GeneDavis

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.

No probs with large files with color images at BluePrintsPrinting.com and they really ship fast.

Chief says "total" but the labels report total for all rooms included in the floor displayed, for which that radio button is checked. A two-floor house, 1500 sf each floor, will show 1500 sf living area in a label on the plan view of each floor, two separate plan views, floor 1, and floor 2, but nowhere (unless you can show me what I am missing) is 3000 sf reported in a label. I think you are working with one-floor plans.

Define "total square footage for the building." X15 gives me living area by floor, allowing me to choose the rooms to be included or excluded. X15 also permits toggling on/off the area label. I see no output for total building.

What happens when you select that edge and click the box to remove the railing?

Always edit floor heights doing top floor first and go down. You'll get it once you've done it. Once you've changed the floor structure in all the upstairs rooms (and you've used Match Properties to do so), go to floor 1 and work the ceiling heights using the same Match Properties tool.

Default Settings > Plan, read the whole page.

Here's one I built, virtually, and for real. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/377deb0281407b792a08194fd3f4120d/Staircase?hl=en Note how each 90 degree turn consists of five "kite" treads, and how the turns begin before the corners, and end after. A "5-kite winder" stair turn. You likely don't have enough space for a to-code staircase, thus the triangle turns. Find a way to get a bigger footprint so you can do it right.

Describe "footprint." Is the first image from a layout or plan file? Which?

I do this routinely and the notch for slab is 3" which is easy for the concrete guy with 2 thicknesses of 2x lumber. In the pic attached you can see how I used a molding to fill the void, 3" wide x slab depth thick, at the slab edge, because Chief only models the slab to the foundation line. Maybe there is something I am missing.

Some of my work involves producing wall framing elevations that get used by a components plant that panelizes. And that means I care about getting ROs correctly done for the windows and doors. If your work involves windows generically sized and you've no idea what they'll buy for the jobs you draw, you can stop right here. This post ain't for you. The common product line is series 400 for my clients, whether it is double hungs, casements, sliders, or patio doors. What tripped me up on a recent job was this: Andersen Series 400 casements are factory built as doubles and even triples, with a mullion between sash that is slimmer than two side jambs sandwiched together. See the section pics here. See in the pic of the vertical integral join section (a.k.a. mullion) that there is an 11/16" wide part of it on the exterior side beween sash? Now look at the way Andersen depicts a double casement on their sizing chart page, and how one is depicted in Chief using Andersen's catalog, which I just downloaded in put into my library. Chief on left, Andersen size chart on right. See any mull between? Without using anyone's Chief catalog for windows, which was before today, I'd make a double anything, awning, casement, doublehung, or fixed, by inserting two and jamming them together. Then, to be sure of my widths, I'd look up online how the maker does simple nonstructural factory joins, and get the 1/16" or 1/8" or zero or whatever, and they're all different, Pella, Andersen, Marvin, etc., but I'd have it. And if you look it up for Andersen for series 400, it's a piece of something 1/8" thickness. I did not say up front, but there will be math, and here it is. Wanting a double casement in Andersen's 400 series at "24" width, or two foot four inches, the chart tells me each unit has a frame width of 28 3/8" and the mull join detail I found (and am making a mistake using it) shows 1/8", I join them then gap them 1/8" and blockmull them and have a unit that is 2 * 28.375 + .125 = 56 7/8" unit width. Gong! goes the bell. Wrong. Wrong? Because the single-unit-build-with-the-the-join-mull ends up with a unit size 7/8" narrower, or 56". I can hear the carpenters doing the window install yelling !WTF! already. So if you are a picky guy or gal, and you care about these little things, beware. Neither Chief nor Andersen depicts a double casement properly in 2D elevation views, and you gotta fake widths to get the right size in your model and on your con docs. Finally, look carefully at the manufacturer's sizing charts to see if they are building multiples this way.

I think I have it now. The solution is to make sure the schedule dialog box is opened and to make sure the "Include options" is all set correctly so as to NOT include all floors and ONLY include the current floor, which Chief has set to the floor on which the schedule was generated to appear.

No, there's no way the note schedule begins afresh when I go to another floor. Are all us users happy with this notes function? Is there some easy way to do one schedule per plan view floor?

Not working. I populated the 2nd floor plan with notes that rang up 1 through 7, went to the second floor plan, placed a note, and it numbered it 8 and put it in the schedule of second floor notes.

I feel like I'm on a merry go round and cannot get off. I have two floors and a foundation done as a slab with stemwalls. Schedule numbers get generated in single digit format, but then I try notes on another floor and start getting X.Y format. Do I have to first do floor-specific plan views to get this to work?

How is this done. Help this windows dummy, please.

Thanks, everybody!

I gotta finish this thing today, and this one is stopping my progress. See the pic, attached. The truss TR-9 won't draw all the way to the subfascia. The red line is where I want to pull it but it won't pull past the hip. Help! Properly drawn, I'll then pull TR-11 and TR-5 to connect to TR-9. Here is the file. 85 mb but this should work. Doering.plan

We've been down this road with this exact plan.

Nested gable was the topic, so I sketched a simple plan with the recessed entry, the main roof full gable each end, edited the front wall with a break same distance away from R porch railing wall as building depth, did the inviz wall across the recess, made the appropriate roof directives for full gable on the endwalls and the fronts, then autoroofed. See the pics. Your 3rd bay garage bump likely needs a 3-pitch roof or thereabouts. You can use those images you have of the target plan, bringing them into Chief as images or .pdfs or whatever you have, and use CAD to measure all the pitches.

The drawn plans. Did you do whatever needed to be able to trace the walls into your Chief X15 plan? I'm just presuming X15. If you are using Home Designer, go to their forum. If Chief Premiere, go to your account settings and open the Signature page and compose a sig sort of like mine, that tells us what Chief package you run, what you run it on, and maybe whatever other software you use for architecture and 3D work. With all walls in place and room definitions all set for room height, and roof settings done in Defaults the way you want them, then roof directives set for all exterior walls, your auto roof should do most everything except the way the large front gable, in which is nested the entry porch gable, is modeled. That will be a quick manual edit. Post the plan by first copying with plan name POST TO CHIEFTALK, stripping the new file of all interior goodies like cabinets, furniture, fixtures, etc. You want structure only. Then close it, zip it, and post it here. One of the roof pros might even show you the way with a video.

Thanks, Mark! While you were doing that, I fiddled with where the wall break is from curb height to that half height, and moving it a little away from the corner did it too!

Here is my file, 85 megs, shared from MS OneDrive. Doering.plan

Thanks. Try putting a door corner to corner and report, @MarkMc

I am doing this shower using X15 out of box glass shower pony wall. Edited the curb part to have concrete core at 4.5 inch width. Edited the cap to be 5.75 inch wide. I got this unresolved cap corner at the OOB wall and cap specs, and it's here still in the edited version. I have done the wall join edit thing to no avail.