Joe_Carrick

They should also probably have a level "basement" that doesn't necessarily need to be used.

Todd, 1. Draw a thin rectangle that crosses the lines you want to break (red in pic) 2. Select that Rectangle and click on the trim tool (scissors) on the edit toolbar 3. Select the fence on the edit toolbar 4. Draw a line inside the thin rectangle so that it crosses the lines you want to cut out. (green in pic) 5. Delete the thin rectangle This is really the easiest way to do it. You can skip #3 & #4 and just pick a line inside the rectangle - but then you have to repeat #2

Use the Trim Tool. You create another rectangle to encompass the things you want to cut out. You might need to experiment a bit with this tool to familiarize yourself with how to use it.

Just try it. You can have X6 & X7 at the same time. If X7 is too slow for your hardware you don't have to use it. I have X7 installed on 3 different machines. The oldest machine had an Intel HD2000 Graphics card that I upgraded for a couple hundred bucks to an NVidea with 2GB Ram. It works fine.

Alan, I'm don't think you want to use a "Room Divider". I personally would use a normal "Railing Wall" (Post to Beam) and suppress the Rails, Newels & Balusters - or use a simple 4" Wall Type and check "Invisible Wall"

Or you can make railings outside of the balcony and set them as "No Room Definition" and then move them into place where you want them.

OK, so for this 2nd Floor Room over the Garage, set the Ceiling Height to 9' and just move the roof planes down 5'.

Known issue. Wall Material Regions do not meet properly at corners. In Plan they tend to extend past and in 3D they stop short. This has been reported to CA. For such corner conditions I would use a Polyline Solid.

Do you have a pic? FLW did a custom door for almost every project.

Mickey, I understand the terminology and how the builder thinks of the Foundation/Basement relationship. That's just not the terminology that works with Chief. In order to get the best results with Chief and not run into the problem that Elder_Designer had you just need to follow the practice of doing all "Basement" development on Level 1. Chief doesn't know it's a "Basement". Maybe sometime in the future we will have an option to add a "Basement Level" similar to how we have an "Attic Level" - but for now we have to live with the fact that there isn't one.

If you mean that you just want the Garage to have a very high ceiling - just build the 2nd Floor above the rest of the house and adjust the garage ceiling height independently.

Todd, Create a CAD Detail Window in your new Plan. Marque select your detail from the other Plan - Copy (Ctrl_C) Go to the new CAD Detail Window and Paste (Ctrl_V) This is much easier. For most details I use a separate Detail Plan that is at the scale I use for details. For Wall Sections I usually create them from Sections - Auto Detail - CAD Detail from View - Trim to eliminate everything except the area that I want and then annotate. Note: You might just have the Layers not displayed - try turning on "ALL LAYERS".

I've been using Chief for it for at least since Version 9.5 Some people use SketchUp (or something similar). In fact, I think CA uses 3DMax. If you use one of these other programs you still have to import the Symbol into Chief and the Symbol Dialog is where you make changes to material names, origin offsets, options, stretch planes, etc. Note that you can right click on a symbol in the Library and open the dialog right there. Any changes you make that way will be automatically used when you place the symbol in a plan.

NO! The Foundation is Level 0. The Basement - if there is one should be on Level 1. It's inevitably going to have a Floor Slab, Interior Walls, Exterior Walls (which may even be partially above adjacent grade as in a Walk-Out). I like to think of it this way: If it's usable space of any kind - it goes on Level 1 or above. If it's structural support in contact with the ground - it's the Foundation and Chief builds it on Level 0. Just because the Basement Walls are Concrete or Masonry doesn't mean they are the Foundation.

Of course. It's just a matter of assembling the 3D Objects.

Insert a Floor below the current Floor 1. Create the Basement walls there - the Foundation will always build on Floor 0.

Glenn, There's no pic. If your detail is what I think it is - I do that with a "Stem Wall Foundation". With the "Mono Slab Foundation" I only get a Thick Footing without a Stem Wall.

Let me reiterate what Alan said: 1. Display you site Plan 2. Send it to Layout at 1'=40' 3. In the Layout, select the Site Plan and drag each edge until just the area you want is displayed. 4. If it's not in the location on you layout page that you want, just grab the center handle and drag it where you want it. That's the way this works. You can't send just a portion of the Plan to Layout. While sending a View to Layout you will be presented with a dialog that allows you to select "Current Screen". This simply sets the Layout Box to only show that portion of the Plan - but you can still make the layout box bigger or smaller - everything in the Plan is still there.

Mickey, In case you didn't get the nuances from Scott's video..... The objects must be placed in a blank plan and displayed in a 3D View in order to be converted to a Symbol. .

Use Wall Material Regions for the Brick Portions.

Jon's answer is definitely the way to go. I only use the standard room moldings as a starting point. In many cases that's all you need - but an many other cases you need more.

I think I'm being picky but.... I would really like it if Chief would cut away the Exterior Wall Finish Layers when an Attic space abuts an exterior wall. We don't really stucco or put siding in the attic.

So I just set up my Stem Wall Foundations to detail as if they were Mono Slabs. I have no use at all for the current MonoSlab Option. But of course I don't get the chamfer using Stem Walls.

That is exactly what I am talking about. Basically, it can make a big difference in the amount of concrete is used in the foundation. If the foundation trench is 24" deep and full width you have a lot of extra concrete (about 1-1/2 cu.ft per lineal foot of wall). For a 40'x50' building this would be 180 x 1.5 = 270 cu.ft. IOW, 10 cu yds of concrete extra.

I was listening, but you kept saying that it worked. Since I couldn't get it to work I gave up. Maybe now's the time for CA to fix it.