RobDesLLC

I've had great success using Canvas for as-builts. I offer the following insights that have helped me integrate Canvas into my workflow: Take your time doing the scans. Go room by room, starting at the doorway and moving clockwise around the room and back to the door. Slow and steady is the key. After completing the scans, thoroughly photo document the entire house in the same order as the scans were performed. Measure key dimensions for reference, preferably longer dimensions. Allow 16-24 hours of your time to refine the Chief Architect plan sent from Canvas into an accurate model - materials, layers/layer sets, foundation, decks, etc. - using the photos taken on site for reference. Map out the electrical circuits and add them to your as-built model. I prefer to take a copy of the as-built plan file on a Windows tablet to the site and draw in electrical connections there. Convert the as-built survey into a site model in your as-built plan, and you now have a complete as-built of the house and property. To help illustrate design constraints, I place color-coded disks on the terrain to represent the trees around the house, and I have created color-coded, translucent moldings to represent property boundaries, setbacks, adjacent use/adjacent street buffers, easements, and wetland buffers. This is particularly useful when dealing with additions.

Jog the retaining wall into a "U", then drop a stair into the "U".

This is very good advice. I too have found that the importation of PDF's bogs Chief down tremendously. Avoid this as much as possible.

After the common practices of disk cleanup, I suggest you monitor your system performance in Task Manager. Is your CPU too heavily loaded, particularly when generating 3D views? How much memory are you using during a typical Chief Architect session? What do your read/write speeds look like to your storage device(s)? My approach is to employ a 2TB NVME drive for Windows 11 and my apps, and another for storing my files. I have a third 2TB SSD (2.5") that is a mirrored copy of my storage drive. I have a 5950X processor with an AIO and 128GB of RAM. At my busiest, the CPU hovers around 30%, and memory usage is around 52GB. Typical boot time is 8 seconds. I try not to keep many browser windows open, as that tends to use up memory and slow things down. As a general practice, I find it's best not to leave apps running if they aren't in use.

I will share DWG's with engineers. That is it.

Its referred to as a "TBM" for "temporary benchmark". It may be used as an elevation reference point for surveying before, during, and after construction, as well as for the builder to reference during construction. After that, it's pretty much irrelevant.

I've never entered one of these contests, and I have a question. The rules state, "The submission must include at least one rendering modeled in a Chief Architect or Home Designer software product." Does that mean I can submit a rendering generated in Lumion using a model I created in Chief Architect, or that the rendering and the model must be created in Chief Architect?

When I make a virtual representation of a specific slab for a client, I go to the yard and take a high resolution photo of their selected slab, with the camera perpendicular to the slab and no bright lights reflecting off of it (as Eric suggested above). When I convert that image into a texture, I make sure to scale the selected area properly, in order to virtually simulate the real-world effect of templating the desired portion of the slab, rather than trying to convert the slab into a seamless texture.

Rene has a video on this, and I think he has the best method for adding the arched brick lintel.

I would save an image or text box directly in the layout file, adjust color and transparency, and set it to it's own layer, allowing you to easily turn it on/off.

I mounted a 65" 4K TV in my conference room and then ran an HDMI cable from it to my computer in my office nearby. I also ran a USB cable, which I connected to a Logitech C920 webcam mounted above the TV, a microphone mounted to the ceiling above the conference room table, and a wireless mouse and keyboard. A pair of powered speakers flanked the TV for sound. With this setup, I could conduct design review meetings in person, or share my screen via Teams for people attending remotely. I went with a powered USB cable due to distance, and placed the wireless dongle directly above the center of the conference room table (along with the microphone). The webcam was aimed at the center of the table, and set to auto focus. The TV was set to mirror the center monitor in my office. I found this to be a very effective arrangement. Everyone could see the screen, and I could easily record our meetings. Audio quality was excellent.

For my projects, the structural engineer provides that information on his sheets. I provide project data (area calcs, elevations, zoning), energy compliance data, flood data, and referenced codes on my cover sheet.

I've previously posted this in response to a similar post: Data & Financial Management: I use Microsoft SharePoint as my primary repository for company files, with all design working files and assets (Chief Architect, Lumion, Adobe Creative apps, etc) on a local drive. I manage financials with Quickbooks Online. I use Microsoft Office 365 Business apps, including the use of Teams for project management and collaborating with clients. I sync SharePoint with OneDrive, and keep copies of all company files on a local drive synced to OneDrive. I also back up the company files to a NAS, and I back up the entirety of my Office 365 data (including all SharePoint files) to a cloud backup service. Design working files are backed up to a second local drive and another NAS. I also use Dialpad through my T-Mobile business account, allowing Ai to identify action items in my calls and messaging for adding to my task lists. Document Sharing: I have a folder for each project in my working files, and another in my company files. As I generate product to share with clients and trade partners, I save a copy from the working files project folder to the company files project folder, and the project folder is accessible through a tab in Teams for the project team. Contracts & Payments: I use Adobe Sign for distributing and tracking contracts for e-signing. I both collect and make payments by ACH, with a handful of recurring expenses paid by debit card. I use a sweep account at my bank to receive payments (for more account security). It may sound like a lot, but it's actually very easy to use my system. I have redundant and accessible data storage, effective and easily searchable communications, efficient and easily auditable legal and financial transactions, and the ability to manage my business entirely from a Surface Pro tablet when I'm in the field or traveling - without any loss of functionality. I also use almost no paper, other than printing hard copies of layouts. Microsoft Teams: Teams allows you to create a new team for each project, and to invite people to join from outside of your organization, such as clients, contractors, and engineers. Each team has access to the corresponding project folder in SharePoint. You can add apps to each team as needed, such as Planner for task management, Calendar, Adobe, and Approvals. The video conferencing, post, and chat features concentrate communications into a single platform, and maintain a record of communications for future reference as needed. This structure works well for me because it is easy to manage, effective, inexpensive, and scalable. It does not integrate into Quickbooks. I use Quickbooks Time for tracking billable hours, as well as time tracking in Chief Architect.

You have Dropbox noted in your signature. Can you not share a compressed folder from Dropbox?

In my experience, as long as an accessible bath is provided, a private bath need not be designed to be accessible unless it provides a facility that isn't available elsewhere. For example, I redesigned the corporate offices of a local business that occupy a ground floor tenant space. The project included a fitness room and private bath for the CEO. An accessible bathroom was located down the hallway, open to everyone for use. Because his private bath included a shower, and no shower was provided elsewhere, the shower had to be accessible and therefore required grab bars and an area for a turn circle in the bath. If your private bath doesn't include elements not available elsewhere and requiring accessibility, it is a bathroom like any other in the space. An accessible bath elsewhere in the space would satisfy the ADA. Without reviewing the plan correction report myself, I am inclined to believe that the plan reviewer has made an error and is incorrectly citing code.