Joe_Carrick

You might not want to do that because the area of glazing might need to be included for energy calcs. Personally, I add a column (Object Information Panel) and specify "Existing" for those windows. That way there's no confusion.

Select the Existing Windows and unmark them as "Include in Schedule"

Floor Elevation and Structure of the 2nd Floor may be incompatible with the 10' Garage Ceiling. I haven't looked at your plan but those things would be what I would check.

No, but you could make the Garage Floor even lower and add a "Ramp" on top of it.

For walls where the finish material doesn't have a texture - such as drywall - I generally add a very thin finish material (paint). That material can be painted with any color without effecting the underlying drywall layer. For walls where the finish material has a texture I create a new wall type (copy) and edit the material itself.

Check the "Room Types". Typically, you would have the basic floor level at 0" and the Garage Room Type would be at -4". If your "Entry" is a "Garage Room Type" then it would be recessed to -4". Otherwise, it should be at 0".

I learned very early that the "Paint" tool was a something to be avoided in most cases.

The little wrench icon indicates that it's "Used in Defaults". It's probably a Text Marker definition using that layer.

There really isn't any difference between interior and exterior walls. You can use any wall type to enclose a room. Chief will treat the perimeter walls of the plan as exterior.

You just need to make the boxed out area a separate room. You can do this by using a wall with an opening. Then you can set the floor elevation & height of that room. You will also need to change the floor structure and specify no foundation.

FWIW, you can make your own garage door panel symbols and then use them in the garage door dbx.

Gutters are on their own layer. It's locked by default but you can turn unlock that layer and edit as desired - or just turn the layer off for display. The gutters are essentially a 3D Molding Polyline and once the layer is unlocked they can be modified just like any other 3D Molding Polyline.

At a cost of about $700 for a RX 3080 I don't think I'm going to be upgrading to RTRT anytime soon.

It's possible - but it would rely on utilizing the front end of the total package which was the big part of the programming. Adding the simplified output would be fairly easy and I wouldn't charge extra for that. However, the full package would still be required.

Search this forum for "Storefront"

The Stair macros can be used in a Custom Note Schedule. The Note just needs to have a Text Line connecting it to the Stair and the macro included in the text for the note.

Yes

I was referring to the header needing to resist deflection caused by wind against the sliding door. Essentially it needs to be designed as a beam working in both directions even though the trusses will support almost all of the vertical load.

Typically the doors are supported on the bottom track and the top track is just to contain them horizontally. You will obviously need a fairly good sized header beam and it will need to be sized for deflection so the clearances above the track are maintained. The header will also need to be restrained laterally to withstand the wind loads.

I liked the automatic room clipping and vaulted ceilings feature for interior elevations. Otherwise, I agree that the biggest issue is line weights to "POP" the vector view. Edge lines should be able to be automatically set to a higher value than Pattern lines and it should be in the plan views rather than in layout. btw, I use a blocked rich text box with the %view.name% & %scale% macros in my elevations so that the title is contained directly in the view and gets sent to layout rather than using separate titles in the layout page. Whatever I name the view in the Project Browser is automatically displayed as the title. The block is stored in my library and can be placed in any plan, section, elevation or cad detail.

If the macros are written correctly and the custom fields are created then it's a simple matter to select all the windows and add the macro to that field in the Object information. If any window is modified, the data reported by the macros would automatically be updated with the appropriate values.

This can be done with a macro(s) and custom field(s). Typically I would put that information in the Window Schedule.

Larry, Do you have a link for this Webinar?

Larry, Your best source for this would be the local building department. Since this is not habitable space, the normal stair codes don't usually apply. If this was just for roof access, a ladder would be sufficient. I think the main thing you need to consider is the ability to remove/replace the equipment.