Alaskan_Son

You're welcome. Just wanted to make sure and clarify though… I would typically recommend dimensioning to an actual 3-D object whenever possible. The method I spelled out above is more of a stopgap solution for those situations where there is no real usable snap point... which is often the case in elevation views.

Sections have always been super limited with regard to snaps. There are only a handful of things other than section lines (the automatically produced CAD lines that are produced where the camera cuts through an object) that you can really snap to. Depending on what exactly you're needing to dimension, I think its often faster and easier to just... Create a CAD Detail From View Dimension what you need to in that CAD detail With the dimension tool still activated, shift select all your dimensions and cut/paste hold position those dimensions back into your elevation view Change to the point marker tool, shift select all the points, and then... Either change the marker radius to zero, change the line style to the invisible line style, or put them on their own unique layer and then just turn that layer off. The last option is what I feel is probably the best. This way you can always toggle that layer back on to proof check things at any time.

I'm back at the computer now and I can see that although roads and driveways do have a number of capabilities that set them apart from each other, there appears to be very little difference between a road and a driveway in this particular regard. I thought only roads cut and filled the terrain to remain flat along their width, but my my memory/assumption was incorrect...both roads and driveways behave in the exact same way... Straight roads and driveways remain flat along their width Spline roads and driveways remain flat along their width Polyline roads and driveways conform to the terrain Just use one of the first 2 and you should be good to go. As Glenn pointed out, a spline driveway (or road) would work, but a straight driveway would have actually worked just fine for this particular instance as well. Just draw multiple sections, fillet corners, convert lines to arcs etc. Just edit like any CAD object to create the desired path shape. This was drawn using the straight driveway tool...

I appreciate the vote vote of confidence, but to be honest, I'm not sure I've ever even mentally taken note of that behavior. I guess I've never even thought about it but I would personally prefer the change in direction at intersections anyway. That's just me though. I'll have to take a look at this issue when I get back to the computer and see if I can't find a better way to address it.

Line Style tab. Uncheck Show Length and Show Angle.

I could be wrong here because I don't work with terrains very often and as such they are probably my weakest area in Chief, but...doesn't a Road automatically level the terrain? Have you tried using a road instead of a driveway? I don't know, it's just a thought.

Only slightly... Don't use a doorway and a pass-through, just use 2 doorways. Copy and paste the second and adjust height as necessary. It will frame a little better too.

Hmm...I think you may be exaggerating a bit. I can easily see the need for a business to help walk people through the permitting process. You and I both know that the requirements and idiosyncrasies can vary from city to city and even from plan reviewer to plan reviewer. Sometimes it can take a bit of finessing and that's simply not something just anyone can do. It takes knowledge, experience, and being familiar with "the game". Not sure what all the service includes, how much the company is charging, or how complex the requirements are in the area but I can certainly see their being more value in the service than what you seem to be seeing.

A "Vent" window type will not be included in the schedule if the window is set as a vent. The problem here is that we cannot set a window as a vent unless the window is a symbol and we can only do so in the symbol dbx Options tab... ...just don't ask me why. Most of us commonly use the Louvre window type for vents but as you can see, those have their own category. You are free to uncheck that as well if you want those out of your schedule...

Text Macro Management. Write a custom macro...evaluated (owner context) and set the value to: area.round(2) NOTE: The 2 represents the number of decimal values you want the value rounded to. Leave that part off completely and the value will just round to the nearest whole number. Replace the %area% macro with your new custom macro.

Yeah, I noticed that as well. I think it must have only been within the last couple versions. I don't recall seeing it documented either. At any rate, I think its still important to understand or else your wall will be placed on the wrong side of your chosen Resize About layer while you're drawing. In addition, when Chief automatically flips walls in those situations, I believe it does so around the center of the wall and not around the Resize About layer.

It's not that simple. There are several ways a person might build a foundation with a brick veneer above... •They could use a poured wall foundation, a CMU wall, or pour a slab on grade...Any of those 3 with or without a brick ledge where the concrete supports the brick veneer •They could use any of the above foundation types and use angle iron instead of extending the foundation •...and I'm sure there are tons of other methods beyond those 9 In addition to the many construction techniques there are several different ways to make walls properly align with foundation walls too. You can do as I suggested and adjust the "Foundation To" layer but, you can also... •Use the foundation offset •Adjust your foundation wall definition to change what is defined as a main layer and what is defined as an exterior layer •Adjust your normal walls to change what is defined as a main layer and what is defined as an exterior layer In addition to all that you can also manipulate your walls by calling walls on multiple floors foundation walls (not something I've done very often). So...the OOB wall definition you mentioned could be used in any number of scenarios. At the end of the day it just completely depends on exactly what you need to draw up and what works best for your particular situation. You just need to change the appropriate settings accordingly.

No no no. All you have to do is change the Foundation To Exterior Of Layer to the Fir Stud wall layer. Easy as that. Read back through my post again and see if it makes more sense the second time around.

I was actually just about to respond to this too. I think you found the right culprit but its not stopping the align tool from working. A person just has to understand how the align tool works with foundation walls. When the wall below is set to a foundation wall and you try to align to that foundation wall, its the Foundation To Exterior Of layer that will align to the Main layer of the foundation wall below...Or visa versa; if you select the foundation wall and align with wall above, that foundation wall's Main layer will align with the Foundation To Exterior Of layer for the wall above.

I think Glenn's answer is probably what you're looking for and is important to understand regardless because all other resizing of that wall uses this setting. That Resize About Layer is the location within the wall assembly around which the wall is generated. Just think of drawing walls as a series of single lines. The wall is simply expanded from that line.... NOTE: All the exterior walls in the examples above were drawn clockwise and the interior wall was drawn bottom to top. The direction you draw your walls in is important to understand as it determines which side of the line the wall is generated on as well as which direction the interior and exterior layers are facing when the wall is initially drawn. In order to efficiently use those settings you may find it helpful to Reverse Layers of a wall from time to time and you may want to toggle between different Resize About options depending on what you're drawing. A couple other notes too: As Robert pointed out you can also use Temporary Dimensions. You can either use them visually or by clicking on them and changing them while the wall is selected. I think its important to note that those temporary dimensions get their length based on the Resize About setting though. You can of course also change the length of the wall in the wall dbx as well as by using normal dimensions that are snapped to the wall but you may also explore using the tab input method while drawing your walls. Just click to start the wall, hit tab while dragging, and enter the desired length/angle You may have already understood much of that but I thought I'd spell it out for anyone who doesn't. Hope that helps.

When I see stuff like that I usually just close the program down and then when I start it back up I just run a library update. I think Chief typically makes sure to download anything that's missing.

Do a Save As of your first plan, delete all your annosets except the one you want to export, and Export Annotation Sets. Now open the second plan and Import Annotation Sets. I think the problem is that you'll likely end up with a bunch of other defaults that get imported too. I think the Export/Import Annotations Sets tool could use a lot of work.

Nice find Glenn. I'll definitely have to remember that one. Thanks.

Here's a quick video for whatever it's worth...

Thanks Chop I certainly do like that tool, no doubt about it.

I assume the OP meant "Show Length" and "Show Angle" (if I remember the correct terminology). My guess is that the text style is currently just too small to see. Select the line, check what layer it's on, and change the text style for that layer to something with a much larger text height.

I think I agree. We should have a preference for where that "Special Snapping" occurs at walls. Me for example? I would want that ledger over the top of the wall sheathing. The OP? He wants it at the framing layer. I don't think I've ever seen a situation where mounting it to the face of the exterior cladding surface was the way to go though (except maybe if the cladding and exterior sheathing are the same layer (i.e. T1-11).

I don't know about that. I think that the roof should be broken and reshaped in many instances. It could easily be argued in this particular instance that the whole roof plane edge in question should be dragged to that location anyway.

Doug, To date I have yet to find a way to "trick" Chief and put anything other than general framing members and CAD into a wall framing detail. I think your best bet at this point would be to do this: Create an elevation view that includes those object you have already drawn up. Set this camera up on the INTERIOR side of the wall in question. Create a CAD Detail From View of that camera. Trace over the line work as necessary to create some new closed polylines to represent those objects and add fills as necessary. NOTE: Depending on the object type you used to create those objects (slabs for example) you may be able to simply take a cross section and use the Auto Detail tool to automatically produce some filled polylines for yourself. Copy and Paste Hold Position all the CAD items you need into your wall framing detail. Next time you run into this you may be better off drawing any necessary items right in the wall framing detail using framing members if possible (which will then also show in 3D). Hope that helps.

There may be another way, but as far as I know, the only thing you can do is this: Open the roof plane and check "No Special Snapping". Drag the roof plane so that it snaps to your framing layer and then drag it a little further than that by exactly the distance of your fascia. You may or may not also want to break the roof plane edge and drag the overhanging sections of that same edge one way or another. Build framing for at least that roof plane. Hope that helps.