Alaskan_Son

I'm away from my computer but just looking at your screenshot I would say you need to set your wall to align at one of these two layers...

Insulation/air gap should do it but it shouldn't really matter as long as it's a "gap" material set to be transparent.

Whoa! I didn't realize we had all those. Thanks Eric. I had only ever used what was in that first pattern file. I've seen those files but I guess I just assumed those were all names of the individual patterns already listed in the standard drop-downs. This is the type of thing that is very surprising to learn that I have been missing out on this long. Thanks again Eric!!

Where are these hatch patterns located? I've never seen these lists before this thread. I can only find about 40 hatch patterns that come with Chief. There seems to be 6 or 7 times that many on the lists above. Can anyone point me to where they are located?

You don't side the air gap Chop, it's just to trick Chief into building the window through both walls. The problem is that in Johnny's example he's using a pony wall. Right or wrong, Chief seems to use the main wall definition (the thinner upper wall) to decide how thick to make the window assembly...specifically where to place the casing. By adding the air gap to the upper wall section, it tells Chief to build the window assembly an extra 3-1/2" thick. Entiendes?

Yep. I believe this to be the correct answer.

Hey Johnny, Go back to your original idea and try adding a 3-1/2" air gap material to the exterior of that main wall definition. Worth a shot anyway.

You can also simply block the schedule then add it to your library that way. Just beware that when you place it in your plan from the library it will be invisible until you explode it.

I think the reason you haven't gotten any responses is due to your seeming lack of understanding with regard to exactly what it is you are asking for. It is not anywhere near as simple as converting a PLAN file to a DWG file. AutoCAD is primarily a 2D drafting tool whereas Chief Architect is primarily a 3-D modeling tool. A person could convert your 3-D model to a 3-D DWG file but the file is honestly all but useless for most purposes. It's typically the 2-D information that most AutoCAD users would want, and in that case we would need to know very specifically which 2-D views you wanted to send, what information needed to be included on those views, and exactly what settings they wanted exported... amongst other things.

I'm away from my computer but I think you probably just need to open the roof structure tab and uncheck Use Room Ceiling Finish.

Just a quick note here in case you don't realize it... For Copy, all you actually have to do is hit the space bar as soon as that dbx opens up to check the box, and then follow that up with tab to enter your desired number of copies.

They're already on their own layer by default. It's a layer called Cabinets, Countertops. The one thing to be aware of is that you cannot turn the cabinet layer off without also turning off the automatically created countertops, so...if you want to display only the automated countertops in a particular layer set, your best bet is probably to change the line style for your cabinet layer(s) in that particular layer set to the invisible line style.

I think "remembered settings" are always a hotly debated issue when it comes to software upgrades. Those that tend to repeat the same tasks over and over absolutely love these remembered settings. Those of us that change things up a lot however can absolutely hate these kind of settings. Personally?? When I open a dialog box up, I would much prefer that it always revert to its original state. This way, I can habitually go right where I need to go without even thinking about it. When settings are remembered, I'm forced to reassess the situation every time I open the dialog box up. This is an absolute efficiency killer for people like me. I personally have never commented one way or another on the particular issues mentioned above, however… I HAVE very vocally opposed remembered settings in another software package. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking Chief probably received more complaints about these particular remembered settings then they did support for the same. Unfortunately, complainers tend to have more impact than people who are happy. It's just the sad way things are. For this reason, I really like to try and thank people for doing a good job or for making welcome changes when I notice it.

That really sounds like a very wise practice. To me, the only downside is that some things will take longer to describe in writing then they would to simply make the change. Very good advice though worth considering for anyone using any variation of the template method.

I very briefly touched on my own personal practices here...

Not sure announcing your seat of the pants style and then asking people to donate their own valuable time to help you learn how to solve your problems is the best approach. With all due respect, you should consider doing a little less learning by the seat of your pants and get some training, watch some tutorials, go through the user guide, or at the very least...read through the Help files. You're going to be running into problems ALL THE TIME until you do.

Quick tip... If you're going to use the solid method, you can make your life a lot easier by starting with a BOX. Draw it in plan view, then rotate it in elevation to match your roof pitch, and then LASTLY...rotate it in plan view to match your valley. You can then offset as necessary and use boolean operations to trim it. Oh ya, and P.S. I believe "cricket" is an incorrect term for that situation. A cricket or saddle is a roof designed to direct water shed around an obstruction like a chimney, a wall, or another roof plane.

Scott, I MIGHT be able come up with something that would do what you want but to be perfectly frank, it wouldn't be easy to set up, to learn, or to maintain and I don't think it would be worth the time, the money, or the effort. I really think your best bet is to just manually add that info to your layout box whenever you set it up and to change it whenever you change anything. That's my 2 cents.

Yes. You CAN do this in Chief via several different routes... Build>Image - Launch Help (F1) and search "Image" and read up on it. 3D Backdrop - Launch Help and search "Backdrop" Images applied as materials to other various objects instead of, or in combination with the above. Launch Help, search "Materials" and read up on creating and defining materials. There are really a lot of possibilities. You have to explore them for yourself though.

There are a few ways to do this. I don't have time to go through them in much detail right now, but try this one... Draw the overframe rafters using a truss base and trusses. Just edit them as necessary in your truss detail to get the proper cuts and to delete the unnecessary parts. For your 2x12 ledgers, I think the easiest thing might be to create 2 more roof planes made of just a single layer of material. You won't be able to get the compound miters on your rafters and you'll have to fool with the material, layer, and display settings for your "ledger planes" but all in all, it shouldn't be that hard to do.

Molding being curved in 2 planes is doable but is not for the feint of heart and it's really only worth the time and effort to complete in Chief IMO if you have a definable arc as one of the 2 planes. In your example, I can get pretty close... ...except that the side profile of your hood cover isn't a true arc but rather a line and tangent arc or an ellipse of sorts... The hood cover in the picture you posted would have actually been easier as it appears to be closer to a simple arc. For the record, even the more complex curvature is probably doable but totally not worth the effort IMO. If you need to do that type of modelling you're probably better off using another program to complete the task...or hiring someone to do it for you. NOTE: I don't have time to go through all the intricacies of the process right now but if you want to get the general idea I think you can probably extrapolate it from steps posted in this thread...

Apple seems to offer users and programs a lot less control over certain things than other operating systems do in order to maintain a more consistent and stable experience. I guess maybe the size of those icons is one of them.

I noticed it was a Mac but its a little surprising to hear that the 2 systems don't have all the same options available (inside Chief that is).