PitMan71

I had no idea about this tool. Thanks for sharing.

Im going to give this a shot. Shane

I didn't know there would be so many ways to pull this off. Thanks all to the great insight!

That's a good idea. I will try that. Was hoping for a more technical answer.

Catz Lake House Preliminary 3-6-2025.pdf Look at the street front elevation of the breezeway to the left of garage.

I have some columns and beams that were created with individual 3D Solids, Is there a way to have Chief show a line where the objects intersect in elevation view? It looks unnatural now. Thanks

Thanks for your responses. I think I am looking for a more casual floor plan look like the attached. The perspective straight down look in Chief is nice, but it's hard to see the details of the floor plan.

What view in Chief does everyone use for marketing their floor plans? I am getting my business Facebook page setup and want to highlight the designs I am working on. Thanks

I wish that you could do this with auto roofs. BUT because having a gable there to match the front will create a dead valley when it intersects the opposing roof plane you will need to do it manually. Once you get the hang of it, it's simple. Rene's video on this was super helpful.

I see in the properties of the cabinet, in the "box construction" tab, cabinet corner treatment where you can round the corners. BUT you can't add drawers there that I can tell. Might have a play around with that feature to see where it leads.

Post your plan if you are okay with that. I have gotten quicker solutions that way.

On the attached drawing. At where the front porch and the one-story section intersects the two story siding wall there is a bit of siding missing at the lower edge of the roof. How do I fix this? Thanks Shane ChaneyTwo.plan.zip

I will check this out. Thanks for the tip. Imma also gonna look at what you mentioned about the gym frieze.

The frieze that won't change size appears to be obscured by another piece of trim that completely wraps that part of the roof. I honestly don't know what generated it. Shane

On the attached plan I have a couple issues with my frieze boards. 1. On the left wall of the gym, for some reason the frieze is not displaying. 2. on the 6:12 roof at the bay over the bedroom I can't change the frieze to another size. It seems to be stuck at what it was originally set at. I need it to be 1x4 NOT 1x8. Most other places I can adjust the frieze just fine. Thanks for having a look. Shane 188WindwardReno.plan.zip

Thank for the tips!

This is very good feedback. Thanks to you both. My thinking.... a combination of chief training and consulting would be best. Training/conference to help build community and learn some general techniques on how to navigate the application. Consulting to target training around specific things I want to do on my drawings, etc. Right now I am forcing myself to use the application on all new projects. so far I have been successful at encountering challenges and then solving them by watching a video or asking a question here.

Thanks @SNestor ... you always have great insights. I believe all this discussion makes us all better!

I have been able to do that. Its a little tricky, but doable. i used the point to point dimension tool. The dimension line is in the middle of the columns, but once dimensioned i just pull the dim line out. That works fine. BUT the other nuances are enough to make me looney. IF the railing tool was used for railing only, then you would not want dims snapping to it. It would be nice if you could create the elements and then blow them up into individual objects.

Thanks Steve. i have used that tool and there are several things I am not jazzed about. Now, because i am a newbie there may be ways around the things that annoy me, but I haven't had any luck. Best i could tell.... - You cant select or dimension to the objects in elevation view. - Also, it seems that the beam height is governed by the ceiling ht of the porch. When i do porch beams i hang the joists off the side of the beam. - I like the heights of beams to be an even 8', 9', etc. above the porch floor. Generally seemed that there was less flexibility with the porch rail tool. But maybe there is something i am missing. i watched the attached video a couple weeks ago and it was very helpful. Thanks

I am a one-man show AND leaving a full time gig behind to draw plans and design full-time. i am 53 now and been drafting in some form for 35 years or so. I am new to Chief and thanks to everyone's help I am beginning to really like it over the other options. I see where Chief hosts trainings and conferences. If you have attended was your attendance beneficial? Was there a good return on your investment, or would those dollars been better spent elsewhere? Thanks Shane

interesting.... For some reason mine come in as interior walls. You know that might be because I am using the room divider tool to add them. So, is a better way to do this to draw the walls using the wall type I want and then click the "invisible" box? Thanks

I am fixing to be full time drawing homes. It's been a side hustle for a while now. I am and have been an Autocad LT user. I am excited to take this journey using Chief.

Here is an example of what I am referring to. The temp dimensions go to the outside of the drywall portion of the invisible wall where everything else like roofs generate off of the base line. Anyway, there may be a reason for this and I am willing to adapt my thinking and approach. I will admit this might work fine for a porch that both edges are in the middle of a wall. It seems that this becomes more of an issue when it lines up with a wall where the roofline is to continue and the turn a corner and you are doing manual roofs. Thanks for your contribution.

For those of you that create porches with Invisible walls. What are some tips you have learned to maximize their use? Being a newbie, they are powerful and offer flexibility over the rail and newel tool for columns, BUT my experience so far is that they can be troublesome because the invisible wall type is "interior wall" where the base line is 1/2" off the outside of the dashed lines representing the invisible wall. I went round and round with a roof on my latest project because the baseline of the roof was lined up with the drywall edge instead of the base line edge of the invisible wall. Being that the invisible wall is to define a space that doesn't have actual walls it would seem that you could define it more simply to achieve more predictable results. BUT I know there are some physical aspects of the space that are defined by this wall like the floor and the ceiling. My designs include a lot of porches and outdoor spaces so I want to develop the best method for drawing them. Thanks in advance.