GeneDavis

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.

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.