paccoastJeff

After trying different ways, I found a way that works, and the measurements come out precise. I'll post it here in case someone else is having trouble in the future and finds this. I had a lot to do a plot plan for that had a radius at the front, and at the rear, but this should work for any number of radius. Instead of doing as the tutorial suggests, and placing input points and then drawing a line between them with angle snaps turned off, use CAD>Lines>Input Line and use the chord measurement for the length, and the quadrant bearing info. Do that for each radius until the lot is done/closed. Go back and select each line that should be a radius and open it. Select the make arc radio button. If you need to change the curve of the arc from out to in, or vice versa, use the triangle adjustment handle to pull it into the proper direction. With the line selected be sure to select the lock chord box. Enter the radius and select okay. Doing it that way all of my measurements remained precisely as they should. When drawing a line between points, even locking the chord, I had some odd changes. This way seems faster anyway. Hope that may help someone one day.

The instructions in the current tutorial guide for X11d say to say a radius on a lot line until last, then draw a straight line, use the change to arc tool, and change the radius properties to match, then remove the temporary handles. That works great when there is only one radius on a lot. What if there are more than one? Enter the chord length of the first one, and go back later and change it to an arc and set the specific parameters? I'm trying to wrap my head around if using the chord length and chord direction (bearing) will place the mark in the precise location? Intuitively it seems like it should?

It's great now. The only way I could make that wall taller after the fact was to go to the 3D view and drag it up. The problem I had once I created a room out of the patio was the default ceiling height was for 9' plate height, not 11', and I hadn't changed it. Once I changed that and generated a roof it was great. Next time I draw something similar I will define the patio as a room first, set the ceiling height, and the affected walls should adjust on their own, right? That makes more sense. Thanks again.

I actually live in a version of that plan on a daylight basement. Here is an actual pic.

Where you show a gable in that drawing is actually a hip on the plan we build, but the lower portion comes down adjacent to the tall wall, sort of like you have it drawn, and the door to get onto the patio is in that taller wall.

Thanks for the help, it is genuinely appreciated. I mostly just want the elevation drawings to look right when I create the construction drawings.

I'm not sure what you mean by manually framing? That section of wall is always balloon framed. We have built a version of this plan a lot. This is a plan, that due to the plate height being over 10', we have engineered each time for the shear walls and such. The taller part of the wall is only visible on the patio. It's a plan that we build on a lot of view properties. There are transom windows above the windows in the living areas, so there is a lot of glass on the view side, which is also where the patio is. The patio is at 11' to facilitate the size and number of windows. Making those 2 6' walls at 11' works the best. We have looked at doing the beams other ways, but aesthetically and for framing an expansive view, it works out best for us this way. ON EDIT: I just noticed I haven't placed the 4020 transom windows above the 4050 windows and the sliding glass door yet.

I figured it out. The ceiling in the patio "room" was too low. I set it to the height of the adjacent walls and beams and it generated the roof fine.

I used the function to define a room area, and when I click in the area the patio shades like a room. I open it up and designate it as a patio. I've clicked on each of the beams and the height of the beams matches the adjacent walls. When I had it generate a roof it placed the plane of the roof just under the beams. The plan I am modifying is one we build a lot, but we are making some small changes to the plan we already own. We sell 10+ of this floor plan each year. To answer your question about why one wall solver, it is a plan with a 32' wide by 12' deep covered porch. The living area behind the patio has 11' ceilings. The patio has a 11' ceiling. On either side of the patio there are two bedrooms that open onto the patio. Those bedrooms have 9' ceilings, but there is a 6' wall of each of those bedrooms that forms the rear corners of the patio. That 6' wall is where a glulam gets attached at each side that is 6' long, and then there is a 33' glulam running the other way. I'll attach a screen shot of the area. It's probably easier to see than explain. That 6' wall on each side of the patio needs to be 133 1/8", the rest of the bedroom walls in each of those two rooms is 109 1/8". The two 6' walls with the exterior doors in them are the ones that need to be taller.

Thanks. I hadn't thought about designating the covered patio area as a room. I will have to try the various ways to accomplish that. I need to get it figured out as we have a lot of plans with large covered patio's. I will say that so far it seems as though Softplan had more "smart" object alignment. I understand there is a new alignment tool or two in 12. I obviously need to figure them out.

To change the height of only one wall in a room, is going to 3D view as it says in the documentation really the only way to do it? Select the wall and drag to resize. That isn't a horrible solution, but why doesn't the wall being resized snap to the height of an adjacent wall when you get close? It seems difficult at best to get them aligned perfectly. I'm having a similar problem drawing posts with beams that serve to support trusses over an attached patio. I am drawing them as roof beams with posts. The posts won't snap to line up with a side of a wall I want them to align with. I have to turn off the grid snap to get them placed precisely. Once I have the 3.5" posts placed, the 3.5" beam being placed to rest on the posts don't snap to align with the post either. I have to make sure snap is off and place them that way. Is that correct, or is there something n the documentation I am missing? Also, when I look at the roof framing view, the beams I have placed show up. When I open each beam the top height matches the height of the adjacent walls. When I generate a roof it doesn't cover the beam area though. If I select the roof and try to drag it over the beam area, the plane of the roof continues as it was drawn and it just goes under the beams. I assumed since the beams show up in the roof framing view, and are placed at the right height, that a generated roof should cover it? What am I missing?

Removed. Found Answer.

Previous Softplan user. I tried a trial version of Chief for a week, and spent the week also checking out quite a few of the excellent video's and reading through the tutorial guide and users reference guide. During that time I had one technical question that I submitted via email. I received a quick, very thorough reply. The quick, helpful reply put it over the top for me, and I rented the full version and plan to use it for a couple months prior to purchasing. Yesterday I had a question on properly importing additional library catalogs. I figured I would try out the phone support. I talked with Nigel, who was extremely helpful and walked me right through the process, and told me they get quite a few calls about it. Even more impressed than I was previously. If anyone is on the fence and reading this, if you are looking for great design software with rich feature sets, backed up by excellent customer support, this is an easy recommendation. The abundance of helpful, quality video's by Chief and others, and the user documentation, are the best I have seen. This forum is obviously a great resource as well.

Thanks for the help, it is genuinely appreciated. I was able to accomplish it by changing the size from 6" plan size to 2". I need to experiment with text more. As much as I have clicked on the text I haven't seen anything that looks like a rotation handle, but I've obviously missed it. I've been able to enter -90 to get it to rotate to the right like I wanted.

I have X11 and X12, currently using X12. Will add that to my signature.

I have read the entire chapter from the user guide on using Text and RIch Text. I want to be able to add text much smaller than one shows up on the drawing. I've tried rich text by specifying a box and typing it in, changing the percentage, which only seems to change the size in the open window view and doesn't change the actual text size on the drawing, dragging arrows in on the text box, etc. In plan view, if I want to have text in the cabinet area that specifies there is a wall over with a microwave over it, how do I make the text small enough to fit into the area, and how do I rotate it most easily? I've rotated some text by opening it up and specifying the degree in angles, but it seems like there has to be an easier way? Thanks for any help. Going back to the user guide and tutorial guide to see if I've missed something. On Edit: I have also tried changing the size of the text by deselecting auto and entering smaller sizes, with no luck.

Thank you! I was selecting the wall that actually needed to change. I should have been selecting the intersecting wall that needed to move. Went back around and did that and it's exactly what I wanted. Thank you, most sincerely, for the help.

Thanks rgardner. Waiting to watch the game myself. I'm in the tricities area on the other side of the mountains. I can't figure out why dimensions that have already set are changed. As an example, working across the front I set one garage door area to 12'. The dimension across the entire front remains 67', which is what it is supposed to be. The garage area to the left of the 12' is supposed to be 22'. I change it to 22', using any of the possible direction selections, and it changes the 12' dimension I already set, while the 67' remains. I just attached the rough outline of the exterior walls. It's a plan we build a lot, so I am very familiar with it, and am going off an existing drawing for practice. At the back, when I select the 32' wall that is inset, I can't select the dimension and change it. If I select the 17' wall to the left of it, which I have already set at 17', it gives me the option to select the dimension of the 32' wall and change it, but without a choice of how the change affects overall. At one point I had all of the rear and right side dimensions correct, and moved to the right front. I set the right, front wall at 12', when I change the wall next to it to 22', the overall (67') dimension stayed the same, but it changed the 12' dimension I had just set. I'm sure I'm missing something? Have used Softplan for 8 years and the exterior dimensioning seemed to go much easier, but I'm sure this will be great when I figure out what I'm doing wrong. GV Rough Outline.plan

Tried trial version for a week and just purchased full version this morning. Having trouble dimensioning exterior walls. I'm trying to go in the clockwise direction suggested on some of the video's. Is there a way to "lock" a dimension once you have changed it? When changing some dimensions the option to choose which direction the change affects. I had a back and one side completely done. The total front and rear width dimensions were the same. As I started to change individual measurements on the front of the plan, it started changing the measurements at the back that had already been set to their proper values. I have searched and haven't found it there is a way to lock things. I'm unsure why at times there is a choice how you want the change to move, and others, there isn't. I'm guessing the answer is rather simple. I would appreciate any help.

Thanks SNestor, I will check out those channels. I've watched quite a few of the Chief video's and they have been very informative and helpful.

Thank you very much for the thorough, informative reply Derek. I really appreciate it. I was really impressed by the helpful reply I received from Michael McClain the other day. He included a screen shot showing exactly what I needed to do. I have looked through the libraries that installed as part of the download of the trial version, and I believe there are other libraries available? Are there many detail drawings, like typical wall/roof construction detail drawings? I use some of the details available from sources like the APA, but it would be nice to have some already made details to include as well, without having to create them from scratch. Thanks again for the help. ON EDIT: I have been working my way through many of the video's. Extremely well done and helpful. The training tutorial and user documentation also seem extremely well done.

Thank you, genuinely, for the replies. I'm fairly confident that I can figure out most things, or get an answer here or elsewhere. The documentation does seem very thorough.

I am currently trying out the trial version of X11. We currently own Softplan, and I have to say I like CA better so far. I had a question about changing defaults for dimensioning that didn't seem to be working like I thought the documentation said it should. I sent an email inquiry and received a pretty fast reply with a screen shot showing precisely what I was doing wrong. That was impressive. With the SSA, is support like that part of the package? Reading the description online it sounds more like it's aimed at installation and error message problems, so I'm seeking clarification on if it also includes technical/operational questions? The documentation seems thorough and well organized, but I know with relatively complex software with multiple options there will likely be questions from time to time. Having access to technical support with the SSA package would be a big selling point for me. I'm taking part in the online demonstration on Friday, and looking forward to it.