GeneDavis

I think its lovely. Doing an as-built for an addition?

The plan I'm doing is an addition to a 2011 build. The architect's plans for the as-built use absolute elevations with the main floor at 993 feet ASL.

Thanks to everyone who put up with my confused state. It is clear to me now how it works. Quite simply, there is "house zero" which is commonly main floor subfloor top, and it relates up or down to terrain by that setting you either let go auto or assign, the setting being the house zero elevation above (or below) the terrain, whether your are building up in Crested Butte CO at 10,750 feet or in Plaquemine Parish LA at 3 feet. And the point in the house footprint that is that offset relative to terrain is its center, however Chief finds it. In a simple rectangle it's easy to see how it works. I've not yet had to get very specific about terrain in Chief house models because my builder clients know how to make things all work, but this latest little challenge involves notching an addition into a hillside and having two walls of the addition function as retaining walls for the natural bank it's notched into. And those wall heights are determined by the existing terrain. Pics from my self-instructional (with all your advice) are attached. I used elevation numbers for the terrain that are sort of in line with what I have on this 7-acre lakefront lot, and specified flat pad for house, so you can see how Chief warped the terrain up to the downhill side so as to achieve the flat house pad. In the cross section if you look close you can see how the ski slope line of the terrain intersects the middle of the house at subfloor, or "house zero." It is the skilled user's job to set that manually when properly siting a building. I've not yet had the job to properly site a new design on a big lot with not-flat terrain and views and multiple choices for siting, but am now prepared to do it if needed.

I've played with this little one room schoolhouse and to no avail. I need the subfloor at absolute elevation (per the surveyor) of 96 feet and change, and the terrain 1'3" below that. Nothing I do with terrain, changes the house floor from zero. What's the secret?

You only showed me a blank dialog box with your redline highlight around the building pad section which has a data input box for user to set subfloor above terrain, and two checkboxes, one called "automatic" the other called "flatten pad"

See the image attached. The test 4-wall house with auto roof had its floor at zero. I edited the floor elevation in plan view to 96'-3 7/16" to match the survey data. That moved the floor with its 4 walls up to where you see it, but the roof did not move. I selected the roof planes in this 3D view and moved them up the same distance the house got moved. Then I built terrain, which comes in at zero as shown. Now I gotta move the terrain. Right?

I did an asbuilt plan and did the room addition both with zero as the subfloor elevation. Now come the surveyor with about 100 points of terrain data on a .dwg which I have imported, and the subfloor is not zero but is 96.32'. And all the points are in decimal feet to two places, all hundred and something of them. I've a choice. I can either do the math and convert all the terrain data points to plus or minus the few feet from the zero subfloor I have, or I can make the floor 96.32 and type in point by point, given the numbers on the .dwg plan. But how can you elevate every element of a 3D Chief model? Edit area does not work. Simple box selection using a simple test plan moved the roof up 96.32 feet but left the floor at zero, so I have a mini-tower.

If I want my wall plates to report in 16 footers on the material list, I have to open each wall detail where the wall is over 16 long, and edit so there are pieces. Does not take long. Compose a suggestion and put it in the Suggestions subgroup here, that gives us the same feature for plates that we have for rims.

You should ask this at the HD forum. We're all Chiefers here.

Apologies to Keith and Mick . . . Tax free living Is easy to do Drop your roof down We'll do it, for you Man-Sart Builders. Just call us, OK? Man-Sart Builders. We'll roof you today.

Think of an inflated attic. Lots more floor space under roof. Turn a story-and-a-half into a true two-story and stay under any roof-height restrictions.

You gotta wonder if that is the original roof of the house. Nice job, Doug, that will look as-built.

Your picture of a built porch throws a curveball at us. The newels have a cap and a base, and the posts also, but the posts look to be barely bigger than the newels. Maybe even same. As in 5 x 5 actual size newels and 5 x 5 or 5.5 x 5.5 posts. Whether you use the two rail Joe Carrick method or manually place posts right where newels are you get the top cap of the newels poking through the barrel of the posts. See the attached. See the newel caps showing in the posts? And hey, try to get the posts to snap where needed. I find I gotta do CAD detail from view to set targets for snapping. I find Chief's railings tools lacking when it comes to something like this. I am doing a curved one right now post to beam, 44" segments changing only a few degrees of turn as the panels track the curve. Chief cannot handle it cleanly. Nor can it do what you want here unless you go for the most basic of posts and newels. I usually throw in the towel and go solids, or Sketchup and import. I want my balusters to look the way I would build it. When you are fudging posts into a railing, you don't get the right look, for my eye. As for my throwing that video at you, I'd no idea of your expertise. And your opening post with the question was pretty vague.

Watch, listen, learn. I'm on a phone, so I'll ask. Does your sig line say what Chief version you're running?

That bay is an opening, no? Tell us what you want to do, and be precise. What you MAY have there is three linked railing walls, the bay segment invisible. Or it's one wall and the bay is a doorway.

Framing>post. Easiest.

I think you'll get your answer from those over at the Chief Home Designer forum. This is the Chieftalk forum. We're using different software from you. You want Hometalk.

The big gray thing is the W12x35 steel I-beam needed to carry the roof load. This is to be built where the gsl (ground snow load) is 100 psf. The post is a remnant from when I had first placed a smaller W6x20 thinking I had to be completely above the plate elevation and into the trusses. I can and did raise the W12x35 so it's half into and half below the trusses, and the post is not needed. The client really balked at the post, even thought their view from in the room has an array of 4x4 (3.5 inch square) wood posts between them and their terrific view through the woods and to the lake beyond. The rear wall (plan bottom) behind the chairs needs work at its junction with the 2-panel screen wall. The wall end is 16 feet from the bottom right corner, location dimensioned, and the screen panel wall is supposed to go point to point to join corner to corner, asbuild house to screened room. See image. View of the lake and a newer file attached. I used CAD to place post locations along the screen panel wall, this in preparation for doing all the stick work in solids. I'm going to PM some detail so we can hook up by Zoom. Thanks. Ranch camp 2 bedroom.zip

How difficult, Glenn? Or are you joshin' me? I need the railing wall to be 5.5 inches with a starting and ending newel arrangement, 5,5 square bottom and mid rails, 5.5 x 16 beam at top May we have an explanation of what it took to solve, and the file? Or a Zoom?

I don't know of a short way to define this in a short topic listing, so I just threw something there. A room addition goes onto a built house, the floor structure is exterior deck but a foundation is under part of it. No piers, no beams. But that is not the issue. The roof over the space covers "open below" to terrain, and wood-framed deck. The dividing wall between these two "room specs" which define ceiling and floor, is a segmented curve. Post to beam rail segments, with screened upper and lower panels, 4x4 posts, one of the six segments having a screened door. The problem I have is the tangent wall condition that exists. See the images attached. In the plan view I show a 48" square in the corner of the room, and the top left corner defines where a solid wall ends and joins two walls. The straight one paralleling the roof edge and the curved one need somehow to be forced to join the solid wall at that point. I cannot make things work. I have tried placing a small room divider but to no avail. I have failed trying to segment the curve into six equal facets and place post-to-beam railings along the faceted curve. There is no floor (it's open below) in the "room" at plan top, and wood deck floor in the larger porch room. Ceiling heights differ. The thin wedge segment has a dropped ceiling so as to be able to house and conceal the big W12x35 steel beam needed to carry the roof load for its unsupported span of close to 26 feet. Ground snow load is 100 psf where this is built. I'd be happy with an invisible wall at the curve, as long as it tracked the curve exactly so as to define the deck edge. I can do the whole segmented screen thing with solids if I have to. But that arrowhead point, two walls coming into a solid wall, is kicking my butt. Plan attached. I'm gonna need steps outside also, and I cannot get anything to work there. The steps are seating, really, with only one panel of the six having a door. We are going to build segments, not curved steps. I've been unsuccessful doing steps because the wall segments are all at odd angles. Ranch camp 2 bedroom.zip

I do the 3D DWV work in Sketchup. Been using it since its inception, and I work with it even now more than in Chief. Easy, fast, intuitive, and I find it nice for thinking my way through structural arrangements. Plus never any upgrades to learn. For the builder that gives me most of the Chief work, I do the 3D DWV when things get a little complex with regard to space and routing and combining drains and vents. Most of what I give them is the 2D under-slab arrangements. All the HW and CW work that's done in my upstate NY jurisdictions is all PEX, done with a home run off a manifold for every single fixture, the PEX lines run wherever in framing to be efficient. Old-style iso diagrams like we are discussing here make no sense for that work, and besides, the AHJ plans review for permitting is not requiring anything, MEP-wise. I'm lucky.

I've done DWV for a client that has his carpenters do it, not a plumber, so I show them the parts. The 3D Warehouse has excellent content for Charlotte pipe DWV fittings, with points positioned for accurate and quick joining.

In this badly botched model, you can see the segmented "curved" screened porch wall. There is a door opening at the far end, and six of the seven segments are post-to-beam railings with middle and bottom rails. What the client wants is two tiers of 12" tread-depth steps across here, all joined together. The steps function as both under-porch decor, the floor being about 24 inches above grade, and as seating for overflow guests when there is a large firepit gathering. I draw the steps and Chief wants to make each panel a doorway, when I join the steps to the wall. I need to suppress that action somehow. And how do you get the steps to miter together?

Got it! Thanks to all.

I see no way to toggle patterns when in vector view. The only toggle available is one for edge smoothing when idle.