HumbleChief

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.

I'm pretty sure you're right Lew, and there's a technique hidden in the Anno/Layer Set madness that allows for that but I started down the road with a gillion Anno/Layer Sets and can't get off it with the habits I've formed over many years.

Was going by the OP's picture Steve but not a big deal - looks like he found it.

I believe the default button is below it but it will be good for Bob to thrash a little more till he discovers it

Nice, thanks for the link.

Curious, where did you find that texture? Looks good.

Chief has a decent one as David alludes to but I always had a hard time finding them. Maybe these pics will help.

Always good advice Steve, Key to all of this ANNonsense is that Anno Sets drive Layer Sets, not the other way around. Big discussion on the benefits of each but Anno driving Layers won out. I almost never select a Layer Set independently of an Anno Set. Takes a LOT of repetition and muscle memory to remember every time but change your views through Anno Sets NOT Layer Sets, it will keep you sane.

The panel options are under Newels/Balusters>type:>Library. Yeah it's bit.... trying to figure out the dbx's in Chief.

Nice solution Robert. I would also look at the wall definition and add a layer of siding instead of 'painting' the foundation wall with the siding material. When you painted the wall that turned the entire concrete stem wall in to that material and it wraps around as you have shown. If you add a thin layer of siding material it will interact with the other wall in the way you want it to. Of course you would never build that wall in either fashion. If it really is a concrete stem wall then you most likely have furring strips or something to accommodate the siding but to get the look correct that thin layer of siding will make it much easier. In the long run nothing good ever comes from painting wall materials, instead of changing the wall definition in the wall dbx. You can tell the wall was painted by looking in the dbx attached under exterior materials>exterior wall surface. That material wraps around the entire concrete stem wall, causing your problem. Adding that thin layer in the other dbx solves it.. Your interior wall has also been painted. Add another layer for that material and it will behave much better. Best of all build the wall with all the layers that would actually be there during construction. Takes more time but will leave the model with a more accurate model for future ConDocs.

Remember this all needs to be done only once for each new Anno/Layer Set as they are plan specific. Meaning once you get Anno/Layer Sets set up you can save that plan as a template and you're done - until you find a need for another Anno/Layer Set which you will, then save that as a template etc..

Yes PLAN VIEWS are probably one the best features Chief has implemented in a long time. I would suggest you understand Anno and Layer Sets before diving in to PLAN VIEWS but your call of course.

NICE...

Maybe a little more clarity... ...and you don't have to 'copy' an existing Anno Set you can choose new...

Doesn't matter in which order you create Anno or Layer Sets. Like Mark says above you need to associate Layer Sets with your Anno Sets but either one can be created first.