HumbleChief

Found it - It's a wall finish, delete the exterior wall layer in the wall definition and it disappears. Can I now please call this the best answer? He!! yeah.

...and how do I get rid of it?

Agreed Joe, there's some nice features no doubt. Loved the level feature (who would have thought I'd like that feature huh?) OOB for a small residential designer? A bit of a no brainer for me, Chief beats it for way less money. More complex commercial or very large scale residential, perhaps not a no brainer but Revit must be better, I'll assume for now.

I think you've asked one of the really relevant questions regarding Chief's business model and what their designs and intentions are for their future. I am a small time residential remodel designer. Chief fits my needs very well and I suspect it serves others well with a similar business model. Is Chief content to stay focused within that narrow market? Is that a good (read profitable) niche to remain in? Or should they expand their focus into some very, very competitive markets? Remember they also have home versions as well which some have suggested might diminish their brand among Architects who consider themselves perhaps too professional to use such homeowner type products. But they are running a business and we can't guess at how profitable that segment is, nor how profitable the migration from Home Design Pro to Premier might be. Do they want to expand their current market share? Perhaps an easy yes, but with that comes added expense, added expertise, added marketing and going up against some really big players in the field. Risky, and must be calculated very carefully. And what are those features it should add to enter that new market? You know what you would like, but the risk just grows with each good business question. My business is similar with similar decisions. I did a couple of commercial jobs and the new learning curve was awful and not profitable. With my new limited knowledge should I now expand into the commercial market or stay focused on small residential where my core competency lies? I've decided to stay focused on small residential and will turn down commercial jobs. I think Chief has (apparently) made a similar decision to remain in the small residential market and no one here can know how well that is working for them. If that's true then adding features to enhance that market presence makes a lot of sense. But what features? And how fast? And at what cost? And when will competition suddenly decide small residential is a market they want to exploit? And where will Chief be when/if that happens? Not an easy call but I think adding features for unconventional homes and/or modeling capabilities does nothing to harm their market position, might expand it and will still allow them to remain focused on becoming/staying the best small residential design software out there.

Maybe you guys could have a 'house off' and see which has which strength/weaknesses? Does he do residential design? I'd be curious but really have no intention of learning another program, nor do I have the time or mental dexterity in these later years. Have you seen that video? It is an hour long and very enlightening and to be honest I was underwhelmed to say the least. Now if I was doing commercial projects or Gehryesque type projects Chief would not even be a thought, but for my business, it's very good, sometimes not great, but very good.

Richard, I couldn't agree more regarding the complexity of the mentioned programs. I think there's a certain power within that complexity but the learning curve is very steep, as it is in all design software. I do not need to design atrocities such as Frank Gehry has perpetrated, I just need good solid software to design residential remodels and custom homes. I think Chief has lots of room for improvement to be sure but the complexity of some of the design software leaves me cold with way too many tools I would never use and the dialog boxes within boxes within boxes etc. would make me crazy - until I became expert of course. The one thing that changed my mind and made me stop looking for any other software was this video below from a Revit expert. It took him an hour to create the house he demonstrated with no real cabinet selection (you have to actually purchase families of cabinets, door etc.) and really just so so presentation tools. Some nice tools for sure but overall, without that expertise, it would/could take me days just to learn the interface. Speaking of competitions, I wonder how long it would take an expert Chief user to repeat what is shown in the video below? Layout's already set up with sections and floor plan views sent from a previous plan, just like you would start a new project. Any estimates? Any takers?

Tried to suggest that earlier, but yes nice job Shane.

Are you sure?

Zip it.

Rob, Check the pic posted above all the baseboards are there. You're missing something simple.

Rob check room def and no locate for your walls?

Just tried it and it worked OK. Sorry can't help more.

I wonder - does ANYONE use a single plan for remodels? Maybe a new thread - curious.

It happened around 4:30 AM. Might have fixed it. Tried just now - 6 seconds.

Actually agree with you on this Scott and was kicking around a couple ideas that might work for the OP and Nicinus and not wreak havoc on current work flows used by many. If there's any changes that are suggested and they "add a lot of time to producing plans" - would anyone be interested? The whole idea of all suggestions is to try and make it easier and to save time producing plans - of course.

Does that allow for a true single plan remodel paradigm? Or just allows a wall to occupy the same space? I have never tried to use a single plan for remodeling, always relying on an As Built and different concepts based off of that As Built. Do you think Chief is now capable of using a single plan for a remodel or are the limitations to great to use effectively? EDIT: Or is it even desirable?

Took me 3 - 4 minutes to load Chief this morning.

Never knew that. Apparently it's 'selection line color'.

The more I think about that last point, the fact that Chief's Layers are limited to one wall occupying one space, no matter the layer means that, when remodeling, 2 plans MUST be created, starting with an accurate As Built. We currently can't truly have a 'Demo Layer' that can be turned off and on because many times 2 walls would occupy the same space. If that limitation were gone then maybe a single plan could contain all iterations within a single plan file? Even beginning with a rough draft, in a single plan file, that could be iteratively changed and detailed as the concepts progressed.

Nice

Chief's biggest limitation IMO is the inability for 2 walls to occupy the same space, no matter the Layer. If walls could be on different Layers and occupy the same space it would add TONS of flexibility to Chief's er.. flexibility. [Cue Lew]

Richard, Can you find the 'bounding box' that the PDF was in and delete that? Sometimes hitting CNTRL 'A' will select everything in the plan and that bounding box will show up - layer has to be on of course..

You can also set it up in your Anno Set Rich Text defaults. I never use Rich text so don't come across it much.

Sorry Nicinus, sometimes I'm not smart enough to keep up with the intellect on this forum and can be a smart a$$ as well. I was trying to say that your idea was a pretty good one then the smart a$$ kicked in and I suggested that you might not 'like it' any more like you don't like drawing as builts - sigh - hard to communicate without hand gestures and eye winks on the forums. No offense intended either way. In the mean time I'll iteratively work on my forum posting skills.

Check your defaults in the Anno Set.