HumbleChief

Yes elevation regions as suggested above are much more cooperative.

A good question. I have no idea how elevation lines are designed to work in Chief but certainly not in a way that works within the logic of my mind. That's why I never use them, never understood them, and always use elevation regions instead. Here's what I get when setting your defined scenario. Someone, somewhere probably understands why a zero elevation line doesn't remain a zero elevation line, most likely the brilliant (and I am NOT being sarcastic) software engineers at Chief but unfortunately I am not a software engineer so the logic simply escapes me.

Good points all. The main benefit for me and using Plan Views is that more than one Plan View can be open at a time in a tab, instead of the past where switching between Anno Sets would force one to close before another opened. The one other benefit is when using a foundation Plan View and being able to switch to that foundation floor via the setting in the Plan View instead of the old Anno only method of switching Anno Sets then switching floors every time the foundation was shown. I used to have a single floor set for each other Plan View but all my floor plans (except foundation) are now set to 'use any floor'. Easier to switch floors for me with the plan floor icon than set up new Plan Views for each floor. Also never have, nor do I think I will, use the zoom feature for a plan view. Just sayin'...

Lol, that's going on my tombstone "I Almost Got it" Thanks for the clarification and overall help...

See if that vid explains it a bit as I had your same question....

Apologies in advance if I'm not getting it either but I THINK I understand how to by-pass Anno Sets and what Michael is talking about...

Thanks Rene, Really nice to see how other brains use Chief's tools. I'm pretty old school with Chief's layout tools but again really appreciate your look at things....

I think that's pretty much it but there might be a trick or nuance missing. I'm all ears/eyes....

Yeah my questions are kinda like that...just can't see how to save a plan view without a specific Anno Set? That Anno Set drop down in the Plan View dbx seems like it's requiring a specific Anno Set? No? That's the part I'm not getting. How do I save a Plan View without a specific Anno Set? Thanks

A better worded version of my question above...

Hey Michael, Curious about your comment above and love the idea if it truly simplifies things but I was just exploring Plan Views and it looks like there's a drop down >Annotation Set>Currently Using: and can't seem to find a way to use an Anno Set in that drop down that does not choose the Layer Set as set up in that currently selected Anno set? Without using Anno Sets, which is what I am reading you are suggesting, how are they by-passed within this drop down? Thanks and hope you're well...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100160979 601294990 4019 4814&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&PageSize=36&order=PRICED I bought this one a couple 3 years ago - very happy with it. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAFJ87MZ9044&ignorebbr=1

Sorry Rob, I've been using Chief for 20 years and do not understand the structure DBX well enough to do this the proper way or at least in a way that looks OK in section. Tried a couple methods and remembered how utterly useless that dbx is. Good luck...

What kind of foundation? Slab? Crawl space?

There's indeed some risk but that's the nature of life isn't it? I would imagine you'd be hard pressed to get any insurance company (or anyone in my world) to agree to a time and material estimate but a hard number also leaves the door open for you to out perform your number as you might do the job in less time? A really great idea is get your number as close as you can using all your experience and skills, I mean really agonize over it, then wait until tomorrow and see how it looks/feels. At some point you have to commit or bail which is the nature of our business but letting a bid rest over night can add some needed clarity.

I would encourage you to proceed crossing all your t's and dotting all your i's as you seem to be very capable of doing. You did state you do not know how to bid the job, but I can't remember a job I did know how to bid and never let that stop me. Does every job turn out great? Of course not but you seem to be perhaps more capable than your original posts let on. Good luck and keep us posted if at all possible.

Must agree other than the great experience we had with USAA who actually insures its clients and not tries to simply profit off them...

Here in California a contract is an enforceable agreement so if another party agrees to a cost for the job that cost should be collectible. It's usually a matter of when, but we designed and rebuilt a house here in CA after a fire and the insurance company paid us our agreed upon price and it went pretty smoothly. They happened to have USAA insurance which was a remarkable company experience. No way could any foundation be saved here in CA but maybe it's different in TN and the extent of the fire. You state you "don't know how to bid" the job and sorry but that problem can be solved only by experience and diving in with a lot of risk on your part. But risk is many times required for a reward, even if that reward is a valuable (maybe even expensive) teaching lesson. Advice from others is pretty worthless as we can know nothing about the actual relationship but be assured it will most likely cost you a lot more than you think in time and energy to create a reasonable proposal and collect your payments.

The problem is most likely your designer's difficult nature and not the software you are using and best of luck with that. I warn my clients and have my contractors warn their clients that this is not HGTV and we don't have teams of designers working behind the scenes to create life like renderings but we'll do as good a job as we can to get materials as close as we can to what they look like in real life but please remember it's a computer and we can only get so close. That starts with the other designer and can be reiterated by you but it sounds like there is a some standard that you may never be able to reach - no matter how good you get at whatever software you choose..

Ouch - that might be a tough nut to crack but if you can find something concrete that the designer does like as a baseline you might have a chance of pleasing her - might. Or maybe she has something that she thinks looks amazing so you at least have a chance of pleasing her??

Making things look exactly like they do in real life cannot be done on a computer and managing those expectations should be part of any good designer's communication with their client. And what if you did get a material to look 'exactly' right on your computer's monitor, what happens when the client or designer looks at it on theirs? All monitors are different, all lighting is different and again those expectations should be managed from the beginning of any relationship. Given all that, check out this thread for some really awesome renders using Chief's Physically Based Rendering engine. Are any good enough for your designer? If so there's still a ton to learn before getting the PBR engine down. If not then perhaps look into something like Lumion and have your designer pay for it...:)

Sorry for bailing on this thread - swamped right now but appreciate the help. I ended up placing solid filled text over the numbers in the schedule. Pretty weak band-aid but had to get it done quick...

I created a false, second floor to accommodate some unique framing and it worked out OK but it also puts my true second floor windows on floor 3 in the schedule. Is there a way to change that notation in the schedule to read floor 2 instead of floor 3?

Can you post the plan please?

Any time you add a 'fixture, interior' like a toilet, Chief will put it on that layer - there's no choice and no way to spec which layer your interior fixtures go on - initially. So it is asking you to turn that layer on if you want to see them. The only way (I know) to get them on that specific layer - which is very smart BTW, is to select them after you've placed them on fixtures,interior layer and reassign them each to PLUMBING interior fixtures. Nice job on the Anno/Layer Sets. Really.