Alaskan_Son

I think the baseline concept gets misunderstood by even some of the most advanced users. In a nutshell, the baseline is nothing more than the main pivot point and control for the roof plane. Consider a perfectly round roof plane. What are you going to use to determine where it pivots, or the line that is used to determine the roofing material orientation? That's the purpose of the baseline. The baseline can be at any angle in plan view, at any angle with regard to the roof plane it produces, and can be adjusted to an off angle in 3D even, but it provides for the single constant pivot point required in order to maintain any sort of logical control over how the roof is generated. The baseline is TYPICALLY located over the exterior of the wall's main layer but it certainly isn't always located there. If for example you have 2 different roof pitches and you want the overhang to remain constant, Chief will automatically move the baseline to accommodate during an auto-build. Yes, you could also adjust the baseline height instead, but Chief will automatically move the baseline in order to maintain a constant baseline height...this behaviour helps make the Make Roof Baseline Polylines tool possible.

I suspect you're not really taking full (or any) advantage of your Saved Plan Views? Not sure why you would be averse to turning off all the unnecessary layers in your reference set otherwise. You can use different references sets for different plan views, and you can also use different layer sets as your reference set. Just set up a plan view that uses a special reference layer set with only those stairs turned on.

Tech support IS there to deal with technical issues. What they’re NOT there for is to provide training. That’s what the Tutorial Guide, Reference Manual, Help files, tutorial videos, Knowledge Base, forum, and training department are there for. I’m not at my computer to check by I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that you’re not having a technical issue with the software...you’re likely just not using it correctly (i.e. you’re not following the instructions). Use the stair tool correctly, in the correct view, on the correct floor, and apply the correct settings, and your stairs should work just fine. Did you read through the Tutorial Guide or Reference Manual? Or, at the very least, did you watch any of the appropriate videos or read any of the appropriate knowledge base articles? If so, and if you followed the directions correctly, I’d be curious to know where you got the info. from to see what was wrong with it.

I would STRONGLY suggest that you get into the habit of using the Reference Manual and/or using the Help files. Here's what you would have found... I have highlighted the area the describes the behaviour you're seeing, but read the whole page to find out which tool might work better for you.

I think you've stumbled on one of the only scenarios where that setting doesn't appear to make sense. The fact is that in the absence of a stile between the doors or a manually placed separation, Chief seems to default to a 1/64" gap between double doors. You might want 1/16" with your frameless full overlay, but would you want 3/8" with a 3/8" reveal or would you want a traditional face frame to have a huge gap between the doors? I suppose we could have a setting to control that reveal, but I'm about as picky as they come and I don't think I would ever personally care enough about that to warrant requesting anything different.

Glenn, We're not talking about "selected". We're talking about "highlighted"...so that you know which baseline belongs to which roof plane. Try changing your roof baseline color to something like yellow and the select a roof plane.

On second thought, I guess I didn't think about your post well enough. I was thinking you were talking about 2 different line colors. You're talking about a line color and a fill color. Yes, your request is possible...

The point is that the baseline is highlighted along with the roof plane. Robert changed his baseline layer color to bright green because it makes the baseline much more obvious when it is highlighted. Not because it turns the baseline bright green but because the highlighted baseline looks so much different than the rest of the bright green baselines.

No

It is correct Glenn. It's just not very noticeable with the Selection Line color that most of us use. Try changing your Selection Line color (Preferences) to bright blue or bright red and then give it a quick test.

Yes. Chief Architect Premier X10 Data>Patterns. But you would typically just access it via your material or fill definition. Click on the Pattern>Type drop-down, select Custom, click Browse, select the appropriate pattern file, and then select the appropriate pattern from the next drop-down list.

Your wall is inside out.

Hey Jere, I have attached a cheat sheet I use to quickly reference what custom patterns we have available. For the rest, I personally just create them to order from scratch to specifically match any given texture. Some custom patterns only take a few minutes. Others might take an hour. It just depends on the complexity of the texture and on what type of look and accuracy you're after. Just shoot me an email of you're interested in discussing further and we can take it from there. Scott's right though. That would be a nice feature. Fill Hatch Patterns Cheat Sheets.pdf

Eric is right. It's an issue with the window and the way it reacts to the wall below.

I'd say that door is almost as far from "plain" as it possibly could be. If it were me, I would probably just model that door from scratch using that PDF file as the basis. You could find and use an image for all the ironwork or you could model it all. I would probably just model it all except for maybe the lion heads.

Text style for the "Doors, Labels" layer

Chief (and a handful of other independent teachers and consultants) are endeavoring to teach people how to use the tools we’ve been given. If you learn to use the program correctly, you typically don’t have these common issues to contend with. This suggestion feels kinda like Joe Blow asking Designer Man to draw up some detailed construction documents, disregarding all the construction details and notes when building the house, and then asking Designer Man to draw up MORE plans on his own dime to show Joe Blow what he did wrong. Sounds a little unreasonable to me. Okay, so what about the “common” problems that still arise when you ARE using the program correctly? 1. Contact tech support and get the problem reported so they can fix it. 2. There are about as many solutions as there are settings for any given problem. In the case of the roof anomalies above? Fixing the angle could fix the problem, as could simply changing the angle to another off angle. Dragging that little narrow roof closer to the building could fix the problem, dragging the upper roof planes further past the lower roof could fix the problem, building the low roof using a full return instead of an independent plane could fix the problem, the list could go on and on and on. I’ve made a lot of videos over the years to help address some common problems and I can tell you from experience that most fixes only work for a very small handful of situations. The next time the problem come up? It requires a totally different solution because one of the various dynamics has changed. The best solution to LEGITIMATE problems (after doing your best to learn and use the software correctly) is to reach out to tech support and/or to some of the other users here on the forum. Someone will help you sort it out for your specific plan, but there’s a really good chance the solution is going to be different the next time you run into a similar situation.

Post the plan for a better answer, but I'd bet you have either a disconnected wall, a missing wall, or a wall set as No Room Definition.

To test your theory, I would suggest you try learning to play piano by hiring a plumber. See how far you get. You both might eventually figure out how to make something that doesn't sound like total crap, but is that really the best way to go about it? Definitely not. I guarantee this approach will always result in picking up bad habits, misunderstanding or total missing the fundamentals, and a ton of wasted time for both you and the "teacher". NOTE: There are a lot of proficient users here on the forum, so don't get me wrong. There is plenty of good information. Trying to sort through it though when you don't actually know what you're looking for can be an exercise in futility.

This is one area where I would really recommend people be careful. On the surface, it makes sense, but I see incorrect and conflicting information here on the forum ALL THE TIME.

If I was to make a video with common problems and common fixes it would just be a short commentary to encourage people to: Use the Tutorial Guide to get started (it will help you understand the basics of how Chief was intended to be used). If you start out missing some of the fundamentals, you're going to struggle ALWAYS. Use the Help files (both via Launch Help and via the little "Help" button in the various dialogs. In my opinion, this should be the very first place a person goes to learn what a tool or setting is, what it does, and how it was intended to be used. Go to the videos and the Knowledge Base articles only after deciding that the Help files don't answer your question Go to the forum when all the above fails or if it's a question on an issue that simply doesn't seem to be addressed elsewhere If your time is worth much, consider getting some personal training. You might be surprised out how much you can learn in a short session. Its typically FAR MORE than you would glean spending the same amount of time typing up questions and reading answers here on the forum...which by the way can be very misleading (the answers).

Here's a quick sloppy example of what I typically do... https://youtu.be/e9BVQ4cQcTc

It's in there. Go to Tools>3D Text

Rich. "Auto" generating a schedule like that is kinda possible but requires an inordinate amount of setup time, some very complex macros, quite a bit of Ruby savvy, and some very careful maintenance. Totally not worth it in my opinion. There are some pretty easy ways you can really speed up your copying and pasting of info. from plan to excel though in order to make the job quicker and reduce errors including; Using temporary schedules Copying and pasting directly from schedules (either in whole or in part) Using some pretty simple custom text macros and copying/pasting from those

For whatever its worth, this one thing (3D lettering) is almost the only thing I personally use Sketchup for anymore.