AvoyeDesign

I keep X4 around because I have a client who still uses that version, but I don't use it for anything else. I have X9 insalled currently as another client has that version, but once we are finished his design I will likely do all the condocs in X11, and remove X9. X10 will be gone soon too. I'm trying to ge the builder who uses X4 to buy the latest version of HD Pro, so I can axe that install as well. Going forward, anyone using an older version of Chief will need to pay a premium for me to go back. It just isn't worth my time or the space on my hard drive.

Dyslexic or not, his point is still valid. It is up to you to adapt your learning style and unique challenges to the available resources. And I've read no mention of dyslexia in your posts thus far, so maybe chill out a bit on this dude. Have you ever looked into text to speech applications? If you have trouble reading something, have the computer read it for you.

This is the power of layer sets. You can set up various layer sets to show only what it important for you to see for a particular set of tasks. I have a layer set called "roofs, working" which shows baselines in bright red, and very little else. Just exterior walls and roofs. That makes sure I see clearly what I am doing and don't miss something like a misaligned roof baseline.

I imagine if you are just seeking to get your SSA to be due at a more convenient time they would be fine with that. But if you are trying to game the system...

I didn't know you could do that... I might look into it.

The problem I have with this is Chief added the concrete cutout a few releases back on the request of users. Before then, I was drawing something over the wall anyway, and now I am still doing it. So the feature really is meaningless becasue Chief didn't take the time to figure out how it should really look. So i guess this isn't really a feature request as much as it is a "this wasn't done right and needs to be fixed." Which is why I feel it should be higher priority i guess.

I had thought i had posted in suggestions... But I've been sick all week and barely know what day it is, so who knows what I did.

Also, on a related note, when a door opening creates a step down in the foundation wall, the floor slab should continue through the door opening to the outside face of the concrete. Just a couple of standard details that I have to edit manually for every plan.

I'd like there to be an automatic graphic where a door above creates a cutout in a concrete wall. More often than not, this is just a step down in the concrete, but the default treatment by Chief is to make it appear that the concrete wall ends on either side of the door. The attached images will demonstrate how I put a cross box over it to indicate a step down.

I deleted that comment because I misread your post on the sale of your idea. Sorry, if I had realized the thread was active right now I'd have edited it. I missed the part where you were trying to make supplimentary income and my comment reflected that.

I deleted the post you quoted as I hadn't read further and saw more information I needed to consider, just for anyone looking for my post where this is quoted. I didn't realize this was a hot thread or I would have just edited my post. To respond to what you say here, a lot of people I've talked to didn't know what they were worth for a very long time. The ability to put together a quality rendering in chief is no small task. A lot of times people become competent and don't recognize that they are still charging bottom dollar, and it burns them out and they quit before their time. People are encouraging others to take a look at what they are worth and considering whether they could charge more. I don't see a problem with that.

Its all manual work. I'm not sure if it works this way with the IRC, but we draw a 4m wide band around the perimeter that all brace walls need to be inside. I have a custom cad block that contains a label with a text macro to call out the bamd length and specify the total length of required panels. This saves me a lot of manual work, as plans are required to be submitted with calculations for each band.

I would have brought a surveyor in for the site plan, they can do it much faster and cheaper, but otherwise I can see that many hours for a project lime that.

I will downvote a post if I think it is counter productive. One of my pet peeves is when I see a response that demonstrates that the person didn't read and understand the OP. I usually downvote these, especially if the post expresses frustration towards the OP.

I think it would be best for you to take the time to learn how to properly draw manual roof planes. For two reasons: For complex roofs, often times it can take just as much time and even more frustration to tweak all the conditions right for it to build, and then sometimes it needs manual tweaks after. Also, splitting a room into two for different ceiling heights, or other similar tricks to fool chief into building the right roof, can affect your plan in other ways. Room schedules and auto room naming are the first to come to mind. For a program that costs nearly $3000 US, it makes sense to invest your time to really understand how the tools you use actually work.

I don't suggest moving the plane further from the wall. Chief designed the baseline to indicate where the roof is supported by the structure (beam or wall.) I make very sure on all of my plans that the roof baseline is directly over the exterior face of the wall or beam, and adjust the baseline height as needed. If you are designing with trusses, the baseline height should be the height of the wall plus the heel height of the truss. If you are designing with rafters, be sure to have all your settings correct in the build roof DBX and Chief will set the proper height for the birdsmouth cut.

The baseline is where your rafter is seated on the plate. If that baseline is located away from the wall, the height of the rafter at the wall will be higher or lower. Chief will adjust your wall height to bring the plates up to create a birdsmouth at the elevation where the rafter passes over the wall. So for best practice, always draw the baseline over the outside surface of the supporting element of the wall, usually the main layer.

To be honest though, I've never dimensioned stud lengths, I leave it up to the framing crew to figure out. A wall with a raked top plate like this is usually built very carefully. I usually see the crew lay out the wall perimeter on the floor deck, lay down plates, and then measure and cut all studs to length. But this all depends on how much information you are willling to provide and be responsible for. A designer in his 60's told me the other day "don't draw anything you don't want to control, or that isn't necessary to get your permit."

You may need to add a marker or cad line over top of the stud to give the dimension something to grab. This needs to be fixed for sure.

There is a point in which we have to stop settling for workarounds and make it clear to Chief that we need better tools. Reading this thread, it seemed to be the point behind the OP.

Please post the plan so we can take a look.

I use this one: https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/accessories/apd/a7055994?cid=3852&st=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgMPgBRDDARIsAOh3uyKUnT4GDzoaGhN4cG58IUPocZnaIzSKPS2HcBhoHl_nJefVfl7gAGgaAnW4EALw_wcB&pdv=m&lid=5635587&VEN1=sG7I4ECDP,177449760680,901mtv7630,m,&VEN2=,&dgc=ST&DGSeg=DHS&acd=1230881379347390&VEN3=113104454496667226 However, I am developing RSI in both wrists, and considering switching to this for keyboard and mouse: https://www.tapwithus.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgMPgBRDDARIsAOh3uyLuX3xQ8oel0T6_PDzyX0c6QUyINUFzqWFRIz8DtAKyFlNtOOO4O8waAtAVEALw_wcB I would use one in each hand and tap on something like a large inverted bowl, for a much more natural and relaxed wrist posture.

That was my initial thought, bit the OP states it goes away when he moves the stair away from the wall, which is a bit unusual.

As Curt suggests I would set all trusses to dropped, and then the rafters will fit correctly between the trusses and sheathing.

Never seen this before, so I can't even speculate on the cause. If you post the plan I could look at it for you.