PitMan71

Yeah. Being annoyed is part of the process. Chief is a tool and learning to use it for your particular application will take time. I think what you have there looks good so far. If you want a slab on grade foundation you will select that in the rooms or under your floor defaults. Click the wrench on your tool bar. Scroll to Floors and Rooms >> Floor Levels >> 1st floor. This will open the defaults for this floor. Under Structure scroll to the bottom under floor. Most of my plans or raised so I have never used this option. When I build my foundation on my plans I select the defaults for my slab there.

Welcome to Chief and to the group! You can do most anything in Chief. I have used Softplan and I prefer Chief. I'm from Alabama where it's all of the above foundation-wise. My approach is different than most, I would suggest for you to pick a plan and start drawing it in chief. Watch some of the tutorial videos.... Learn a little and do a little. Some of the concepts can be overwhelming until you experience why they are the way they are. I would be happy to talk and share my experience. I started using Chief at the end of December so I am just over three months in.

I get it..... Hard to appreciate the videos if you don't know what the views are for. Once I learned how plan views worked, I realized just how powerful they are. Essentially, the views are for the particular ways you want to view the plan such as for presentation, layouts for construction drawings, for quick reference, etc. While the "Working Plan view" is your work space and can be manipulated layer wise however you want ... for me it's a hot mess because everything is on but it's how I work.... it doesn't affect any of your layer settings in your views.... Also, you can have your views set up with a default set drawing tools, text, etc. For instance, my mechanical drawings are all 1/8" scale so my settings in that view are set to draw in the standards (layers, text, scale, etc.) that I want for my mechanical views AND that doesn't affect any of my others views unless I turn those layers on or off. Once you get them set, you can send them to your layout to look the way you want. I would be happy to talk to you more on the phone if you have the time.

I switched from the trial and didn't have any issues. So you shouldn't either. You will just go from not being able to save to being able to.

Welcome to the group. Where specifically are you located?

This is a great video also.

You can accomplish this using roof planes. Then you will need to check Boxed Eave:" and set to the depth of your overhang, in your case 24". Create any brackets you want with 3d solids. I learned how to do manually roofs with this video. It will be helpful when building a roof where there is no room definition. Good luck.

I fixed the roof hole and the wall >> roof tool worked perfectly. Thanks

Yeah. I pulled the roof hole on that side out a bit when I was tinkering with some other things. Thanks for the information.... I will dig into it.

I have an interior wall that borders a space that has a dormer. The wall extends up above the roof and I want it to have siding above and drywall below. How can I accomplish this? See attached.Chelsea 2.plan.zip

That box is asking what layer to add the hatching on. To make it appear again.... It's under preferences. On the left click "Reset Options" then "Reset Message Boxes" - Reset suppressing of message boxes. Shane

This thread may help with stair issue.

Y'all are the best there is! Thank you. Shane

I have a straight stair that I want the lower portion to have open rail. BUT I want it to transition to between walls as it goes through the floor. Is there a way to break a continuous stair to have open rail to a certain point and then transition to between walls? Thanks in advance. Chelsea.plan.zip

Thanks Five years later! Learned something useful today.

I say go for it! The experience you will get working on a project like this is very valuable. Speaking of value, I would estimate how many hours it would take you. The way I would do that is I would guess that an individual unit would take hypothetically 15 hours. Each subsequent unit, because you are duplicating, along with making changes to reflect in differences might average 5 hours each. Add all that up plus the hours for the building in the middle and landscaping and add 10-20 more hours for contingencies. Of course, all of these metrics will be determined by the scope of what the client needs. The only thing that concerns me is the raw size of the model..... You might need some top end computer horse power. Someone who has worked with a large model could speak to that. Good luck!

Thanks. I am just getting to the point where I am figuring that out. AND thanks for the tip.

Okay. I googled and got what you posted.... So, I must be doing something wrong then. Seems I need to tinker with that tool a bit more. Thanks for confirming.

Is there a trick to using the fillet tool to fillet arcs to lines or other arcs? Or is it just not a thing? I was drawing a driveway and I had a parking area off of a drive with an arc and I can't figure out how to fillet the intersecting segments. Thanks

Can dimension styles be exported?

Thanks for all the replies..... I must be missing something since I can't find how to modify the 2D Symbol without affecting the elevation. A little more direction would be helpful.

Okay I will try that.... Didn't know you could edit the 2d block display. Thanks.

A lot..... elevation views, schedules, default sets, layer sets, text styles, etc. have been added as I have learned how to set all that up. The good news is that anything I would move is a model only.... Essentially I drew and developed the model and didn't go any further from there. I just know as I develop construction drawings from the models I will want all of the things that I have added in my new template. I hope this makes some sense.

I am using some stock columns from the library that have a cap and base that's wider than the actual column. Is there a way to have the columns display in plan view such that the width is the actual column and not that of the base and cap? For instance I have 8" square columns on the plan, but they show up like 12". Thanks in advance.

All. What is the best way to migrate a plan/model to a newer plan template? I have several models that I have drawn that I want to move to my updated template to finish them up. I have some ideas on how I might accomplish this, but wanted to see if I could learn from someone's experience. Thanks in advance.