GeneDavis

Nice, Solver! Explain to us, please, how to get the grain to look so nice and real.

There is a way you can fake it but you won't get the lines and the space you might really want. The treads are rectangular 3D boxes and all you get for control is to be able to paint a material on them. All six sides are "painted" with your material. Take a no-shadow photo of a pair of 5/4 x 6 deck boards with the right spacing and tread length, and the space should show up as dark shadow in your photo. Now go and edit your photo to capture ONLY the boards, then use Chief tools to make that a texture. Use it on your treads. Be sure to check appropriate settings so your texture stretches to your tread size. ..

A building is built into a banked site. 8-inch stemwall foundation around a slab which is at grade on the drive-out side. The rear wall has foundation coming up to 48 inches above the slab floor, the two endwalls have the foundation stepping down to 24 above then to zero, the front elevation has its wall on grade equals slab. I can model with accuracy for build and materials using pony walls for the rear and end walls, with the lower portion of the pony wall matching the 8-inch stemwalls. My issues, and they are minor, are that the 3D framing view does not show the concrete pony wall sections, and the wall framing elevations for stepped walls only show a section at a time. The attached pic shows a 24 x 32 building, and the 24-foot end walls have steps, thus are three wall segments.

The owner is a foundation with a board, and no one on the board is paying much attention, except for the cost. I do work for the contractor, modeling up the jobs with enough accuracy that he can use the material lists for cost estimating. The first set of prints done by the archy was a floor play and four elevations, no roof plan, and you gotta admit this valley extension needs a little explanation when seen only in one elevation. The roof is all trussed and the spanning valley adds cost the contractor felt was unnecessary, and so he suggested the cut roof or the dropped section. The architect was asked for more detail so we could see his proposed arrangement. It's a barn to be used for maintenance vehicle storage and maintenance, being attached to an existing 125-year-old barn. The archy does big commercial work and this barn is a tossoff for him. He has a relationship with one of the board members.

It'll get done, but we thought it was interesting how dug in he was on this arrangement.

You guys will love this one. The architect, when asked for specifics as to how the roof all goes together, replied that it should be built as I show here. His sketch calls out the extension of the valley as a "structural fascia" from which the rafters are hung.

Thanks to you both. I am offering these two possible solutions. One maintains the 8:12 pitch but drops the ridge at the connector, the other keeps ridge height and results in about a 12:12 pitch for the small lowered roof.

An architect has done a plan for a new barn to be built adjacent an existing one. Roofs are all to be 8:12 which is what the existing one has. My rough model shows the way the roofs come together now, which does not seem right as for what it does with the valley and the existing rake end of the existing barn. The new barn and the breezeway connector are the larger group shown on the right end of the plan. Any suggestions to improve this are appreciated. Barn.plan

There's a sample plan at Chief's website that's a good example of a step-down house. I call a walkout a step-down because it suits my structural-engineer sense. The foundation is stepped into the hillside. Auto-build won't work for these. You'll edit stemwalls and footings to get to proper bearing and frost-protection (if needed).

Thanks, Eric. You're the Solver!

We once had this but now I can see no way. I posted on Seeking Services and of course only get replies from users that come onto the forum. A whole lot of Chief users don't come here. The earlier forum website allowed a user search. Is there one still? We need someone with an IL license.

Thanks, all!

Any cautions? Just arrived at the camp, there's no WiFi, but I want to work on a couple files. i can access WiFi down at the library 6 miles away.

Should be in Chicago metroplex. I've drawn a plan plus extensive layout for con docs, but need a licensed IL pro to take my work, revise as necessary to satisfy AHJ (Village of Lakewood, McHenry County) and bring package to ready-for-permitting-and-build. Email me if interested. genedavis3 "at" me.com

I am just guessing but would say the OP probably needs a little info on editing the cutout.

I did steel shop drawings for $100 a sheet using paper and pencil but it was a very long time ago. Brand new Volkswagens were under two grand. Mine were for structural. Back then stair work was called miscellaneous steel. Unless it is your livelihood, I would not touch it with Chief CAD.

I have built kitchens with planked doors like that. Tongue and groove v-joint boards and battened rear sides. I have also bought fronts from doormakers that mill the grooves into solid-stave glue-ups. I prefer the jointed boards look. Depending on door width, the panel either gets a board at centerline or a joint at centerline. This means the stretch is at the edge planks. Looks as if one could do any job nicely making just six or eight doors, half of them center-plank, half groove at center. Cabinet width would determine which door to use.

I did not look at your file but presume you have a cabinet door panel that is made to look planked. See the image attached. Mark has identified a solution, and I am curious to hear whether you think it is worth the effort to go about doing this. I'm also curious to know about other software (2020, Revit, . . . ) that addresses this more cleanly.

Go back and change your roof structures so that SURFACE is two layers, shingles and sheathing, then your STRUCTURE is one layer only, material defined as fir framing, and thickness whatever your rafters should be. Where does all the insulation air gap come from? Why are you using that in roof structure?

By "tons of pieces," Michael, are you meaning psolids? Being a Sketchup user, I might just build it there and import it as a cabinet symbol. Easy to texture all the surfaces with correct graining, etc.

Did you upgrade, X? We're here to help, but if you're not using Chief, you're on the wrong forum. if you can use the beam tool, you certainly can create a signature line so we know what you operate, and your system environment.

You're a Home Designer user, right?

Is this the inset faceframed job with the 1" stiles? I wouldn't take this job a single step further without a consultation with the people that will build this.

A config like this would be built as Michael has described. One wide cabinet, face frame elements all 1" width. Think about two boxes joined. The sides of the carcases meeting would have to be something like 3/8" plywood. Never done like that.

I'm away and cannot access Chief, but recall there being multiple materials in library called glass but with different behaviors in vector view.