jimmyp

Hello chiefers I am working on my own project but would like some advice. I am going to cross post this also to the Chatroom. I am willing to pay you for your ideas. I am looking for exterior design services. I want to make the outside look nice, but I also have some things in mind. This is an addition onto a 26x38 that is on a "camel's hump" of a hill. We have a great 270deg view. The terrain in the model is relatively accurate. The addition is over part of an existing 12' deck and also wraps around the back. The top of the addition will be a roof deck giving us way more outdoor living space. The addition has a 4' overhang on the downslope side as well as a 4' overhang on the wrap around. There is an existing shed not shown in the plans that butts up to the wrap around and rear of house. The joists on the addition are 12" and since they form the overhang, my fascia is big (not shown in the pics correctly). Advantech on the Ijoists and soffit brings me to at least a 14" fascia on the addition. The insulation will be spray foam between the joists. I would like to put 2" foam on top of the existing which would give me some options to match the fascias. ((Also not shown in the pics is the stairs which will turn left from the existing steps into a landing with winders turning right up to the roof deck.)) ((And also not shown are windows on the addition. The wall is currently built and framed with a continuous beam so many configurations are possible.)) ((The blue lines in one of the pics is an existing hot tub deck.)) I like clean, modernist lines, but I make Mountain Laurel Handrail so I feel obligated to have them all around the roof deck. I have been considering the HardieBoard 4x8 sheets in the preprimed colors. The existing roof has been torn off and will go back with metal. So this limits me to certain colors. So I'm looking for design ideas for the exterior.

or turn the description column on Thanks Everyone!

Any ideas why I have these duplicate entries in my door schedule? I tried copy and pasting and chief changes the label...

Hello again awesome community of chiefers How do I make flat panel siding on a rain screen? not the section details, but I have seen some models here and there which look similar to eg hardie panel 4x8 sheets. how do i make the joints? lol I'm not sure if I'm being clear with my question Did a quick search for an image, so not like this house but like the siding: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8d/f6/4f/8df64fe948b03104b3cc4116e5febdc2.jpg

The wraparound deck is a force field against errant dimensions:) Thank you!!

test attached. shift-A on first floor and nothing happens. shift-A on second floor and there are the dimensions.... test.plan

Hi All Title pretty much says it all. 3 stories. auto exterior dimensions would not work on floor 2 which has deck on all four side. moving one deck rail to be flush and expose one house edge and it works. I tried it in a clean plan with one floor and same results.

Glen good eye. You are correct. Why does it not snap to where I tell it to in the first place? Why does it jump? Is there a default for this behavior that you know? Thanks

ok so here it is again with the snap priority. I'm trying to draw a leader line. I select the midpoint snap. chief prefers the corner snap. I made a video.

1) resize about now set to "main layer outside" I have a feeling this addresses quite a few things... THANKS!! 2) surfaces is NOT selected. I think the best solution to the snapping to siding issue is addressed by "main layers only" but this solution seems similar to my making the outside of the sheathing layer have the siding material for the model. 3) If I draw a joist, it does not show up on the bottom left or the material list as a "rim joist" or "mudsill" nitpicky I know.... angle snaps does not seem to affect my problem behaviors. Primary movement method is set to ortho But my problem is more that chief gives priority in a way I don't understand. If i extend a joist to make a corner, the move handle is in the center. but it will want to snap to the corner rather than maintaining its alignment.... Bumping/pushing is checked in preferences>snap properties. I found "cad stops move" and "wall stops move" and it looks like 1) this is on a case by case basis and 2) it doesn't address a toilet or cabinet stopping a wall from moving... (And I just had to check... there are no such options on toilets 4) I wanted to get a quick idea on some electrical outlets and only electrical but it was such a jumbled mess that I gave up with an immediate ctrl-Z

1) zooming is what I end up HAVING to do just because chief prioritizes certain snaps and does not have an ortho lock that I'm aware of. this is not really efficient and is what I'm trying to avoid. 2) locate objects does not say anything about siding. I have wall dimension layer and primary wall side checked. still siding seems like it should NEVER be dimensioned to in plan view. I should NEVER snap a deck railing to siding. etc etc Does anyone WANT to snap to siding? am i missing something? 3) that's what I do. I want to understand a little better why certain snap points have priority. I want to know if there's an ortho lock so my joists don't try to go crooked. I want to know if there's a way to manually create "Deck rim joist" or "Mudsill" outside of the automagic framing. I'm really just trying to understand the software a little bit better so that I can adjust my thinking if needed.

here is another one. 5) If I layout some cad lines, and then use manual dimensions to bump things around, the cad lines stop the dimension line based move. same thing with toilets or cabinets etc on walls: try to bump the wall with dimensions: nope. have to move all the fixtures then move the wall then move the items back against the wall....

thanks DJP for this and also your attentiveness and helpfulness on this forum. I will try those suggestions right now.

Salutations Certain things chief is so smart about. others it seems to want to out wit me. a few examples as perhaps I am misusing or my expectations are out of line. 1) I draw a square house. I want a deck on one side to bump out at the corner of the house. I use a cad line to grab the framing layer corner (absolutely crucial and addressed next.) no matter what I do, which direction I come from with the railing wall, trying to grab snaps on different sides, chief wants to push my railing wall on the opposite side of my line such that I have to just drop in the wall and then transform/replicate it over 3.5. 2) why does chief allow me to dimension or snap to siding? I mean I understand the wall layers thing (...I think...). and on another new plan I set my siding material on the exterior layer of my sip wall osb so as to not have any siding to snap to. but shouldn't snaps be turned off for siding? like, does anyone dimension to siding? and at the very least is there a way to turn off what part of the wall layer can be snapped? so like on a standard 2x4 exterior wall the only snappable (?neologism?) part of the wall is the outside of the 2x4. Personally, I prefer even interior walls measured from the exterior of the framing. 3) when working with framing or other rectilinear type things, in this specific case running girders around a deck that has to be freestanding from the main structure. I get an outline with cad or railing walls etc. autobuild framing as this is the only way I am aware of to get the designation "Deck rim joist" ((same with mudsill: is there a way to non-automagically draw a mudsill?)) I use dimension lines to adjust the girders as desired. now it's time to connect them. well on a 3.5" girder the grip is in the middle. so as soon as I get close to the next one, it wants to snap to the corner, NOT recitilinearly but at some screwy angle. grrrr.... why? surely it should not be the default case that I want my girders to run at 2.7985 degrees. is there an ortho engage setting? 4) let's talk about automatic interior dimensions.... nah, not right now lol ------------ sorry. this is pretty much a rant. but I would like to bring these things to the attention of others since it's these little things that have me yelling at a screen lol =D ------------

My basic order: Cover (w 3d views of the 4 corners) Specs site plan floor plan elevations foundation floor framing roof overview roof framing ceiling sections interior elevations windows and doors electrical

Hello I am working on a new design that incorporates roof deck over living area that is continuous with a cantilever portion. The image shows where the floor system will cantilever out on both floors. Where the yellow highlight is will be a floor truss. My idea is a 7-8' cantilever with a 26' building width but I will have to talk to the engineer when that time comes. So I want for the floor trusses to extend out and I want to represent it that way in the drawings. I've studied many threads but I'm not sure of the best way to do this. I want a larger fascia. I want the gutter concealed behind the fascia and I want a railing on top. I think that I should: (going to call floor 2 = ceiling of floor 1 and floor system for floor 2) make a deck on the right side (since there is no room underneath it. make a balcony over the deck on the left and a deck over the open space. turn off deck framing. change deck framing height to match truss height. define the floor finish thickness to represent my roofing which i will fix up in section. when I build trusses, extend them out of the building. for floor 3: define a flat roof and make it look like a deck. use a nolocate, nodefine railing wall to make the parapet. define overhang etc etc in roof framing. Please advise. Thanks

I'm an idiot. I was using "Straight Railing" instead of "Straight Deck Railing" derp

Hello Again I'm having trouble getting deck railings to align with exterior walls. Top shows a custom wall type for sips. I set the siding to zero cuz I'm tired of dimensions, etc always picking up that snap. Bottom left is siding-6 and bottom right is siding-4. Regardless of how I try to move it, the wall always wants to not be aligned. And I have no idea what the angled line is all about. I think it might have something to do with the main layer settings but every combo that I try seems to result in failure:/ Thanks

Thanks Michael As you keep stating, I'm trying to model an exact condition. The wall break technique does not work because the corner snaps into an auto generated shape which I cannot modify to the correct dimensions around where the post will actually sit. I will clean it up with cad boxes... sometimes chief is so smart about some things and so dense about others... That's why I ask here to make sure it's not operator error lol Jerry The post tool isn't ideal because I'd still have to use cad boxes to clean it up. I was trying to find a simple way to represent the enlarged footing in the correct location. The reason for the post is because there will be a beam there. I'm only concerned about plan view.

Hi folks I have a deck outside a house. There will be flush beams for the joists. One end is up against the wall of the house. To allow the concrete space around the post, I want to change the footing line. I can make this work fine in the middle of a wall by using ctrl-B. But what do I do for the corner?Since the walls automatically join, I can't get them to break in the correct place (or even close) In the picture, I have a cad box with solid fill and a dashed line. I moved it to the back of the group. but to clean up the garbage, I'm looking at a bunch of tiny solid white boxes? is there a better way? Thanks!

I don't *need* 3d but it's nice. In this case, there's no contracts cuz it's for my parents (house1) and my sister (house2). I would like to have an eventual 3d model to include landscaping. but I could just as well do that by importing the houses as symbols and save my (aging) computer some... but I also want to be able to adjust the floor plans to the terrain somewhat even though there is relatively minor grade on this site, and I want a before and after grading plan. some of this is going to include for example a hedgerow along the road.

thanks djp and the differing "height 0" was one of my concerns. I had considered making the plans in separate files and saving as symbols as per your multiunit. for your multiunit, I'm guessing that some of the buildings footprints were done to reflect the site? how was this done? can you please explain this for me? "I would create the terrain plane and then build house one, setting the terrain to house one. Then draw the first floor of house two setting its floor level to the terrain plane surface." So I already have the terrain. So I would make house one, floor one, and set it's height relative to the terrain using the floor height elevation. then build house two, floor one and set its height. then proceed with the plan. Is this a correct understanding of what you said?

Thanks both The last plan I worked on (ca2010) was for a much more complex terrain. I can't really remember the order i did that one... But I think it was somewhat like this: import topo, lay in the roads, rough in the pad, build plan. I had gotten relatively proficient with the terrain tools after some Dr. Seuss like first attempts lol I do remember that it got kinda slow towards the end of the plan but that was a pretty complex house with funky roof lines. I also remember that keeping the active file in a folder separate from my archives sped this up some (which struck me then, and still, as odd). I already have a layer set for the terrain elements because I will be using this layer for the permitting process. There will be two houses in this model eventually and I'm not sure if my machine is going to be able to deal with that.

Hi all, it's been a while and I can see by this thread https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/9494-house-sits-too-low-in-site/ that my question is still apropos lol So... I have a topo from the surveyor that I have imported with the correct layers, terrain lines, etc. The terrain builds correctly. The site will have two houses and a shared driveway and septic. an overhead electric service bisects where the two houses will sit and runs over the shared parking. My question is: in your opinions, what is the best way to "start construction" in chief. should I develop a floor plan in a different plan and import it? should I start in the plan with the terrain? I'm sure there are many different ways, so I appreciate everybody's input. Thanks

This is the deck railing design guide that I was working on. http://awoodrailing.com/2014/11/16/100s-of-deck-railing-ideas-designs/ Let me know what you think.