Alaskan_Son

1 hour ago, Gawdzira said:

This thread has valuable information for us as designers. One more political comment and I am deleting this thread.

Code requirements are political.  How do you think they're written, maintained, mandated, and enforced?  And how do you think us as builders and designers get them amended when necessary?

By the way, I found this one statement at the end of the article a little funny:

Quote

In conclusion, it is important for homeowners and contractors to be aware of the NEC regulations surrounding kitchen island outlets, as failure to comply with these regulations can result in serious safety hazards.

Failure to comply can result in serious safety hazards.  Is it only a serious safety hazard when its a code requirement?  Was it not a serious safety hazard when you installed that same outlet on the side of the island last week?  Kinda scary to think you just walked away from a serious safety hazard and just left it that way. 

There are several ways to do what you want.  For walls though, the Opening (Doorway or Pass-Through) method should work just fine, especially if all you need is a basic rectangular hole.  You just need to temporarily turn off Bumping/Pushing (F11) or override all snaps using the Control key to slide another object into the same location.

For your Floor, try using Build>Floor>Hole in Floor Platform

Select your wall and open its dialog.  Click on the Components tab.  The top item on that list of Components should be your siding material.  This is where the Materials List is getting its information from.  You can make various modifications right there on the Components tab, but assuming you haven't and that you're just letting Chief do its thing:

Now click on the Wall Type tab, take mental note of the Wall Type that's currently selected, and then click on the Define tab.  This is where your automated Components are getting their information from.  You should be setting your walls to use the proper wall type, and you should be properly defining your walls (ideally in your default settings and before you even draw them).  

It sounds like what you've done is simply changed the Material on the Materials tab.  What you really need to do is change the actual wall definition.  At this point, you'll also need to fix your walls so that they reference the proper material by clicking on that Material tab, selecting that Exterior Surface, and then clicking on the little Use Default checkbox down at the bottom of the Library Browser. 

Quick Tip:  You can also use the spray can (Material Painter) tool in 3D to return materials to their default state.  Just click on the Material Painter tool, check the same Use Default checkbox mentioned above or select Use Default from the Plan Materials, and then click on the wall to return that surface to its default state.

Pretty sure Chief was just doing some housecleaning and decided to do away with some of the redundant room types that were just making an already long list a little shorter and less cluttered.  If we want any of those additional room types in our template plan(s), it can seriously be done in far less time than what I'm sure it took you to write up your post. 

3 hours ago, Larry_Sweeney said:

 

 

You forgot to divide that ".004%" over a 30 year period! 

That's 323 people a year or roughly 1 out of a million people.  If that seems unreasonable to you that maybe you're a heartless monster.  I do wonder however how many of those were the same people just not learning.  "Many of them children" for the first few years and then them was adults for the rest of them years. 

5 hours ago, para-CAD said:

The plans I would use to frame houses back in the early 90s would have the windows and doors identified with the foot number then a superscript inches followed by a dash and then the 2nd foot number and a superscript inches. I’ve never seen that on any software that I’ve used. I can’t even draw it here so I’m going to attach an image.

 

this method was used everywhere and it’s very easy to get used to seeing. 

I've set this kind of thing up for quite a few offices.  These are all completely automatic:

Shoot me an email to alaskansons@gmail.com if you're interested and we can take it from there. 

1 minute ago, Scogginator said:

 

But you're not the answer I'm looking for. I'm looking to answer the question if custom commands are possible in chief. 

No.  They're not.  You could use a macro recorder that will record and simulate things like mouse clicks and keystrokes, but that's nothing like the example you've described.  Chief doesn't give us any access to the internals like that.

Sorry, but the information you've received from Chat GPT is total and complete rubbish.  It's beyond repair, completely irredeemable and I see nothing in it even remotely worth discussing.  I'd say you took a turn onto a dead end except that you didn't even turn onto as road.  Its more like you've taken a hard right directly into a brick wall.

I completely agree that there are a good number of ways to reach the desired results almost (if not) completely via “automated” capabilities.  You just need to learn to use the tools a little better.  That being said, I also don’t this it’s fair to suggest there’s something wrong with the software just because we have to switch to “manual” features.  That’s what they’re there for.  

Opening indicators aren't showing on my system either Alan.  I don't see any cause right off the top, but something about both your cabinet and your cabinet door symbol seems to be corrupted.  I cannot for example click on those doors or the appliance in the problematic cabinet dialog to select them.  I can however click on the drawer.  Also, if you replace the door style with a different door, the opening indicators show up.  In fact, if you add those cabinet doors back to your Library using the Add to Library As tool and then paint them onto your cabinet, then the opening indicators show up as well. 

14 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

wonder if this will be like some of the other radical changes of past when mfr’s couldn’t get their product to meet listings in time for the code interpretations to take effect 

Or like some of the others where many jurisdictions just amend it right out. 

38 minutes ago, KTransue said:

For jurisdictions that have adopted the International Residential Code (IRC) — at least up through the ‘21 edition — the IRC still requires any countertop over 12” in width to have at least one receptacle

I think it will be particularly problematic for the many jurisdictions where electrical requirements are only inspected/enforced by the electrical inspector and where the electrical inspectors are only referencing the NEC.

Anyway, I'm normally pretty easy going and just adjust to these changes.  This one really kinda sucks though.  One of the greatest things about islands is having a large, open, and completely smooth working surface.  introducing a popup outlet really has a negative affect on all but the largest of islands. 

4 hours ago, glennw said:

The only thing I haven't done is the slab overhang.

You can get that part by setting a foundation offset in the wall type.

1 hour ago, CharlesVolz said:

Crazy...

 

Thanks Alan!

 

So kids will tripping over longer extension cords with mixers, blenders, etc. raining down on them.

My thoughts exactly.  Thank you Alan...Also, this is dumb.  They're just opening up the door to a worse problem OR the homeowner or someone else is just going to come along after the main project is done and install an outlet on the side of the cabinet just like we've always done...or install an outlet inside the cabinet and use an aftermarket product of some sort to extend it out from there in an even less appropriate fashion. 

Does anyone here know of a way to force Chief to use a room type other than Unspecified for the automatically generated foundation room on any given plan?  For various reasons, I want my crawlspace areas to be the Crawlspace room type while still leaving Auto Rebuild toggled on, but I can't actually find a way to do that. 

11 minutes ago, JKEdmo said:

OK, I think I figured it out.  I edited the 2D CAD symbol (moved it down 24") for the single instance only.

 

I'm curious if this is a good method or if people have a better solution?

 

Thanks, Jim

 

I think that works.  I would probably change that to "GFCI Below" though just to make it a bit more clear.

6 hours ago, DefinedDesign said:

It's also important that Chief generates everything correctly without me drawing in something to cover up the error, so the materials to calculate correctly.

This simply isn't always possible.  The software is imperfect.  Sometimes you just need to do the best you can (or the best the software can) and move on. 

It should also be noted that covering the "error" up isn't necessarily wrong.  You're just having to use a different tool or approach than expected.  I can for example cover an errant hole in a wall by completely removing the drywall layer from the wall definition, covering it with a solid, and then adding a component to that solid (or even to the wall for that matter) to get materials to accurately report to the materials list.  I've also done things like stacking multiple walls side by side (one for the framing layer and another for the drywall layer, etc.) which ultimately report completely fine to the materials list without any component modification.

Or maybe the material list isn't even wrong and its only the 3D view.  If its not actually visible in any of your rendering or documents, does it really matter?  Or if you can patch it with a mask of some sort in 5 minutes, is it really worth spending several hours figuring out a way to make it work "correctly"? 

3 hours ago, mtldesigns said:

 

In this case, go to the Build menu at the top, then to Floor - Material Region

Even better would be to take the polyline that’s already created and use the Convert Polyline tool to Convert to a Material Region.  

21 minutes ago, KimHist said:

Thanks, Alaskan Son.
I did use those USGS numbers to convert after I posted, and I still couldn't see anything--except that shape, no data points.  Did I not wait long enough for it to load?  Also the property shape should be 330x660.

Hmmmmmm.

Regarding the fact you didn't "see anything":  You need Build Terrain one way or another.  One quick way is to simply click Terrain>Build Terrain.  Open and closing the actual Terrain Perimeter would do it as well.

If you import the points per my instructions, you should see that there are only 2 outlying points.  The vast majority fit nicely into an area almost exactly 660x330.  If you want the whole thing rotated, then you can either rotate after the fact or you can even set that during the import process.

These ones can pretty easily just be made from scratch as well.  I offer this type of thing as a paid service, but here's a quickly thrown together pair of symbols on the house.  These have less faces than the ones in the original dae file as well:

Custom Column Caps.calibz

Custom Column Cap 1.dae

Custom Column Cap 2.dae

The calibz file was made in X15 but you should be able to import the dae files into older versions.

14 minutes ago, glennw said:

In the framing defaults?

 

He's looking to adjust the Webbing Thickness.  See below:

You'll either need to convert them in Excel or do the conversion after the fact.  Per the USGS:

Quote

 

The distances vary. A degree, minute, or second of latitude remains fairly constant from the equator to the poles; however a degree, minute, or second of longitude can vary greatly as one approaches the poles and the meridians converge.

At 38 degrees North latitude (which passes through Stockton California and Charlottesville Virginia):

• One degree of latitude equals approximately 364,000 feet (69 miles), one minute equals 6,068 feet (1.15 miles), and one-second equals 101 feet. 
• One-degree of longitude equals 288,200 feet (54.6 miles), one minute equals 4,800 feet (0.91 mile), and one second equals 80 feet.

 

If you know how to do the math, you can do it yourself, otherwise you can use any number of online calculators like this one HERE to figure out more precisely how many feet per degree at any given latitude.  At your location in Arkansas (derived from the coordinates you posted) it looks like each degree of longitude(X) is approx. 299521.53 ft. and that each degree of latitude(Y) is approx. 363977.13 ft.  You would just want to enter those conversion factors during the Import process like so:

You could also optionally do the conversion in Excel prior to importing.  Either way, using the aforementioned conversion factors, your results should look something like this:

I would start by figuring out what measurement is being used in the source file.  Its not that your points aren't being imported.  Its just that they're all essentially stacked right on top of each other since the X and Y values are almost all identical and only differ by a fraction of their respective units. 

As far as floor trusses are concerned, I think the only real change made in X15 was for them to be automatically distributed.  The general truss settings and behaviors themselves seem to have remained largely (if not completely) unchanged.  This behavior you've pointed out has been the same as far back as I can remember. You should probably send in a suggestion if you want to see it changed. 

I'm curious why you're placing windows on different levels onto their own unique layers.  Care to elaborate on that?

Its still in there.  Since the Open Symbol and Open Object dialogs were combined though, a little rearranging was done and it got moved to the 3D tab.