DeLayDesign

14 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Eric,

I think Adam was pointing out that it might not be a good idea to try to search for "Vacuum". 

Ha - with the way this new catalog works you'd probably think that! ha ha.  Actually, I tend use the right click 'show in catalog' feature a lot - saw 'vacuum' as an option and though - hmm, what do you do?!.... I found out.

I've already emails @ChiefArchitectsupport, but I was curious if anyone else knows of a fix? 

I thought we had a way of clipped the ends of the fascia similar to how you can clip the stair stringers against walls; but maybe I'm mis-remembering?  I pulled my gable back hoping I could hide it; but it's still showing through.

Also - frieze boards never seem to work 100% correctly all the time but for some reason this one doesn't want to mimic the left side of the gable.  

ha!  @Chrisb222.  Apparently it works like a 'disc clean up' on your PC.  It removed "unused files". Mine cleaned up quite a few - I haven't experienced any issues with the catalog since doing it so hopefully it stays that way.  It's probably helpful, but I didn't know what it would do and didn't realize it was going to lock up Chief for a good five minutes or more.

I mean; it's probably useful because it helps to free up space, but I had no idea what it was going to do and it took a good bit of time.

So - maybe don't click it unless you're prepared to sit for a few minutes while it does a clean up.

Hey @RobUSMC

Chief has certainly come a long way - but has a little bit further to go in order to match some of the quality of other rendering programs like Lumion.  That being said the rendering capability with X14 or even X15 is pretty spot on.  A lot of times it's a matter of what kind of graphics card your system has.  I've experienced some really powerful laptops and PCs with impressive graphic cards NOT have raytracing capability.  I'd be sure yours has that capability.

Additionally, lighting has a huge impact in how your renders will turn out.  That and choosing decent materials.  A lot of the basic materials that come with Chief aren't great.  Heck even some of the manufacturer catalogs don't always look great.  It takes a little bit to figure out what the best set up is for your view.

Try focusing on your lighting, but maybe create a free profile on the 3Dwarehouse (powered by SketchUp).  I pull a good bit of items from that platform to help enhance my renders.

This render is completely Chief; but I did import some 3D plants, a new rug, and draped blanket to take it to the next level.

My light settings follow the video Chief released on rendering a few months back - I believe when they launched X14.



  

I hope this help!

On 3/8/2023 at 9:26 AM, j2narchitecture said:

Hello.

 

How do you create a hole in a deck floor?

I have two decks with a spiral staircase going up from one deck to another. 

I need to cut a hole in the deck floor for the spiral stair. Tried using the 'hole in floor' tool with no luck.

Also tried, creating a railing around the stair and making it into an "open floor" with no luck.

Any help is appreciate.

Thank you kindly.

 

Hey @j2narchitecture

Mine seems to work "OK", but I do have to connect the 'hole' for the opening to an outside wall with an invisible room divider.  I think I have this turned off by default in my software, but out of the box it should be turned on to connect 'island rooms' (or something like that

You could also try drawing a box with the cad tools converting the polyline into a 'hole in floor' this option didn't require a room divider tie in.

Also, like @Alaskan_Sonmentioned - make sure your deck is set to 'automatically regenerate deck framing'

3 hours ago, RobUSMC said:

Can someone tell me where to download X-15?  Its not in the digital locker.

Be sure your SSA is current.  I don't think the download is available for anyone who didn't continue their support past X14.

Dang! Sorry @stevenyhofmaybe @ChiefArchitectcan weight on this.  Seems like an issue that needs resolving

Yeah; it's a bit annoying, but one way I've overcome it is to use the soffit tool and add a very thin (1/16") molding to the sides the same height as the beam.  You can tell the beam to sit under ceiling and it will automatically slope following the ceiling.

The moldings allows you to then have two different variations of the material traveling in the correct direction if you need.

It sounds odd.  I don't know much about it, and haven't heard of it before today; but they don't even have the ability to import DWG files so in my opinion that's trash.

Thanks @DBCooperThat's the ticket!

I'm sure we've all done it, we've flipped the mouse while in 3D and the camera starts spinning.  Sometimes slow, others super fast.  

Now that I want to do it on purpose (without creating a walk-thru) I can't.   Anyone have a tip?

OK; so what I ended up doing was pulling the first floor wall down manually, then grabbed the second floor wall from the side (the top wouldn't let me pull it down) and pulled it all the way across the front face.

Bizzar

ar.

It's not very often I come across them, but from time to time they pop up.  I can remember figuring out how to make it work for me before, but now I can't see to remember.

I know I can build it in sections with invisible walls, and place the columns myself, but what's the proper way to get chief to realize the first floor wall shouldn't travel past the second?

@GeneDavis - Yes sir.  as-builts.

I found a thread from 2020 that reference the manual - I looked it up.  Windows width in the window dialog is in fact including the frame.  We are trying to correct our practices and ultimately adjust out methods of measuring.  One issue we run into constantly is 'window sizes'.  Your method is how our Kitchen and Bath designers measure, but some of our 'drafters' come back with frame to frame dimensions and that's what they put in chief as their opening size.

I believe Chief Architects room planner (not the same program) has a way of checking a box that will allow you to input window width frame to frame.

Also - a Window Sash and window frame aren't the same thing.

An issue we run into with some of projects is window sizing and how people interrupt it.  Some of my designers will measure frame to frame of a window; and without being able to measure the frame thickness leaves us in a difficult scenario sometimes.

Digging deeper into Chief's measurement systems is appears 'sides' refers to the width of the window including the frame.  So theoretically if the frame is 3/4" a designer who measured frame to frame would need to add that extra 1.5" to the window size?

Has anyone else run into this issue in the past?  How do you get accurate windows dimensions?

4 hours ago, Ross-RCD said:

Wasn't sure how to title my topic. So hopefully I can explain. I design a lot of screened porches and I typically use "post to beam" railings then add a roof. Occasionally, I need to add a regular deck beyond the screened porch area. I do this by just adding standard deck rails. It all starts out just fine, but then without warning and for no apparent reason, the post(s) and rails that should be connected are now separated. Meaning, the screened porch post that extends to a beam above should have the normal deck railing attached to it on the outside of the post. So 36" tall deck rail attached to 96" all post and beam. Just like you would build it. But for some reason, they get disconnected and usually the tall post gets moved a few inches in. I turned off the post on the deck rail at that location and when they separate, I have to use the wall intersection editor. This lasts a while, but I find that when I close the file and open it again, they separate. I've tried locking the wall layers, but that doesn't solve the problem. 

A little background. I have been working with Acad Lt 2D for years and dabbled with Chief for some time, but have been doing a lot more these days since clients really like to see 3D models. No formal training in Chief, just find answers here when I can't figure something out. Hopefully the files illustrate what I'm talking about better than I am. Deck corner.pdf

Deck corner broken plan.pdf 8.17 kB · 10 downloads Deck corner broken.pdf 413.75 kB · 6 downloads

Do you have your railing 'wall type' set up as a 'partition' (little check box in the lower right corner - new addition to x14)?
 

4 hours ago, AmberDawn said:

I am trying to get my elevation dimensions to show up on my layout. I used auto elevation dimensions and they displayed, but they're not transferring to my layout? Please help! 

Hey @AmberDawn - You may need to 'refresh' your views if you sent the elevation to layout then made additional changes, like adding in dimensions.  If they still don't show up, check your viewport window to make sure it's big enough to see all the dimensions.

47 minutes ago, BlairDrafting said:

Thanks for looking into it all. It seems like reducing the roof framing also reduces how much the soffit protrudes when this issue occurs. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has seen this happen to their roof planes.

If I replicate your original design (Because it appears the download file has been corrected), I see what you're talking about, but looking at how your original file is drawn, correcting it how you have in the download file would be the solution to this problem.  Plate height, window interaction, overhang etc. would all play a factor in buildability.

Curious though.  The framing components you're using for the roof - are they 'actual' size 2x8s?  It's been a while since I've seen those.  I only ask because your roof structure is set to 8" even.

I've attached the file again but modified to recreate the problem.
 

166289684_D-22-119-BROLLY-FIELDCREST-DEC2022(AS-BUILT).plan

It'll all come down to the components you've specified, so be specific with your framing.  I just took a guess at some of the framing information.  The last part of it all I used the framing joint tool to get the weird glitch happening at the corner.

10 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

You should make sure both .plan files have the same exact Default Settings before importing. Then use the "Edit - Edit Area- All Floors" to copy-paste into the house plan away from the house. Then while still selected using "Point to Point Move" locate the barn structure. Since the Barn may have a different first floor level due to terrain, you may have to manually adjust the barn for that.

 

DJP

----- Sorry @DavidJPotter - I didn't see your reply before posting mine.

Yes; use 'Edit > Edit Area'
 

This will allow you to select what you'd like to 'grab'.  For your example you would probably want 'Edit Area (All Floors)

Once you've selected which 'Edit Area' you'd like to use, you'll then create a marque box around the entire home.  I typically start in the upper left corner and drawn diagonal to the lower right corner.  This will grab everything you highlight in the next steps (roof, walls, windows, etc.). It should even bring over your previously established materials.

Then in the main toolbar click "Edit> Copy"

This will copy everything you've highlighted in your marque box.

Open the plan you want to copy the file into and either 'Paste Hold position' (if your new plan is drawn in relation to your copied plans) or copy and paste the recently copied plans and paste them somewhere in the plans.

Locate where you'd like a corner of your home to sit and move the file into position.

Hey @payettedesigns

I think you're referring to scale sizes?  I'm not entirely sure as it seems perhaps you're working in a different format than I'm use to.  Most of our plans are drawn on 11x17 or 24x36 pages so the format we use is 1/4, 1/2 and 1/8 primarily.  In all my years in the industry I haven't needed to drop to 1/16; but again I may not be understanding the question; so I apologize if that's the case.

Definitely the graphics card.

I had the same issue but reverted my RTX 3080 back to before the December update and everything worked perfectly fine again.

For sure!  That's how I have done it before as well.  It's a bit 'easier' to use.  This approach allows your to keep the railing working as intended and you could use a higher number of segments in order to get an even tighter looking radius.  The steps involved isn't ideal.  Hopefully X15 gives us another way