Joe_Carrick

Here's a symbol of a Garage Door that can be used "Replace From Library" in place of the "Default Overhead Door". It eliminates the annoying "dashed line". Roll_Up_Garage_Door.calibz

I would agree with this. It would be a logical thing to do.

Just make the 1st floor room a "Deck" and the 2nd floor room a "Balcony".

Sure, but the Living Area of the void/chase should really be reported as a part of Room A.1 The voids really don't belong in the Schedule.

OK, Here's a sample problem: 20'x30' House = 600 sq.ft. 2 equal rooms (A1 & A2) 20'x15' = 300 sq.ft. each Chase in corner of Room A 2'x3' = 6 sq.ft. (Living Area - but -Not in Schedule) Finish Schedule and the "standard_area" attribute shows Room A = 294 sq.ft. Finish Schedule Total shows 594 sq.ft. Living Area shows 600 sq.ft. So, mark the interior walls of the Chase as "No Room Definition" Now the Finish Schedules shows Room A as 300 sq.ft. and the total as 600 sq.ft. Interior Elevations don't show the chase walls. My conclusion is that something needs to be done so that the Chase Area is included in Room A.

Yep, and I was only interested in the first part and how it relates to Chief's Room and Wall options. IAE, The definitions of Habitable, Conditioned and FAR vary from one city to the next. It may also vary from one occupancy type to another.

Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia: Floor area ratio (FAR) is the ratio of a building's total floor area (zoning floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. The terms can also refer to limits imposed on such a ratio. As a formula: Floor area ratio = (total amount of usable floor area that a building has, zoning floor area) / (area of the plot) Common exclusions to the total calculation of square footage for the purpose of floor area ratio (FAR) include unoccupied areas such as mechanical equipment floors, basements, stair towers, elevator shafts, and parking garages. From Investopedia: What is the 'Floor Area Ratio - FAR' The floor area ratio (FAR) is the relationship between the total amount of usable floor area that a building has, or has been permitted for the building, and the total area of the lot on which the building stands. Read more: Floor Area Ratio - FAR http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/floor-area-ratio.asp#ixzz4Y7shWzJn Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

Heated Floor area (aka Conditioned Space) is Interior area (not Living Area) and the Ceiling Heights are important to calculate the volume. From the standpoint of sizing an HVAC system the Volume is what's important, not Floor Area. Would you count an Attic as heated space just because there are ducts in the Attic? Sometimes the furred areas are just for Plumbing or just to enclose a structural element like a Steel Column. There are a lot of things to consider when determining what is Living Area, what is Conditioned and what is neither.

OK, so the key is to just not include in the Schedule. Really? That's not correct any place I know of. Not by my way of thinking. It's just dead space.

Should chases and other furred areas be considered a part of "Living Area"? Normally, I would just make the walls around such spaces "No Room Definition" so that they would be counted as a part of the larger room. However, this creates a problem with the "Room Interior Elevations" ignoring those walls - except where they intersect with other walls. How do you handle this conundrum?

It's here:

Rob, Someplace in your Plan you have 2 Window Schedules. One might be in a CAD Detail and another on a Floor Plan. You will need to find and delete one of them.

I also suggested about 3-4 years ago a tool that would allow a "cube shaped boundary - defineable x,y,z dimensions" to be used to copy all the solid objects within that boundary, thus creating a new 3D set of solids. I would call this "3D Detail from Cube" We can make such a Detail by assembling a set of solids manually - but it would be much nicer if the software could do it automatically.

If the doors have been moved the foundation may need to be rebuilt.

I asked for the cut planes of the "Cross Section Slider" to be "solid" a couple of years ago. Maybe if there were more official requests it might get moved up on the "to do list".

I just checked and my Cox Wireless Modem is only 2.4 GHZ (802.11n) which matches my USB WiFi. I think I'm going to need to upgrade both - or hard-wire between the router and my computer. Unfortunately running the wire isn't going to be easy due to the location of the computer. But that would obviously be the best solution.

Thanks Perry, My approach is to provide functionality that doesn't require anyone to be a programmer. I try to do that with all my macros, basically trying to make them "Turn Key". It's enough for users to learn Chief, without them needing to learn to program scripts in Ruby. Now if I can just get some paying customers. ps: I'm going to get a new USB WiFi for my home computer. The one I have is older technology and just doesn't have enough speed and bandwidth. Then I'll be able to create and upload videos much easier. The last one took about a half hour to upload.

FWIW, I have some plans of 125 MB or more without performance issues. Render performance (pan/zoom in 3D) is video card and/or surface count dependent. Having the Layout open with Live Views can have an effect but I'm not sure if this is a CPU or a GPU issue.

Question? You stated in your original post that you have 4GB DDR. That's not the same as a 4GB Video Card. The video card could be 1,2 or 4 GB and as other's have stated; you need to make sure the Video Card is being used. If it's NVidia set it in the NVidia control panel (PhysX)

You should probably ask your client what version of Chief the Plan was created in. It could be a later version of Chief X8 or even X9. To open the Plan you will need to use the same version.

I have written a program (using Ruby) that can do simple member sizing but it can't handle multiple spans, cantilever or point loads because Chief doesn't provide any "Nodes" for locating the supports or point loads. OTOH, it does provide a good starting point to identify potential depth problems and give initial sizes - but they still need to be checked for any special conditions.

I should note here that I'm not going to demo editing any of my macros in videos. If I do that I might as well just give them away. A comprehensive system like this one took a lot of time to program and debug. Instructions for how to add layer names - the only thing that needs to be done - is provided with the package.

Adding a new area is simple: Create a new Polyline Edit the layer to one of the predefined layers Add the macro %Areas% to the Polyline Label. The macros in the RTB will automatically respond according to the Layer Name. Property LineStyles and Setback LineStyles are recognized for those areas. Layers containing PROPERTY and SETBACK are recognized for those areas - either will work.. Layers containing 1ST FLR, 2ND FLR, 3RD FLR, 4TH FLR or .1 .2 .3 .4 are considered "Habitable" Layers containing GARAGE are naturally considered to be "Garages" and are a part of Lot Coverage Layers containing 1ST FLR or .1 are also considered a part of Lot Coverage. Layers containing DECK, WALK, DRIVEWAY, PORCH or SLAB are considered as "Impermeable" along with the Lot Coverage layers. Permeable is calculated as Property - Impermeable FAR is calculated as Habitable/Property Macros included are: %Areas% ---------- placed in the Label of a Polyline adds the name and area to a Hash Table %Areas Property% %Areas Setback% %Areas Buildable% %Areas, List Habitable% ---- This includes the Total %Areas, List Impermeable% -- This includes the Total %Areas Permeable% ---------- Calculated & Displayed %Areas, List Lot Coverage% - This includes the Total %Areas Lot Coverage% ------- Calculated & Displayed %Areas FAR% ---------------- Calculated & Displayed What did I miss? OH, I know - if you want to use a name that doesn't conform to the above, You just have to add that layer name in one line of the macro (only 5 possible) where you want it to be included in the calculations.

Yes, I just need to export the Layer Set and Annoset and add a short set of instructions. I'll send it to you tonight.

Scott, I don't understand what you are asking for that I didn't show in the video. All of those calculations were shown and there's nothing you need to change in the macros.