GeneDavis

Looks like Deboktabo has left the building.  No name, no plan, no followup. 

Like this?  I-Level is showing a few different ways to use sawn lumber tails, but this one gives the right look if one is doing them exposed.

As for doing it in Chief, I would use solids placed on their own framing layer, or try drawing in sawn member rafters sistered alongside the i-joists.

Your client's no to Sto and I presume any other EIFS such as Dryvit, Parex, and the like, probably stems from all the stuff that flew around about twenty years ago in which residential builders and their lawyers successfully put the problems of leakage, mold, and more back on Sto and the others.

All this, while the products continued to be used successfully on commercial buildings.

It all happened because of the bad installations.  The builders were clueless about installing this stuff, and their subs were worse.

Ask your client why and if you can drill into his head a little, it will come back to that for sure.

How about seamed panels?

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater, built with a lot of painted concrete, and it was built in the 1930s in western Pennsylvania.  

I am guessing that in your part of Tennessee there are lots of commercial buildings done with Sto exteriors.  Contact a guy I knew way back, Steve Wachtler, in Nashville.  He is president and CEO of Sto International, and can direct you to the right people in his firm for designing your exterior envelope.

As for your roof, you will need to investigate all the kinds of flat roofing schemes done in your locale, and done they are, almost all on commercial buildings.  Use Google Earth and you can see plenty all around Nashville.

You might do best engaging a good commercial architect in your area.

It is in my locker but it says it is the beta version.  Should I wait?

That's it. Thanks, Dorothy. And when done, I can place a north arrow along the 110' PL and since I know the PL's bearing, I can rotate north accordingly, and all the PLs can then be bearing-labeled true.

I have an as-built situation, with a plot plan of the house on paper.  No CAD available.

Have modeled the house in Chief and footprint matches that of the plot plan.  I know how to reproduce the boundary.  My problem is rotating the plot bounds and placing it so the setbacks shown on the plot plan match what is on paper, and getting my north arrow rotation right so the line bearings read true.

See my plot plan, attached.  None of the bounding lines of the plot are parallel to house walls.

Would appreciate any and all tips, or links to how-to videos.

I just model it with solids and assign all wood parts to a layer called Screened Porch Framing.  I have done screened porch framing all in Sketchup and then imported the whole shebang into Chief as a symbol, but that was before I realized I could do it just as fast in Chief.

The screen can be modeled as a solid, too, and textured with screening image, if you want some 3D render semi-photorealism.

The pic of the SU model is showing some kind of surround.  A thin frame.

The model should be edited in SU to remove the surround and just leave the door slab.  Then it will model correctly when brought into Chief.

Be sure and examine the feature that makes an annotation set "drive" a layer set.  It is a feature many Chiefers use.  See attached.

The LAYER SET setting in the Annotation Set Dialog Box is set one of two ways.  Either it is set to the "Use Active Layer Set" setting or it is set to a specified layer set.  In the image seen here, it is set to the Framing Set layer set, which means selection of this anno set will "drive" the layer set selection and turn ON that "Framing Set" layer set.

It is a great feature of the program.

Once you get comfortable with the plan view layer sets and anno sets and have figured out how it will work for you, it is time to create all of the anno sets for detailing so you can do your CAD details in all of the scales such as 1-1/2" = 1'-0".

Need to model a deck railing that is built so 2x2 balusters mount against deck edge.

The 2x2s go down and have bottom ends 2 inches below tops of rims and are screwed to rims, thus the whole railing is offset out from the "deck room" edge.

I can model this affair using solids but was hoping there might be a way to spec it so Chief builds it.

Haven't seen A36 used for a while.  It is A50 where I've been, and where that is, the steel suppliers will help with the design of the connections.

So why is this intermittently not working for me?  Is it only in play if the number, the dimension number, is inexact?

Because I dimension wall-to-wall, the walls having been exact-dimension set, and I cannot get the tilde.

My hinges are on the 3D Warehouse and will plug right into Chief.  Do a search for "glass shower door hinges" and look for the ones by Gene.

DropBox will handle it.  Done here all the time.

And you ought to edit your sig to show your system specs.

I used one from the library and changed the field material to translucent glass and it looked great in ray traced renders.

Setting up new service in new home, and never before offered different speeds.

The offerings begin at 6 mbs, then go to 25, then on up.

We don't want to overspend. What would you recommend?

IN the wall? Please clarify.

Trusses bear directly on CMU? Please confirm or clarify.

Figured out how to use a very cool Sketchup plug-in called "soap skin bubble" and used it to make a decent looking seat for the chair.  If you are a Sketchup user, download it from the 3D Warehouse.

Seen here with the Stickley "Highlands" trestle dining table, also up on the Warehouse.  To find the chair quickly, search "dining chair Stickley MacIntosh."

Enjoy.

Post yer plan, please.

General lighting = 3D>Lighting>Add lights

There are some good online video tutorials from Chief about preparation for render:  Lighting, materials, sunlight, etc.

How custom?  What are you doing that differs from those shown by people like Logix, Amvic, and Polysteel?

It does not stop.  You stop when you want.

Nice kitchen, but don't you want a tiled backsplash wall?  Some undercabinet lighting?

Most of us use a quick render setup to check lighting, materials, etc.  Try setting up a raytrace config (mine is called "Quick") that has a small screen size (320 width) and none of the advanced settings that take more time.  This can help.

Be careful which lites you set to show shadows, and use some general lighting, both point type and directional, to help get the scenes to look more photo-real.

Me, I kind of prefer the NPR effect gotten with watercolor, lines over, and final view with shadows.

A whole lotta Sketchuppers have modeled the Saarinen tulip table and put their work up on the 3D Warehouse.

Find one you like and import it into Chief.

What exactly are you trying to do?  

Also http://www.amvicsystem.com/icf/cad/

Sometimes it is easiest to just cut and past the available pdf images into layout.