Alaskan_Son

The only two methods I know of ( in a nutshell ) are to either build it completely from scratch, use material regions to cut holes in the wall finishes, and manually modify the framing... Or, create a window symbol with the shape at the top, flip it upside down, and then manually patch that little triangle area with a polyline solid or whatever. I'm assuming the latter is what Rich did.

Assuming I know what you're doing (which I'm pretty sure I do)... One of the quick solutions I've found that works pretty well to "patch" things like that (or other odd problematic wall joints and extraneous lines) is to first create a wall material region that covers the entire wall. That alone will often alleviate the extraneous lines in many situations, but in your situation you'll probably have to go to step 2...Convert to Plain Polyline and then Convert to Polyline Solid. This is a very fast way to create a polyline solid shaped perfectly to cover your wall. This way you can reshape it to fit around your custom window (and get rid of the other patches you likely had to use. Depending on the situation, you may also want to adjust your wall definition to accommodate the extra polyline solid and/or adjust the window settings to accommodate the same. You can also explore using multiple single layer walls instead of one solid wall. Anyway, just a few ideas I've used that I thought I'd throw out there.

There are at least a couple ways to do this... 1. Select your modified symbol and click Add To Library. Then open your cabinet, select that face item and then choose that item from your library. 2. Just give your cabinet the proper opening size and manually position your appliance using plan and elevation views. I personally use the latter technique almost exclusively.

Weird...I responded earlier but must have forgot to click "post". My question... Are you using backup entire plan (which puts plan and all textures into a single folder)? If not, you're aren't transferring any textures. It might just be that your texture discrepancies between machines is growing larger so it feels like X8 has gotten worse when in fact you may not have been backing up plan correctly all along. Just a guess.

A preference or default would be nice, but saying it's way too many steps is just sillyness. It takes 3 extra clicks and a few seconds...big deal.

Should be quite easy. Just use an exterior room molding polyline. 1. Click on your "exterior room" (the perimeter of your house should be highlighted). 2. Click Make Room Molding Polyline. 3. Set a molding profile for your brick water table (might need to make one yourself). 4. Set the material for that molding to brick.

I understand using a little hyperbole to prove a point, but this statement is simply not true in any sense of the word. Using the steps I mentioned in my previous post I can create a material list for any given room in 15 seconds or less.

Agreed.

There doesn't seem to be a default setting for this (although I could be missing it). You can simply hit the P button though to toggle the crop mode on and off.

There IS a way... 1. Make Room Polyline 2. Hold down C (concentric edit mode) and resize the polyline using one of the corner edit handles so that it is past the midpoint of all the walls. 3. Convert Polyline to Materials List Polyline 4. Click Calculate Materials List

Agreed. Pretty much exactly what I was getting at.

I think I would probably use a couple wall material regions. Some variation of this (maybe using a moulding polyline or a 3rd material region for the frame or casing if you want it)... Access panel.plan

For the screen you can also use windows with a very large number of Lites and very narrow muntins...

"I go back to my initial question, what is the difference between the two attic spaces in post 13?" For starters, your "mansard" roof is not above the top story. Its also concealed as opposed to many attics that have an attic access. "Which of the two spaces is a concealed space and what is the definition of a concealed space?" Your "mansard" roof area is a concealed space. I'm not certain of the exact definition of concealed space. I actually believe that the fireblocking section is the only place in the entire IRC that uses the term. It seems pretty clear to me though that its any space that's inaccessible and that can serve as an easy pathway to allow fire to travel from one area to another. I kinda think that any area or transition a firefighter can't easily access or visually inspect could be considered "concealed". I think you just have to use some judgement...might be the reason they left the definition a little vague and open to interpretation. This seems like a decent article on the subject though... http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2011/08/havel-concealed-spaces.html "Which of the two spaces is a horizontal space..." In this case, the triangular shaped pathway created by your "mansard" roof. BTW, I used quotations around the word "mansard" because that particular roof isn't what I understand a mansard to be. All good. I just don't want to be the one responsible for redefining terminology (at least not in this case) : )

Not necessarily advocating it, but a person could always just overlap 2 plan views for this

Its more than I have time or energy to try and discuss in detail here right now, but read R302.11 Scott... R302.11 Fireblocking. In combustible construction, fireblocking shall be provided to cut off all concealed draft openings (both vertical and horizontal) and to form an effective fire barrier between stories, and between a top story and the roof space. Fireblocking shall be provided in wood-frame construction in the following locations: 1. In concealed spaces of stud walls and partitions, including furred spaces and parallel rows of studs or staggered studs, as follows: 1.1. Vertically at the ceiling and floor levels. 1.2. Horizontally at intervals not exceeding 10 feet (3048 mm). 2. At all interconnections between concealed vertical and horizontal spaces such as occur at soffits, drop ceilings and cove ceilings. 3. In concealed spaces between stair stringers at the top and bottom of the run. Enclosed spaces under stairs shall comply with Section R302.7. 4. At openings around vents, pipes, ducts, cables and wires at ceiling and floor level, with an approved material to resist the free passage of flame and products of combustion. The material filling this annular space shall not be required to meet the ASTM E 136 requirements. 5. For the fireblocking of chimneys and fireplaces, see Section R1003.19. 6. Fireblocking of cornices of a two-family dwelling is required at the line of dwelling unit separation. The area you're talking about could definitely qualify as concealed horizontal space that needs to be draftstopped IMO.

So you're essentially talking about big triangular pieces of drywall, plywood, fiberglass, etc.?

By the way Scott, you still haven't stated exactly where the inspector wants to see draftstop. Do you even know? That is a key piece of information. In the sketch you provided I can count at least 6 different places where draftstop could potentially be required depending on the way the structure is constructed.

Larry, Just a quick note. I think you're taking an unnecessary step in creating a CAD Detail. By simply creating a Plan Footprint you're already creating that detail. Just a minor thing but I wanted to throw that out there for anyone who may not know.

I haven't seen your entire plan but the reason I said that was because it might be those "interior" walls or floor system communicating with the roof system where the inspector wants to see draftstop. Besides that, even IF the inspector wants to see full triangular shaped stops every 10 feet, I'm not so sure that's a bad idea...That roof system is actually a lot different than your typical attic situation. Your typical attic situation is wide open. The roof you have drawn up creates a sort of "chase" or path for fire to travel elsewhere (possibly unnoticed and a lot harder for firefighters to access).

Didn't realize it before but I guess you're partially correct. I just tested again and it looks like you have to be at least past the midpoint of the wall to get the drywall to calculate.

I would personally build that entirely from scratch using solids, p-solids, cabinets, mouldings, slabs, framing material, etc. It really doesn't take all that long and just turns out a whole lot more accurate and realistic. By the time you're done screwing around with wall definitions, adding your screen material, cleaning up the layer display issues, etc. it may actually be faster. Here are a couple snap shots of a similar one I drew up a while back. It doesn't have the screen material but you'll get the general idea. I think I used strictly p-solids on this one.

In offering a very good solution (thank you David) I think David may have also inadvertently pointed out the problem. It looks like the Calculate Materials For Room tool is simply using the room polyline as a Materials List Polyline and that default polyline only extends to the interior surface of drywall. If you want the drywall from the room's walls included in a material list then it must be completely enveloped by the polyline.

If you re-read Glenn's post you'll notice he said "...using different dimension strings along the same line..."

Actually Scott, I think the answer to your question depends on EXACTLY where your inspector wants to see draft stop.