KnotSquare

Great idea Gene. Thank you.

I have a house nearly complete and a bit of a complex framing system with plenty of custom and individual members. I realize I will have to redraw each floor truss as when I framed it automatically before it did not do as I planned in the design; by a lot. There are interior cantilevers it could not figure out and some curved framing on that interior balcony. What I cannot find information on is how I can raise up the entire second level without screwing up my custom roof framing. Once I have increased the distance between Level 1 and Level 1 to 18" from 12", I need to work out stairs, etc. The same will occur from Basement to Level 1, but only an increase of 2 inches, so I will likely lower the Basement slab and then thicken the floor. Any ideas on how this can be accomplished without an entire rebuild? I could use tips for both levels if anyone has any as I am just going to experiment at this point. I don't think I can take the entire roof framing system and turn it into a symbol and then unblock it up 6 inches, but that is where I am going to start while I see if anyone has any ideas. It seems Chief is somewhat particular on what can be turned into symbols. SaveAs,SaveAs, SaveAs. Thanks ChiefTalk, Mark

Gorgeous Mark. Just a darn line. Elegant and simple, thank you again. Mark para-CAD, Seeing Rabbit on this video makes it a must watch. He has a lot of tricks. This will be saved and viewed once spring has come and went in Montana. Mark

Hey Mark, Long time. Hope all is well out there. Must be nice to live in a land where you don't have the types of choices we have coming up. I was unaware that I could just add elevation lines that started and stopped within a drive that would have such a decent result. I moved your swale over to where I have the 2, hard to see, yellow lines that run inside corner to the inside corner and adjusted it to be gentle. It does not want to work there at all,let alone allow me to make it smaller. Is this why you placed it on the opposite side of the property> Thanks again, Mark

I got rid of everything but the roof and exterior walls. I left on the CAD overlay of the site on the AUTOCAD SITE layer. Peck Final CDs (Reduced 4-4-24).zip

I always have difficulty with terrain tools in Chief. I want a sloping driveway to the diagonal yellow lines crossing corner to corner in the driveway midway between the Barn and Garage from each location with a SMOOTH swale between the buildings at the 45 degree angle. At this time, while putting the final touches on the house, mainly setting elevations all around at this time in elevation, I am working with a small "Mini Terrain Perimeter" as the property slows this model down significantly. I will likely copy the plan when done and have a separate model with the full terrain. For now, I just want to understand how to get the results I am after. In the plan view included, the Magenta Topo Lines are in an AutoCAD as well as the shaded driveway that extends beyond the Mini Terrain Perimeter. The terrain I am working with shows up as Green in the image. The brown line is in AutoCAD and will be the compacted road base commonly used around this area for the long and circular driveway once I bring in the full property perimeter. I am not so much concerned about this at this time and just want to know how to work out these minor issues for now. I created two shapes and then converted them to Raised Areas, the left side 6" higher than the right side. I do not know how to smooth this out first of all, but secondly, this unexpected result would work well as the swale in the larger model if I could figure out how to smooth it out. I am looking to understand how to connect two raised areas such that then smoothly transition as a slope and how to create a shallower and smoother swale. Lastly, how to transition smoothly into the Garage entrances themselves. Assistance much appreciated. I can see if I can reduce the model down to the basics to attach here if anyone needs a copy. Just let me know. Mark

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Likely I have to use my topography lines and the property boundary to place the design back on the 20-acre lot as they want to evaluate it against an existing structure I am hoping that someone may know just how to move an entire 3-story, custom framed plan to a site, or more likely, a 20-ac site with well, septic, propane, and a pole barn with driveway from the road to more than 1/3rd into the property to the house plan. If I just have to rebuild the lot around the house, I have that suspicion. I have been setting all the elements I can think of to "Absolute" height as previous attempts have lost entire walls and partial roof areas that were custom framed and my Architectural Block columns showed up at a variety of heights. Should anyone have some pointers, please offer them up. Thank you, Mark

@solver Mark just copied what you had. I was not paying attention. Instead of glass block I need a wall type of framing, drywall inside, sheathing outside as the lower wall. Look like the solution. On to that now. Thanks Eric. You do make us think it through... Mark

What I learned from the negative space experiment using a Wall Material Region... @Mark3D Eric usually does. I did not get what he was trying however. I will try that next if I can figure out what he did.

I use material regions to paint rooms, etc., but have no idea how it will affect the amount of siding and/or exterior insulation is calculated. I will post back here if I learn anything new while trying to figure this out. Mark

@mthd97 Checking out the video link now. What did you mean by. "See if it is possible ti give it a negative value in order for it to deduct from the siding ?" realizing the question marks were likely referencing a concept, not a tried and true method. Negative space or thickness?

@solver Done processing.

@solver YouTube says it will be ready in a bit, maybe 20 minutes. I will repost this link when it is ready as well to embed the video. https://youtu.be/xAwioM77_E0

I will toss together a quick video.

@solver Are you suggesting that I replace the wall area under the gable with glass block? I see where that would help with siding count, but won't it then frame incorrectly as in no stud wall? Mark