GeneDavis

I have a floor frame with some of the rims 1 1/8" engineered lumber, and some LVL. I've I-joists at two different widths (series). Understanding how the rim material count goes, I set the member reporting buy schedule up with one length only, 16 feet. Thinking I understand how LVLs are counted, I set up two different lengths, 16 and 20 feet, and same for the upper series I-joists. But both these items, the LVL and the heavy I-joists, are reporting as all 20 footers. No 16s. What is causing the counts for lengths like 14'8" to come from 20 footers, when the schedule has 16 footers listed?

Got it! Thanks.

Thanks @JKEdmo, but I cannot get there. I found the library item but it seems (for me) it is not a material but a millwork-type item. I could not get it as a material selection for a panel railing, but can get something when I go after it in the balusters dialog. See the pic. Please describe the step by step to get what you showed. Thanks.

And by that I mean render it in 2D elevations and 3D camera views. I did a search and could find no "hog" anything, but maybe I am not a good searcher. I seem to recall it being discussed here. For those of you that are not pig farmers, hog panel is a hot design thing in deck railings. Heavy gage wire 4x4 inch spacings, panels sold in 4'x8' size so easy to fit in yer pickup. Sold galvanized and with black powdercoat finish.

I did, and thanks, @robdyck

I need it to finish up a project. Never used it before but have seen it on Chief sample plans, but the samples are .pdf. The one that shows the sequence of perimeter tape flash around a window and integration with wrap.

Sorry for the bandwidth. Figured it out after searching for and finding a Chief how-to video. Overframing with rafters is sort of like the inside-out version of overframing with trusses. Trusses, you need to build the truss base "roof" right atop the lower roof. To stickframe an over-roof valley set, the over-roof has to be set as frame-over in the structure dialog, so you are specifying it has framing, and I guess the Chief coders used this setting to determine which roof governs in autoframing. And yeah, autoframing. The only way you get overframing is to autoframe it. Drawing manually to attempt to generate rafters does not work. In my current project with this situation, I have a two-pitch situation happening on one side of the roof, and for some reason Chief does NOT generate the 2x10 shoe plate for the center plane of the three-plane over-roof. This, on both sides of my center bay. All settings same for overframing in these six over-roof planes. In this plan view, I highlighted the overframe planes that did not get shoe blocks. I don't need to show it in 3D and so have just used CAD to depict the missing shoeplates. This pic has them highlighted. And in 3D, you see them missing, and the bearing ends of the rafters not cut to seat on a shoe.

I can generate valley set trusses in a roof over roof situation, with a truss base plane drawn. But I want to stick frame the set and the rafters are not generating true in 3D. Drawn in plan view they look OK and I thought they were going in pitched, but they are level with no pitch and in the lower plane on which this over-roof sits. What's the trick?

I've not gone beta. is this a useless feature?

No. Copy mirror produces the headers (the 2x6s) with the cuts 90 degrees off. Drag them away, click on the king, do extend, and it won't chop right. I'll submit a bug ticket, see what Chief says.

Take a look at the pic. I first autoframed the wall, which then required manual editing to get it where I need things. The angled header on the R won't trim/extend. In autoframe, one came in on R and L sides but editing was needed, and in doing the edit I deleted all on the R side of this symmetrical wall. What you see in the pic is from taking the top horizontal header, copying it and rotating it parallel to the needed angle, and placing it, but it won't trim. Why not? I'm gonna have to delete it and fake it with CAD, which is OK, but should I have to?

And they are on a very tight budget. I drew what they told me they wanted, and produced a plan set they could use for getting a contractor estimate. So there is a Chief plan file and layout file. I've no time for this and want to steer them to someone else. You'll need to be registered in NY, capable of doing a terribly unattractive house, doing the structural stuff like beam sizing and shear walls for the C/D seismic region in which this is to be built, and perform the ResCheck. All for maybe $2500. No more. PM me if interested.

I produced an "estimate" set, minimal dimensions, for the client to be able to get it quoted by his builder. Architectural floor plans for floor 1 and unconditioned basement. Elevations. Roof plan. Foundation plan and wall section. Floor framing plan. Roof framing plan (all trussed). Building section. Now I want to back away from the project and advise the guy to use someone else, and the various someones all use ACAD. Would all the above views export OK and be of any use to the new guy?

No. My work's all in far upstate NY. Small towns, mostly vacation homes.

Ground snow load, wind design, seismic zone, etc.? i do plans for builds in five different AHJs, and a new official in one wants that now tabled out on the cover sheet.

Sorry for the waste of bandwidth. I just learned click and drag to bring one down to split.

. . . when more than two tabs are open. Or do you have to close all views leaving the two you want to see split? And what are the shortcut keys to get in and out of these splits?

This will clarify your mind, if I may quote from the lyrics to the old old blue song, "Trouble in Mind." Watch how easy it is to draw what you need over the .pdf and get to a terrain, and then watch the magic of creating an "as built" terrain, then the cut and fill to create what is needed. It has been linked before in terrain threads.

But then unless you are going to get all anal about the framing and produce a buy list for the steel, why bother? All over SW FL where we live, houses are built with CMU block, exterior walls furred with Z, interior walls framed with steel, and the con docs I see, and I have seen a few dozen sets used by builders like Pulte, Toll Brothers, ICI and others, those plans show no steel details at all. It is called out in notes, but that's all.

You are an X15 user, right? Get some training online at the Chief site, and at YouTube. You should get proficient with default sets, defaults, and plan views to be really operating X15 to its full capabilities. Many Xs ago, all we had were layers and layersets. The first step Chief took was to program for annotation sets which then had the power to "drive" layersets. That got enhanced with default sets, and then the magic of Saved Plan Views that blasted us into the highly productive con docs production thing we have with Chief X15. It's like you are driving a 2024 car but with only the basics of starting and operating one from 1973. Turn the key, start it with a further twist, then use your feet and hands to drive. There is a lot to learn in this 2024 thing.

Use the right plan view which should have the correct defaults for annotation so you are both drawing ON and DISPLAYING the anno (text, dimensions, notes, arrows, etc.). The layer set simply reports what layers are on or off and other info like line style, color, text style, etc.

I think window schedules should table out unit width and unit height. For windows, the Chief callout might lead to a mistake in window sizing. So while my window schedules do include "label," they also include width and height. Doors same. Label plus width and height. Why leave things to chance? Use the paper space to avoid costly errors in building. That's what we're doing here with all this con doc documentation, right?

I worked in the door business, and every one of our many distributors, coast to coast, had window lines. Door callouts, by callouts I mean the number strings like 2670, differ from window callouts in this key way: with doors, the sizing is the frame opening, and with windows, it is the unit size, which includes frame. And the convention for both is feet-inches. Width first, height after.

How to not get help and advice here: Post images as .pdf files requiring download. Don't post the actual .plan file.

I don't see a way to get auto dims to pick up the lower wall of your pony wall. I did a test plan 4-wall building, walls pony with siding-6 upper and 8" concrete wall below, aligned to inside main layer. Autodim picks up the siding-6, but manual edit to make it pick up the concrete wall was quick and easy. Here is a workaround. Set the wall display in the pony wall dialog to show lower wall only, then autodim. The dimensions will pick up the concrete wall. Go back and change the display and the dims will stick.