madcowscarnival

Kbird, that Jintu stuff is certainly amazing. Is that what CA is capable of in the hands of an advanced user, or are there a lot of custom blocks/items in their designs (if you know)?

Drumming up work is an age-old problem. What is the manufactured home market like in your area? Here it is a fairly significant market, a largely rural area. I know of a local dealer has elevations made up for each of their sales for the final plan to the client, a thing also required by building codes. The manufacturer does not provide the elevations, just the plan layout. The particular dealer pays a local draftsman to draw up elevations in a some cad program, as far as I can tell not a "smart" cad program for $150 a pop. I raced one day and was able to successfully create the elevation outputs in CA in about an hour. Now, mfg. homes dealers are notoriously cheap, and the $150 is probably the most those guys would go, and they might not want or need the 3D rendering stuff. However, the homes are also no longer the piddly sticks they used to be, they are a quality better than code item, and people are becoming more "demanding" of realistic drawings to help them visualize the final product. There might be a there there. And what if... Say you become a well-known name and lots of people want the renderings. Maybe climb that ladder and talk to some of the actual manufacturers. They have drafting departments, but their focus is on the building output, not visual. Maybe you offer them an added value of providing quick, effective (and customizable for down-stream clients) models at some bulk rate. You'd have access to a CAD file to quickly import, trace, drop in items and auto build a fairly basic roof. /ideas off EDIT: as a volume comparison, I believe that local dealer is running through 80-100 units a year. It is definitely a high time for them, and nothing to make a living off of, but certainly walking cash.

Hey folks. I did get an opportunity to check out the sample files with the CA 360 app on the S9. Was never able to login in and view the files I exported to the cloud, but the sample ones worked great. Allen, I'd say the pupillary distance in the non adjustable google cardboard is the issue. That is an adjustable setting on my goggles and when I purposely take it out of adjustment it does just what you described in your original post. It's difficult for me to use long term as my eyes do not have the same prescription and it makes me dizzy after more than a couple minutes. The generated files are reasonably sized (<1MB for mine, low on features though). If you're looking to use the feature going forward, I would invest in a good pair of goggles. As an FYI, having experimented with some high def 3D environment scenes in "VR" goggles last year, its pretty neat. EDIT: my S9+ has a bulky case that the goggles squished pretty well, but no issues properly fitting it.

I now see that the original image is the exported file. I'll look at it tonight in my goggles. EDIT: I am for some reason unable to log in to my CA account through the viewer, even though it is logged in on the actual phone. Even when I put it in my dropbox file, and log in through the app, the CA account pops up with a browser error message.

How large is the file? Do you have the ability to publicly post it or share a downloadable link? I too have an S9+, and have a nice viewer that I would try it on. My experience with cardboard was poor because I have a melon sized head and naturally poor eyesight, but S9+ does well with the drone FPV viewer.

Kervin, per you suggestion, I spent a little time this morning and drew the roof from scratch with manual planes throughout, which, with a lot of help from this forum, I consider myself reasonably adept at. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the solution for the problem. As soon as the room height is changed in the room spec DBX, it changes them throughout.

Thank you for the replies, plan posted below. I have made quite an effort learning not only manual manipulation of roofs but also properly setting up wall controls for automatic roof construction. There are a variety of responses, so I'll try to generally address. Roof was set up and built with autoroof, but it was turned off after, no manual edits since. I want to keep the perimeter wall height at 9', and the rest of the house at 9' ceiling, just the living area at 12'. When I manually change this room height in the Room Spec DBX, it accomplishes what I want from the interior (ceiling at the base of the rafters until the room height is reached). However, this change is applied through all rooms on the floor. I do not believe this to be a lack of understanding on roof manipulation manually or automatically, but rather in the way the program addresses room height change. I did draw invisible walls within the area where a 12' ceiling height would be built flat without any interaction with the rafters. Same thing happens when I try to define this room at 12', it changes the entire story to 12'. Thank you everyone, Merry Christmas Cherokee Sketch.plan

Is it possible to change the height of a single room using automatic tools and not reverting to custom ceiling planes? The main structure is 9' ceilings, the living room needs to be 12' clipped in to the rafters on one side. I feel certain I've successfully accomplished this before but completely in the interior of the house (not at exterior wall). Is the exterior wall causing the whole floor to be built at the living room height? Can this be specified with roof build, or does it need to be "tricked" with an invisible wall and ceiling plane? Thanks folks and Merry Christmas, there isn't a rush, just learning.

I build all of my rigs, generally piece by piece doing the compatibility research myself. The newegg builder is a new one on me but should have all components suited for each other. Another guy in the office has the link I posted on order to arrive next week. I enjoy building and recommend it, especially as you've done it before. I did check out an AMD build in the same link, with a 1070 card, 32GB ram; its still only $1,500. However, I'm also a heretic with 2 licenses of Win7 left and will keep building those systems until the hardware is no longer compatible (becoming an issue already with drivers and chip sets).

What's your ability on assembling a computer yourself? I'd check out Newegg system builder: https://promotions.newegg.com/nepro/pc-build-kits/v40/builder/main.html#two If not, any gaming computer mfg. would be what I would look for.

I'm sure by now OPs problem is solved, and thread is "dead", but for future lookups... I'll add a program to DJPs list, "IrfanView" for converting between image types. It is not an editor per se, it will trim, clip, etc images but no markup tools. It is a very lightweight program that starts as freeware or an inexpensive license for commercial license. It is more effective than MS Paint, less demanding costly than the Adobe products and very speedy. It will also convert PDF to other image formats (which I just discovered and successfully explored in posting this). It has been my favorite for quick screen capture->clip->save for a variety of projects (generally GIS mapping systems and their clunky export/virtual print processes).

I posted a plan with 3-d hollow text I imported from AutoCad at this link after trying to create lettering for a store front, will work for the glass at least. What I do not know if if the text could be rotated to fit "flat" to your awning. On the logo, in the same post, I believe AlaskanSon had also mentioned using Google Sketchup to create the text. I'm not at all familiar with sketchup, but if it can create text, maybe you could use it to create your logo then import to Chief from an imported jpeg..

Very succinct video. Thanks BrownTiger. I was unaware of the term gull-wing roof and hadn't thought to use the options in the wall dialog.

Solver, I can't find an option in the roof dialog that will allow me to specify a secondary pitch over the soffit only. I do know I could manually create roof planes on the perimeter. I have already had to start manually modifying roof (per your instructional video) so the option may be gone now. Temp00002.PDF

Does CA autobuild a roof with 12:12 pitch, but outside of the wall line it drops to 8:12 to the fascia? Attempting to recreate an architectural plan in CA to show two room additions and how they will tie in over all. It is not crucial, but more of a curiosity.

I've had some strange things happen due to the font used. In both AutoCAD to Chief and even other CAD to AutoCAD programs. We once had a PDF come in, could read the text on screen perfectly. When printed it turned into all emotes (maybe wingdings). Never solved that last one, made the clients bring in hard copies.

Another screen sizing trick for folks who use keyboard more than mouse (I'm from command line AutoCad). This is valid in Windows 7, I would assume it translates in Windows 10. Hold the Windows Key and press arrow up for maximizing screen where it is currently located. Right/Left will shift to half-screen or the next monitor in multi setup. Down will return to original size, then minimize on second press. I find this easier/more intuitive than the drag and hold/snaps from the mouse, especially on laptops.

When I first started using Chief, I modified the default layout title block to look roughly similar to mine. I've thought about it for a while, but would like to finally make them "match" as I still readily mix and match pages from CAD and Chief in a plan set. I took my default title block, set all lines to default width, same layer, same color and saved to a blank file. Imported that file into Chief on a drawing page, then cut/pasted into the layout view. Whoa. Not a good look, not sure what happened, lines have huge widths, some disappeared. Is there a guide I could go through, or has someone else done such a thing, short of fully recreating natively in Chief?

And now I'm already done due to file size. If you want to PM me your email, I can send the larger ones that way: "copper ridge", "cottage beach", "riverstone" Or some here: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/samples.html#sample-plans

Well, Kbird responded while I was typing. I'll go ahead and post, mods please reprimand as necessary. albertson.zip

I have a couple of the sample plans I downloaded in 2015 after we purchased X6. If its copacetic with CA I could attach a couple here. Range in size from 20 - 40 MB.

I can't even begin to comprehend how a thing would be designed at all. However, all boiled down, the code addresses all those areas with established variables for the various scenarios. I just bring up that entity specifically because their building official, IIRC, was a contributor to the 2012 IRC and I'm unaware of any 3rd party software that accomplishes the analysis so specifically.

Joe and OP, Johnson County, Kansas has an excel spreadsheet that they created in-house which addresses the various requirements of BWP and adjustments for the 2012 IRC. It is very comprehensive and might incorporate well into your project. I can't post it as it was directly sent to me at request, but they seem to readily share it if you get in contact with them. Their building official has a genuine interest in making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to code standards.

Dshall, you are very likely influencing the path she will take in the future, even if its just playing around for her. My Grandmother's father was an Engineer. As a young kid my Dad loved playing at his house, and took a great interest in what he was doing. That led my Father to Engineering, which I then followed, and hopefully my children as well. All because a grandfather humored a curious young child at work.

Mods, feel free to move or delete, was not sure where to place this, or if its proper to post. I've seen several questions about graphics cards recently. Newegg currently has an email promo on an MSI 1080 card for $430 (after $20 promo code and $20 MIR). Apparently a promo code can be entered only once from their email. Here is mine if anyone wants it: EMCXPYRV2. If you use it, maybe just say so on thread and I can ask mods to delete it. I upgraded earlier this year to a 1080ti and don't need this one. MSI seems to make a quality piece. I've had several mobos of theirs over the years.