Joe_Carrick

Mark, I suspect that CA created their door symbols by creating a rail and then copying that and rotating 90 degrees about the "y" axis to use as a stile. That way, the material is transformed 90 degrees the same as the stile rotation. It allows you to use a single material but get the grain to follow the length of the frame member.

In order for the grain on rails to by horizontal and the stiles to be vertical you would need to make your door with separate pieces and use a copy of the material rotated 90 degrees for the rails. When making any symbol, it's important to consider exactly how you want the symbol to perform. Materials can be different for individual elements of a symbol or the entire symbol can be just a single material. If the symbol is made up of just a single shape then it can have only one material. Some shapes - depending on how they are made - can be exploded into individual surfaces. In that case a separate material can be assigned to each face. It that set of faces is then converted to a symbol the symbol will have those materials. Try this: Using the Primitive Solids, create 2 or 3 solids and use the boolean operations to add or subtract the solids so that you have something unique. Then explode that shape and select some of the faces and assign different materials. You can get some very nice results. One way this can be used is with a single box shape to represent a piece of lumber. By exploding the shape you can apply an end grain material to 2 faces, a flat grain material to 2 other faces and an edge grain material to the last 2 faces. Now you have a very realistic piece of wood. This can be converted into a symbol and subsequently be used to build a piece of furniture, a cabinet door, etc.

Set a Stretch Plane at x=0 and one at z=6. That will limit the stretching to the center width and 6" above the bottom of the door. That way the rails and stiles will not be modified. BTW, you can make this modification to the symbol in the library by right clicking on the library item and opening the symbol dbx.

Mark, You can make a raise panel by using a Box with a molding polyline around it. Together they can be turned into a raised panel.

The short version is that you are better off creating exactly the door that you want in a separate Plan. You can use any of Chief's Tools to create the 3D shapes that will make up your door. I would suggest first creating a Molding Profile for the Frame, then use that as the Molding on a Molding Polyline drawn in Elevation View. Add a Panel to the center (maybe use a Primitive Solid Box) of the appropriate size and move it into place. Display this 3D set of objects in a perspective view and assign whatever materials you want to the frame and the panel (unique names for the materials is best - MyDoorFrame and MyPanelFrame would work) Now select the "Create Symbol" Tool and specify that the symbol is to be a Cabinet Door. This will create the Door Symbol which you can then use on any Cabinet. It will also create the appropriate Plan View of the Door (2D Block). Note: Any Cabinet, Door, Window, etc that you customize in Chief can be saved to your user Library and recalled for use in the future.

The 3D Symbol is in fact a 3D Model/Object. If you want something different then you build it up from solids in a blank plan and display it in a 3D View. Then use the Convert to Symbol Tool to add it to the Library as a new Cabinet Door. Changing an existing 3D Symbol is possible to a certain extent, but it takes some knowledge of the tools available and it's not something that is really easy to explain. If you could explain exactly what door in the core catalog you want to modify and what modifications you want to make then I could give you the steps to accomplish it. IAE, nothing in the core catalog can actually be modified and stored in the core catalog. A copy that you place in the user library can be modified.

You can use the Trim Tool and then change one of the lines to either a different layer, color or line weight. When then joined they will not become one.

Graeme's answer is exactly what I said - but he explained it better.

All you really need to do is change the "Current CAD Layer" to a Layer that has the linestyle and color you want. Basically that's what Ray and Bill are doing.

Todd, I use just one Layout Template but multiple sheet sizes. It takes a bit to set it up to work but it can be done. I'm not the only one that does this. Essentially, I have one Layout Template that has several different Borders, Each Border has it's own set of Layers and it's simply a matter of switching Layer Sets and Page Print Sizes.

Perry, Do you really thing that Slabs (Especially Mono-Slabs) are OK? I absolutely can not get them to work the way I need them to be. The cross section is not correct for the way they are actually built.

Sorry about that. I uploaded the correct library now

Note: The 2D Block may be suppressed by selecting "None" in the 2D Block Tab of the symbol dbx.

Here's a simple wall niche symbol. It inserts automatically into a wall and can be resized, moved up,down,sideways and otherwise edited. If it's in the wrong side of the wall it can be rotated 180 degrees using the symbol dbx and likewise can be moved relative to the face of the wall by adjusting the "y" origin. You might need to use a PSolid to fill the opening in the back of the wall, depending on your needs. Similar symbols can be created with different geometry such as arched, etc. Enjoy. Wall Niche - Rectangular.calibz

1. Create an indented box in 3D and assign the Tile material to it. 2. While in the 3D View convert it to a "Window Symbol" and add to the library. 3. Insert the symbol in the wall - you might have to adjust the origin and suppress casings, etc. A lot of the finer points can actually be done in the symbol dbx of the library item.

Be careful about selecting a Laptop for use with larger monitors. Generally, the maximum resolution that a Laptop will support is the native resolution of the built-in monitor. That means that you'd be limited to 1920x1200, I have a Desktop and a Laptop which I keep synched so that I have my projects on both. If you can get the power worked out for a Desktop in your van then I think you should go that way. You get more computer for the money and you could probably buy an identical system for home.

Jim, The scenario that you outlined for your projects is very workable. For the CDs you can send Plans, Interior Elevations, Sections, Schedules, etc from both the overall structure Plan and the Individual Unit Plans to a single Layout File. Keeping the Plan Files separate makes a lot of sense since that keeps the Plan Files relatively small and manageable.

Exactly - and that way you can edit the symbol's materials, origin, etc to fix what Chief missed.

Scott, In the Bonus Library there are 3D Text Symbols. Place them in your Plan and then in the Elevation View rotate each letter as needed about the "Y" axis. There's no need to create a complete string - just manipulate the individual letter symbols.

I will differ from Val on this one. 1. Create a "Solid Railing Wall" using a 3/8" thick Glass Wall Type just outside of the Shower. 2. Make this wall "No Room Definition" and "No Locate". 3. Insert a Doorway and then make that a "Solid Door" (3/8" thick glass) with no Casings and No Frame. 4. Adjust the railing height and the door height. 5. Slide the railing wall into the opening.

After step 2 - select Add New - then change to Crown. By selecting Crown first you are changing the designation of the base molding to a Crown Molding. That's where the problem is.

You need to click the "Add" button so that there is more than one molding in the room. Otherwise, you are just redefining the existing molding.

It's really best to do all CAD Editing in the Section View rather than in the Layout. It's easier since you are working at scale and all CAD work done in the Section View of the Plan will be automatically reflected in the Layout - assuming both files are open.

If you open the SHP file in sketchup you can export it to 3DS which can then be imported into Chief as a symbol.

Alan, I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. That said, the curved wall at the second floor doesn't align with the first floor wall - and neither does the stair itself. What is planned to be under the stair? Storage? Just enclosed space?