HumbleChief

Designing houses and running a design business are indeed 2 very different things. Running a business requires a different skill set but those skills can be learned in the same way as any skill is learned and it sounds to me like you are doing exactly what's needed to get your business up and running. There will be some successes and some failures. You'll start out without a contract until you get burned, then you'll develop a contract that works for you. You'll under charge, you'll over charge until you figure out what's fair and what the market will bear. There's so much to learn but business is a great way to learn so much about yourself and about people. And oh yeah before long you'll have stories to tell. Ones you can't make up about clients that did things that you will never understand. Over the years you will figure it out and if you want to replace the 'yous' above with me's and I's you will have read a little of my experience already. Best of luck..

Technical degrees are great and if you feel better having one then get one, however you do not need one to start designing. You just need the gumption to start your business. There will be many replies with all the cautions you must take and there is no reason to not be prudent but if that's enough to stop you in any way, or if not having a 'degree or certification' stops you from going forward with your passion to design then find something else to do. There are risks but life is designed that way with rewards coming to those willing to risk. It's a long journey but even the longest journey begins with the first step. My advice - take that first step.

Depending on what state you live in, like here in California, you do not need licenses or special permissions or certifications to 'design' residential structures. Anyone can submit drawings to our local cities but if there is engineering required then you need to explore that option. My clients will sometimes refer to me as an architect and I correct them immediately and call myself a designer. As far as I know there's no legal requirements to being a 'designer' again here in CA.. I had absolutely no design experience when I started 'designing'. None. Zero. Zilch. I would grab plans from other Architect/Designers and try and replicate them (no not copy them for those about to chime in about copyright issues). Then I would submit them and the plan checkers would send me home with the craziest corrections because they could smell the newbie on me. But I kept at it and now almost 15 years later I still struggle but am busier than I've ever been. My advice to anyone starting out in this (or any) business is to simply start. Do you have Chief Architect? Then draw all day. Everything you can think of. Watch all the videos. Learn all you can as if you were committed to making your business thrive. I converted about a hundred details to Chief to learn the CAD tools. Pricing? There are no short cuts. You have to figure out what your time is worth and not charge people to learn Chief. Not easy and you'll get it wrong most times but overall and in due time you'll figure it out. Again no short cuts.

Same here Perry but many times as you know we're required to get R-19 or R-30 in the ceiling leaving very few options.

Even in San Diego we need to overstack or understack a roof structure or some other foam insulation strategy to get some insulation in those old roofs.

Do you have X7? Or X6 as your signature suggests? Transparency is an X7 feature.

See if this helps Todd http://www.screencast.com/t/N0yHWVVaHH

That's a great feature for sure.

That's what I'm using. Used Jing for a while and it's pretty good but limited space for vids. I use Snagit to send videos. Great presentation tool and a nice surprise for clients. Next step up seems to be a lot more expensive. Files are big BTW.

Two plans here as well, existing (as built) and proposed. Usually combine the demo with one of those plans depending on the scope.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Haven't made time to try it out yet. Maybe this weekend.

Here's another method. http://www.screencast.com/t/va99ndSLsn

Always appreciate your unique look at problems Yusuf. Thanks

A friend gave me one and I can't quite see how it would be better than a mouse but anyone use one out there?

Greg do you mean a plumbing isometric drawing? Here's a gas line iso just done with CAD. Plumbing adds a couple fixtures and various lines but pretty simple overall.

You probably have to set up separate Layers and turn them off/on to get ANYTHING to show the way you want. Takes initial setup time but once you have them set up for one plan you can use them all over the place in different situations. Really no short cuts but the Layer setup investment will pay off. Your question states. " the walls nice and gray and nice and dashed but not nice in that I am getting both floor plans worth of walls instead of just the floor below each roof." Are you saying you don't want to see the walls on the second floor? If so turn that Layer off. If you want to show only certain walls create a new Layer for those walls, turn that on, and turn all the other walls off. AND while you do that create new Layer Sets as you need them to keep it straight for sending to Layout. I have a Roof Plan Anno Set that refers to a Roof Plan Layer Set and that Layer Set shows only roof planes (most every other Layer is turned off) with all the walls grayed out and locked so clicking on them won't select them. I've also locked windows and doors for that Layer Set. The roof planes are a special color and pretty thick lines so they show up well and I use that Anno Set for shaping the more complicated roofs. That Layer Set also gets sent to Layout as the Roofing Plan.

Nice.

Awesome David! That was really helpful. Simply recognizing that as a dormer seems key to getting it done and keeping ones sanity. Very well done and thanks for taking the time.

Tried again and got close but that little rascal is above my pay grade, and it's dinner time. Perhaps those who know the technique better will chime in.

I know how to do barrel roofs as they intersect a roof plane but haven't (yet) figured out how to get that small face above the window. I'll try again. http://www.screencast.com/t/4InAisyQMQC0

I didn't notice either Perry. The original question seemed pretty simple. "I want to show the walls and roof overhang and roof planes of the floor below and I want to show the dashed roof overhang and roof planes for the current floor." That's the only question the video was intended to address. I also assumed the OP had the ref set figured out but maybe not? So so much to learn and consider and as always watching Scott's videos is a great learning tool. Anyway I hope there's no fooling anyone with my videos. I do them for purely selfish reasons. Even after many years of using Chief I have a ton to learn and doing the videos can be the best self teaching method I know of. So if they help someone else that's awesome but they certainly help me and I hope those selfish reasons don't taint them so I/we can keep learning stuff together.

The issues are generally much more complex than a simple video can explain and all I was trying do was show how a reference set could show the items requested to be seen. The other parts and pieces like Anno Sets and using the appropriate Layer Set for the Reference Set are needed as well and should not be ignored. BTW I didn't choose the reference set, it was there when I opened the plan. I only attempted to show one way that that reference set could be changed to show what the OP wanted. If you are using a Layer Set for roofs and the same Layer Set for a reference set then that's a bad Chief practice. Either way take what you want and can use from the video. It's not there to state how it should be done only to give a small glimpse into one way to get what you asked for. And the more videos you watch, the more you'll learn even if they will head you for 'disaster' like the one I posted.

See if this helps. http://www.screencast.com/t/UsoU4GDW

I agree. I have tried to make the point that Chief allows a lot of its programming to be exposed to the end user where it should not and "the casual user of Chief would [should] never see the code" (Lew) unless they wanted to dig into the code as an option. But many basic functions should not require any knowledge of any code to achieve basic info and simple calcs. etc. It's like sausage. It should be delicious to the taste, but one should never have watch it being made before eating it..

Thanks Gerry, this rabbit hole is a little too deep for a Sunday especially with The Masters on. I'll just keep typing in day=ta where I need and use Ruby/Macros where allowed.