SKB-ChiefUser

Gene, I do apprecitae your comments and perspective, but I guess I'd like to say we need to agree to disagree. I believe a lot of what we are discussing are Regional differences and personal preferences.... I've confirmed with both carpentry crews working for us today that the dimensioning methods I described above, our methods, are preferred by Them. As to your issue with 'Architects', I've noticed that most do not have field knowledge to help them draw plans that Field Crews can understand and use efficiently (I went through both an Architectural Technology program (basically how to build buildings and draw plans to build buildings) and a fully accredited College Architectural program. The Architectural program focused on design and artistic quality and had little to no information about how to produce working drawings). I ran into many people in these programs that had a variety of knowlege and experience. The ones who were most successful in the real world after school were the ones with field knowlege. Dimensioning to Stud Faces was taught as a method that fit Commercial design better than residiential; though as long as the sandard used is noted on the plans most carpenters will work from whatever they get. In this area our sheathing is generally flush to Foundation BUT, here in the frozen North (both Minnesota and Wisconsin) we have another wrinkle; we are mandated to have Exterior Insulation of R15, 3" thickness (it can be reduced to R10, 2" thickness, as long as certain other specs are met). A sizable percentage of Builders here hang their Walls/Sill over 1-1/2" which further complicates the dimensioning process; Sill plates here are also 2 x 8 in this situation instead of the more normal 2 x 6. The perfect dimensioning situation here (in Our Business) is to dimension Exterior foundation walls to the outside of the Rigid Foam which then equals the exterior face of the Sheathing. Essentially the plans dictate a 'Framing Line' which is equal to the outside of the sheathing, and the outside of the foam. Those locations dictate the outer shell of the home the Surveyor need to properly site the home and the lines the Foundation and Framing crews need to work from. Generally those are always whole numbers, and also normally even numbers based on multples and divisors of 4' in order to be efficient with standard materials. Again, I think these all boil down to regional and personal standards, and I'm not here to debate them. I am here to find out how to make the program fit my standards, not change my standards to fit the program. Steve

These are all great questions, and yes, most of them are what we are considering. We are a large local builder that builds everything from Townhomes, Entry-level Production, Semi-custom to full-on Custom homes up to ~$2m+. We have a very small drafting department with very low turnover. Design Center does some, if not most of the finish details (depending on the product). There is little needs for cross-discipline work; generally our plan may go out once for use as backgrounds, but 95% of the work gets done in-house. We do need graphics, and have a reasonably priced outside source for them, but getting them as part of the drawing process is a bonus. Which of these does Chief Architect seem to be the best fit for 'in your opinion': Production builder who uses base plans with a list of building options? Semi-custom builder using base plans with extensive modifications to your plans? Custom builder doing "one of a kind" buildings? TIA Steve

I'm going through the the Quick Start stuff now, but clearly I have drawing/construction standards I need to meet. I am currently evaluating Chief Architect as a Potential product for our firm. I have a limited amount of time for that Evaluation. Currently we use an older Program called Cadvance which is essentially an Electronic Drawing Board. It lacks significant paramentric and 3D capabilities, however it's simple, fast and we have 35 years experience with it. We also are using Sketchup/Layout successfully, but we are considering alternate products now. (The attached images are 5 years old.)

Thanks Eric, I hadn't found that yet.

So, I ran into another issue. When I try to start my Exterior walls, the system insists on snapping the framing to the Grid, though I'm trying to tell it to snap the outside of the sheathing. Again it's a local standard and I don't want to restart that conversation, that that isn't the right way to build. It's how its done here by a significant amount of firms and more importantly its how we have built for decades... It's our standard and I need the program to fit us, not us fit the program. I've gone in and edited my wall info but what should be dimensioned to 22'0" ends up with the OSB added... and becomes 22' 0-7/8", etc. One other thing, can you globally change the wall designs and make them stick? I seem to have to go in and change materials repeatedly everytime I start. We use 16" oc Framing as default, not the listed 24" oc. I'll keep looking for these answers too, just seeing if I am missing spots to change these as I am looking through the software. Thanks all. Steve

I have framed myself also, and since I learned from Lead Carpenters, I followed what they taught me.

I appreciate that, but that isn't how a framer marks walls here. (It seems I've struck a nerve with this subject, sorry for that and know what we do works here 'no problem'). btw - the bigger issue is guys marking a wall line and having a grunt stand the wall on the wrong side.

Hey, I'm not here to change the world for anyone, just looking for what I need to make Chief Architect useful to us in our area. Yes, We've had over a dozen different framing crews do our work over the last 5 or 6 years (we've been in business since 1941, i chose not to look back farther) and all of them look for interior wall centers. I've been doing it this way since it was taught to me my first year of High School in 1972. (this isn't to say that if they were to work for another builder whose designer dimensions different that they would object. Our regular guys look for Centers on interiors.) Carpentry crews here have a 1/4" tolerance to their work, so any dimension less than 1/2" is generally ignored (no framer looks at dims of 1/8" or 1/16"; we set our dimensioning to 1/2" min.) Framers measure Center to Center, Face to Same Face on the next wall (basically center to center), they call out 'Butt in' or 'Hook on' as the dummy end sets up the next measurement... Cement crews look for dimensioning from face to face all the way through the building so they can 'hook on' or 'butt in' as they mark the lines to snap. Again, I'm just making sure I can adapt Chief Architect to our needs. Thanks Guys, Steve

Yes, That's one place I came across... Thanks for the confirmation.

Thanks for that, I actually run the Drafting department for a large regional builder (over $25m in sales last year alone). Interior wall centers is the standard around here. I did find a couple more spots to adjust how the Auto dimensioning works and want to thank everyone for the comments.

Thanks again. I do not find a separate spot for those yet. Only the 1/4" etc standards... I'll keep looking

Thanks, This may be true in different parts of the country and if the dimensioning went to the Framing, and not the face of any sheathing. Here in Minnesota, the Carpenters prefer interior wall centers.

Thanks for the Help. I guess I could have been more specific. I've been using (various) CAD programs since 1977, so while I'm a newbie at Chief Architect, I am a seasoned CAD drafting professional and am well versed at working my way through software. -to Reiterate. We are using Automatic Dimensions. I have searched Help. I have watched the Chief Architect Quick Start Videos. I have gone through (what I consider to be) all of the preference dialog boxes and cannot find anything that allows the changing of the below items. I have found other dimensioning standards available to change, and I have been able to alter them to match what we need to provide the field crews. I am trying to figure out where to change dimensioning as the defaults do not match our office standards. Our office standards are set up to match how a Production Framer lays out wall framing.  Ex.  Whole number dimensions seem to drop off the Zero in inches. Interior walls do not currently get dimensioned to the Center line of the wall; the default seems to be to measure to each face of the wall and this is an unacceptable change to how carpenters layout framing. The dimensioning also changes from one wall to another. Interior walls do not consistently get dimensioned from the exterior face of the exterior wall, or from the exterior face of the framing; the default seems to be to measure from the inside face of the exterior wall and this is an unacceptable change also. Perhaps my issue is trying to get Automatic Dimensioning to do these things? Obviously as I move through the preferences more of these items will become apparent as to how to modify the program to meet our needs, but if these items are not changeable, we'll need to move on to other software...

I've already searched the database, help, and checked some of the videos. I haven't come across a solution yet. TIA

Brand New user trying out the software. Trying to figure out where to change dimensioning as the defaults do not match our office standards. Ex. Interior walls con't get dimensioned to the Center line of the wall Interior walls do not get dimensioned from the face of the exterior wall etc.. I know most of this can be solved by changing the defaults, just have no clue where to find them.