5Design

To my knowledge, Chief doesn't offer built-in span calcs for joists and rafters. Even the headers (that fall into standard tables) are hit and miss based on my settings. Beyond that, Chief still doesn't get that you need different material for, plates for instance. Chief also doesn't know what a patio header is. And trying to organize the material list so that it works is pretty much impossible from my experience. So, why even bother including something if you're not going to make it work? I suppose the visuals can help avoid framing conflicts, etc.

I offer estimating services, as well. And as an architect, there's no reason the model shouldn't be accurate. That's why I'm looking at alternatives to Chief all around. Tired of the auto- generated nonsense.

My goal is to be able to supply the material takeoffs with my designs for builders / contractors. I have been manually adjusting framing for the structural plans, but unless there has been great progress made in v14 with material reporting, it's just a headache. Thanks!

Hey, that's great. Thanks for the tip! Will definitely check it out.

Thank you. The whole point of the project was to model the fixtures (had them made). Guess we'll just have to stick with the ray trace static images.

Hey Y'all, Not sure how it got so big. Went form 50 or so MB to 232. There are a lot of 3d images which were converted to fixtures. It gets stuck here (see snip). Even the compressed file is too large. Link to drive folder:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7AW7VGBxPvJRjMkizoZK9eiUM3B9FAO/view?usp=sharing

That's greatness, Steve. Thanks! I had forgotten about the doorway trick.

Managed to get it close to accurate by deleting the foundation walls under it. But how does this make sense? Ahh, the joys of Chief. Thanks for your help!

Well, what's your secret? When I change the settings for the other window it goes berserk and changes the rest of the house to the same (on the one you sent back). Still shows the foundation. Is there a default setting that applies one room structure to all?

#1 is fine. #s 2,4, & 5 are 24' AFF and the CLG is at 74" AFF.

I've only tried the front left (4), but they all need to be changed. Number 3 goes to the ground but that whole thing is going away. Number 1 is the box feature in Chief, which is great if you only have one window.

I haven't changed any settings/defaults but when I change the floor height in one room (box window) it changes all of them. It's never done that before. I've toggled all options. I checked the last plan I did with a boxed window and the settings are the same. Anyone use another program that doesn't think it's God? Just let me control each input. I don't need you to automatically change other values because I change one. Rant over. Link to drive file:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-N28PEhE4d12oyP7NsjZAI9NphtvKssZ/view?usp=sharing Thanks,

Thanks, missed a step. That did work!

I've tried changing every default I can find. It's never been this large before. Also don't know why the file is so large. No PDFs that I'm aware of. Aaand, the text in the framing plan views keeps defaulting to "Text" as opposed to "Text Framing" which is what it's set on. Thanks! Link to gmail drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PTxmiqL1yys9r9RAltxV2X2tG59VQu7B/view?usp=share_link

Well, that was simple. Just needed to change the setting in the material db to match texture.

Hey Y'all, When I go into materials and select the color I want, it only changes it in orthographic view. I need to render a couple views with custom colors. Any ideas? Thanks!

It's only on the edges of some walls / ceilings, not all though?

Ahhh. Thank you. Didn't check that as I'm not using the drawing, just going to render a couple static views.

Hey Y'all, I'm guessing the missing wall sections are just another Chief glitch, but who knows. Then there's some kind of trim on the bottom of some sections of the ceiling. I'm hoping that's something I can turn off, but haven't been able to find it. And, does anyone know how or if we can customize railing to have more rails (like a typical modern railing)? Haven't searched posts on this yet. Thanks!BOSS.plan BOSS.plan

Yeah, I haven't learned Sketchup. Thinking about going to Vectorworks.

https://www.arteriorshome.com/ova-sconce-49826 https://www.elkhome.com/Product/acuminate-61-wide-15-light-linear-chandelier-h0018-8565?setContextLanguageCode=en-us

Thank you, sir. I guess they might. I've never had it done before.

Hey Y'all, In browsing other posts, I think I can do this, but wanted to see if anyone could confirm. I'm having someone model a couple of fixtures I need to add to a render. They will provide a 3d symbol file. When I import them, will I be able to label it a fixture and add a lighting material to the bulbs so that it emits light in the render? Thanks!

Hello Farzan, I will email about a project from terry@5designllc.com Thanks

Well, for whatever reason, it was because I had it set 0" in from baseline. When I changed it to 2" in, it built accordingly. Thanks.