Steve_Nyhof

This is very good to know. I will also give this a try. All of this is helpful in learning how Chief likes to play

I will look into this - I do have a section open all the time so I can see my results.

Not a problem at all! If anything, I am enjoying and gleaning from the info you guys are sharing

I completely understand this and working within this. When I drag the heights I know I am working against the system per say with a more traditional CAD approach. I am not even fighting Chief's design but trying my best to understand and find use and of it's relationships. I am drawing my plan over and over, working through what chief might like me to draw first so that other things fit instead of fight. I currently have a 2-5/8" discrepancy in my garage wall height that I cannot get rid of. This 2-5/8" is often related to the difference between 11-7/8 and 9-1/4" floor joist - defaults I am finding. So deleted everything and starting again by making sure to change my Floor/Ceiling defaults first to 10" floor. Working on the plan again now. I realize that traditional CAD allows me to do as a please, but it does not then have any real relationship to the model like Chief does. I am building a model whereas traditional CAD has you design lines and blocks and objects, etc. in space.

Oops!

I'm starting again and including the garage before building the foundation and see how that goes.

I am creating a test Bi-Level home to learn about what I would draw at least 10% of the time. Plus I draw very complex homes with different height floor levels. I have already drawn single floor and two story test homes, and those are easy because they follow more simple rules. I know I can master these in a short amount of time. However, to draw a Bi-Level home, or Tri-Level (same issue with the garage), I need the foundation plan to show the foundation walls of the garage, and the first floor to show the main floor walls of the garage. The house part was a challenge with the foyer floor and stairs, but it worked as the foundation plan will show the foundation wall AND the exterior walls on the foundation plan. To create the foundation garage, it wanted so badly to sit in the air up with the main floor. And for the life of me, I could not get the footings and walls down where the house foundation show. So I made elevations and dragged them down manually (trying to avoid doing that). I went back into the floor dialog and seen no changes that I could equate to do this from there. I could not get the floor down, so deleted it and made a slab and moved it down into place. So far, I'm ok with how I pulled this off, although I know many of you more skilled will disagree, but I'm just trying to prove it can happen before perfecting a proper method. Chief either can do what I need or it cannot. I'm hoping it can because I really want to make this work. I could always design more complex homes in ADT, but would love to walk away from it at some point. I am happy with the way the plan looks on the foundation, but now I need to add walls on the main floor but when I do it totally messes up my foundation walls. I tried to add Open Below on the first floor garage walls because I do not need a floor on the first level if it shows on the foundation - It can show on the first floor, just not sure how. I am guessing I may need to venture into more advanced tools to pull this off, and I get that I am just starting, but I have been drawing on CAD since about 1992, so am learning Chief by forcing myself to figure this out - and I have a lot. I know it seems I am asking a lot of questions, but not until I have spent many long hours trying and reading and watching anything with related topics, and then trying. Thank you

I'm just uploading my progress. The Open Below worked. I figure I need to work in Layouts to hide the Open Below dashed lines. I have a funny 2x extruding up that I just cannot make go away. Thoughts? Thank you

Thank you guys! I had made a default for my open below and have messed with it and forgot about it.

I am creating a test Bi-Level home to learn about the dropped floor and the stairs. I have some of the things in place and looking good. When I use Auto Stairwell it cuts the floor and puts a railing around it. I just need a hole or jog in the floor to allow space for the stairs from the basement. I have a 1.5" fir wall on the left for the one side and no wall at the moment on the right. I know I seen a video in the past several week on this, but maybe it was Auto Stairwell. Thank you

I found the foundation Height Off Floor was different. I'm including a pdf of my settings for main floor, foyer (lower floor) and the basement Bi-Level - Split Floor within one space.pdf

And right now, even though I am following the same process, I am getting different results. Last basement I drew gave me more options, and now I only have 2. So backing up and trying to get some solid defaults in place and follow my steps and see where I'm doing something different.

I have watched them, and several several times - but as I do things I forget the details. I like to work through things until I find the process, and then documents that process so I can repeat it. But I am continually going back to revisit the videos. This is something that I have not seen covered specifically and I was having a hard time making what I did see apply the same way - but I'm getting it.

I got it! I was trying to put a point to point and manual dimension on the foundation, but when I drag the dim to the right it changes to another point- whatever! I'm trying real hard not to bank my head against a wall.

Ok, so I deleted the foundation, and then deleted the room divider. Then I added the room divider back and the floor values were still in place so accepted that and it made the foundation stem wall height correctly - Now I am adjusting the lower floor height.

That added foundation around my lowered floor - and made extra high walls, maybe using my lower foyer as the main 0 point. I will try some other things and keep this post updated. Thank you

I have messed with this split level floor thing for several hours trying to get my heights correct, and found I can get my floor and ceilings correct, but the foundation wall remains low by 2-5/8" (2.625). I am only guessing, but I set up my defaults to use i-joist at 11-7/8" - I drew several test homes with these settings in place and all worked to the right heights. so I decided to learn about split levels - small Bilevel homes that I draw often here in West Mi on 6" wide by 3'6" high foundation walls - with sill plate, 3'7-1/2". I used the hidden wall per some videos I watched and all seems fine after I adjust my floor joist and heights. - note that the bottom entry floor is 2x8 joist. (I also tested with 2x10, but that did not help and fix the foundation height issue. Side note - for the past 50+ years, the conc floors in MI are poured 1-1/2" over the footings, with the remain 2-1/2" below the top of the footing. In Chief this is not possible so I made my floor 1.5 and will deal with my sections later. The reason is because the 1-1/2" sill plate offsets the 1-1/2" over the footing leaving an 8'0" rough ceiling. Please don't tell me about it's issues or that it is wrong as methods of building are different all over the world - Thank you! So back to line 1. - Question: Is there something left over in the "global" values from the default 11-7/8" joist, now being changed to 9-1/4" lumber, leaving a 2-5/8" discrepancy in the foundation wall? Where is this 2-5/8" coming from? Note, I am able to go around the foundation and lift the top of the foundation wall into the right position, but that seems like the wrong way to fix this. I will upload my plan for anyone wanting to look into this. Thank you SND_D_Residential Template.zip

I set the main floor to Default to bottom and it seems to work - So maybe when it is over daylight and walkout wall with the same material as the first floor, you need to default to bottom so it is not overlapping like it does on a foundation wall.

It did show up for this view, and now that it is lined up, the icon is no longer there - so it must be lined up. Maybe I just need to start again as I mess with things that could be causing this.

Very good - I will check that

I'm thinking it may be a foundation thing. Typically when siding is applied, it is put on an inch or so over the foundation wall. When I check the floors between the top of the first and the bottom of the second, they line up, and there is no visible line on the hatch pattern.

Yes it is

I will look at it. I am setting up Chief so working on getting all my walls and heights set as defaults so it is not much of a plan. So you are saying that it should not be overhanging that that?

Ok, so I see that the siding does overlap the floor joist and sill plate by 1.5" - so that seems to be the interference. Thoughts?

So along these same lines, I have this all figured out, my heights are perfect for walkout and daylight. However, on my elevation view, there is a line where the First floor siding is overlapping the lower wall siding. Do I have some height issue? The 3D looks perfectly