I find it very perplexing how the software creates a foundation and foundation walls under a porch or patio that does not allow you to extend past the columns? No one places a column at the extents of the concrete in the real world. I have to create a slab that extends out past to make it work, but Level 0 won't show the slab even when its turned on so I have to create poly lines to "represent" the porch concrete extents or try to somehow reference the slab from level 1. If something changes, the poly lines have to be changed manually creating the possibility and probability that the foundation plan will not match the floor plan. This is very problematic and can cause serious and expensive errors in the field if this is not caught. If I turn off the foundation wall layer, I might as well manually create a foundation plan using poly lines. If I have to manually draw a plan set I might as well use a 2d drafting tool like AutoCAD. When using the railing tool to create the porch columns, this problem is worse. I manually create posts for columns and slabs for porches, then use attic walls for the header (creating the room). This seems to work better, but there needs to be a better way to create covered porches. I have been using Chief for almost a year and so I'm still new and very frustrated at the amount of time that is wasted trying to figure out work arounds. The foundation tool needs to be improved to make it more user friendly. It has dialogue that was obviously created by a software engineer without any real world understanding of how concrete is designed or fabricated. The software sees a foundation wall and a slab footing as the same object, but it has some sort of concrete rail that sits on top of it that cannot be turned off or controlled in a manner that is useful. Example when creating a foundation grade beam under a recessed garage floor without a wall above it, it wants to project a concrete curb above the slab that cannot be turned off. The dialogue for controlling the functions are not very well laid out and create an extreme amount of confusion.
Thank you for responding. I have been frustrated with the learning curve of this software for a while. Being an Autodesk product junkie for years, I am used to their workflow. I was definitely ranting in my frustration. I appreciate your help.