para-CAD

If you want them as PNGs with the alpha channel intact here they are https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4jcchvwirmjdpsb/AABQWWDwKMSbWH2_cVcgNDExa?dl=0

I have been running the public beta for months...no issues. I hope this isn't in my future. My main display is a 34" ultra wide and to its immediate right is a 43" 4K. I keep the M1 Max laptop closed. Keeping fingers crossed. Thanks for the warning.

I recently did an on-site measurement / survey of a home built in 1901. I agree with the horizontal laser comment. It helped be locate the area where the floor sagged above and by how much.

I would like to try this, but only if I win the lotto. https://leica-geosystems.com/en-us/products/laser-scanners/scanners/blk360 https://shop.leica-geosystems.com/leica-blk/blk360

11x17 Inch Ledger Hardboard/Clipboard with 3 Lever Operated Clips and a Mini-Calculator, Either Landscape or Portrait Media Format, ECO-Friendly and Great Drafting Drawing Board Brown (1 Pack) https://a.co/d/5zUAXdZ

You can use Bring to Front or Send to Back, or incremental send forward or back to put the items on top or behind others.

There are all kinds of people on this site who share their experience and time…….for free. Not a sales pitch. Steve has many porch related free YouTube videos. No soup for you.

I've been playing with magicplan a bit and looking at arcsite. I even had a Matterport Pro 2....but that has been sold for lack of use and yearly server subscription. I like very precise measurements so neither of these work solo for me. Magicplan seems the most user friendly. Search up YouTube for tutorials on LiDAR apps, best in 2022. Then you can share your experience with whatever you have tried. 35' tape 150' tape (2) laser measuring devices (Bosch) a 3-plane laser (Milwaukee M12) GoPro iPhone for video and stills graph paper laptop with CA installed

Great list, Mick. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder why such a thing isn't included as a simple tool in chief. So much extra tinkering is often involved.

Search Chief Skills on YouTube. I pasted a link to his channel (Steve) and was given a NO - since the url did not directly link to a specific video. Steve has all kinds of porch related videos to get you past this hurdle.

Are you printing from layout file or from plan file? Are you printing to PDF first, to make sure everything is correct? Then you could send the PDF to your printer for the win.

CA seems very stable now on my MBP (M1Max) The only issue is I operate it in clamshell, connected through a cal digit hub to (2) different resolution monitors; one an ultra widescreen (Dell 34") and the other a 4K 43". Randomly the tool bar icons disappear. If I readjust the width of the tool menu window on the left, some of the tools come back to the top, but not in the same location/order that they were prior to the disappearance. Sometimes I have font issues when working with windows created files. I just make sure I have the main windows fonts installed on my mac. I have no need for real-time ray tracing so apple works fine. I have a 3080 TI in my windows desktop and since I don't get asked to provide 3D for permit, it's not high on my learning list. The studio seems like a beast.......enjoy!

Rene. Wow. I hope you develop a 12 week course on this kind of work. I know you share an awful lot of free content, but a serious training course would be killer. Thanks v/r, Mike

Is the XML option better than CSV for exporting to Excel?

On the more complex truss roofs, I do the work in 2D, for export to layout, as best as I understand how the trusses will probably go.....knowing full well that the truss designer will input the design into his MiTek or whatever software and crank out the actual truss plan...stamped. I've never had to show a 3D view for a truss roof (framing) on any set of plans.

Yes Auto roof works. Start with the center room......make it taller than the side rooms add the side rooms at less taller than the center Set the front and back walls to Gable Roof and balloon set the side walls (4) all to 4:12 or whatever you like Auto build roof

Multi monitor issue also plagues my macOS MBP

I really liked how apples San Francisco family of fonts was extremely clean and easy to read, even more so than Arial. Once I set my default font choice to SF pro, I started having problems between my two machines with the pop-up, asking me to choose a font as a replacement to the one that it couldn't find on my system. Just a subtle change in font caused all kinds of text changes, and often a paragraph of text would become longer or wider, thus causing more time to correct on the layout pages. Now I stick with Arial for everything.

Yes i work on two different machines - same file - no issues unless I choose some font that isn’t present on the other machine.

Hey Big Rob. I feel your pain. I had a client (my best man - so I made it a free job) make so many changes that I went through the alphabet in revision letters and was climbing to revAK (over 35 revisions) Chief started getting really unpredictable. Windows would be gone, roof planes would disconnect...........I had to finally stop. I sent him the exported DWG files and he finished it.

When I framed hotels and apartments in Kentucky in Tennessee, all those plans used control lines. They help to keep the project broke into sections and are excellent for reference lines, unless the guy that is pinning, the slab by GPS, does a poor job. Then the project gets crazy, then you have to have meetings to explain that where he marked the control lines on the slab don’t match where they are drawn on the plans. I found that it is often best on a long, rectangular structure, like a hotel, to get the original cad files and place a control line down the middle in both directions, left right and up down, and dimension from those. Then on the slab when you pop those lines, you can measure out from the center and any of the corrections to the building are made at the exterior, which means about 90% of the walls can be pre-built and assembled on site with minimal corrections to the some of the exterior walls.

Another great video, Steve. Your calm demeanor is a welcome contrast to the cussing inside my head when something doesn’t work as expected. Keep them coming.

It happens randomly for me. I am operating in clamshell mode connected to 2 monitors through a Caldigit TS4. It might be something more specifically chief code for macOS and how the program responds to the differing screen resolutions. I found it occurs almost regularly when I open a 3D cam and then drag that tab to the other monitor to view plan and 3D on two different monitors. But who really knows?

Thickness of your fascia. If you are calculating to the face of sub-fascia or tails, the thickness of the fascia will show up if the elevation is only seeing the outside face of the fascia. Im answering as a framer. I doubt it applies to Chief. ‘We match fascia on actual buildings all the time. Pack up the steeper pitched roofs (taller HAP).