DefinedDesign

Thanks Gene - between your comment and the video @solver sent me - I think the terminology is making all this confusing for. Going to spend time breaking down the Chief Architect help guide to see if I can comprehend this better and maybe ask a better question than the one I currently have posted.

Forgive if I miscommunicated in my post question. I have watched the video you suggested multiple times. In the video transcript it says: And the question is how would you go about creating your own saved plan view? The easiest way to do that is to typically maybe find an existing view framing foundation, roof, and just come over here and click the duplicate option down towards the bottom of this menu by right clicking and clicking duplicate. At this point, the program is going to ask you to create a name for this. And in this case, I'm just going to call it "Ceiling No Text." You'll notice that It immediately opens up a new panel. Here it is, "ceiling no text" at this point, I’m just going to call it "Ceiling No Text." You'll notice that It immediately I can come in here and start doing some modifications. Let's right click and make a small edit in here. And for this particular view down on the selected defaults for the layer set, I want to change that to something a little bit different. Let's go ahead and click the dropdown here. And I've already created a layer set called "ceiling no text" where the dimensions and the text have already been turned off. The bold text "And I've already created a layer set called "ceiling no text" is what confuses me, as a visual learner I am having difficulty understanding how to create the layer set.

I need help understanding a concept in Chief Architect. I copied my "working plan view" layer set and renamed it "working plan locate stud surface view", but when I change the dimensions in the copied layer set to go from locating the center of the studs to locating the stud surface, it also changes the dimensions in the original working plan view layer set. I'm having great difficulty figuring this out. Despite paying for a three-hour session with an experienced Chief Architect user (not employed by Chief Architect) (not their fault I did not understand), and watching all the Chief Architect training videos on Understanding Layers, Understanding Layer Sets, Understanding Default Sets, and Saved Plan Views, I still can't wrap my head around this. I understand how to create a new layer set. However, after watching the Chief Architect 'Understanding Default Sets' video multiple times, I still don't understand how to create an entirely new default set and attach it to my new layer set so that my dimensions locate different things from the original working plan view layer set and the newly created "working plan locate stud surface view." My trainer mentioned that this is one of the most challenging concepts in Chief Architect. Despite spending countless days and dollars, and taking four hours to write this post, I genuinely want to learn this. As an adult who struggles with learning, I’m asking for your assistance and patience in helping me grasp this concept.

Would love to know how to show this type of footing, blocks and header blocks, with a 4" slab in CA x15 as shown in this photo. I have tried to find videos (visual learner) but I'm not having much luck finding a tutorial that shows all these steps.

@DBCooper @GeneDavis @Michael_Gia Thank you for the suggestions! I created invisible walls on the 1st and 2nd floor and on the second floor made the room 'open below'. However, the wall beneath the door would not disappear, so I lowered the door by -28 1/4" on the floor to bottom measurement to match the top of the balcony height. Basically this door is now between two floors. Any advice on how to remove these two boards in the image below? Also what is the best way to get the handrail to move inside the doorway and also stay at the wall once beyond the doorway? For some reason moving the balcony around to fit the 3rd set of stairs almost fixed the railing showing in front of the 2nd set of stairs - it's possible the balcony was not fully attached to the left wall where the new 3rd set of stairs is - still not a fan of how the railing is peeking out though.

Stairs going up from landing to second story - how do I remove the railing in front of the stairs? The stairs are connected to both landings I'm not certain why the railing is staying. In this left doorway on the second floor I need to add stairs from the landing into this room. I placed stairs at the landing but they are not showing correctly - need advice on what I’m doing incorrectly. This elevation show the 2nd set of stairs meets both balconies. Some of the stairs going into this room are showing but I don’t understand how to make the entire staircase show it is only 3 steps.

@GeneDavis Thank you That Worked!

Need to change the 2nd floor structure to 8 1/4” and I need the entire floor structure to lower so the finished ceiling height increases on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor finished ceiling height remains the same; however, when I edit the Floor Structure - it always increase the 1st floor finished ceiling height. What is the secret sauce?

Thanks @ericepv - I should clarify that there is a roof over the room with the lower ceiling as shown in image below. Once I get this issue resolved then I need to lower the finished ceiling height on the second floor in the yellow space to 7' 9". I'm trying to comprehend if your solution will show the client what is true as far as the roof is concerned. Hope this helps explain my dilemma better - the 81 ceiling height as-built actually has a floor that steps down lower than the rest of the back of the house (originally a porch) I'm proposing the owner raise the floor the same level as the 1st floor on the rest of the back of the house, which will really make the ceiling height lower that 81" in the final renovation. Will adding the 'air gap' work in this scenario? My brain is tired from trying to add 4 different floor levels in a 2 story home, lol.

I made all these rooms in highlighted in yellow to have a 108” ceiling height to match the front of the house, so I could create a second floor the copied the first floor and then lowered the floor for all the rooms in yellow to step down 7.5”; then lowered all the rooms that stepped down to have a ceiling height of 96” for all rooms, worked perfectly. I thought it would be easy to lower this single room to 81” but I’m having issues. When lowering the ceiling height of this room to 81” CA is lowering all the rooms with a 96” Ceiling Height to 81" - what is best practice for lowering only the ceiling height of this room? Grateful for any advice.

Thank you! These videos are fantastic and have truly enlightened me on the time-saving potential. Adding it straight to my Christmas wishlist! Your dedication and time spent teaching us how to master the space mouse on a Mac is sincerely appreciated. Your accent even brings a touch of home to mind; growing up in Maine, it's like a slice of my childhood with Anne of Green Gables nostalgia. Fond memories of New England and Nova Scotia flood back. Thanks once more!

Thank @ADallas this was very helpful!

Would love to see a how to video, this sounds amazing!

We've come to realize the necessity of having a centralized platform to manage all our projects and communications with clients and vendors. However, our budget doesn't allow for expensive options like BuilderTrend or other building software costing $500 or more per month. We're specifically seeking a product that is user-friendly for our clients and allows us to upload design details for their approval. Additionally, it should offer flexible invoicing options such as combining line items into one price, accepting deposits and retainers. It should also provide tools for tracking project timelines, ideally with a Gantt chart or similar feature. Integrating seamlessly with QuickBooks is crucial for us. Eager to hear what solutions others in similar situations are using.

I overlooked the answer in the CA Manual - here is the answer if anyone else needs it: In the Mac version of Chief Architect, you can pan using the left mouse button and Option key.

Curious if there is a way to pan using Apple's Magic Mouse on a MacBook Pro?

Thanks Eric, so I got to the drop it down part. The copied stairs already is dropped down below the original stairs. I added another step to the copy, turned the railing off on the original stairs. Not quite understanding what you mean by 'make the railing taller to compensate?

Thank you so much Eric! - A good part of the day spent getting to this point - any thoughts on how to get the hand rail to connect to the wall at the bottom? If I move the wall under the steps forward it creates another wall to the left of the existing wall.

Working on stairs with a client, and trying to replicate their as built: I got as far as this in CA x12 When moving the wall to align center with the wall under the stairs I end up with this: Client wants to extend the first step as shown below into the green box - several attempts to add in a landing but I can't seem to figure out how to make it match the height of the first step: Once I can get the wall in place in CA X12 - I need to position the first three steps inside of that wall to a finish width of 40.25" - as you can see from the photo below the third step is partially behind the wall and partially over the wall underneath the stairs. The clients wants a hand rail on the wall. As you can see from the image above when I place the wall into the proper location the handrail extends through the wall - would like the handrail to be on the stair side only. Hope this all makes sense, grateful for any insight, watching all the CA Stairs videos did not help me understand how to resolve. I've attached the plan if anyone wants to dig around, please know I'm using X12. Thanks in advance for your wisdom! So grateful for this forum. stairs.plan

I literally stepped away from my laptop for an hour to take a neighbor to pick up their car and responded to your post that it won't work as I tried multiple times. So for kicks I try again and it works I didn't close my laptop, I just left it for an hour. Marking your answer as the solution, thanks!

Thanks it doesn't work I suspect it is an X12 issue or a CA issue on a Macbook Pro. I added 1/2 plywood to make it disappear.

Most likely an X12 issue as none of the suggestions are working. I added 1/2 plywood over top of it to make it go away.

Thanks for the quick reply DBCooper unfortunately this doesn't correct the problem.

Hello! I'm using CA X12 and attempting to mock up a wall using soffits so I can detail how to attach different materials to an existing wall for the carpenters building stairs. My problem is the middle soffit goes floor to ceiling and I don't see settings to get rid of the baseboard molding. I've checked Ignore Room Moldings (Soffit Specification Box >General >Options) but the baseboard molding remains. I should also mention in the soffit specification box under moldings there are no moldings. Thanks in advance!

Rene, I highly value your insights and expertise! I'm wondering, what are your thoughts on the recently released M3 MacBook Pro Max with RTRT capabilities? I'm not well-versed in path tracing; could you enlighten me on whether it's typically done with CPU, GPU, or both? I'm also curious about why achieving this on a Mac might be challenging. Lastly, could you explain the distinction between path tracing and RTRT and whether it makes a significant difference in Chief Architect Premier rendering?