para-CAD

10 years ago I used Solid Builder 19.2 to create wall panel shop drawings for an apartment complex in Junction City, Kansas. It was great software for creating individual walls saved to PDF by page so that they could be manufactured off-site, stacked in reverse assembly order, and then delivered for rapid build out. I haven't had the need to do anything like that since, but I was wondering if walls could be broken into individual panels and printed on single pages relatively easily in Chief Architect? See attached file for the output document that Solid Builder creates. Wall Panel.pdf

Our county just went paperless for the permit submission process. They are swamped/busy so they outsource the first look at a set of plans to WCCC, a plan checking firm. Of course, when WCCC found FIVE pages of things they wanted added to my super-duper plans, my first reaction was anger. "What the..........?" Well, I've come to a new understanding. I'm a solo business. I have NO review staff. I double, triple, quadruple check my work then send it off and see what happens. Since going paperless, I have had 2 plans come back with additional info requested. So this has got me thinking. Other than some lost time, I've been given the opportunity to tighten up my plans. This company (WCCC) has: - done a plan check for me - created a list with code references - included screenshots of the area in question So, once I choked-out my misplaced pride, I realized this was a great opportunity to make it a new challenge to improve my construction docs. Now I am more focused to address all kinds of little things that I was used to being industry standard and assumed, now being written out and addressed. I went from pissed off to motivated to take up the challenge. Just wanted to share.

Great post. I followed your instructions and it worked perfectly. Thanks!

Draw your plans by typing in exact measurements when placing objects. Like a building's framing should be some feet' - 11" wide (like 31'-11"). Making the framing end at 11 inches allows for the sheathing to take the structure to an even foot measurement. (like 32'-0"). Also, framers *****, moan, complain. It's what we/they do. Nice that you are willing to placate their concerns.

Back a couple years ago I created this initial model for a spec builder/pastor. He wanted it for much less than I was asking for. So here you go.....free. And as with anything free, I wasn't very CA skilled, so the model might have issues. I was able to build one side complete and then mirror it with a 2" separation gap. I owe much to the great work by all the experts here and the videos some have created. Thanks! Ontario St Duplex_R1.plan

Yep. I've been using Dragon for mac as well. I became frustrated with the activity of creating the same words as already exist....so I reached out to them. Now I copy/paste and know that I'm not skirting the law.

And for shrinking a PDF's file size I like CompressPDF. (see screenshot) It can take a 30MB PDF and shrink it to 5MB or so with no noticeable degradation.

I spoke with a representative of the ICC legal department yesterday. (the folks who make the IRC and other code books) I had recently received my 2018 IRC code book and on the cover was a sticker that said I could in no way make any duplication or copy of any part of that book in any way without written permission from the ICC.....so I was asking them for written permission to copy paste code from their website (that I just joined). I explained that the county that I am working with seems to be requiring more and more direct code language inserted into the plans on the pages they are referring to. I explained that t I was reading the code from the book and typing it directly onto my plans. I asked her if I could get their written permission to copy and paste rather than have to type so that it would speed up my time and minimize potential typographical errors. The nice lady said that under the fair use doctrine I was allowed to copy up to five pages at a time. This was great news! I told her that I mostly only copied about a paragraph or two depending on what I was drawing. She said I did not need a letter from them as long as I was copying less than five pages of direct copying. It's nice to work with reasonable people. Oh, and she said t that if ever I run across a code or requirement that seems odd or not something that is done typically in the industry that they welcome suggestions from people such as us in the industry on how to address that code or requirement. She said they receive all kinds of comments and suggestions and part of their job is to analyze and test these industry suggestions for possible addition in future codebook releases.

I might be late to the party but here's my two cents (and I'm just up the road in Kingston so I know what you mean about Kitsap County going paperless) I'm on a mac so it may be different if you're on a Windows machine, but I use an application called PDF Expert. One of the options is file/save as flatten. (see attached image) I'm pretty sure that Adobe Acrobat or other PDF applications have the ability to merge all the layers into one so that things don't get hidden or mis-located by other PDF applications.

Love your avatar. SCMS! I bought one when I started framing on my own. I was given a hard time about it by other framers. After a few years I saw them on more jobsites. Precision became an obsession. I fully believe that the more accurately you calculate and cut materials, the structure tends to "true" itself as you assemble it. (If one knows what one is doing).

I have run into a repeatable issue when using rich text. Whenever I am creating a note that specifies IRC code I typically bold and underline the top line, then leave the rest as regular text. I noticed that chief architect defaults the font color as a good-looking dark blue. When I select all the text in the window and then change the color from original chief architect blue to black, all of the text not only changes to black but it also becomes bold and underlined like the original first line. It's not a big deal other than I have to highlight the lines underneath the first line and toggle off bold and underline. This happens every time I try it. Is this typical and to be worked around, or maybe it's just me on my mac. Thanks. Rich Text Issue (HB).mp4

I see Chief as a two-pronged tool mostly. 1. Sales tool with great 3D modeling to educate clients on what they are getting with their design 2. Creator of construction plans for permit. Sure it does more, but for me, I get paid to create plans for permit and it has NOT been easy to get up to speed with Chief. I give MUCH credit to DS Hall, The Alaskan Son, ChiefTutor and all the others who have taken the time to create videos to SHOW how to use Chief effectively. Thank You! I would like to see a collaboration between the smart/talented people here to develop "the perfect" residential layout template. (well actually it would be close maybe) It could follow the general format we would all vote on: Cover Gen Notes Design Criteria and State/Local specifics Site/Plot Plan Ecology Foundation Basement Plan Basement Framing First Floor Plan First Floor Framing Second Floor Plan Second Floor Framing Elevations Sections Schedules Roof 3D Not all would apply for everyone, but a thorough starter template would be great. Each page would have basic text and details located (current IRC code etc - if allowed by copyright). All items would be customizable. It would be nice to have some of the ruby macro tools already populated and ready to use or delete instead of spending so much time trying to discover if something is possible. The "work-around" term is wearing thin with me. A work-around is just a series of steps that can be encapsulated into a.........button. It just takes smart coders and the will and $$$ to make it happen. Just my 2 cents for today

All of our garages up here have either straps or some form of hold down but we don’t add anything more than what the hold down requirement is which is typically two or three studs total.

The 2018 code fixes this. I just bought it in binder format and was happy to discover this. It’s not in effect yet but it’s nice to see they’re fixing things that don’t make too much sense.

It’s odd that I have to add this to my plans when no one does this around here. I just walked the dog past a home that is being replaced because it burned to the ground and here are pictures of how they’re constructing it. They must be using approved plans.

Thanks! Great explanation. The code department wants the table included (it seems I'm putting a vast amount of the code book all over my plans these days) but I wanted to understand what I was adding before I just did it.

BLUF. My plans came back with the typical additions required by the County. This one is new to me. (See attached image) I thought I knew what I was doing because I framed houses for 25 years all over from Houston, TN, GA, WA and even western Canada and was really good at it. I've never done this and it is never been pointed out to do this before on any plans. But, here it is in the code book so now I'm wondering if maybe I'm not understanding this correctly. Typically, as the opening increases in span, I would always add additional support under the header (locally these can be called anything from jack studs, trimmers, cripples, etc.) On walls that are balloon-framed two stories high, we would add additional king studs and blocking and other methods to increase the rigidity of that wall. I get that. Reduce or eliminate hinge points. As I read this code, it appears to state that I need to add additional full height studs, king studs, in accordance with the table they present. So that means every garage door opening at 16 feet or larger would require six king studs at each end (plus typically 3 cripples under the header at each end). I have never seen this done anywhere ever. I hope I'm just reading this and understanding it wrong. Let me know please. Thank you in advance. (I broke down and purchased Dragon for Mac so all of this writing is dictation (because #SiriSucks). If I failed to proofread and what I write makes no sense, I recommend just sounding out the words and maybe it will make sense. This dictation method is really amazing.)

I just joined the ICC (https://www.iccsafe.org). I bought the 2018 IRC (binder & loose leaf) and the online subscription to 2015 IRC for a year. If you have building questions, these are the folks that manage the International Code books. Many cities, counties, and states often add supplemental code requirements to address local building conditions. Like here my footings need to be only 12" below grade. Some colder places typically include a basement under the house, since the footings have to go so deep anyway. It's nice having the online access, I strongly recommend checking this option out. ICC.pdf

No regrets. All computers are similar. Since there are many more Windows-based machines there are also many more Windows-based applications, so sometimes there is an app that I can't run on my Mac (WIN only). This is typically a rare occurrence, and if / when that happens I have Parallels and VMware to emulate any operating system. Fact. A Windows-based machine will provide more hardware performance for the same amount of money that you would spend on a comparable Apple system. Fact. Anything an Apple system can do, a Windows-based system can also do. There are several things that the Apple ecosystem provides that become conveniences that I don't even notice until they're missing. Also, Apple has focused on user experience in a way that Microsoft or any other Windows-based software can't really do. I've recently collaborated on an e-book that works perfectly in iBooks, however it works terribly in all 10 of the top 10 Windows-based e-book readers. Apple has spent the time and resources to refine the products that they provide in order to make the user experience appreciably rewarding. When I was a Windows user I often had to create PowerPoint slides (because the Army can't do anything without PowerPoint) and whatever other tasks I was assigned. I found that whenever I would install software or change hardware it required me to also understand the systemwide effects that I was introducing when doing so. After many blue screens and other system catastrophes I started to look into the Apple ecosystem. I'm not so hung up anymore on having to tweak my computer to some nth degree to squeeze out every ounce of performance like I'm building a quarter-mile race car. All I want to do now is create content to the standard I set in the most efficient manner and then turn the computer off. I like how Apple manages the ecosystem so that, for me, "it just works." (I just used Dragon dictation software to speak everything here. This reminds me when I was a kid watching Battlestar Galactica and Cmdr. Adama would speak to the computer and it would type what he said. For me, this changes everything.)

Try Puget Systems. https://www.pugetsystems.com I had them build my son a massively powerful machine last September. For CAD work I would shoot for the pascal video cards. They do more precise calculations for rendering. My son's build has the 11GB 1080 Founder's GPU. It seriously blows through Ray Trace. I currently hop between a MBP and older iMac. When things need power I "rent" time on my son's machine. Wil's_Machine.pdf

I use both. I love how Chief lets me use my lone license on one machine at a time. PC or mac. X8 had issues for me back in 2015. I was collaborating with someone on a PC while I was on a mac. As we would send plan files back and forth they would often have the text files miss-located all over the plan. That didn't last too long. Fast forward to today, and I'm on X10. I can start something on a mac and then go upstairs to my son's gaming room and open it on his very expensive windows machine and everything works smoothly between both mac and Windows. For the first eight years of my computer life I was all Windows. Then in 2005 I made the switch. I like to use a computer to create content more than I want to have to learn how the internal systems of the computer work. That used to be fun. Now I just want to produce content, get paid, and be done. mac4life

Every party wall I ever framed was (2) separate walls. Some had fire-rated GWB in the 2" gap space plus sound batting 4x8 sheets. I have a sketch at the point in time in this video

Get CompressPDF app and it will shrink any PDF without noticeable quality loss https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/compress-pdf/id596412507?mt=12

Newish to Chief. AutoCAD self and formally taught. I have many details in a master DWG file and also as write blocks. I have been trying to import them into Chief with poor results. Then I thought, what if I create exact detail pages in autoCAD, print them to PDF at scale, then I could import them into CA layout and they would sit exactly on top of my layout and I could resize the "box" around the PDF to allow the title block from chief to show. Did that. Bogged down chief. Exported to PDF and the exported file took FOREVER...looked great but was 287 MB. Then (all my ideas seem to come as I'm falling asleep) I thought what about: exporting my autoCAD details to PDF displaying them at 100% taking screenshots of the details (jpg/png, whatever) dropping those screenshts into my layout Did that. Images import to fill the screen it appears. Here is what I did to fix that. A Chief Architect rookie method for importing my autoCad details as scaled images. (Framers Lead The Way!) Print to PDF all of the details that you want to import into Chief Architect (CA). Once you print to PDF open it in a PDF viewer at 100% or actual size. Actual size might be larger than your display. Drag the screen to each detail and take screen shots of them (label them accordingly) Open one of the images in an image processing app like Photoshop, or Gimp and go to image size menu to determine the pixel density of the image. On a MacBook Pro with retina display that should be 144 pixels per inch (PPI). With that information, locate your first image you want to import into CA and notice the width of that screenshot (in pixels), say its 1044 pixels. Navigate to the website called ninjaunits dot com https://www.ninjaunits.com/converters/pixels/pixels-inches/ (I searched Google for pixel to inch convertor) Check the box to the left of Activate Custom DPI. Photoshop showed that all my screenshots were 144 PPI/DPI as expected. Type 144 in the Custom DPI box. In the pixels box type in the image pixel width (the width of the first image) The website will generate Conversion to Inches in the box immediately to the right of the pixels box. For 1044 at 144PPI it displays 7.25 inches wide. Drag the image file into your Chief Architect layout. Open the file properties for the image and enter the width in the Size field. The dropped image file will resize to whatever scaled size you just printed to in PDF. **(I had originally imported the scaled PDF in its entirety and somehow it ballooned the CA-created PDF file to 287MB and bogged CA down pretty seriously so this is why I’ve tried the PNG individual file method - no idea if this actually works until I print to paper and put a scale to it.) Change image resolution from JPG 75% to 100% or to PNG. Check the box to Save image in plan. If someone has a better way please share. I tried importing the DWG file but it lost all the leaders and the hatching was all solid black The images show the process and the final screen shot of the detail in layout, printed to PDF from CA. I thought I'd post this since I couldn't find anything from Google except for a thread from 2011 on the old CA site. If this works I hope it helps. If this is bogus, then it's back to figuring out how to import things better (DWG) or redraw everything.....no fun there. Y'all take care.

Hey Jared, I'm up in Kingston. I'm new to CA. I really like it but I need to master exactly how to get it to do the things the way I used to frame. Looks like your post is a year old. Hope its been a good one for you. Mike