HumbleChief

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.

Not sure I've ever understood the structure dbx and/or the floor/foundation defauts but the above recipe seems to work. Did I miss anything in the above description?

The 'floor' for Floor 1 has to have the 4" slab set as its default in the the Default 'Floor' dbx. Access that Default dbx while in Floor '1' and set up the slab there. If you set up the floor for floor '0' as a slab it doesn't really effect the floor for floor '1' which is where you want your default slab floor to take precedence. Confusing to even write but I've been confused with the logic (??) for a very long time as well. I just tried it though and it works pretty dependably. Try this. No walls drawn and NO FOUNDATION level built yet, just a blank first floor or Floor '1'. In the defaults 'floor' dbx set the floor structure for this floor as a 4" concrete slab, and check the monolithic slab foundation box. Any floor you draw now should adopt this as its default setting. Maybe try that first. In the defaults foundation dbx set the foundation (remember it's not built yet) as a monolithic slab with spec's of your choosing. Now create a foundation level and see if it works the way you'd like.

Barry, Set it up in the defaults dbx - the little wrench icon at the top of the page - go to foundation etc. Also check the 'floor' section of the same defaults dbx and set up your 'structure' there to have a mono slab (or whatever). Pretty confusing for me as well and hopefully I got the advice correct for you. I re-read your post and I think you have to set up the 4" concrete 'floor' in the floor dbx and the 4" slab in the foundation dbx then your defaults should match?

Very quick re-draws on my system but my system is pretty quick. Plan looks very simple but I remember other posts about some objects with a LOT of surfaces and that would increase redraw times a lot but the only thing I see that might meet that standard are the balusters. Maybe try and change them to a simpler design? Not much help I'm afraid so must be something system specific. Maybe the Gazebo? Again not much help here - good luck.

My preferred method now as well.

Never seen it before and only happens with roof planes. Won't be solved but thanks so much for taking the time to look.

SWEET! Thanks so much for the help. Tried to mark both answers as solved but it would only accept one - thanks again.

...and at 11" it leaves a really strange artifact in the doorway. So sorry I didn't mention it's an X5 file (client must have in X5 format) but if you're seeing it in X6 then maybe you're right about the bug. I can massage it enough for the client who needs it now so thanks again for taking the time.

Interesting Perry, It's good up to 11" main wall thickness but at 12" it cuts the floor. I'll just leave it at 11" for the presentation. Thanks so much for taking the time.

..and not others. Can't seem to find the culprit and even copying and pasting doorways gives the same results. - a cut floor under 2 door ways but not 2 other doorways... Plan DOOR SILL 1.zip

Curve the walls then Auto Build the roof. Or...if you want to try and save the straight walls (not sure how or why this would work) you can auto build the roof over another curved wall and move the roof planes over your straight walls. This will create a LOT of problems but might be doable.

I share with a client on Google Drive and allow them to delete files with no harm to either my system or his. When he deletes files it lets me know the file is on their computer or it's now time to upload a newer version as our relationship is one where I'm constantly updating and changing for his approval. I don't know the nature of your relationship but maybe it's not a problem that needs fixing?

Curt, Thanks for the reply. It's much more simple. I have a floor plan and want to turn on roof planes. I go to the Layer dbx, click the display check mark, go back to the plans and roofs aren't showing. Go back to the dbx check mark is not there click again, roof planes show. Has happened 6 or 8 times but can't replicate the scenario. It's like I'm not clicking the right spot or mis-clicked but after a couple 3 times I'm sure it's been clicked just hiccupping a bit. Plan sepcific? Maybe but again impossible to reproduce consistently.

Carbonite here

Happened again. No one else seeing this?

Thanks Doug, I do have an off-site back-up set-up and cannot replicate any specific scenario and repeat the problem as you suggest. It's random and at first I thought I had changed a setting or something but it has happened more than once now so I'm just very cautious from now on. Can't say where the problem is and mainly posted to warn others to take care and to see if anyone else had experieinced the problem.

...thought it was my errant clicking but have noticed it more than once and it only seems to effect Roof planes. Click on the display check mark and close the Layers dbx and no change. Select again and the changes occur. No way to replicate so just curious if anyone else has noticed this?

...just happened again when I closed a plan I was NOT asked if I want to save changes and those changes were lost. Not sure if anyone else has seen this but it's cntrl 'S' from now on before saving. Used to trust Chief with every close but not anymore.

Of course Jon - Thanks - seems I used to know more stuff or I did it this way before and forgot, oh well - Thanks again

Worked fine here as well.