DefinedDesign

Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble getting mirrors to show up in a wall elevation view, regardless of the rendering technique I’m using. They appear just fine in the full camera view, but not in the elevation.

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much for your help!

I’m in the process of creating a fireplace wall, but my skills in Chief Architect for detailed drawings are lacking. I used the 3D solid tool to create a 2x4 that shows how to frame the wall, and now I need to draw the linear fireplace the builder is purchasing. I found a DXF file of the unit on the manufacturer’s website. Is there a way to convert this DXF file into a 3D object that is dimensioned correctly? If so, is there a detailed Chief Architect tutorial that explains this step by step?

On 6/5/2024 at 1:42 PM, TeaTime said:

"group select" a single object (hold shift then click)

Thank you!  Watched several CA videos and none of them give you a proper education on this tip!  

5 hours ago, jtcapa1 said:

Hi Lisa,

If you don't mind me asking? 

Not sure what you are trying to do. I spend way too much time on YouTube's blackhole, so what or how are you doing to speed this up? And how do arrow keys make things easier?

Hey John on a Mac the arrow keys will move the video forward and back in 5 second increments. If you click the wheel cog on the YouTube video you can adjust the playback speed.  I did find the ability to adjust the playback speed on the CA website videos - instead of a wheel cog they have two arrows - just can't back up or go forward using the arrow keys in five second increments. 

As a Mac user, I’m wondering if there’s a way to adjust the playback speed of videos on the Chief Architect website. I often spend a lot of time searching for the same videos on YouTube to take advantage of the arrow keys for easier navigation, and I typically speed up the video to match my preferred listening pace. Additionally, I prefer to stick with Safari due to concerns about security, so Chrome and other browsers aren’t an option for me. What solutions do you Mac/Safari users recommend?

If moving the bathroom is too expensive you can make a smaller office space work.  Honestly if you think you will be in this space for a long while I recommend the largest office space possible.  This option does give you more conference room space and keeps the plumbing in close proximity to where it is now, so less concrete demo.  Ultimately the kindest thing is to think of a client who is in a wheelchair.

I think the most important thing is an ADA accessible bathroom - here are my thoughts. 

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.

18 hours ago, ValleyGuy said:

@DefinedDesign  @Michael_Gia  I think I managed a couple of videos, here are the links.  I'm sure there are all kinds of people using 3D mice on CA with all kinds of different techniques and different skill levels. I've only had it a few months now and here are some of the things that I have done with it. Maybe others could add some tips or ideas for you as well.

 

The set up of the mouse video https://youtu.be/iDKokC_19N4

 

The In-Use Demo video   https://youtu.be/R_HcESgGvXM

 

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!

On 6/28/2021 at 5:27 PM, ADallas said:

First day with Chief Architect, so this is a newbie tip for sure. I came across Edit > Preferences > CAD. In the Sun Angle section, you want to set your project's latitude and longitude. The default is Blanchard, Idaho. You don't have to change it for every project in the same region, but if you're in Texas, it will likely make a difference.

 

My tip is how to find your latitude and longitude. Go to https://www.google.com/maps. Search for a specific address, or your town, and look at the URL in the address bar:

 

The URL will start something like this: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Galveston+Island/@29.2147787,-95.0591303,11z/

 

The first number after the @ sign is the latitude. Select North if the number is positive, South if it's negative.

The second number is the longitude. Select West if the number is negative (as in, the western hemisphere) or East if the number is positive (such as most of Europe and Asia).

 

Hope it helps.

Thank @ADallas this was very helpful!  

On 2/19/2024 at 1:44 AM, mthd97 said:

Hi @ValleyGuy, yes definitely a game changer and I have installed CAX10 & X15 trial on my Mac too. I have a cordless space mouse with my left hand and a cordless Cadmouse on my right and a number key pad at my left and a small keyboard on the right (Key pad and key board in the middle). If we are restricted to 4 on the radial commands, you can create different instances or groups of 4 commands if you want to. Smoother navigation in 3D is great when it is all set up correctly. I couldn’t go back to just using a mouse to navigate. Those tools are especially designed for CAD professionals.

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?

On 11/15/2023 at 7:49 PM, solver said:

Drop it down, and make the railing taller to compensate. Add another tread at the bottom. Turn off the railing you have now.

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?

15 hours ago, solver said:

Use landings for the first several steps. They may be shaped around the wall.

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

2 hours ago, DBCooper said:

First, check "ignore room moldings" in the soffit dialog and then rebuild 3D should update the room moldings and they should ignore the soffit and not build around them..

 

The only reasons I can think that this wouldn't work is if your room moldings were converted into custom molding polylines or your soffit has a custom molding applied to it.

 

If it's not one of these things, then post your 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!

2 hours ago, DBCooper said:

First, check "ignore room moldings" in the soffit dialog and then rebuild 3D should update the room moldings and they should ignore the soffit and not build around them..

 

The only reasons I can think that this wouldn't work is if your room moldings were converted into custom molding polylines or your soffit has a custom molding applied to it.

 

If it's not one of these things, then post your plan.

 

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.