Alaskan_Son

Yes. Stop doing it that way and try my suggestion. Manually adjusting walls in elevation and manually adjusting Wall Layer Intersections will ultimately just lead to the aforementioned headaches later on.

Post the plan, or if you can't for some reason, email it to me and I'll take a quick look. Its usually pretty easily sorted using Select All and Fill Window tools though.

Don't use the experimental plans as actual working plans. Just play around with them to test things out.

No. My opinion is that this approach only ends in tail chasing induced headaches.

By the way, you don't always need the extra floor. It totally depends on the plan. If for example its a 2 story plan where the chase only extends up through a single story section of the plan, then the upper part of the chase (the Open Below room) can just go on the existing second floor.

Just do a Save As of your plan and try it. learning to experiment with TRASH plans is one of the most fundamental learning tools at your disposal.

so yes discovered that as well when I was doing the cross section. I ended up removing the inner wall, and because the chimney is lower than the peak of the roof, the elevation never actually showed the now missing wall. I was going to try and put in a psolid. But your solution sounds much easier. thanks Every house and its chimney/chase configurations are a little different and they all need to be modeled differently depending on the specific situation. As was mentioned before, whenever possible, they should just be modeled as they will be built. The trick of course is figuring out how to model them as they will be built. If I understand correctly what you're talking about in this particular situation though, I believe the best approach is some variation of this (most parts of which were probably already mentioned in one form or another but I'm not sure they were all fully put together): Make your chimney/chase its own room surrounded by walls As was already mentioned by someone else 7 years ago, build an extra blank floor (don't just try to use the attic level) for the upper part of your chimney/chase and define those chimney/chase rooms as Open Below. Use the appropriate wall definitions on both floors. This may require placing breaks down on the first floor exterior house wall(s). This is a very simple example plan that required no adjusting of walls in elevation and no manipulation of Wall Layer Intersections. Chase example.plan

This is some next level back door trickery, but Chief has a bit of a quirky behavior we can take advantage of for things like this and it also has a number of other extremely useful applications. I almost hate to mention it for fear they’ll “fix” it but I’m gonna anyway: You can use Edit Area to select dimension strings and place them on another floor. As long as you ONLY select the dimensions themselves, they will actually remain tied to the original object(s). New or existing nodes however can also be attached to objects on the current floor. You can use this behavior for all manner of things but a few that come to mind rather quickly are things like: Stacked floors that have matching dimensions like you already mentioned. The reference display also works, but the problem with the reference display is that the dimensions can’t be positioned or formatted independently on a view by view basis and you can’t add or modify segments for any slight differences like bay window bump-outs. Dimensioning plumbing drops. Using this method you can actually have a dimension that references the actual fixtures on the floor above. Dimensioning cantilevers. Again, a dimension can accurately represent both the wall on the current floor and the wall on the floor above and/or below. The dimension on the current floor will adjust automatically for any changes to walls above/below. Anyway, those are just a few simple and relatable examples. I won’t get into it all right now, but it’s a handy little trick.

Ya, I wish there was a better way too.

%(room.internal_area/7).round%

Almost certainly this^^^^^^ I'm not familiar with it, but at first glance, I'm not so sure that GPU is up to X13 specs.

Exactly what I was going to say. Either roof planes or just draw manually with solids.

Unfortunately, Chief doesn't have a dedicated tool or process for this operation. You can however make one for yourself. For example, one thing I commonly do is use the All Off Layer Set for things like this.... Select your desired layers in Active Layer Display Options. This can be done before or after switching to the All Off Layer Set. With the layers still selected, switch to the All Off Layer Set. If you're already there, skip this step. With the layers still selected, check Display using the Layer Properties edit tools. This assumes you have those tools activated; otherwise, you'll have to turn those tools on first. Select All (Control+A) or draw a marquee around everything. With objects still selected, switch back to you desired layer set and Move as desired. At some point, remember to go back and reset your All Off Layer Set so that all layers are turned off. NOTE: You can also take this one step further and create an "All Layers On and LOCKED" layer set and do the same thing. This main difference is that you use the lock toggle instead of the display toggle. This approach has 2 advantages in that it will allow you to select objects like windows and doors that will not display if the wall layer is turned off, and it will also allow you to see other objects and use various snaps without even switching layer sets. Again, you just have to remember to re-lock all the layers when you're done so that its ready for you next time.

It's the result of Chief's Grid Rounding behavior. I don't have the time or inclination to explain it at the moment, but it's working as designed. The unexpected dimension being displayed is simply the result of where that dimension segment happens to land on the rounding grid. Either change to Distance Rounding in your Dimension Defaults or change the rounding accuracy for that dimension.

You're welcome. I just assumed the percentage signs went without saying if you were putting it directly into a label. Just as a quick side note, but beware that your macro as written will always only return the information for your second wall layer. If you add another exterior layer, or another main layer above the concrete, you may get undesirable/incorrect data.

upper_layers[1].material_data.formatted_size

You have to add it to your toolbar manually or assign a hotkey to it. Its been deprecated but not yet removed entirely.

I would personally probably just do that with 2 custom landings for the bottom treads, a normal set of stairs for the straight section, either a 3D molding polyline or a manipulated symbol for the top rail, and multi-copied balusters. I might do a portion of the balusters using railing settings, but I kinda doubt it.

Open your Cabinet Defaults one at a time, click on the Components tab, and Delete every component except the cabinet itself. This should affect all new cabinets that you draw. For existing cabinets or cabinets modified after placing them, you'll have to open the objects and make those changes after the fact.

Its being caused by the Foundation Wall setting.

There's no hornet's nest. It's just that we're trying to communicate thoughts and ideas here and the words we use are important. If we can't build off a common foundation then we can't communicate clearly. As I pointed out earlier, you could have been referring to any number things: An actual icon... A 2D Plan Symbol (CAD Block)... A Plant Image... a 3D Plant Symbol Or even a Material...

If you're already familiar with AutoCAD, why not just lease it for a few months, or better yet, use one of the many AutoCAD clones out there like Draftsight ($200 for a year). I just think its hard to justify learning a whole new software for a one-off project like that. If you had no other software experience that would be one thing, but I would think that sticking with what you know would be more efficient.

It keeps the Pattern and Texture in sync from the time the box is checked. Meaning that they are both adjusted in the same way from that point forward. If there is a 2" offset discrepancy from the start then there will always be a 2" discrepancy. The key is to make sure the pattern and texture are in alignment before you check that box.

It happens with tons of things that have their own layer controls but are essentially child objects: Pads/piers (parent object = wall) Windows (parent object = wall) Doors (parent object = wall) Wall hatching (parent object = wall) Hole in polyline solid (parent object = polyline solid) Labels (parent object = any object with a label) Items assigned to Distribution Paths and Regions (parent object = distribution path/region) Also things that are a child object whose layers we can't specify like: Cabinet fixtures and appliances (parent object = cabinet) Cabinet countertops (parent object = cabinet) Opening Indicators (parent object = cabinet doors, windows, or doors) Roof baselines (parent object = roof plane) Footing Step Markers (parent object = footing) ....and the lists could each probably go on. And just like Footing Step Markers there are a whole slew of other special layers like: Foundation layer (controls the 3D display of everything on Floor 0 Walls, Main Layer Only (actually turns off all wall layers except the main layer) Ceiling Break Lines (displays information that doesn't actually even exist as an object in the plan) Rooms, Ceiling Surfaces, and Floor Surfaces (controls the display of specific objects whose layer assignments you have no control over) Terrain Primary/Secondary Contours (informative only) Roofs, Overhang Area (another one that is informative only and isn't actually an object in the plan) Patterns, 3D Views (a redundant pattern toggle) And then there are things that have an additional tier of Display Options like: CAD Block Architectural Blocks Or objects on a specific layer that display any and all other objects like: Layout Boxes (a viewport) Plan Footprints (kinda like a layout box....but also very much not) And there there are other misc. things like: Slab Footing Walls that display one way until their room is enclosed at which point the display changes so that the wall becomes invisible. Toggling the wall's layer off changes nothing because the visible elements are on the Slab and Footing layers....neither of which can be selected or edited. Invisible, Attic, Railing, and No Locate Wall settings that will move an object to a different layer

Okay, that's cool. If you're not interested in trying to use some common terms that we all understand to promote clear communication or even willing to help clarify by answering a simple question then I'll leave you alone. Best of luck to you.