Alaskan_Son

Good question Joe, it was actually the first time I ever tried to block a distributed object. I'm away from my computer now, but now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the block I made from the distributed object had to be an architectural block but the object I was using was definitely a CAD block.

I have repeatedly asked Chief to provide us with X and Y location attributes for markers and other CAD based objects so that we could do exactly this type of thing. Super frustrating that we still don't have this.

For whatever it's worth, it was a polyline distribution path that was using a cad block as it's distributed object.

Away from my computer and I obviously don't have a plan to look at so this is just a guess off the top but it sounds like you might have trusses checked.

Not sure if you ever pinned this problem down, but I just had this happen when trying to block a polyline distribution path and add it to the library. For what its worth in case anyone else runs into this problem again, I actually WAS able to use my suggestion from above to remedy the problem. I group selected my entire User Catalog except for that one single item, exported it, deleted my User_library.calib file and then re-imported the rest.

Hey guys, only have a few minutes here before I need to get back to work, but a Polyline Distribution Path is a good alternative for many if not all of the challenges listed above. Perfect? No, but check it out...coupled with the appropriate CAD block and perhaps assigned to a custom toolbar and/or hotkey and I think it just might do what you need.

I personally take a lot of things into consideration such as: Wall heights Ceiling heights Ceiling shape Room function Which direction the wall is facing (north vs. south) Whether or not there is a notable view from that particular window or wall Whether or not their are privacy concerns Heights of adjacent doors All that being said, my default bottom-of-header height is 81-1/8" from subfloor. This is based on an 8ft. wall (92-5/8" stud) with a 4x12 header and a 2x6 nailer underneath that header. It just works out well for the way we frame and matches up pretty dern well with a standard 80" interior door.

You just have to turn off the "Walls, Through Lines" layer

I have to say I'm with Johnny on this. I too use Chief to model some pretty complex geometry and while I can agree that it's about learning to use the various tools and features outside their named/intended purpose but quite honestly even then, the tools can be very limiting and certain geometry can be extremely time consuming to model. I would actually go so far as to say there is a lot of geometry I would consider totally impossible for all except the most advanced, mathematically minded, spacially thinking users. Even then...the results can be very rigid, lumpy, or otherwise flawed or simply unrealistic looking. At the the end of the day we have to pick and choose our battles. There is a lot of complex geometry I don't mind taking a little time to produce in Chief but if we're talking about any sort of organic shapes, free form modeling, upholstery, anything with waves, etc...then the results are totally not worth the effort IMO. You're better off either finding a symbol that's close enough, making it in another app, or paying someone to make it for you in another app.

You bet, and you are correct. There is no accessible default setting for the Hatch Wall tool. It's something that has been requested multiple times. For now, I think the best you can do is set one to the way you want it and then use the Object Eyedropper tool to change future wall hatches.

Don't have time to go over it all in detail and I'm away from my computer but here's where I would suggest you start.... -Use the ceiling FINISH and define one of your layers to be a framing material. -Place any required joist direction arrows in the correct locations and orientations. -Build CEILING framing -Place new joist direction arrows for your floor framing. -Build FLOOR framing. -Make manual modifications as necessary.

I've never tried doing what you're trying to do so I haven't explored the options a whole lot, but I think this looks like a job for the Hatch Wall tool. The Hatch Wall will add a hatch that is the width of your main layer. If you want to also display the outside lines of the wall then you'll probably want to check Draw Rails also.

This question is kinda strange to me...did you even try? All you have to do is drop an object into Chief and create a 3D view and you would know the answer. I feel like I must be missing something. To answer your last question though, I personally use Chief rather heavily for creating custom case goods and such and so do a number of other Chiefers.

It might help if you were to tell us how you are currently getting this done. Then we can tell you if we have an idea for a faster way. There are definitely ways to speed this kind of process up but I don;t feel like spending 20 minutes expounding on it just to find out you're already doing the same thing.

This sounds like something for the Jerry Springer Show.

I agree. It's very simple. Rename plan, rename layout, and relink. You don't even need to use the same name. I've heard this recommended many times and I've never understood why (I may have heard it explained before but if so I forgot why). Anyway, my layout names often times do not match my plan name.

Took my system twice that long. Good thing I don't typically deal with very large plans. EDIT: Tested a 2nd and 3rd time. The 2nd time it only took 26-27 seconds. For the 3rd test I went in and changed Hardware Edge Smoothing from Low to None and that made no difference at all...still took 26-27 seconds.

I think that layer should be renamed to "Doors, Through Lines" because that's all that it is. It really has nothing to do with the actual header (framing). Very misleading IMO.

Wasn't able to find the time to explain all the nuances in great detail but hopefully this helps...

Sounds to me like you want to see the footers and not the walls? If so, just try putting those walls onto their own layer and just turn that layer off.

Just one additional little thing to think about here... One big thing that comes into play here is face count. Graham mentioned turning off layers but its really whats on those layers that's important. For example, you can draw 4 walls, a couple windows, a door, and a roof to create a small house and end up with around 2,000 faces. You can also very quickly and easily find a Viking cooktop with 20,000 faces. That means you can have a cooktop that takes 10 times as long to rebuild as an entire house or that you can leave 10 times as much house turned on by just turning off the cooktop. This same general premise holds true throughout the model. There are many items with lots of faces that can really slow things down. Those are the types of things whose layers should be turned off if we don't need them and it absolutely does make a HUGE difference sometimes. For those that doubt the effectiveness of tuning off layers you can very easily test this too. Drop one of the aforementioned Viking appliances into one of your plans and use multiple copy to create a good handful of copies (100 or so maybe). Now create a 3D view. It will likely take a notable amount of time to build that view. Now turn off the Fixtures, Interior layer in your camera view set and create the 3D view again.

I SAID elevation view but what I should have said and what I MEANT was wall framing detail. Try that and see if that works for you.

There might be other ways I'm not thinking of, but one way you can do that manually is by first rotating a stud in plan view and then rotating that stud in elevation view so that its a top plate. Then you can use Join and Lap Ends to trim a stud followed by multiple copy. Post that plan and I'll see if I can't make you a quick video showing you how.

The material type just needs to be defined as framing in the material definition dbx.

Usually yes, but not in that particular case. In that case, the siding needed to continue through to that point in order to correctly blend into an adjacent attic wall. There were other ways to make it happen without the siding continuing through, but the other possibilities resulted in extraneous lines on the exterior, drywall gaps on the interior, incorrect framing, and/or siding gaps on the exterior and I think there were other problems as well but it's been a while and I don't remember all of it. I do see problems like that quite frequently. Basically as soon as we start to have irregular, non box-shaped rooms we start to have the problems Johnny is talking about. Sometimes it's not the room shape either...Sometimes its an irregular roof connection or a situation where a roof starts higher or lower than the adjacent walls, or a situation where a wall shape lands somewhere outside a plain rectangle and a gable wall, or perhaps some combination of the above. Point is that as Johnny says, Chief can handle the majority of wall connections/intersections just fine. There are those situations though that Chief basically cannot handle very well at all. Enter The Workaround...