TheoryDesign

Yes, similar concerns about increasing Chief costs. As a 1-person small shop & part-timer, the SSA subscription increase this time hurt quite a bit - $550 (with early bird promo) up to $695. 27% jump in 1 year. It's not a problem for larger companies but getting hard for individual users to justify. I wish they'd make some consideration for occasional users.

I see. At least I'm not crazy then. Hopefully Chief can fix this overbuild situation at some point since going back to delete a bunch of roofs is rather inefficient. Thank you for your responses DRAWZILLA. In summarizing your comments & others' I understand: auto-build is pretty much a 1-time thing & then best to abandon it auto-build should therefore happen as late as possible in the design effort a house with multiple roofs will likely always require manual roof manipulation no matter what I should school myself in roof construction more - it's those odd-angled hip roof valleys & ridges that get me when attempting manually

Thanks SHCanada2 - I actually didn't realize I could do that here (best via zipped file or link to it?). Last week I fudged what I needed but am returning to this now. I'd submitted a ticket to tech support & will post results here afterward in case others need this help too.

The original roofs were drawn by a 3rd party (I use Canvas lidar scanning tool for site measurements to provide my as-built conditions model - fyi major timesaver for those who dread extensive site measuring & it only requires a cell phone to use). I see the existing roofs say "manually drawn" in the dbx. If I try to edit them manually myself it still doesn't provide the option to retain these manually drawn/edited roofs afterward in the dbx. Good point about simply drawing my own roofs manually. Since I don't do much exterior/roof work much I've been worried I might build complex roofs incorrectly & it is largely why I invested in Chief Arch. However, may need to study roof construction a bit to avoid this in the future. Perhaps it's not as complicated as I've been assuming.

Adding more visuals in this order: -existing home w/ existing roofs -proposed garage/mudroom addition before attempting roofs (so just walls) -DBX screen when attempting to build new roofs over addition -roof spaghetti that ensues -floorplan if helpful per SHCanada2 I know the existing house has manually drawn roofs. If I select all or just one of them the DBX still does not provide the option to "mark as edited". I just don't know where that is hiding? If I proceed to "Building Roof" tool & check off "Retain Manually Drawn Roof Planes" box in the DBX, I get new roofs built overtop the existing roofs & it tried to combine these with new roofs over the addition. Technically the existing roofs aren't getting changed, but overbuilt, but still...why would they get involved at all? I clearly still have a lot to learn about roofs, but why wouldn't that "mark as edited" option appear anywhere in my DBX's?

OK thx robdyck guess I've never noticed this b/c I almost always have both open simultaneously. Must be a feature that forces the 2 to constantly coordinate with each other in case of any changes, rather than leaving ghosted information lying around. Smart.

Thanks ChiefTylerL - I have tried to select my roofs individually as well & that checkbox still does not show up. I did not create the roofs in the original file, but assume there's nothing unique about them - they had to be created either manually or automatically. If a roof is automatically built but not ever edited does it mean that roof option will not be available? Not sure how to any new roofs w/o affecting the others unless I fully detach my garage from the house to do so.

Thanks for confirming that part, Fotis1960. It must be something else then...perhaps a setting when the original roofs were drawn? I'm stuck.

I'm not a beginner in Chief Arch yet don't think I've experienced this before in version 16. Once I've dropped my elevation views onto sheets in my layout file, and save both, shouldn't those page #'s remain associated with those view in my plan file? If I close the layout file my sheet numbers disappear in my plan file....almost as if they were temporary placeholder spots not confirmed/saved. I admit I'm newer to using the Project Browser to coordinate & navigate my views between the plan & layout files (just never learned the correct way originally) but everything seems fine there. The symbols are also showing as different sizes but assume this is a related problem (missing page numbers that will increase the size of the symbol). Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Video 704 talks about this but I don't see the same DBX option in Chief Arch v16 to indicate my roofs as "edited". How can I lock my existing roofs? When I check the boxes to "retain manually drawn/edited roofs" under the Build Roof toolbar, it does not do so without that prior step.

Thank you Renerabbitt and glennw. I appreciate your replies - both worked great.

Oftentimes when I'm noting up a small, crowded floor plan like a powder room the interior elevation symbols/section cut symbols need a little more space (from each other or add'l info there). I'm aware that a symbol can shift side-to-side along the cut line. 1. Is there a way to offset the symbol from the cut line fully, in any direction, without moving the cut line itself? 2. Is there a way to jog the cut line forward & backward as needed to show specific things that would otherwise not show up together from a straight cut line? Not 100% accurate in real life of course, but for client purposes, combining extra info into just one section cut can be a very useful time saver. I tend to show interior elevation symbols w/o their extension lines anyway, so exactly where that section cut is taken isn't too important to me.

Thanks Joey. This worked.

How might one reduce the font size in these elevation symbols? My default symbols are huge, and while I see I can manually adjust their diameter in the camera dbx, I cannot find anywhere to adjust their font size at the same time. No "automatic text resize" option. I'm always confused by the naming systems in Chief (markers, callouts, symbols, cameras?) so maybe I'm searching the wrong thing.Per my screenshots this is what I've tried (everything crossed out). Is it some sort of text default? =

Forte is a free app by Weyerhaeuser that will do this for you. My contractors use it themselves with ease, often in conjunction with SketchUp. There don't seem to be any recent youtube videos on it but perhaps it just hasn't changed much in the past few years. Does the job. Give it a whirl. https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/woodproducts/software-learning/forte-software/

Thanks Eric & DBCooper - I see how I can manipulate those other tools you mentioned (material regions & custom backsplashes) in the same ways now. Very helpful. I'm just not exactly sure when it's best to use each one. Are these assumptions correct? 1) Always start with wall or floor "Material" specification dialog. If that isn't customizable enough (e.g. not the entire wall gets same finish) 2) Apply a Material Region to specific areas requiring it 3) Can alternately build a custom backsplash but only do this when millwork is part of the equation It seems like material regions & custom backsplashes are in effect the same thing, being layers on top of the wall. When would you use one over the other?

Thanks, that solved it. On this same topic (and assuming this is now the best way for me to manipulate tile patterns on walls) how might you solve this part of it? The wall finish changes part way. I.e. the shower tile does not extend all the way out to the corner so I'm trying to show drywall on the rest. When I break the wall into 2 walls it just wants to merge back into one wall, keeping the same surface treatment on both.

When I try to show tile layouts on walls or floors I often find I cannot shift the origin of it. Reference guide & search terms I've tried here are not turning anything up. The tools I've tried to show these layouts accurately include Material Regions, Custom Backsplash, Hatching & changing the wall/floor types Material. I do not want to apply 2D Cad fill patterns in elevations & floor plans for this purpose--seems archaic to do it that way with the many advanced & integrated solutions Chief offers? Thanks for a few suggestions.

Thanks Mick & apologies All for posting in the wrong area.

I often have difficulty with line visibility in Chief. My elevations/cross sections often appear to be cut off on one side or the other, or just the top, or just the bottom. It happens in both plan file & layout files (so not just at the tail end on the drawing sheet). This doesn't seem to be a clip line issue in the plan file, or a boundary box problem in layout file. I've tried adjusting all of the clip settings in the specification box. Any ideas?

Thanks Eric, DBCooper & richoffan--I burned time searching every possible term & still would not have landed on Edit Area (Help sections & videos & ChiefTalk archives are only useful if one knows the correct combination of words, it seems). I appreciate your responses.

Is this a possibility in v13 or 14? I'm aware of similar software having a function that can show & select all stacked levels of a building at one time, making it easy to move, rotate, mirror or cut & paste entire buildings. It's not foolproof, but it gets it 95% there, saving a ton of time. I'm about to start designing an addition to a house plan that I've modeled once before in the same neighborhood, except this one is the mirror version of it. I'm hoping I won't have to start from scratch? If so any shortcuts others may have discovered in doing this?

Thank you. Your first suggestion (color toggle) worked best for what I needed right away. I didn't realize its status on my layout coversheet. It looks to be all or nothing throughout the entire set, however. The other option (turning a jpeg into a cad block) was a great idea but it won't override whatever decision was made with the above toggle button. Ideally I'd find a way to isolate elements on a sheet for color purposes. While most things will always be b&w/grayscale, I do prefer the project photo/rendering on my coversheet to be in color, as well as my titleblock logo on all sheets to be in color. Hmmm.

Occasionally I'll drag & drop a color image (jpeg or screen snip) into Chief. They're usually photos or map screenshots that need to be shown in color but change to black and white. It's happening in both plan files & on layout sheets. I think I've gone through all of the image settings once pasted into Chief, as well as misc file default settings and system preferences, and have also searched the reference guide with no luck. This seems like it should be a quick toggle of something. Any ideas?

Thanks Charles. It was great chatting by phone today. I look forward to working with you next week.