Chopsaw

Emma, Welcome to X9. I think this is the setting that you are looking for.

Johnny, Not sure that this is the issue but what pdf printer are you using and have you tried any others?

Here is a link to an old but good X3 video of using the valley rafters for valley plates by Alan Brown: http://www.indyblueprints.com/videos.html see video #4 and there may be others you might find helpful. This would be a little more work to do over trusses but I think it could be accomplished however there is still the issue of the valley plates not laying flat on the lower roof plane that you have to decide if it will work for your own situation or not.

I am not sure if it was David who demonstrated this or not but you can use the valley rafter or a copy of it to represent the valley plates by changing the dimensions and it will look ok in 2D and not bad in 3D if you use the correct angle in a fixed image. However if you are using a valley plate as wide as a 2x12 it will be quite obvious that it does not lay flat on the roof plane. Michael's method does work in X9 and may be the better option until Chief provides us with some better tools.

Hi Boxon, Here is the link to the post where Rod shared the file I use as a demo in the video: And here is a video of how I think he did this, but of course I am open to suggestions if there is a simpler way. Hope this helps. With Michael's tip this works much better. Not quite sure what the rules are or where they are written but boxes seem to play better on a roof than solids.

I am uploading, but goes slowly. Looks like not my day. 1016_N_Arlington_Mill_Dr-PROPOSED-V3.plan I wanted to help with the valley plates (ledger) where you were stuck, but the plan file has no framing or trusses at all. Sorry but it would be best if they were all finalized and in place to build over.

Flip me your plan file and maybe you will see it fixed in the morning.

It can be done with a Polyline Solid but it is still a lot of work and understandable why some people would not bother.

Is this the same question as: Or are you looking for something a little different?

Jared, Don't have time to look too deep right now but there is a good bit of difference between 7/64" and 3/8" when it comes to text. That is all I have for now.

A little confused by your request but it seems like maybe you have the sequence incorrect. You must first select the item you would like to adjust the dimension of and then go to the dimension line that is connected to it and watch for your mouse pointer to change to a hand pointer and then select the dimension line to adjust the position of the selected item. Maybe?

Only you will know unless you care to share the plan. Is that a hip roof or a endwall truss with a screwed up attic wall in the background? Or possibly just a bad cut as Graeme was pointing out.

Yes I noticed that as well and it seems inconsistent and more confusing than the interior wall. Is it roof sheeting or an attic wall?

Not sure what your wall definition is but I just leave mine set to Drywall and it usually makes sense. The gray is a little confusing but most people associate builders beige with drywall even if they hate it. I was working with a rafter detail the other day and I thought it was strange that I required a different layerset for plan view, std view, and vector view, just for one rafter. Nothing worked for every situation and it was a simple everyday framing detail.

You could select the wall and make it invisible but that would likely mess up one or more of your other live views. Maybe a unique layer for just that one wall. You can assign a material of "opening- no material" to the wall but the gray will not go away. Would a Cad detail work ok for that situation Larry?

Thanks Eric, That works. It has nothing to do with the truss dbx and follows the wall default, interesting.

Is there a way to automatically set the centers for the vertical members of an End Wall Truss or am I stuck doing a manual edit? They seem to be defaulting to 16" but mine have been engineered at 24". Thought this would be simple but can't find a way to do it.

No fortunately I have not seen one of my plan files do that since X8.

Jess I have not seen that exact issue before but I trust Michaels judgement and it would be a good Idea to look for any objects outside of the plan envelope. Maybe start in the elevation view that is a problem and use the "Fill Window" tool or [F6] hotkey or sometimes CTRL +A works better because it gives you a selection bounding box that you can search around the perimeter of. If that does not work try the same thing in plan view. Also if nothing shows up around the perimeter you can switch to you "All On" layerset and make sure that all of the layers are turned on. It can be a tedious search but with those tools it should not take long to know if you have that issue or not. This condition will also cause a problem when opening a new camera view as it will try to make the camera capture the rogue item as well as your plan items and if it is bad enough you will end up with neither in view.

Scott that is an old X8 problem showing up again that was supposedly fixed a long time ago. If you are sure that you do not have a duplicate layout box then there is a major offset issue with Plot lines and color fill again the same as in X8.

Jess it sounds like maybe you have reversed the numbers in the scale that you intended for the cad to be sent to layout. Also in this situation it might help to send as "Current Screen". This has happened to me a few times when I have been in a rush to print out a preliminary survey and those are usually the times when I also forget to save the file first. Huge disappointment and when chief gives so may other warnings I don't know why this one has not been addressed.

Anna, Javatom's suggestion is likely the correct solution but if you have your reasons it could be done the way you are asking by copying the window down a level and maintaining it's position in the wall by using the same absolute elevation as it was using in the attic wall.

It seems to me like the labels are attaching at the point of the contour line that is closest to horizontal on the page which makes them seem to be so random. I think that an option that would be even more powerful and useful than being able to rotate or reposition the labels on Chief generated contour lines would be the ability to convert them to contour splines that already have that ability and many other features as well. This would allow us to input our own data and be able to edit and present it without the labels ending up under a building or as Johnny is experiencing, on a neighbouring lot.

I think the rule is that they are within the terrain perimeter but beyond that it does not make much sense to me.

Johnny, I don't think this is possible to do automatically but you could just make a plain text overlay for the few that are a problem. It would however be a great thing to have this flexibility for topo and survey lines when things are just a little bit outside of the ordinary four sided lot. Jon, For next time it is possible to adjust the size, colour, and font of the topo elevation numbers by adjusting the Text Style for the "Terrain, Primary and or Secondary Contours" layers. By default they are usually much too small.