VisualDandD

Just remember a call I got about 6 months ago on a small plan (with a tight back staircase that was partially under a clipped roof. The framer (one of the best I have ever known) called me as he was unsure of how the stairs could fit in and was also concerned that several beams that an eng sized would not fit under the roof. He wanted to raise the plate heights up of the roof. I assured him it would all fit and did these framing drawings in a few minutes and texted them to him in the field. It put his mind at ease and showed him the stair would work and have proper head clearance...etc. VERY VERY handy tool to have when you need it. The pics should be self explanatory. (In the view of the stairs, I did not take the time to draw the clg joists going the proper direction, it was more to show how the valley clipped the stairwell.

I framed for MANY years and would dare say I am as good a framer as they get. I can and have figured just about every roof combination over 15 years in the field building mainly custom homes. I have zero problem picturing how anything goes together. Now with Chief, the 3d framing is AWESOME when you are really pushing the limits of framing. (fitting rooms in under clipping roofs, making complicated stairways...often fitting in under sloping roofs as well. You can have all kinds of hip/ridge intersections that have to clear a certain size beam...etc. I agree that on most plans, it is not necessary. But every once in a while I will use the framing tools to make sure tight areas can work fine in the field. Plenty of room for beams, ventilation, head clearance....etc. Especially 2nd story rooms or stairs that fall under valleys set in from the outside bearing on the first floor. For someone to say they are useless.....I would say they are just drawing easy stuff Custom stuff with multiple plate heights, clip ceilings....etc..etc, it is an invaluable tool. Just let your framer tell you the tool is useless when he has a main bearing LVL that has to be overnotched at the end to stay under the roof plane and he is stuck bolting steel flitch plates to each side. I think he will like it if you had used the tools then

You can also use conventional round roofs and adjust framing to get neat results. (this was all automatic framing). I did not take time to draw clg joists but it would represent frame of awning. I rendered it semi-transparent material on top

Why not just use two 'rounded" awnings. "core cat" (ext attachments>awnings> rounded. When you accurate move them they line up great. Even look good underneath. Just have two lines at corner in vector view only. You can even stretch them on X axis to look more like that profile

I believe there are chain link panels in the core library Fences and railings>chain link> tall and short panels BTW. I answered your PM about location. Did not know if you saw it. Justin

My g13 profile wont do much as I had to designate a bunch of hot-keys to use functions I wanted. I can explain my profile though.... It is not complicated....and really just bare bones at this state. I'll see if I can find that thread....

Yep been running the G13 for a while again now. Really using it for 10key, feet inches, a shift and ctrl key and copy paste. I can do most of my drawing without touching my keyboard. Mouse in right and g13 in left. I finished specing my new comp today. My current is not bad, i7950 3.0712gbmem with gtx 660 card, but I figured I do a new build because I had some stuff lying around. I have 5 r9280x toxic cards lying around.(mining experiment) They are pretty fast cards, I also had a z87g45 motherboard and several ssd's along with 32gb of DDR3 1600mem. Just realized to use the some of the new features of the I7 4790k I had to go up to a new z97 board, so I ordered that. Basically going to pop in 2-240gb ssd's and I have 2-2tb conventional drives (one for storage and the other is a backup which I run a RAID type storage software) Not sure if I will try to 'crossfire' 2 video cards if chief cant use it. I have 2 monitors, a 27" Dell@ 2560x1440 and a Asus24" @ 1920x1080. Not sure if crossfire benefits me at all.... I have win8.1pro and win 7pro. Not sure what OS I am going to use....Been using win7 for a while....but might jump up to the never OS even though I dont like a bunch of stuff about it.

I think I have heard many times that chief does not support SLI. I have a few nice R9280x cards lying around doing nothing. (About on par with a GTX770) Was going to put them with i7-4790k. I know nvidia cards they say are preferred, but I have the R9's already. These are actually 'toxic' cards which are overclocked from the factory and have 3 large fans on each. So is SLI a possibility? Besides that, any issues with them being AMD. Thanks guys! BTW currently running 660gtx with i7 950 and it is getting up in age.....figured it would be a nice upgrade.

Just ran into it again with 'architectural blocks" Again, opening up the DBX in layout view and then closing by clicking "ok" updated it. (no changes made in box). I did not just try to hit cancel or "x" it out....I just tried "ok" and it worked fine.

Worked. Just ran into it (X7 Beta). Remember seeing a thread and came back to read for a solution. I did not want to show "invisible walls" in layout but had already sent the plan. No matter what I did, they still showed up. Even closing files...closing the floor plan and reopening it by double clicking the layout...etc. I tried re-linking the file....nothing. Opening the DBX in layout and closing it updated it!!! Thanks!!!

Ha!!!!! That is awesome. Been doing it the hard way for years. I copied, went up to attic level and pasted hold position and bit my nails while the lower wall deleted. Sure enough, wall stayed in 3d view. Thanks man!!!! Just goes to show, there is always something to lean. Again...>BIG thanks

Looooong time chief user and figured I'd throw a question out there that I know other have to have run into. Of course I have a 'work-around' but figured I'd pose a topic and see if I have just been missing something for all these years. Basically rake walls such as in offset roofs or dormers. You have to draw them for exterior views, but you dont necessarily want them on floor plans as they dont go all the way to the floor. (roof cuts wall at bottom selected) For years I just create a copy of the wall layer and change the line properties to dashes...etc I change these wall types so they look different on plans (sometimes totally invisible by changing all line types to no line) This makes for ugly looking connections though. So have I been missing something all these years? I wish there was a selection for "Invisible on floor plan view", but it would render the walls in elevation. Here is an example I was working on today Pic1 wall that should not show in floor plan view (roof cuts wall at bottom) Pic2 how it renders if you make it 'invisible' PIc3 Making it visible again Pic4 View of inside of said wall. Like I said, I have to make a separate layer for these type walls with different line defaults and no fills. What do you guys do?

Here are some of the details in CAD. I got them from my engineer. I had to edit them and re-block some text to get everything to show. They are NTS. If I was ambitious, I would transform replicate and bring them into scale exactly, but for my purposes they work on details. 15-2-19 wall struct details.zip

I think I have most of it in CAD. If you are still in need let me know.

Are they not under "accessible design>handrails"?

In the camp of using X7 beta. Have not had any 'major' issues. Noticing the lag, but appreciate some of the features...etc. I have completed several full sets of drawings with no issues.

"Distressed paint" applied globally and 'streetched to fit" will pick up a lot of edges but wont be quite as detailed as you would like. I have experimented with making my own textures with darkening the edges on. This can work but not for a real up close effect.

Could be an email limitation. If so....just open up a free "dropbox" account. (you get 4 or 5 gig free) In there is a "Public folder". Anything you place in it, is downloadable to another computer. (no size limit) You just copy files to that folder and "right click" on it. That will give you an option to "copy public link" to that specific file. Open up and email, and paste that link in there.....and you are home free. They can then download to any computer. I have sent 2-3gig files that way.

Turn on all your layers, and export to a DXF. If he wants to sort it all out......more power to him

Bumping this after a search for the android version. Wondering if you guys have an update on release on android?

I am a long time Chief user. I have been playing with some ideas to get more value out or drawing for builders and started learning to put together some videos combing rendering and walk-thru's. Using several different things in the process..... I never did really clean up the plans, (cab layout...etc). I am also getting "z-fighting" on my undermout sink. I only spent about an hour 'decorating'....but I can see how building a seperate library just for this purpose would speed the process greatly. This is my first attempt at it.

I do something similar. I dont use Chief's PDF output function. I use colored walls in my drawings, but I wanted to print in 'greyscale' so the walls did not appear black. I did not spend a lot of time, but I did not see that I could do that. So....I just do it the way I always do. I use a separate PDF "printer". (Bullzip is what I use). It has some nice features like "watermarks" as well for things. But I configure my Bullzip to NOT print color. I send the drawing to the printer from Chief with color selected. (Chief gives a little warning that the printer does not support color). The result is I get very nice greyscale walls, while still keeping my color in my drawings.

Yep....You can choose the "high" and "low" color and the fading and intensity. I have changed to using black and white. You get shadow lines...etc. You can even control line thickness. Try it out! It is under the render options any time you pull a camera.

EDIT: I found an old "technical illustration" I used one time. But this is more that mono chromatic look you may be looking for.

Not sure how much you have played with the watercolor, but it gives some good effects, and does a lot to give that look. Of course you can go totally B&W too. I have before made rendering models and "spray painted" most all features white except for things I wanted accented. Just copy model and "save as". Here are a few examples from some are very very simple and still in the 'rough' layout stage. Really to just give you and idea. I threw a POV render that was done after the watercolor was tweaked so you can see the difference. Truth be told, I think you get just as much out of the watercolors......