DBCooper

Are you having problems just building the gambrel roof? If so, then all you need to do is setup a second pitch on the walls. Here is a video that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6126/gambrel-roof.html?playlist=95 As for the trusses, you can just build gambrel trusses the same way you would build any other trusses. You have to draw the first one and then you can use the multiple copy tool to get the others. Here is a whole tech series on trusses that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/275/trusses.html And if you are having more specific problems, you will need to clarify your questions (as suggested by Robert).

Draw the wall all by itself in a blank plan. Create a vector camera view. Send to layout.

It looks to me like the lower picture is not displaying the block wall (probably because the layer is turned off) and that you are just seeing the framing for the wall behind it. If this doesn't help, then you might want to post the plan.

I think those images in the schedule are sized according to the column width. Since the column header is limiting how small the column can get, you need to rename it. If you open the schedule and rename "2d symbol" something like "2d" you can make the column smaller. You might also want to play around with the "scale images" setting. In your picture above, your fan is the same size as your outlet. If you use "scale images", then they will be the same relative size which will make your outlet much smaller than your fan. Without scaling them, the images will be as large as they can in the column. And if all else fails, you can always build your own legend by just taking the cad blocks from the symbols and placing them where ever you want. I think this is how the legend in your picture was made. All of the cad blocks should show up in the cad block management dialog.

If your wall was a simple block wall, you would be able to have a framed wall on top using a pony wall. It looks like you made it using a railing though, and I don't think you can have a framed wall on top of a railing using a pony wall. It is possible to get a short wall above or below a railing using floor and ceiling heights but I think in your case this might be more trouble than it's worth. You could always try just building a short framed wall section somewhere else in the plan and converting it into a symbol that you place on top of the block wall.

So somebody downvoted my "solution", anonymously of course, so I am really not sure why. I do believe my solution will work and I still think it is better than just drawing cad lines. You could probably even save this railing type to the library for reuse if you need this often. It might be nice if Chief gave us a better solution or even gave us controls over floor break lines using layers, but until then, this is the only workaround I have found. If someone thinks that they have a better solution, I would love to learn about it.

So I assume that you used room dividers or invisible walls to split the rooms. You could just turn on the layer, but then you will get two lines for the walls which is probably not what you want. So one thing you could do is use a railing instead of an invisible wall. Tell the railing it is "open", turn off the newel posts, and turn off the top/bottom rail. You should just have a single line showing you where the floor height changes.

It's just like any other cad block in that you can add lines, text, rich text, dimensions, filled polylines, or whatever.

Yeah, it's easier in X13 and newer because you can just use the "edit cad block" tool: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00805/editing-2d-cad-blocks-assigned-to-3d-symbols.html#X13

Post a plan. Someone could probably figure it out in 2 minutes with a plan instead of making guesses.

If by "washed out", you mean that the countertop fill is completely hiding the cabinet lines, then this sounds like a problem with the partial transparency used for the fill style. I have seen some other posts on problems with pdfs and transparent objects. I think the solution was to try a different pdf writer. You might want to check out this post to see if it helps you: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/12618-mystery-blurry-square-when-exporting-to-pdf/ This tech article talks about printing issues and might also help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00085/troubleshooting-printing-issues.html

You need to manually rebuild the wall framing unless auto rebuild is turned on.

What dimension? Did you draw the dimension using one of the dimension tools? If so, then yes you can change the size but it depends on how you have the dimension set up. A dimension could be using the layer to get the text style, or it might be using a specific text style, or it could be using a custom style. Maybe post a picture of what you have or even a plan.

Not exactly sure what you are trying to do but these are not "blocks" as in cad blocks. They are just elevation views of the the windows that are in your plan. There are some settings in the schedule dialog that give you some control over the previews but I am not sure how you can change the line weights. As for creating a view like this to use somewhere else, you could create an elevation view of just the window you want and use the cad detail from view tool.

I don't think HD Architectural had the ability to create architectural blocks back in 2017 but I think they added it in at some point. At least according to the latest product comparison chart: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/product-chooser.html My guess is that if you don't have the button, then you have selected an object that can't be put into architectural blocks, such as 2d cad. Try placing two cabinets next to each other, selecting them both, and seeing if the button shows up.

Chief can do slabs just as easy as crawl space foundations. Just check "mono slab" when you build the foundation. There is a rather long video about building foundations here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10256/foundations-crawl-basement-slab-mixed.html

You can adjust the rough opening top. Just put in a larger value for "additional height". You can also display the rough opening size in the schedule.

In X15, the material list is live and will automatically update as you add or remove things from the plan. In theory, you should be able to do what you want but I would experiment with a very simple plan until you figure out all of the ins and outs. Keep in mind that your material list will only be accurate if your model is accurate. As for the headers, I think the header sizes in the table in the "build framing" dialog are only used when your default door/window is set to "calculate from width" and the door/window in your plan is set to "use default". Also, there are some tech articles and training videos on material list: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00510/controlling-the-information-that-s-displayed-in-a-materials-list.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/104/material-lists.html

This tech article is about different door styles but you would use the same technique for different drawer styles: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00040/using-different-door-styles-on-a-single-cabinet.html

Make sure the "layout box borders" layer is turned on. Then just look at every page. If you see a blank layout box, then it is probably referencing one of those missing plans. If you don't find it that way, then you might have a layout box using an invisible line style for the border or the layout box was moved to a different layer. To find it in these cases, you would have to turn on all the layers, go through each page, and try using the marquee select or control-a (select all). Control-a might work best since you could have layout boxes way outside of the page borders. You might also have layout boxes on strange pages that you don't normally use. If you use the project browser, they should show up in the list of pages if they have anything at all on them. BTW, if you select the missing plan in the "reference plan files" , you can always use the browse button to assign it to the plan you want to use.

So you should probably delete your first post since it is just quoting a previous one. As for some of your questions... Wall heights are normally controlled by your room floor/ceiling heights. You can edit walls manually but this is not recommended except for special cases. Ridge heights are then controlled by your roof pitch. Wall/roof insulation could be setup as a "layer" with the wall or roof structure to represent rigid foam. You can also setup your walls to have insulation in between your framing but I don't think there is a way to change it from bats to spray foam unless you want to modify the material list. In either case, it won't really show up in any camera views. There is an "auto detail" feature but I don't think this is what you are asking for. There is actually a fireplace tool that you can find if you customize your toolbars but I don't think it can make a corner unit. There are lots of ways to make fireplaces though using combinations of walls, cabinets, solids, symbols, etc. You might want to check out this support article and training video: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00058/creating-a-custom-chimney-and-fireplace.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/249/editing-a-solid-to-create-a-fireplace-and-chimney.html

You can't add a break to a circle but you can add one to an arc. If you want to convert a circle into two arcs, you can first convert it into a slab, and then back to a plain polyline. It will now be two arcs instead of a circle.

Kind of depends on how you built the porch. If your porch walls are not connected, or any of them are marked as "no room def", then you won't have a room defined. If you don't have a room, you won't get a roof automatically. If you do have a room, but it is not setup to have a roof over it, you also won't get a roof automatically. There might be a bunch of other reasons as well but they would be less common. This is why people will always suggest that you post a copy of the plan. It is pretty easy for someone to take a look at what you have done and then tell you why you are not getting a roof. Everything else is just a guessing game. If you are having problems attaching a plan, the first thing to try is making a zip (or compressed archive) file which usually makes it much smaller. If it is still too big, then start deleting things from it that aren't relevant to your questions (like fixtures and furniture). If it is still too big, then you probably need to post it on an online location (like dropbox) so that people can download it.

The quick start training videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/138/quick-start-video-series.html There is also a web page dedicated to getting started here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/getting-started/

@scottharris I think they are trying to stitch together 4 different elevations at 4 different directions (like N, S, E, W) into one view. Kind of like a panorama view? If you look at the picture, it has a dead on view of the couch and the desk even though they are on opposite walls. No way that I know of to do that with one camera in Chief. I think the best thing to do is send the 4 views to layout and then just line up the layout boxes.