Alaskan_Son

The topic of this thread is one very good example. As Todd said, there are situations where a house on a sloping lot could pretty easily have a single foundation that spans 3 or 4 floors. In that situation it could be very impractical if not impossible to draw it all on one floor but a person would probably want to show the entire foundation in a single plan view.

Joey, How do you display items from other floors without using reference sets? Do you strictly overlap views in layout? If so, for anyone unfamiliar with what we're talking about, one of the major benefits of using ref sets IMO is that you can see exactly what your view in layout will look like while you're working on it in plan view. By overlapping views in layout you can achieve the same end product but you can only see one of the views at a time while you're working on them...unless of course you have the reference display on, but then I don't see why I person wouldn't simply use that then.

Why not just use the actual reference display? I'm starting to think a lot of people simply have never used this feature and don't know how. There's got to be some videos or articles in the Help files on this. Todd, your question is directly tied to that in your other thread. To start with, you have to make sure your layout box is using the same layer set AND reference layer set that you're seeing in your plan view. Unless you change it, your layout will always remember and use the combination of layer set and reference set that you were using when you sent the view to layout. I'll try to make a short video if I can find a little extra time (unless somebody else gets around to it first).

Todd, once you figure out how to manipulate reference sets (and layer sets in general) for this purpose, you'll realize it's a snap. Only takes a few seconds. For the foundation on 3 or 4 levels you can combine reference sets with overlapping views sent to layout. Simply copy/paste in place your layout box and switch the floor being displayed and reference floor. Doing it this way you can essentially show all 4 floors with only 2 overlapping layout boxes.

Structure tab now.

I'm actually on my iPhone screen at the moment so I'll try to keep it brief and to the point. If you have parts and pieces of the foundation on 2 different floors but you want them in the same view, simply set up one layer set to display 1 of the 2 foundation sections exactly as you want it to display. Then do the same thing for the foundation section on the other floor. Now you have both halves of your view but on different floors. Now all you have to do is turn on the reference display, set your reference floor to the appropriate floor level (probably 0 or 1), and use the layersets you set up in the aforementioned steps. Once you send that view to layout, that layout view will remember both layersets and the appropriate floor, and all your items will be visible in the same layout box.

Edit>Default Settings>Plan...check "Ignore Casing for Opening Resize".

Yes. A person could send multiple overlapped views to layout but if I am understanding correctly, I believe that properly using reference sets would probably be a better way to achieve the same thing.

Where do you have your libraries located? I'm suspecting your issue has something to do with your file structure and it's the link you're losing and not the actual library. Just a thought.

You bet. There are a ton of techniques people use for these situations but what I usually do is drag a wall down in elevation, cap it with a custom countertop (usually the thickness of tile) and then build the glass with polyline solid(s).

I personally use polyline solids for my glass panels.

You are very welcome!

Are you sure you are converting those polyline solids to solids? You have to click on "Convert To Solid", and you don't use "delete", you use "Solid Subtraction".

Ya. I partially agree. I've personally adapted my thinking and techniques so that I feel pretty stinkin' comfortable with Chief though. And I actually find it pretty easy to model accurately in Chief. I can very easily see what you're saying though.

Here's a quick video I made a little while back just roughly going over the basics...

You'll need to convert that to a solid first, then draw another solid that's the shape of your hole that goes completely through the first, select your main object, click Solid Subtraction, and then select the second.

Yep...or send the view to layout as an image.

Don't change the actual width or height. Just the "Size Factor"...and once you explode the block you can change it back to whatever you want.

Open the block and change the size factors to 1.0 and 1.0. Note: I'm not at my computer to test, but other size factors might work as well so long as they match each other (.5 and .5, .2 and .2, 2.0 and 2.0, etc.) .

I posted an answer to your problem over in the thread you started in the General Q&A forum (where this as well as your posted plan probably should be). EDIT: It looks like the moderators moved this thread to where it should be. See my response here... https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/9499-decking-placement-issues/#entry83177

I looked at the plan you posted in your other thread. It looks like you must have changed those deck structure settings at some point. First, the New Deck seems to have had the planks removed (Deck room Structure tab>Planks,Joists). Add a material for the planks to the first layer and then go to the Deck tab and check Automatically regenerate deck framing. For the Existing Deck, simply check Automatically regenerate deck framing and you should be good to go on that one. Hopefully that gets you in the right direction at least.

It looks like you have your deck structure set incorrectly. If you were to post the plan we would be able to give you a better answer. In the meantime, Help>Launch Help (F1) is your friend...get in the habit of using it. You'll be glad you did.

I usually just add stuff like that with polyline solids drawn in elevation view.

I see what you were envisioning. If the room spans entire across the floor structure then there's no issue, but that's not often the case. As soon as there are any breaks, jogs, or rooms that otherwise don't span the entire floor structure there would be major issues getting that to automate. I just don't think there's any way of making that happen with Chief's room based paradigm. They would have to make a separate group of tools like many of the other programs have where you build floors, walls, ceilings, etc. separately. And then, what's the point. It's easy enough to just manually change a few joists here and there as necessary.

Chopper, I just sent you a PM.