Alaskan_Son

This is a really good solution Chop. One single object with a spacing setting that can be easily and very quickly changed right along with any changes to the grid settings. Not sure it matters though whether snaps are on or not when you first place the object since hatch patterns automatically start from the origin anyway.

I have this almost exact same problem with one of my projects right now. I went the direction of having 2 separate plans but I'm not convinced that was the best idea. Its been a notable hassle keeping the 2 files in sync when we start making changes. I think I should have used one plan along with Plan Views and CAD masks as necessary. The main reason I went the 2 plan route is that one version of my plan needed to show some ADU's and the other needed to not show them. Masking walls and cabinetry and such just seemed like too much of a pain. If I'm understanding correctly, you wouldn't have that particular problem.

I would call that a bug. Not sure if there's any way to stop it from happening and still leave Auto Roof's turned on, but in case it helps you find a solution, here's what's happening: Notice how the overhang is changing to match the baseline offset for the lower pitch roof plane. If you give some sort of buffer such as a short section of perpendicular hip wall to help disconnect the gable wall from being controlled by that railing wall, you'll get more expected behavior:

Definitely not possible with a single roof plane. The answer to your question is actually right there in the name. Its a roof plane (a flat surface on which a straight line joining any two points on it would wholly lie) and the roof being described above is anything but. It can only be modeled with multiple planes/faces. The trusses on the other hand are completely possible. That's one of the main benefits of using roof planes instead of Faces or the Terrain tools: That being said, you could also optionally change the roof pitch several time (once for each and every truss), generating new trusses after each pitch change in order to get your trusses. Once you had the trusses generated you could then use whatever method you wanted to model the rest.

Multiple roof planes pretty much exactly as Gene described. You essentially need to create a wire frame of using the ridge, the fascia, and the rafters. You can fill it in with either Roof Planes or Faces. You can also optionally play with using a Terrain. You may want to check out this thread:

Are you talking about something like this?

I can definitely help provide you with a system for this. Looks like you're right down the road. Let's get together and we'll set you up with something.

No. They're completely separate plans. We were simply discussing issues related to dealing with 2 plan files that happen to share the same name.

You'll have to manually add a callout or text box with the %room.schedule_number% macro in it to each room. You can also add the %schedule_number% macro to your room label, but I don't like that option because it grossly limits your formatting options for that portion of your room label.

A Room Divider set to NOT Invisible will stop the started tread from generating. It may however start casing issues with any wall mounted grab rail.

I don't think the OP has any issue understanding how to control wall materials. A wall's Materials are driven by the Wall Type Definition. Whatever material is being used in the Wall Type Definition is the Default Material for that Wall Layer. If a wall is painted using the Material Painter or if one of the surface's Materials is changed in the Wall's material tab, then that particular surface will no longer be using the default. This is all pretty basic stuff. What the OP is specifically asking about is something else entirely: There are settings in the Material Defaults for "Walls (Exterior)" and for "Walls (Interior)/Soffits" that don't seem to have any affect on walls. That's the issue being discussed. It's really an unusual default setting because it doesn't actually seem to have an effective place in the hierarchy.

Your room has no ceiling finish: ...and you don't have any manually drawn ceiling planes in the plan either.

This particular issue perplexes me as well and it’s something that keeps me awake at night every couple years or so. I feel like I’ve figured out more of the nuances on a couple different occasions but as of right now, I only know a few things: 1. The Interior Wall material setting is used for the automatic stair enclosure walls on interior stairs. 2. The Interior Wall material setting is used for library previews. 3. Both Interior and Exterior Wall material defaults are assigned to the Rooms’ Materials. I seem to recall figuring out when these kick in at one point, but I can’t remember anymore. It may be that they no longer do what they once did, or it may be that it’s only under the rarest of unique circumstances that they do anything, maybe in those odd scenarios where Chief needs to fill in an area automatically and there’s no clear wall to use as the basis. I don’t know. Maybe I am simply misremembering and I’ve never figured it out, but I absolutely seem to have some memory of certain exterior walls on some covered entries taking on that Exterior Wall Material default. No matter though, I agree It’s certainly not clear what they do or when they kick in. And it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the Help files either.

I get it. That wouldn't fix the problem for me though. Not only does it not solve the problem with the identical tabs themselves, but it also only works when the text box is in view.

That's wouldn't be my problem. This would be my problem: 2 files with the same name open at the same time. This is something that would happen a lot in my workflow too. No, I think I'll stick with my current system. I just know I would end up making a mess of the wrong plan all the time.

Thank you for chiming in. I think you helped nudge me that extra bit I needed. Its clear to me that having files with the same name (whether Chief handles it fine or not) is going to cause me problems. I just know I would have a MAJOR problem keeping track of which plan I was working on without a clear identifier right there in the name if the plan. I have a big enough problem managing open program tabs sometimes.

Ya, this would be a problem for me as well. I actually already have this problem to a smaller extent because I do some manual syncing sometimes and end up having 2 files with the same name showing up on the list. To deal with this, I've learned to float over the name and wait for the popup showing the file path before I open it:

Oh, I see what you're saying. We can do that in Windows but Chief still displays the actual file name. Same with linking to layout. We can link to an alias but the link immediately grabs onto the actual file and not the alias.

Not sure what you mean.

@rgardnerand @Renerabbitt, do you guys ever have problems with a layout trying to read information from the wrong file if multiple versions using the same name are open at the same time? I would assume not but it does seem a little weird having several files with the same name open at the same time. In thinking this through, that might actually be my biggest concern aside from the file bloat. I'm not sure I would mentally be able to handle that very well. I could easily see myself with 2 version open at the same time and accidentally making a bunch of changes to the wrong one.

Yes, it has its potential problems but it also has some pretty massive benefits.

Okay. Ya, you guys are both using a variant of the first version I showed. You plan files are renamed for each new project since something like "Koenig_New.plan" would obviously need to be renamed "Smith_New.plan" when you start drawing for the Smith's. That in turn means the "Smith.layout" would need to be relinked when you first start the project, or am I missing something? The 2nd version/variant I suggested would alleviate the need for EVER relinking...even when starting a whole new project. The layout would get renamed but the plan name would always remain the exact same.

The actual PDF file name gets a unique identifier like so: Smith Prelim 1 Smith Prelim 2 Smith Cabinetry 1 Smith Cabinetry 2 Smith Permitting .... On the PDF pages though I just use the date stamp: I guess if multiple versions going out on the same day was a common problem for me, I might consider using an actual time stamp and not just the date. I used to included a manual version number on my PDF cover page but got tired of manually updating that. I realized at some point that a time/date stamp serves the same purposes without any of the extra work.

I can't speak for Rene, but I personally version PDF's only by date. Preliminary vs. Construction might get a different title or watermark of some sort, but versions I only reference using the date.

Can you show one of those folders expanded? I think you and Ryan are using 2 different (although similar) systems. His seems to be more like the first Option I showed above whereas yours seems to be more like the 2nd Option.