Alaskan_Son

Are you talking about drawer openings, drawer boxes, drawer fronts, or...?

So, I had a little commercial remodel where the client wanted something like this (which I am not recommending they do for a number of reasons) but it was just kind of interesting trying to get this to work.  What I can't quite figure out is why the post to beam (rail with Follow Stair checked) rebuilds way above the roof planes.  Raise or lower the roof planes, and the top of the beams follow at the same height.  No roof definition so not based on a ceiling height.  What is determining the height that the tops of the beams rebuild to?

Messed around with it for a bit.  Not sure where it gets those default heights from.  Must be some internal thing within Chief.  If you go into the elevation and make that wall longer and shorter it does some strange things.  Without a defined room, it must be defaulting to some internal algorithm. 

What the guys above said...post the plan.  I would guess from what I can see though that the ceiling isn't missing.  What you're seeing are parts of the roof above.  I think your roof planes just need to be adjusted. 

I agree.  Not a video card issue.  It looks like one of the issues I described in my post above.  Chief won't draw lines where an EDGE does not exist.  This is an issue I really think needs to be fixed and something that should probably be added to the suggestion section. 

Use the Adjust Material Definition tool...

I think you'll love it.  Welcome to the community Robert!

Can you post a screenshot showing the "missing lines"?  I suspect whats going on is that you're not getting lines that YOU believe should be there but that Chief will never draw. 

Its a little difficult for me to fully describe, and I don't understand all of it, however Chief seems to use PATTERN settings for many of its lines (which may not look like the TEXTURE),  and edges for the rest.  It will not draw a line where a true edge does not exist.  For example, where 2 objects on 2 different planes occupy the same space...that inside edge won't draw even though you know its there.  To get that edge line to draw, you need to make sure one or both objects actually have an exposed edge at that location.  There are also some complex shapes that will have no lines show up because there is no specific edge to draw.  

No too shabby Johnny!

...I think that SketchUp is evolving into a possible competetitor to Chief and its strength

may lie in its previous weakness, the use of third party plugins...

Still a weakness in my opinion.  That one single plug-in is like $750 and it really isn't all that great.  Plus you have to deal with a handful of other plug-ins and their related expenses, updates, support, etc. and all those plug-ins may or may not work properly with futre updates of Sketchup and/or your other pile of plug-ins. 

Do you use Sketchup for producing plans?  You might, but I can't help but notice the vast majority of people I've heard touting Sketchup's amazing abilities don't even use it.  I know from a little experience that most of the hype is just that.  Hype. 

Thanks for the reply, Michael. I am a General Contractor, doing mostly high-end remodeling in Los Angeles.   I have 2 reasons why I need some sort of 3D software:

 

1.  My clients are always asking what something will look like, and the architect's 2D drawings don't help much in that regard.

 

2.  If you can believe this, I am not very good at visualizing things 3-dimensionally.  Not a good deficit for a contractor to have.  I would like the software so that I can visualize the project, in 3D, from any viewpoint.  My employees and subs are often asking me questions that I have a hard time answering because I can't visualize in 3 D very well.  Often, they are better at this than I am, which is sort of embarassing. 

 

3.  It occurs to me that Chief Architect would be very helpful at generating lumber and other material lists, counting up the SY of stucco and drywall needed, etc.  As far as I know, Sketchup won't do that.  It seems that Chief would make material lists for everything:  doors, windows, insulation, electrical fixtures, etc.  That would be very time saving as far as estimating. 

I would definitely recommend Chief then.  You can pretty easily hit the ground running with it for simple 3D renderings of basic designs.  Just be prepared to spend a fair amount of time to become proficient at it and to be able to draw up more complex designs, details, and plans. 

My take on Sketchup:

It comes across as very intuitive for simple little things and as such is a little deceptive.  In my opinion, its really quite cumbersome to use for anything of any complexity.  I know of a handful of tradesmen who use it to draw up details, but know of very few builders or designers that do.  In order to make it feasible for use as an architectural design program, you would almost certainly have to purchase, download, and learn a huge pile of 3rd party add-ons and even then, I really don't find Sketchup all that effective for most modelling.  I actually find I can model most things quicker in Chief.  Everyone will point you to Nick Sonder (a well know architect that uses Sketchup for his design work), however just ask yourself this...Why is there so much attention given to one guy who uses Sketchup as a full architectural design program?  I think the answer is that its probably somewhat of a gimmick.  There's no one architect famous for using Chief because so many do.

We use both and I agree with Eric. They are entirely different tools. Barely comparable at all in my opinion. What do you do for a living? And can you be more specific about how you would be using the software?

Here is another option: Instead of using a left click to start to draw a wall, use the right mouse click. The wall will then be and stay attached to the cursor (without holding down any buttons). You are then free to zoom in and out in order to finish placing that wall segment and any others because the wall will still be attached to the cursor (you must double click to disconnect).

 

You can even switch views or programs (go make a cup of coffee, if you want), and when you get back to Chief the wall will still be attached to the cursor.

Yep.  This works for drawing walls.  Unfortunately it doesn't work as well for other operations.

Steve,

Now you have 5 options.  Hopefully 1 of them will work for you.   

Whatever you do, please don't attach the plan.  It makes figuring things out much more difficult.  Taking wild guesses is much more efficient for everyone involved ;-)

I couldn't open either

I think the Scroll Bars also work without losing the current mouse operation.

I was wondering how you would operate the scroll bars without your mouse and so I started messing around with it for a bit. By golly, you're right. Never knew this functionality existed...

Left click to start operation as usual...Move mouse pointer out of view window...Right click off screen without letting go of left mouse button...Let go of left mouse button.  Now you can use scroll bars and simply left click to finish operation.

Very cool. Thanks for starting me down the path to this little hidden feature Joe!!

You can use the arrows keys to pan around the plan with your free hand.  That's about the best I've come up with.

Hey, that's cool.  Thanks.

Not a solution, but...

That would be an insane amount of options to print up!!

To add a little detail to what Joe said...

The Texture tab is used for standard renders and ray traces.  The Pattern tab is used to control what displays in Vector views. 

... However, the pre-drawn Tool items you can add by --- convert to polyline solid --- then convert to plain polyline in two clicks and then add them to the Library...

OR...you can simply marquis select them...Make CAD Block or Make Architectural Block...and then add them to library. 

I had noticed that too actually , and like you am not sure what the difference is....

I think its because they are both polylines.  The polygon is simply a polyline that has been automatically adjusted to the shape of a polygon for you. 

Maybe add your vote to this suggestion...

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/5553-custom-dimension-tool-or-override-option/

Aww man!!! That seems ridiculously obvious now. Thanks Scott.

That makes sense Glenn.  Thank you. 

This feels like a really silly question but I've never run into it before now...

Is there a way to acurately set the rotation of an orthographic elevation camera?  I have a wall thats at a totally off angle and can't seem to figure out a way to get the camera perpendicular.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.