GeneDavis

The rut I am in for screened porches is a simple post and beam frame, 3.5" thickness, square posts, tenoned into the 3.5" x 12" beam, top of beam up at 8/0 height above deck. We go full post where screened porch wall meets adjoining building wall, and butt the post tight to the sheathing layer. Wall runs are sized so we get between-post bays between 2/6 and 2/9 size in width. A door or doors go into full bays and height wise, run from floor to bottom of beam. I've played with a test model just now and can get pretty much what we want (X8), except I am unable to control the depth of the beam at the top. Does X9 give this? We don't care about seeing screening in 3D or 2D elevations.

Thanks. In that case I will go to the suggestion section.

Show boss the exterior renderings on Chief's website. If boss wants more, you have a problem. Rendering takes time no matter what you use.

If I define the wall as post-to-beam, edit it to have a middle rail and a shoe rail like we build them, how can I stick a door in one of the openings?

Michael, when you say now are you meaning in X9? Or am I missing something in my X8? I've not done a brickledge since X5 so I don't know.

I don't have X9 yet, but X8 and some earlier versions require the use of the pony wall feature to do a brick ledge in a stemwall foundation. See the pic, attached, clipped from the Help in Chief. When displaying pony walls in 2D planview, X8 and earlier give us the option of showing either the upper wall or the lower, but not both. You want both, and you want the ledge face shown as a dashed line. You cannot have both, but you can get what you want by controlling how the upper wall displays in plan view. Look carefully at the snips, attached. Your wall definition for your upper part (the ledge part) of your pony-wall stemwall will need to be edited to get the 2D display you want. I did the example to show a dashed line at the ledge face (line weight 18) and heavy lines (35 weight) at the inside and outside faces of the stemwalls. I changed the fill of the brick layer to be concrete. You'll want to change the fill of the air gap (drainage gap) to be concrete, also. Fiddle with it until you get what you want. And of course, check so that you are displaying the upper part of the pony wall in planview. For stepped brickledges as for a house built on a downslope lot, you can go to elevation views of foundation walls and edit the height break where the ledge is to be.

It is a good idea, if you are going to be here and posting threads, to create a signature line that includes whatever personal info you are willing to share, plus your version of Chief Architect, a description of the rig you run it on, and any other relevant software used in partnership with Chief. And for sure, when asking for a solution with a project you have in progress, you should try to include some visuals, and a copy of the plan file. Close the file, zip it, and attach it to your post. Or if you are using Dropbox, include the link for it. As for doors and windows, please study the specification dialog, every single tabbed page. You have complete control over casings, exterior and interior, and can check a box to turn them off.

Modern, in the style of James Krenov, as seen in his book, "A Cabinetmaker's Notebook," about 15 x 48 x 29 inches high. I made one like this for our daughter last year, in cherry, and it turned out well.

Love the colors!

It is annoying because when you sheet across a house width that is 4' modular (24', 28', etc.) you end up short and need to buy more material. To keep from having a small strip of make-up under a wall, I like to start off with a ripped half sheet.

An annoying fact about most all t&g sheathing panels is that they are not 4-foot modular in the short direction. I figure on getting 47-5/8 inches. The mills make the sheets 48" wide to the tip of the tongue.

The reboot worked fine for me. Thanks. What happened to the feature in the forum that permitted one to identify the best answer to the question?

I just downloaded a .ttf file, an decorative arts and crafts font, and it is in my Windows directory, in the fonts folder. I don't see it in Chief. What is the procedure?

Look at the strange behavior I get when I draw a floor truss in your plan. While the image of the truss seems to be rectilinear (and at the incorrect elevation), the envelope of truss is skewed when selected, with a correct top elevation underneath the wall, but skewing to 3/4" high out in the floor area. Someone more talented than me is going to have to analyze where you went wrong in drawing this thing. I cannot replicate your result starting with a simple plan.

There are no floor trusses in your plan. The 18" depth floor joists in your plan are at the correct elevation. But when I draw a floor truss it places 3/4" high.

The baseline is placed on the outside of the wall's main layer. The out-of-box exterior framed walls in Chief have the main layer being the framing. Have you changed that? In X8 I drew a simple 4-side house, set my roof default to be using 2x12 rafters, then built a roof, framed walls and roof, and took a section. See attached. The framing is as one would want, with a full birdsmouth landing for the 2x12 rafters.

The question I have is how is this treated in 2D? I've no interest in showing a client a 3D view, but want the supplier and installer to know where to put the accessory. Our kitchens come with the Rev A Shelf type accessories uninstalled.

But Richard, why would you not just rebuild your roof using the newly specified 2x12 rafters? Doing so would place the roof plane at correct height for a full birdsmouth cut on the 2x12s. You don't seem to be asking Chief to change its baseline position so much as you want Chief to auto-rebuild your roof at a new HAP (height above plate . . . framers talk) when you re-specify your rafter depth for the plane. It knows how to do so and always give the desired full-depth birdsmouth. Would like to hear back from the original poster, on how he works with this to get results.

The roof is raised from top plate depending on how settings are made in the roof defaults dialog. In that dialog one sets the rafter depth, and if building with trusses, one can set the heel height at baseline for the truss envelope. One unchecks "automatic birdsmouth cut" and controls the heel height with the "raise off plate" value. Totally logical when specifying a stick built roof, not so with a trussed roof. With a trussed roof, you need to remember that the "raise off plate" value you set in the spec dialog will be the distance from the plate top at building line (base line) to the bottom of your top truss chord. Chief helps you out by telling you what the truss chord vertical depth is, and it call it the "vertical structure depth." For example, if your pitch is set in the default spec at 8:12, and you have set your "rafter" depth at 3-1/2" (most likely truss chord), the default dialog for the birdsmouth geometry will return you the vertical structure depth of 4-3/16. To get a roof plane positioned so your trusses, when built, have a 12" heel height, you set the "raise off plate" figure at 12" minus 4-3/16" or 7-13/16". Draw your roof plane with this setting and you will get that 12" heel you want.

No, I am going to reverse myself. There is no need for the baseline to be on the inside of wall framing to get full-depth birdsmouth cuts on roof rafters. Chief gives us that. Please see the attached. So, back to the OP, BrianS-Design, why are you not getting satisfactory results?

I don't care about 3D, but want it in the 2D plan and elevation, plus the schedule. Izzat possible?

You're RIGHT, Richard. Sorry for my injection of wrong thought.

Larry explained it perfectly. Thanks, Larry. But I gotta ask, why should the baseline for a trussed roof be the wall line (the outside face of studs) and for a stick-framed roof, be the inside face-of-studs line? From someone who has framed both ways, what difference could this make? When it's time to frame or engineer the truss package, the pitches are fixed and shown on plans.

Simpson Strong-Tie complete product line, plus 2D CAD representation, full ability to pull structural hardware schedule, ability to use only 2D in plan so as to save file space, what else? See Michael's recent post in which he offers the I-joist hangers plus preferred 2D representation. While the 3D is nice have for a detail, I would not want my model all laden with the surface-count one would have if using these in a house model everywhere hardware goes. This would work unlike other symbols in Chief, in that one could control whether or not the 3D symbol was alive and in the file where placed. The default setting should be NO 3D.

I was a housebuilder for a while, and wanted to have some software for doing more work. Built an exact copy, down to the light fixtures and doorknobs, of the one shown here at this link. https://www.houseplans.com/plan/2979-square-feet-3-bedrooms-2-5-bathroom-prairie-style-house-plans-2-garage-33513 First thing I did (I did not know about or had a need for Chief yet) was to learn Sketchup, and I used it to do an exact model of the structure I was just completing. See it here in the 3D Warehouse. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=6c9192eb17218bc02a08194fd3f4120d My interest in 3D software at the time was for the purpose of working out roof structures so I could better specify and check engineered roof truss submittal drawings. After I finished that house, I got into kitchen and bath work with a partner, and realized after a few jobs that I needed far better 3D rendering than what Sketchup would do for me. So I got Chief, and began to climb the learning curve. I committed myself to about two hours a day of work, making an exactly-detailed model of the house I had built. I used Sketchup to make symbols of many of the custom fixtures in the house. After that, I wanted to be able to make professional con docs, and so used the resources at the Chief website to get examples of con docs. Wendy's and Joey's examples were my guide. Again, I used the house I had built, for which I owned a highly detailed 25-page planset, as my guide, plus the styles and detail schemes used by Wendy and Joey, to do so. IMHO, it is the best way to learn Chief, plus coming here and asking questions.