Alaskan_Son

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.

Sounds like Alan is using 3D objects to create his plot plan instead of just using CAD in plan view (as opposed to using CAD in a CAD Detail). There are really quite a few ways to do this. A person could... -Use CAD in a CAD Detail -Use CAD right in a plan view -Use generic 3D objects in a plan view -Use the terrain tools in a plan view -Use a combination of the above -Use a combination of plan views and reference sets I personally usually just draw the plot plan up using CAD on the first floor and put it all on it's own unique layer. Edit: After reading Perry's post below I realized I should probably clarify something. I don't use CAD for anything that I'm already going to be drawing up...only for extraneous items such as lot lines, wells, septics, outbuildings, neighboring buildings, roads, power poles, power lines, etc. and even then, some of those items might be getting drawn in 3D anyway in which case I wouldn't use CAD for those either.

Hey, Thanks! Never noticed that there : )

The most efficient method kinda depends a little on exactly what information you have and how it's formatted. Can you post the survey (or whatever it is that you have to work with)?

Good idea Dave! That's another good alternative assuming you don't want to show opening indicators. Never thought of doing that. Wasn't possible before X8. Thanks

Eric, just one man's opinion here, but I personally think the way you write dimensions in inches is one of the confusing methods (32w x 48h instead of 32"w x 48"h or some other way that includes the inch symbol or inch abbreviation). Because you have both numbers you'll likely never have a problem, but if you get someone lazy writing up your order they may only choose to look at one of them, and if they look only at the second number you could potentially have issues. Just my $0.02.

I have always called in my orders verbally and usually use both terms to clarify. Having said that, Jere is correct. It's all about how you say it or write it. For a 2040 window... You could SAY "twenty by forty" or "twenty forty" and screw it up or you could say "two oh four oh" and get it right. Or you could "two zero four zero", "two zero by four zero", or "two oh by four oh" and just confuse people. You could also write it a ton of different ways...some of which could lead to confusion. In my experience the most correct way is to use superscript for the second number of each dimension (I would write it that way now but I don't know how on the forum). I beleiev 2040 is also an acceptable alternative though. Beyond that you have: -20 40 (bad) -20x40 (bad) -20" x 40" (just plain wrong and very bad) -24"x48" (correct) -I'm sure there are plenty others. It just needs to be communicated correctly one way or another and like I said I have always done that verbally just to be sure, and if I don't use BOTH terminologies I will usually just use inches (especially when ordering oddball sizes).

This is something I personally have to draw up on almost every single job and no, its not something Chief can do automatically. I have requested it in the past. Maybe its time for another request. You can address this one of a few ways... 1. The best option in my opinion is to simply place the hardware "manually". Drop a piece of hardware into a plan view and then adjust it in elevation views to get it where you want it. Put it on a unique layer and just turn that layer off in your plan views. You could either set the pullout to be a "Drawer - Panel" so you only have to set the on piece of hardware or you could set it as a "Drawer" and set both pieces of hardware manually. 2. Depending on the cabinet style and how you like them to display, you can stack 2 cabinets. This way your lower drawer (the pullout) can have the handle placement set independent of the upper drawer. 3. If all you have is a pullout (no drawer above) you can simply make it a drawer and set the hardware placement. In this situation I guess it would be pretty automatic. Regardless of which method you used though I wouldn't set that item as a door like you did in the screenshot you posted but would set it as a drawer. Hope that helps.

Hey Jim, I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at it, and I'm not exactly sure what your structure is supposed to look like, but its looking like Eric probably guessed correctly. You need to actually cut a hole in that lower roof to allow those walls to build through correctly.

Plan?

Right here Mickey...

Is that Chief's automatic label or your own text box? I suspect that it's Chiefs automatic label which limits what you can do with it. I would personally just use my own text box along with a macro for that. Having said that, if those top two items are Chiefs automatic labels, I would consider that a problem that needs to be addressed and would report it to tech-support.

I guess there's 2 directions a person could go. 1. Draw it the way it makes sense to you and work only with people who think the same way. OR 2. Draw for your audience. I'm personally in favor of the latter. I've found it to be a pretty universal truth that people have their strengths and weaknesses. Adapting to compensate for a weakness (ability to mentally combine multiple foundation drawings into one in this case) to take full advantage of a persons strengths can pay off handsomely. I run into it all the time. Subs that are extremely talented at what they do but they may be very poor at math, or very poor at reading plans, or whatever. You could easily be "weeding out" so fine craftsmen just because they don't think like you do. I'm not trying to boast here, just trying to make a point, but I'm a pretty smart guy...typically at or near the top of my class with most things I have ever done, amongst the highest scoring with any tests I take, I'm very good at envisioning things and I have a good eye for detail (we typically get plans through permitting on the first try and I ace most my inspections...both of which are fairly unusual around here). I can understand and work with a foundation plan drawn up on multiple pages but it's not easy for me. It just makes a lot more sense being able to see it as one piece if reasonably possible and I really see now downside to doing it that way. Just my thoughts.

We do the same thing. When I said single pour I really just meant that the foundation was all one single unit as in the footings are all formed up and poured as one piece and same with the walls.

That makes sense. We'll just have to agree to disagree though. IMO having a foundation drawn up on multiple levels (at least in a good handful of situations) is just asking for problems. A lot of guys don't comprehend things that way. And if the foundation is a single pour as it often times would be in those situations, it makes perfect sense to me to have it all on a single sheet...at least one overview anyway.To each his own though. There are MANY other reasons to use reference sets though. Again, just comes down to your drawing style though.