Alaskan_Son

Stocking library?

You could probably save yourself a ton of time and money by using Ruby to do most of this for you. If you don't know how, I think it would still be worth it to consider hiring me or someone else to help set something up for you. A few hours of my time and you may never have to run most of the manual calculations again. Just a thought.

I find the quickest way to deal with materials is usually using the Plan Materials dialog. You can either modify the material directly through that dialog and then click Add To Library, OR, if you've already modified a material in your plan, you can first use the object eyedropper to select your material and then switch to the material painter tool. If you go this route, all you have to do is click on the Plan Materials tab and your previously selected material will already be highlighted.

I haven't used X5 in quite a long time so I can't tell you definitively, but I don't believe there was any way to do that prior to X9. Now we have a default setting for the drawing group. If you use Chief regularly for a living, I would really recommend you upgrade. There's a lot you're missing out on.

Note that Chief uses XOR drawing to affect the display of both: Objects on the reference floor with respect to other objects on the reference floor Objects on the current floor with respect to objects on the reference floor ...but does not affect the display of objects on the current floor with respect to other objects on the current floor. Try drawing some additional objects on the attic level in the plan above to explore this a bit. In my personal opinion, I kinda think Chief should at least give us the option to use XOR drawing strictly in scenario #2 mode. Actually, this is what seems to be the most natural way to set it OOB.

See if this helps you understand XOR drawing a little better. Check out the following plan. Try playing with the settings while switching between the first floor and the attic level. Also try turning color and line weight displays on and off.... XOR example.plan Note that it makes a big difference whether or not the color setting of the objects match. P.S. Just use the All On set as your reference layer set.

BTW, you can use transparent text and XOR drawing won't cancel out the callout lines.

I really think this is a bug in Chief. Chief cancels out a handful of things when using XOR drawing that I don't believe it should.

Yes. Fills. Objects display with their fills which is something you may or may not want. It really just depends on the plan, the view, and what you're trying to show.

Just check Use Object Settings

Yup, that’s what I suspected. That explains the extra stud length. We almost never do any such thing around here so we don’t need that extra 3/4...ish.

I’m curious, do you guys commonly add strapping/purlins to your ceilings?

I assume it has something to do with regional differences in the way structures are built and in the way rooms are finished. That, and simple familiarity. I’ve heard of standard 8’ stud lengths everywhere from 88” to 93” but in my experience the vast majority are 92-5/8”.

Completely standard everywhere here in Alaska and in quite a few other areas of the country as well.

Yeah, I was suspecting that might be the case. I couldn’t remember for sure. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Away from my computer but a few options that come to mind (and I’m not sure whether or not the first 2 would work or not)... 1. Try blocking the stairs while the wall is out of the way and then leave them blocked once you put the wall back. 2. Put the stairs onto a different floor and then overlap views in layout or use the reference display. 3. Build that bottom tread with primitives and just make it slightly thicker than the existing tread to help avoid z-fighting. 4. Just build that whole set of stairs with primitives. 5. Depending on the structure you might even consider building the wall with primitives or a symbol. 6. Use Justin’s idea.

Just a wild guess here, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this user has probably already found the help they need...seeing as how they posted more than 2 years ago.

I'm pretty sure that the issue was all one and the same. The OP was just trying to give us a visual of the "glitching out". I was able to easily reproduce on my system too and it does indeed seem to be completely related to the distance from the origin. You are right though...there was also a major z-fighting issue. I was just trying to clarify that what the OP had illustrated in the wasn't z-fighting. And no, I hadn't opened the plan yet.

Huh? Did you look at the PDF in the first post? That is most certainly NOT z-fighting. Your advice seems to have fixed the problem for the OP, but what he/she showed in the shot was something much different that I’ve never seen before.

See if this thread helps you out at all…

Its an elusive but spectacularly wonderful creature. Once you have a glimpse you’ll never forget it. It will haunt your dreams.

Mimicking trusses for as-built situations, communicating ideas with truss manufacturers, drawing important truss details for CDs even when the trusses have been designed by others, inserting truss designs from others for model accuracy/collision detection, drawing decorative trusses, rough iterations for CDs or renderings... PLUS, some of us actually DO have a hand in designing trusses either in whole or in part, and some of us even build trusses onsite from time to time. I don’t think some of yuze guys realize the range of users there are that utilize Chief. It’s not all about permit drawings you know. In some areas there are no permits and everything is designed by one guy—only reason for drawing anything is to communicate with subs, some of us are engineers, and some of us use Chief almost exclusively for realistic renderings where every little detail counts. AND, some of us use the truss tool for things other than trusses. The list could go on. I’m kinda curious what the point of this thread even is though.

Yes. That is correct.