Steve_Nyhof

I was drawing a house the other day that required a deck and stairs with a railing for the front porch. I always use a room to start with and post to beam. As I continue to use Chief I begin to learn how things work related to how rooms can connect at a 0 edge (no overlap). I'm putting this out there because some of you veterans always find other unique ways of doing things I am not thinking about. But more importantly, for Chief to offer a few more added options to what I think is a standard practice in building. I have watched a number of videos about how to extend a concrete porch far enough to extend past the column base trim. So I do that and recently made a slab to look like a deck and works great on the sections as well. I would go so far as to say I have at times seen someone build a porch in real life where the trim overhung the porch/deck edge because of miscalculation or unskilled carpenter (which would start with the framer). I say this because Chief in trying to be a simple tool is suggesting that all posts and columns have no base trim or that base trim exists inside the room boundary. (Yes, there is a style that keeps its trim and crown molding inside the beam boundary - I cannot remember the last time I used it nor does it fit the history of columns and beams.) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? I don't find it beautiful. As shown in the picture, when a stairs is added there is a gap between the end of the stairs rail (where it meets the room boundary) and the railing centered on the columns. This gap exists because the edge of the porch or deck needs to contain the trim of the column - plus an inch or so. I made a stairs rail into a symbol to fill this gap, albeit not the most beautiful in short time. So, two things. But one (1.) more important. Add an option in the stairs dbx to extend the stair railing - even to allow the relationship of the joining railings to be disconnected (no relationship) if wanted. Kind of like how we can control the stairs skirt board that allow us to extend beyond the width. Add an option to extend a room floor beyond the room ceiling - allowed only where no other room is connected - like a porch. (I understand we are drawing what can be constructed and therefore in real life rooms do not overlap). Every house I draw has some form of a front porch and most have a rear porch. These spaces/rooms are typically connected to other room spaces by one, two or three walls. Which means there is always the possibility to have one to three edges extend beyond the ceiling boundary into space outside the house - allowing the column trim to rest properly inside the porch or deck edge. Thank you, Steve

That is nice if I do not want to add an opening. I typically add the opening in support walls so that the headers are installed. I assume you save it as a block. Thank you Joey!

I'll remember this for 3D. I needed it only for 2D now - Thank you Ryan!

Works just as I would want it! Thank you!

Thanks guys!

Is there a way to change the line style on a door to a dashed line so I can show it as a future door?

Yes, I remember that. I actually started that post I just want more Votes - it makes me feel important Seriously though... Votes may not help, but more users on a thread having a conversation about the subject I think can help get their attention... maybe - Thank you!

While I am still learning Chief, I have several decades of Architectural CAD experience. I do bring up subjects now and then that are important to other users. Please click that Upvote button next to my posts and others engaging in the conversation if you think the subject is worth getting the attention of the developers. Thank you!!

Thank you Eric! I'm going to give it a try! I just got done putting different Plan Views together using the Reference Layers, and this, while a bit of a work around, seems to be a solution... For now.

And then with floor surfaces turned on, it should be quite fine. Helps with the foundation space so the walls are setting on something. Now it is like walking through a house once it is framed up.

This was one way of doing this that I think will be ok. It will remove the foundation from the pony walls, but it keeps the framing which still shows more of the framing. Hopefully this will be addressed some day. I made the Pony walls, Walls, Daylight and turn them off with the Walls, Normal layer. The foundation wall will remain. The bearing walls are also Walls, Normal now so the framing shows us, but the footing is off - not cool, but ok. Thank you guys!

Making them normal allows me to turn off the Wall, Normal layer to expose the framing, But Michael is right, it is with the Pony Wall. Ideally, a pony wall should maybe allow us to maintain or control the walls within the pony assembly. I want to keep the foundation and footings on the walls. Steve may have the only answer at this time, spend the time to remove the layers and save. I like to upload a framing 3D model for the client to mess with on the online viewer. Maybe it is not so bad that the pony walls remain with its materials. The main focus is on the framing of the floors and trusses. Maybe another version will address this. I'm not sure when Pony walls were released, but with all new things there are always ramifications that need to be addressed. Yes Sir! Catch 22! Thank you

I always like to know what is happening also

Very nice - and that is with some layers turned off - ok

I will do that. I was doing that at first but then figured the walls must be wrong somehow.

I will mess with layers first. Would rather fix it that way than recreate my walls. But it does not take long to recreate the walls.

Ah! I will do that. Was wondering about that.

I have run into this with a few plans. I did not use provide framing detail, but for the clients that want to see the detail in 3D, I like to produce a 3D framing model that can mess with online. However, I have found that some of my walls in the foundation area do not generate the framing as the main and second floors do. The support walls with a footing do not show as framing. And the Fur walls also do not show framing. Also the lower daylight walls remain with siding on them. Thoughts ??? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSLeZLDIRSsZWin7R1bfHL-OOxYNFiQZ/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1gDrY234MUOCFKEaz6Eg9SRFR9EoURt/view?usp=sharing Thank you, Steve

So, I may have changed some room definition which caused the walls to behave as they did?

I had this plan done by adding a roof return manually. I just spent some time getting things exactly centered and at the same heights on each roof. I seen that it was off on the right roof by maybe a 1/2". Now both roofs join exactly at the center of the wall. I unchecked the roof return and closed the dbx. Opened it again and checked it, and the left roof is the only one that shows up. I did set up the roofs in the Plan View and then went into Working View to select the wall. I'm moving on as I have a lot more work to do. It was working when I first put it together. I'm not sure if any of you downloaded the plan and got it to work, but it is not working for me. I will watch closer next time I put this together as I know I can be a "little" aggressive in placing my roofs. I will use the Roof View moving forward so there is less on the screen and easier to see. Thank you

I need to get used to building my roof in the "Roof Plan View". I checked it and it is set up on Main Layer Only, and of course it is very clean and easy to see. I will make it a practice to use this roof view to do my roofs. Thank you Steve!

Yes, a very complex roof. And yes, I do struggle, or I should say that I try to be careful where the wall snaps. Once I know where a good roof is, I use my shadow board height and match that. That has worked well for heights. But in this case, being careful is not careful enough. I knew it would be something simple like a misaligned plane or point. It is things like this that get me because I am not always thinking about how a small move here changes something there. I may have nudged the header hours before and never paid attention to the roof until I was placing it on the layout. By then the cause and effect no longer care about each other Thank you for your help on this. I am slowly becoming more and more aware of what I am doing and thinking about the effects of my actions.

Yes, I have put the pony wall "assemblies" in both 8' and 9' basements and the pony wall is set to 40.5" which is exactly 42" off the footing. So far I have not had to go in the dbx and change that, other than when I want a 60" wall or something to work with the grade which is changed in the wall on the plan. I also use a similar pony wall without the fur wall on the inside for the areas I make walkout walls with the frost footing, which is 42" below final grade. The images below shows daylight to walkout walls.

You are correct. The height of the wall top plate is managed by the room height.

Yes, I believe that may have been the issue, but when I rebuilt the foundation everything worked.