HumbleChief

Thx - but that would be cool new button - no?

Not exactly but you have the idea. Create a second room on Floor '0' using the foundation wall tool (you'll have to turn off auto rebuild foundation when asked) and open that new Floor '0' room's structure dbx. Raise the floor by shortening the stem wall height and/or raising the floor height - on that floor - not by using the "Floor Below" dimension which shows on floor 1 above. Funny thing, once you create that room with a lower floor Chief will use that measurement as the height for the floor below, not the full height basement height. Another thing to remember if you delete that basement wall and turn everything back to full height Chief will 'remember' the height of the shorter room if you draw the wall back in - you won't have to set it again. An amazing skill that Chief has that will make you crazy if you don't that it will 'remember' some room heights.

Shane, can you please explain this command "you can change foundation wall to crawl space..." Where is that? and doesn't drawing an extra foundation wall require that auto foundation be turned off? Truly curious as the structure dbx has stumped me for almost 20 years. Thanks

Thanks for the explanation Dermot. I understand there's a basic level of complexity to software in general and sometimes that level gets my simple little brain a bit overloaded. Understanding every nuance of any software does and I suppose should take years and some parts will simply never sink in. What I think I have discovered is that the plan views seem to save the ref set setting which is a huge help. I also understand that trying to design software for a single user like myself is a fool's errand so I thank you for your explanation again and hopefully some of it will sink in.

One of those very nice improvements I did not see coming and implemented better than expected. Kudos to the Chief team....

Turns out I wasn't doing anything differently. I don't use the XOR either but using transparent text mean I don't have to turn it off every time from Chief's Ref Set defaults. Is there a way to set those ref set defaults? Like Objects on and XOR off or otherwise? Can't find it - thanks EDIT: I think the new plan views saves this Ref Set setting - VERY nice - love the plan views!!

Finally understood that transparency tidbit - thanks Michael.

Interesting Perry, wonder what I'm doing differently..

+ 1 TO THAT.....

Any that come to mind?

Thanks Michael.

Kinda curious why the XOR affects the triangle around the shear symbol. Is there another way to show it using "show object on."

You're very welcome glad I could help....

Here's how/why I use Object Settings in a ref set. Still don't really understand them so good. Not sure why object setting affects the line but not the triangle? Not sure why XOR affects the triangle and not the line?

Curious, don't most users have their own defaults for each floor set up in Chief?

I think you are correct Joe. There's no reason that railing walls should need any special treatment (use object settings) to show in a ref layer. But good to know Michael. BTW how does one change a railing wall to "Solid"?

There's no reason you shouldn't be 'truly confused' by any XOR setting as you are not a software engineer, even though it is assumed, as a user you have a similar knowledge base. Both those settings are very confusing but "Use XOR Drawing" should not be in any dbx anywhere any time in a user friendly user interface without a clear explanation or some plain English terms so users can understand WTF "Use XOR Drawing" means. Another very clear case where the engineers got in to the user interface where they do not belong. Right now I just click around those setting until the ref layer looks correct but never really know why. From the Help Menu "Use XOR Drawing changes the color of lines in the Reference Floor that are drawn on top of other lines. Lines with identical properties do not display. When unchecked, the Reference Floor color does not change, and identical lines are not suppressed." There HAS to be a better, clearer way to explain what XOR Drawing is intended to represent than the complex engineering term that is currently there.

Never realized such a tool exited - thanks. May not help the OP with all the details but should help a bit.

That's a good video unless you want to really understand how the defaults effect the plan Scott was drawing. Without that you get nothing like what he ends up with. Of course one needs to understand defaults to understand Chief (it is mentioned @ 10:15 in the vid) but there 3 or 4 that effect the plan, some over riding another. Foundation; Floor/Ceiling platform; Current Floor; and Room Type defaults all effect different parameters. I've figured it out over the years but again the video is a perfect example about how the complexities of Chief can be glossed over to present what looks like a very easy to use, fun, automatic, piece of software. Apologies starting now, as I've complained about the structure dbx for far too many years and far too many posts. Chief has no intention of changing same and I'll just muscle through as I need to and rant over. Your help is always appreciated but I'm over trying to understand the logic behind Chief's structure dbx and beyond. Again thanks for your help...

Yes, and your posts are always well thought out and helpful but I think in this day and age a modern interface should simply make sense, not kinda sorta make sense, and where's the logic? If I could understand the logic maybe I could follow it but the logic is buried deep within a software engineer's brain not to be shared in a 'logical' manner with the users. Which I think points to the problem. IMO software engineers should not get anywhere near a UI. Is there video showing how each control works and is expected to behave? I've searched and never found one. Why is that? How can there be a floor in the crawl space? What's the minimum height of a stem wall when it behaves nothing like a minimum? WTF is a minimum garage height and why would one care? Set a default and watch it change unless you set all 3 or 4 defaults and then have some over ride others? Why? What's the plan? What's the logic? What are the defaults for? Someone tell me in a way that can simply be understood and maybe I'd have a small chance of understanding. I have a helper who is pretty bright and we continually get lost trying the simplest of floor/ceiling height tasks. Been using the program for almost 20 years and still have no idea why the words are what they are and why they mean something different than plain English. Again the saddest part is there is not even a head fake of concern or the impetus to change the oldest most dated interface I've ever seen. I do manage to get through every job but am angry and frustrated every time I need to do something even the least bit complicated. That's just not right in this day and age. The rant above is in no way meant to disparage or diminish your helpful OP, it's just that I cannot take the crazy sometimes. [/rant]

Maybe you are right Richard but for me I have NEVER used a more confusing floor structure interface than Chief's. Not only confusing but down right backwards and wrong when setting defaults and expecting them to behave as such. I've used the program for 20 years and still fight the illogic that goes in to setting floor/ceiling heights. Does that make me stupid? Maybe, and I don't doubt that my intellect can be suspect but there are so many things that simply make no sense (to me). The saddest part to me is that Chief has absolutely no desire (proven by the complete lack of interface changes and/or improvements) to create an easy to understand graphical interface for floor and ceiling heights/levels/stories/floors that even us morons can understand. I am fairly certain that the skill set to create a user friendly interface simply doesn't exist within the company and there seems to be no desire to either hire or teach that skill, again proven out by the years and years with no real changes. Please prove me wrong Chief, but the proof is in the pudding and this pudding is still very ,very confusing even though there might a slight improvement as you've illustrated.

Also remember that growing has its own risks and growing too fast can be fatal for your reputation. Can you find good help? I mean good help - we couldn't. Can you handle a LOT of work that an advertising campaign might bring in? It's each individual's call but growing slowly and organically (meaning growing within your client base, your true skill sets, word of mouth referrals instead of advertising) can create a slow growing, steady business that can survive the down times (which will come) as well as the good times.

I wonder how many busy Chief user here advertise heavily to stay busy. I don't and am very busy but I'm a one (sometimes 2) man shop. Anyone else had luck with advertising?

...other than find bad clients. Word of mouth is always the best but it does depend on your business model. We have businesses around here that advertise heavily, burn through lots of clients with a fair amount of unhappy clients - I've talked to them - but they are busy. If that's what you are looking for then you need a marketing plan that actually works and shows results. We chased google listings and all the other forms of marketing and all we got was crappy clients. All of our word of mouth clients were staller and remain clients to this day. Yup. But again depends on the business model you've chosen for your company.

I'd upgrade the hard drive set up - maybe the 1TB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD otherwise it looks pretty good.