HumbleChief

I skipped a version a few years ago when I simply could not afford it and didn't regret that decision one bit. I paid the additional upgrade price, which was very fair IMO, and didn't regret that either. My SSA is current now and will be as long as I can afford it but no matter what version I owned I was always capable of getting work out the door. The thing I've noticed most about the upgrades was not necessarily the added features, because I simply don't find a use for most of them, but more the 'crispness' if you will, of newer versions. This is most certainly due to the work that goes on 'under the hood' with each new release. I have an associate who was using X5 for a long time and whenever I used it was just clunky and cumbersome. Not that many new features in X7 but it's just better is so many small ways. So my advice is work within your budget. Everyone felt the pain in this business a few short years ago and knows what it's like to not be able to afford even the modest SSA fees but if you can afford it the benefits of the newer versions outweigh just the simple list of added features.

Here's another version with 8 ft. ceiling on the main floor bedrooms 2,3 and 9 ft. ceiling for the master. Check all the dbx's and see what makes sense and what doesn't. I also left a back clipped cross section in their to show the 2 ceiling heights. HTH. Newell Plan Revised 2.plan

Newell maybe this will help. All the lower and upper floors are set to their default heights, the window is now OK, as well as that storage area. The floor overview looks OK (other than the roof cutting off the mirror and wall in the second floor bath but that's another issue). I also left the open below are with a floor for now, you can open that later if you choose. The furniture cabinets etc, are all there, just turned off. You can now start to change things and come back to this stage of the plan as a foundation. Hope that helps. Newell Plan Revised.plan

This might help somewhat but it's hard to tell what the actual problem is. Good luck Newell and don't give up.

Hope this helps Newell. EDIT: You can see at 2:07 where I change the ceiling finish instead of the ceiling structure - don't do that and I hope you get the idea.

It's always best to wait for the smart guys/gals to post their answers but here's an exercise in one way to go about changing things. The vid starts with no sound but then kicks in. I have NO idea what caused the behavior you are about to see but then again perhaps the smart folks will chime in and help us both understand what happened and why. https://youtu.be/k9MkeWb8S8I

Good tip Scott, my brain is a bit simpler but will remember if I need to set things up differently.

Thanks Joe, yeah slabs relative to terrain would be nice.

I'm usually a bit late to these parties so hope this isn't old news but I just tried something new with Poly Line Driveways. I've always just drawn in my concrete slabs using the slab tool and adjusting to taste. Usually 4" - 6" thick so they'll drop below any terrain, and heights at 3" - 5" below finished floor to provide for a step down from F.F. and depending on grade etc. Sometimes it takes a little fiddling to get them at the right height and if the terrain changes then the heights of each slab has to be changed. Today I drew those slabs with the poly line driveway tool and it worked great. Each slab (driveway) automatically sits about an inch above grade. The heights at the doorways can be adjusted by the terrain height. Very flexible as they are really just poly line solids that sit on the terrain. Pretty cool. They will only work for concrete slabs 'on grade' but it's fast, flexible and automatically adjust to the correct height with the terrain settings. Nice. (Side note) PLine driveways won't cut curbs in roads but straight driveways will - just an FYI)

Ray, Not everyone has a problem with PDF's but I have had a lot of problems and found a solution that works for me in the thread below. I have to print to PDF because my older HP 110 doesn't have enough memory for a lot files, pics and PDF's. Not sure it will help you but might be worth a try. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/7009-done-with-pdfs-heres-an-alternative/

Been called on this code a few times, but not consistently, and not for a long time, but have definitely been called on it and have had to comply. Done a hundred remodels with a 5 foot setback with no issue nor a call to comply then one day bam someone will ask for it. Remember Scott, LOTS of new plan checkers at the City of San Diego and they're pulling up codes that a lot of the old timers have either learned to, or decided to, ignore, for better or worse.

Scott the free version is a basic 'reader' the full version adds many useful features.

Adobe Acrobat should be a great program especially at its cost. There are cheaper alternatives but Acrobat is the gold standard for, I hope, obvious reasons, but at a higher cost that one would expect.

Not so far Scott. I thought I might be compromising the quality but it's fine and as long I can clearly read the PDF's (it's best for full page Title 24's and text heavy engineering specs) then I have no problem. I almost never buy software that can be had for free but the features in Foxit are well worth the money especially if you use PDF's heavily. It will add, delete, rearrange pages, annotate and a load of useful features. I think Joe uses one that might have more features but i'm really happy with Foxit.

...or maybe just create a simple 2 page index and kill the automatic one - yeah that's what I'll do. Thanks for the inspiration Joe. Hope you're well!

I've got a 20 page Layout and want to 'save as' for a small 2 page Layout, same location and other relevant information. Using the Pages feature of the Project Browser I can go one page at a time and un-check 'Include In Layout Page table' but wondered if there was way to delete/disable multiple page?

I print my PDF's in color so I get good gray scale, then send those to the print house to be printed in B&W, no one will pay for color output from the print house. Smaller jobs I print here on my HP 110, in color, almost always. A print head died the other day so I printed in B&W on my 110. Never found a client contractor who cared much about color ConDocs. Presentation stuff - always color - done in house.

There's a part of me that really wants this to work but I can't see it working in my real world at least - yet. Maybe the dimensions on all the time? Maybe rounding measurements? And taking longer just doesn't seem to make any sense. And what do you do when you get home? Where's the back up real world dimensions? Did you lock the wrong wall? Something's missing but what? My paper scribbles are a very good backup when doubts arise. Again I want it to work but my time's too valuable to test these apps out right now.

Thanks for the info Stephen. I have now converted 3 or 4 full page PDF's and the speed difference is night and day and makes my Layouts much, much quicker and easier to work with. HIGHLY recommended no matter how you get it done.

Never seen that Greg, what keep the walls from falling?

No printing from Foxit? Curious about that. I use it for all my PDF work, nice program.

Thanks Val, The png conversion is a huge time saver. I'll up my DPI back to 300 and see if things print OK.

Funny Kev, some people have no problems but for me they are a severe drag on my system slowing it to a crawl. Do you use a PDF utility? Foxit? Nuance?

Somewhere in my memory I could have sworn the Chief guys said that PDF's were converted to images in Chief. If not then I can understand the speed issues. If so then what utility are they using that's so much slower than Foxit's converter? Curious.

I have had many, many problems with PDF's in Chief over many versions. Slow, Slow, Slow, when viewing page to page. Slow to print. Overwhelms my printer's memory and prints only partial files/PDF's so I have reduce the resolution. Any PDF printed higher than 144 DPI chokes everything if I have large PDF's (full page) in the layout - painful at best. So... my PDF utility, Foxit PDF, has a feature - convert to image. Hit the button save to a new file name. Now everything is a PNG which loads at least 10 times faster page to page in Layout, prints PDF's (now PNG's) without sections missing and doesn't overwhelm my printer, without any noticeable degradation in quality. Sweet. Hope that helps someone else.