GeneDavis

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.

If I am the one framing those walls, I want the dimensions to the framing corner intersects, not the intersects of the drywall finish. I think you are showing framing in your pic #1 but cannot be sure. You can edit your scheme where the wall springs off the first wall at 45, so as to retain your desired first wall length. Your inside intersect moves rightward, of course.

Coming from the door industry, I wish Chief permitted easy selection and placement and scheduling of these entries with sidelites. Just like a slider door, or a center-hung patio door, these entries are priced as a unit, bought and delivered as a unit, and installed as a unit. I wish it was, and it isn't, but Chief should have a work method and tools that allow building this right up front as a unit. Entry doors with sidelites need to have a category for spec all their own, in which we can select and choose for sizing and style and glazing and muntins for the door and its sidelites. We should not need to do workarounds like we do now. We should be able to do all our specification in one dialog. I'm a Sketchup power user and can create just about any door one might put in a house, including matching sidelites. I can texture them with mahogany, do exotic beveled leaded glass, Frank Lloyd Wright glass, anything one could desire. Building a library with such door symbols, and using them, is easy and fast. But I find it tedious to have to first treat a door-with-sidelites unit as multiple openings, and I find it unrealistic in 3D to then view a built-and-blocked unit and not see true mull post detailing.

That's the way I've done it. I used a polyline solid to close and trim the pork chop.

Thanks, Michael. Never knew that was there. As an exercise, use X8 Chief Help and do a search in Help for "edit all roof planes" and see what you get. One would think an actual command would get better visibility than this one does in Help.

I am still in the dark on this. Where is the Edit All Roofs tool? Any or all of the roofs displaying on a floor plan view are selectable, either by shift-select or by marquee-select (if only roofs are displaying). Selected, one can edit properties including framing, rafter tails, etc. Same type of selection options are available in 3D, and take note that while you can select multiple objects, they must be all from the same 2D plan display. If I have porch roofs on floor 1 and main up-top roofs on floor 2, I can only select multiple planes from one floor. So, where is this tool that when used opens all roofs for spec at once?

I am dying to know where this is. Can you be more specific, please? We are talking structure and rafter tails here, essentially copying and pasting a whole set of spec variables from one roof to a selected batch of separate roofs. The rafter tail parameters alone involve profile, size for W and H, and offset.

Out of curiosity, why the need for such 3D realism? If done in a gyprock-finished mechanical room, it's often hidden behind an access panel. And if not flush-built, the PEX lines are all going to be visible. If so, will they need to be 3D modeled, also?

Your Chief version, please? My library (X8) has multiple options. Here's one.

Or minimize their size to 1/16"

Dan of Chief Experts has a good video tutorial about platforms, and he leads it off by saying something very important. A platform is not just a floor structure. It includes the ceiling above it. His remark about the floor elevation line in the spec dialog box, when doing foundation "platforms" is interesting. He thinks Chief should delete it or blank it for specification, and I agree. His advice that one should resolve all the platforms correctly in a design, before doing anything else, is well-taken.

Your son did a great job! Love the design. How old is your Sketchup architect? Did he use warehouse components?

I don't find any way, working with the door specification, to model a center-set door-in-frame, which is what you are after for your commercial project. One could model door-in-frame units in Sketchup or even Chief, and place them as symbols in your plan, the openings done as door openings, but then you'll have to do CAD work to get your elevation views to be what you need in the con docs. Chief just doesn't do commercial, when it comes to hollow metal doors and frames.

I agree. Now let's talk about rakes and modillions.

That "door" costs more than a lot of new cars.

So only beta testers can open it?

What I was saying, Glenn, is what kept Eric from being able to do it with one molding polyline. I have done the same as Eric, using two p-lines and two moldings. The one-step solution, which we do not have, would be a wall layer that tapers in thickness from bottom to top.

I can do the molding polyline, Glenn, but the "no molding" segment at a window does not yield the cut molding under the window.

I downloaded your layout and am unable to open in X8. Am using the latest build: 18.3.2.2x64. What's up?

A question I have, with today's use of 2" thick faux stone veneer, is how this gets built. Do builders scab framing and sheathing atop already framed-and-sheathed walls, just hung on there and no bearing below, then do the veneer atop that, to achieve this look? If that is the actual build method, then the use of roof planes is a perfect way to do this. One will need to trim the planes at edges with 2D and 3D moldings to get good 3D realism, but the window cuts will be easy to do, and one can frame the panels.

I wonder if there is an easier way to do this, because one needs to perform, somehow, window and door cutouts in such a buildout. See my image, in which I show a simple 4-wall "house" with an window and door, and a 2D molding p-line applied. Getting it to cut at a door is routine, "no molding on this edge," but for the window, something more sophisticated needs to happen.

Doesn't the Save-As-Method (SAM) address this perfectly?

Without a plan to examine, I've no clue.

I'll bet you want the insanely-common sold-in-lumberyards-and-home-centers-everywhere patio door with two leaves, one leaf active, the other fixed, the active door hinged at the center (not the jamb). Try this.