GeneDavis

This is new to me, so I hope you'll forgive the question. What dimensional information to you give the builder on the construction docs to show how to build the dormer? And more relevant to Chief, where do you pull it from. I've orphan dormers that do not relate to any walls below. They are really just fancy skylights. If I'm the framer, I would appreciate a dimension up the roof deck from the subfascia line to the front wall line, the height up from roof deck to sidewall plate, window r.o. top relative to plate, overall width, roof pitch, overhangs, and window size. But that's me. It'll take more details to define all this, than it will for my octagonal turret entry at the northwest corner of the building. Each of my two dormers for the current project center on large overhead doors below. Anybody have some examples of how you do it?

Thanks, Scott. What I did was select only the dimensions or strings that had the 1/16" accuracy, and changed the format to only go as fine as 1/8". What happened is as shown here. Only the mathematicians in the foundation-building crew or the framing crew would say that it is wrong. Doing an octagon in a 9'-8" square results in sides that are about 1/32" longer than 4'-0".

Here's how it looks on the plan now.

My dilemma is this. I had to put an octagonal "silo" feature on a barn per the client's request, and I used CAD to guide me, drawing an octagon with 4'0" sides. Now I have the whole thing built, framing included, and it is time to dimension for layout. I go auto dimension and the plan is full of dimensions to the 1/16". Having built houses and never having seen plans done to the sixteenth, I wonder what to do. Is this just the nature of bay and polygons in plans drawing? Do the builders complain, or just work it out?

Thanks, Perry. I'm on it.

OK, so I am failing with Chief, and failing with Dropbox operations. The file is in Dropbox for sure, but as for creating a good link so someone interested can open the file in Chief 8, I am striking out. So I did an attempt at zipping it and tagged it to the original post.

I'm so lazy I am ashamed of myself. I've a simple layout, paper size, titling, notes, details, everything I like. From the last version of Chief. My plan file is in a folder in Dropbox. What do I do with this layout to follow SAVE AS and have the plan file linked to the layout. Thanks.

It's a Colorado job, nothing shaking.

First, here's the plan. https://www.dropbox.com/s/k4l6o6ehpze2ymn/RV%20barn%20with%20silo.plan?dl=0 The project is an RV barn the client wants doodled with a turret feature at its northwest corner. It is an uninsulated building, unfinished inside, no drywall, you'll see all the framing when inside. I did the two walls that come into the turret as invisible, specified them as roof cuts wall, tried to hike up the bottoms by specifying the ceiling height of the turret room as 10 feet, but things are going wild with this no matter what I try. I trimmed up the roofs of the turret in plan view to try and get the cutting all done right, but things are still a mess. When built, the two half-walls will be bare inside as are all others. You'll see the studs. Outside, they will be sheathed, and above the roofs, will have the exterior finish of wrap and clap. The framing did not go right with Chief for the turret so I did it in SU and imported it into Chief, so I can represent it OK in the drawings. Any and all help is certainly appreciated. I am really rusty with Chief, having retired from the drawing scene, but a guy I did some RV barns for last year keeps booking new work. RV barn with silo.zip

See if this works. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ispqwcbe4gz580p/RV%20barn%20with%20silo.plan?dl=0

That, Joe, did not work. I placed a point at the center of the turret in plan view. Selected one of the two properly-oriented studs at the top right corner (I tried to select both but could not.) Tried xform repl rotation two ways: absolute angle and relative angle. Whatever it is doing in rotating the stud, it is not about a z-direction axis defined by the current point that I placed.

I'd like to be able to get some wall framing close to what will happen when building. An unheated and uninsulated RV barn has an octagonal turret feature for its man-door entry, and Chief made a mess of the wall framing when I did autoframe. See the attached pic. Studs, when selected in plan view, can be rotated, but there is no way to "make parallel" to anything, since the command is not there. I want to pair studs at the wall junctions as the autoframing did at one of the corners, but am having trouble rotating studs to do so. I select the stud, grab the rotation handle, start the move, hit TAB, and enter a rotation angle, but I am not getting it rotated right. All I want to do is take a stud that in plan view is "upright" with its 5.5" vertical, rotated counterclockwise 22.5 degrees. How do I do that?

Only way to show it is the Sketchup model I uploaded to the 3D Warehouse. See the image. You'll be able to ID it and download it into Sketchup. The model shows half, and the other half is almost a mirror of what is shown. The headers join with large screws over a post that is below, and the model shows the half of the header set that actually bears on the column. I've no idea how this can be accomplished in a locale with earthquake codes like exist in CA. I did in NY, the part of NY that has its own earthquake code. As-built, these wall corners all had truss-framed hipped roofs all bearing atop. Spacing was 2/0 and there were very small loads from roof over the window bays. The large beefy headers were there due to porch roof beams framing into them from outside, the beams coming into Simpson concealed-flange hangers.

Two images attached. 2x6 walls, casement windows, default set to "ignore casing . . . " First image shows windows tight but without making the special move to go tighter. 6" is the offset. The 6 is the 5.5 framing plus the 1/2" R.O. margin. Second image shows what you get when doing what I call the jam move. The corner "post" offset is given by the program as 2-9/16" What I want is 4" (4x4 corner post actually 3.5" square, plus the 1/2") and there is no way to get it. Try it yourself and see. For Andy, yes I know one can edit-frame a 4x4 there. What I want is for Chief to build it and show it both in the 2D plan for layout, and in 3D for rendering. I have framed this condition myself. The windows adjacent the corner are bought with 4-9/16" frames and 2" extensions are field-applied at three sides, their head and sill legs mitering into each other at the corner. The corner inside casing is a 3/4 x 3/4 strip. The framing headers have an interesting joinery arrangement with the 4x4 post. If you are interested, I will show it here.

I've said this here before, and now with a new release, I'll say it again. A 4x4 post can be used in an outside wall corner, to get two adjacent windows tighter together. It's a nice detail if framing with 2x6. Chief can't do it, still.

What you want is a roof plane for which its baseline is in neither the X or Y direction, but rotated. Use geometry or 3D CAD to solve for the baseline direction and slope, then draw and edit edges as needed in plan. Then move as needed in Z.

Sounds like a call-in on NPR's Car Talk, where the brothers are trying to draw out enough information to solve the problem, and when they are getting a little tiny bit of a view of the issue, the owner says, "oh, I forgot to tell you it's a diesel."

Hi, 566043364. Try this. Out in open space, no walls, no nothing, draw a roof plane. Take that roof plane, the rectangle, select any edge, and add line breaks (keying the number "3" activates the break tool), then drag breaks around to edit the shape. See the pic attached here. And consider editing your profile here at the forum so we know your name. Very few of us have digital names. While you are at it, create a signature line that displays details about your Chief software, and the hardware you use to run it.

You can raise and lower a roof plane or a whole collection of roof planes, by selecting what you want to raise or lower, and using the transform/replicate object tool, moving the selected roof or roofs by entering the appropriate value in the z direction box. That is the quick way once you have the roofs built but want to change things. To get the roofs to build the way you want, before placing planes or doing auto-build, you'll need a good clear understanding of specifying and building walls, and doing room specifications.

Have you tried shaping the edge of a flat roof with the editing tools?

Question for Alan the OP: How automatic do you want this to be? Be real specific here. You have already seen how Chief will table the openings by floor.

Or as you probably know, control the placement by casing width, using the wide casing that locates your jammed door correctly, then select all doors placed thusly, and change their casing widths. Chief does not have an auto-placement feature such as what you may want, but you can go on the Suggestions forum and make your case.

Thanks, Michael. I was able to force the break where I wanted it in elevation. The job's a wrap.

Here is the plan file of the job that is giving me fits. I gotta get this thing done. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lhxbqskpd4ldcn/Barn3A.plan?dl=0 I can live with the behavior, mentioned above, where the breaks will place and allow pony wall heights to be specified differently, but the north wall near the NE corner cannot be broken where wanted. My plan file has heavy red CAD lines I placed for guiding me where I want breaks. The wall appears to break where wanted and the pony wall heights are specified, but as soon as the dialog box closes, the wall breaks further from the corner. And only this one behaves this way. Why?

A job is to have brick wainscot on exterior walls, and the top of wainscot varies. I place wall breaks where the top of brick changes from 60 inches to 135 inches, and all is well. I set the top of brick in each segment in the wall dialog box where I specify upper and lower wall and height of lower. All looks good in 3D and elevations. Coming back after adjusting some window heights in the wall, and needing to adjust the height of brick in a segment, I click on the wall to select, and lo, my breaks are gone. The pony wall height is called "no change." But viewing in 3D and elevations still shows the segmented wall, or rather it shows the up and down brick heights as I set them earlier. I've lost the breaks, and if I specify pony wall height in the dialog (where it says "no change") the wall is edited for its entire length. What's up with this?