and work with your grid snaps on.  As you do more and more variations a little bit of wonkiness will come back to bite you, hard.  

Or - found it!  It's the Walls layers.  Turn them back off.

And if you can't figure out what layers (confession - I can't!)

Start a new plan

In the new plan, export layersets

In your current plan, import layersets, and select just the 3D Framing Set

That will return your 3D framing view to how it was intended by Chief.

There is no way to see when hidden or recently hidden.  But I have two solutions:

1 - What we do is keep a copy of our "real" layersets, the ones used in presentation drawings or construction drawings.  The copies have "working" added to the end of the layerset name.  When we're editing, that's the layerset we change to, so we don't muck up what shows on client drawings.

2 - When you have your layersets just right, export the layerset.  Then no matter how you fudge it up, you can always reimport that layerset and it will reset it back to right how you want it.

In Chief's video library, search for "existing".  I haven't watched all, but 362 looks like it might be the ticket.

But - you can't use real walls etc as an overlay for demo.  There are videos showing how to show your existing floor plan as simply as possible, convert it to cad, copy and paste-hold to have it show demo.  

If you are on the current version, you can select everything you want to copy and simply paste it onto the next floor.  Simply create the next floor as a blank.  Then select what you want from the source floor, Ctrl-C, go to your new floor and paste.  Make sure to use Paste-Hold Position (Ctrl-Alt-V or right click and select that option)

What they said.  And no, I don't need to steal anybody else's work!

btw - I often strip a plan down for posting simply because it makes it easier on others if you eliminate anything that makes the file larger than needed, or other things that distract from the problem at hand.  When we say "post the plan", read "post the part of the plan with the problem" if it makes you feel better.

Or don't.  When you decline to post a plan you are expecting other people to donate their time trying to recreate your problem as well as solve it.  I can certainly just go do my laundry!  But I'll also bet that between Michael and Jared and D Scott and Robert and...  and I, we can solve this.  If you'll let us.

Yes Brian, still.....

I didn't read all posts, so please forgive if this is a repeat...

I've found you need to un-check and then re-check "print in color".  Otherwise you get grey scale.  

Like the Church Lady said in Monty Python "we don't know why".

 

I am new to design. Graduated recently (decorating) but this is my second career.

An even better reason to start with a completely made up project - a home or office for yourself.  You'll be stretching your design muscle at the same time.  And there's no law that says you can't show this kind of work in your portfolio!  If you're honest that it's an unbuilt work - it still shows your design skills.

I kinda think there's a limit to what you can learn from videos and books.

My advice - just draw a house!  Start simple.  Do something that's relatively simple, but in a style common to your area.  And do one that you just make up.  Pretend it's a house for you!  We see a lot of people try their first project with something that's complex and/or has a true deadline.

Then when you've done one that's almost a simple as they come, start adding some interest.  Maybe make a walk out basement - which will lead you to learn how to do a pony wall and some basic terrain modeling.  Or add some dormers.  Or...  Don't try to add a 3 piece Nantucket dormer with a reverse Hecht back flip.  Add an A dormer, or a shed dormer at first.  Then try having part of that dormer in finished space, part in an unfinished eave. 

Basically add complexity in bite sized pieces, and just keep adding more things.  That way you research one thing at a time, and you do and you learn.  Most people learn best when they actually try to apply what they read or see in a video.

Welcome and good luck!

I'm assuming you're using a very old version of autocad, as I think they left that behind as the preferred method a long time ago, if they even still use it at all.

The workaround would be to edit your layer colors to have them align with your line weights.  Color won't govern line weight, but you will see things the way you are used to.

The other "workaround", which really isn't a workaround, just the way it's designed, is to turn on Show Line Weights.  Then you'll see your line weights wysiwyg

And/or have you explored the Terrain Wall options?

So Dermot - something as simple as copying in a piece of text that uses that style?

It's on the general tab, near the bottom.  I know, I looked in "locate objects" first too....

Oh yeah - also Plan Defaults - Dimensions - Auto Exterior...

Also - Alt-Q, and turn off "Auto Rebuild Attic Walls" while you're working.  That will prevent attic walls being build from the first floor before you've created the second floor.

To see if any there already - Go to an All Off layerset, temporarily turn on Walls, Attic and see if you spot any bad boys.  Or delete all attic walls, easy enough to let it rebuild (recheck box, do any 3D view)

And/or - make sure wall on first floor below is NOT set to "balloon" on the structure tab.

Your material may have an over-ride you did unintentionally or forgot about.  I do that all the time.

Spray Can - check "use default" - spray anything that's misbehaving

I take it all this planning (My current project is "wrong?!) is because we can't change the elevation of an entire building once built?

Nope - not what it means at all.  But you don't "change the elevation of an entire building", you change the elevation of the terrain relative to your building.  You just open up your terrain and change that "Building Pad" number.

That strategy works best for me as well but as illustrated above Joe uses a different strategy. The key is to understand how Chief works/thinks/is designed to work, which is the hard part, then develop a strategy that works for you.

 

Really appreciate you taking the time to post the plan. I learned just a little more.

bingo, Bingo, BINGO

Red highlighting is mine.  You can certainly make a whole lot of other strategies work.  But if you first and thoroughly learn the program the way it was intended to be used - then when you go cowboy, you'll know where you're going and how to get back if you need to.

It's like music.  Before you improvise, learn to sing the tune.  Otherwise instead of cool jazz, you're just out of tune.

So when I see a question that's kinda clearly from someone still learning, I head right back to basics.  I think about getting it done in a reliable way rather than "could" they do it some off-label way.  I'm all for off-label uses of the program - (Chief dudes can attest to that!).  But I'm not going to lead a newbie down that path if they're then not going to know how to make all the other adaptations, or even what caveats to put in subsequent questions, like "oh by the way, I put my first floor in the basement"

There are many terrain strategies.

I think my main point is that you leave the house at 0 and make any adjustments in the garage.  Anything else is letting the tail wag the dog, and not in a good way!

Let's try again for that file - must have had it still open..

reliable garage and terrain heights.plan

That's a good strategy and another option is to put the garage on floor 1 and set its floor height to a negative number below the main living floor (floor level 2) above which can be set at '0' - 0"'. Both strategies work bit since most of the of design work will probably be done on the floor above it might be nice to have that floor set to '0' - 0"'.

 

Also if you consistently set the main living floor at '0' - 0"' you have a conscious place that all your buildings, now and in the future, will start and stop their floor levels from.

What he said.

At the expense of repeating myself - you will almost always be better off using Chief the way it was designed to be used.  

To understand how Chief is designed to work, do this quick exercise:

Start a new plan using the default template (profile.plan).  Draw a simple first floor with an attached garage.  Assign the garage to be the room type "garage" and then let Chief build a foundation using the Floor Tools.  If you now look at the garage room dbx you'll see that Chief has automatically dropped the garage slab.  That's the way it's designed to work.  You can change the amount it's dropped it, and it will hold that setting.

And another important thing to know about Chief:  The terrain base height is not set relative to the first floor.  This setting is in the terrain dbx, but it's actually the opposite.  The first floor height is set relative to the terrain.  "Building Pad" means default first floor subfloor.

So - to have your garage slab stay correctly located relative to the terrain, here's what we do, that works perfectly every time:

1. Your first floor is at 0".  (And btw, this will mean you will NOT be fighting with room ceiling and floor heights for the duration of the project).
2. Set your garage slab at whatever distance it needs to be from that.  Let's say 30".  You can do this before or after building the foundation.
3. Set your terrain to match.  So if your garage slab is at -30", your "Building Pad" will be at +30"  (because it's the distance the first floor is above the terrain).
4. If you have any terrain modeling, put a flat Terrain Elevation Region at the garage doors.

This file has a quick example:  reliable garage and terrain heights.zip