HumbleChief

I don't know anyone who expects technology to be perfect or infallible but I've tried many different approaches that simply do not work in the field in a real life setting. I personally do not 'see' how it would be easier to use a Disto over a measuring tape and I can easily imagine results that were worse than using a tape measure - way worse. That's the point, I think, of the original post. It's impossible to tell how useful the product might be from that video. It might be wonderful - it might suck. I'm personally not going to drop a few hundred on an IPad to find out and the video is not clear enough to educate IMO.. On the other hand I would LOVE to have a product that truly lived up to the hype - seems like a great, great idea but when I see 'fun and easy' I think lame and useless for the professional, unless I'm making an infomercial for Disto or CA.

My feelings exactly when I saw that video. Couldn't hear or understand to start then wondered what he might be doing to make the system work. Not to mention needing an IPad to use it. Chief's introductory video is no better, continually alluding to the 'fun' and easy' time you will have when using the 'fun' and easy' free room planner. I would much prefer an 'accurate' and 'professional' application that was modestly priced and spanned more than one platform and actually worked in the field.

Any separate area that you want at a different ceiling height needs to be separated with a 'room divider' wall. That area can now be defined with its own ceiling height.

Yeah I get that Robert and appreciate the concern over getting things 'right'. I was just wondering if there was a need that I wasn't aware of. Thanks for clarifying. I'm still waiting for the drywall in section view to show the ceiling drywall hung first then the wall drywall. Not going to happen but it bugs me and has for many years.

Can't think of a method but am genuinely curious - why do you need to show a drywall return? For ConDocs? For a detail? Never needed to show it myself so am curious.

Todd, There are some things that Chief simply will not do easily. I've seen some videos where the problem you describe can be resolved but when it gets too frustrating using Chief's tools I'll just create a CAD box and fill it to replicate what I'm trying to represent. Takes less than a minute and I'm off to the next challenge. In most cases having a filled polyline box on your plans is no big deal but in others it can be important - you must decide how much time you'll spend using Chiefs wall tools (even when using them costs way too much time) or Chief's CAD tools.

Use the break wall tool (Ctrl + B after the walls have become one wall type. Then choose ether section and change the wall type.

I have an Anno Set/Layer Set called bare bones which turns off everything I don't want in the 2D CAD drawing, leaving only the walls, or whatever you want to see in your 2D CAD. Once you have that Layer Set set up you can convert to 2D without all the fixtures/toilets etc. I also create a window and door demo layer within that Anno/Layer Set that is also dashed so they will also show as demo when needed. It takes a bit of massaging but once you get it set up it's fast and easy.

Interesting idea. Never thought of that but not sure I'd use it. Still an interesting thought.

I have a separate City and a County Layout that I use as each jurisdiction has different notations and spec's required. I'll save my latest Layout (City or County) as a new file name preserving all those notes etc. and resend plan views to the new Layout, but that's about it for Layouts. I'm pretty disorganized and am constantly adding or changing Layers and settings and I find that any older 'template' I've created is quickly outdated and contains older preferences and settings that I no longer use. I can only keep up with my lack of organization and constantly changing template ideas by using 'save as' to preserve my latest settings and preferences.

Also check training video 362 although I don't see a need to create a mask and use the point to point tool. Just copy and paste in place.

You don't have to export to .dwg you can take your existing floor plan (strip out what you don't want to show using layers) and convert to CAD using Chief's tools. Select all and choose a line style/weight. Block your new cad lines and copy/paste in place into your flor plan. Put the block on its own layer, send to back group and lock. Very much like what you're describing but perhaps more 'in the box' using Chief's tools. There's a knowledge base article on the technique, I'll see if I can find it. Here's one way. http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02208/

There are actually only 5 'fixes' in the latest update - watercolors being one of them. 7 16.4.1.20 Update Notes 7.1 Walls, Railings, and Fencing • Corrected a problem that caused gaps around recessed windows and doors placed in brick walls. • Fixed a crash involving a wall segment in a specific plan file. 7.2 Rooms • Fixed a problem that forced moldings in Open Below rooms to display in the room below. 7.3 Rendering and Ray Tracing • Corrected an issue that caused views using Watercolor and Painting Rendering Tech‐ niques to be too dark on systems with Nvidia graphics cards using the latest drivers. 7.4 Pictures, Images, and Walkthroughs • Addressed a scaling issue that affected the display of imported PDF files on some high resolution displays. 7.5 Importing and Exporting • Fixed a problem that caused Room Planner files imported into metric plans in Chief Architect to be scaled incorrectly.

So both demo and new walls are to be black filled?

No you can't save the settings you are referring to but you can save the plan and delete 'the drawing you are creating' quite easily, which will in essence serve the same purpose. Another method used by many (myself included) is to save the 'drawing you are creating' as a template or as a new project/drawing file and just change the walls floors etc. for your new project. All your latest settings and changes will come along into that new file and you won't have to recreate any settings for your new projects. EDIT: I see Alan alluded to the SAM or 'save as method' above which is essentially the method I'm describing.

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2167-1641-update-has-been-released/

I'm not sure why I started using plain text to label my rooms but it's a habit I've stuck with for a very long time. I can see now that in order to use actual room labels I have to use the room divider tool in some places and sometimes I want my garage to be labeled a garage but don't want it to 'build' like a garage. What the consensus out there. Room Labels? Or is there an alternative. BTW plain text works OK but the room names have to kept on their own layer in order to been seen through multiple layer sets. Much more flexible that room labels but no macro of room information included which I prefer, or have preferred in the past.

Never knew that was an option. Unchecked it my profile plan as I almost never use Rich text anyway.

I used it only once because a client had their plan drawn in a similar fashion and was also surprised at how well it worked. Also needed a couple of custom names as well.

I work within that exact same parameter and run into the exact same annoyance. It might be hard to program but is that a good reason to not have a very, very good feature that increases productivity? Maybe. Maybe not. I've seen other software apps that have an 'apply' button and others that have an interactive dbx that applies changes without closing the dbx. Hard to program? Again, maybe, but worth it to this user.

Thanks for your input Scott, as always much appreciated. For a beginner I think Chief leaves a lot to be desired as far as creating unique framing situations like the OP posted. There are ways to do everything but the 'shortcomings' can burn a lot of time and effort. And no one mentioned the invisible walls needed in Tommy and Graeme's method. Another land mine for the beginner and so easy to forget when advising those new to the program.

The wall framing can be defined in the materials dbx as shown in the pic. Note the 60" spacing for the Fir Stud. Chose any of the existing Fir Stud Materials hit 'copy'; rename the material and change the spacing and thickness.

I'm not a beginner but also not the sharpest tool in the shed so I thought I'd try Scott's method above as it seemed like the best and fastest solution but I ran into a problem right away. How does one "build a wall defined as 4x4 at 5' oc"? None of the wall structure dbx's give you options for framing a particular wall that I can find. I did find that you can define the fir framing material with a spacing of 60" but that didn't seem to translate to the framing seen on screen. (Not true see post below. I must have missed something) (This is not the way to do this but I'll leave it anyway) I found one way to do it but you must first frame every wall with 4x4 at 5' O.C. from the build framing dbx. Select that wall, choose retain framing for that wall, then re-frame everything else at your normal framing spacing/size. I'm going to mess around with this for a while and see what I can discover but so far I can't do what Scott is suggesting. Maybe a beginner will have better luck.

Samuel, As a new user of Chief you will find that many users here have discovered a lot of different ways to do a lot of different things. When I was first advised to use polyline solids I thought it was the slowest and most un-intuitive process (which I still believe it is) but after a few goes at it they become very very easy and fast to use in many different situations. They can 'band-aid' over a lot of Chief's foibles as well though not many will recommend doing so. Scott's method above is the most sophisticated use of Chief IMO and uses Chief's tools in their intended manner but it can also seem complicated to the uninitiated. It's the method I would use depending on the reason and application. Quick p-line solids works too and even though they seem complex at first they will become a very fast and easy method for accomplishing many, many tasks in Chief. Learn them now - you'll no doubt learn to love their versatility.

So badly needed in a modern day software application.