tommy1

Draw it from an elevation first.

Yes, this has been like this for years. When I was working with Katy, I would always move the plan out of the drop box folder that I was linked to me and do my phase of the plan outside the drop box. When I was finished, I would put the plan file back in the folder. We had many problems over the years with drop box that I could talk about but I hate working on plans while in drop box. I know many people disagree.

Larry, if you're asking me, no.

Yes, this was about color not structure integrity. Just a comment I was making. I have a meeting with the engineer tomorrow and will ask if this is acceptable for stopping an interior beam in the middle of a slab in Houston. Just never seen it here.

Just a side note after looking at your plan. You might want to check with local codes and a local engineer. That foundation wouldn't pass here in Houston. The spans for the interior beams to the perimeter grade beams are too far apart. If the interior beams stop in the middle of the slab as shown, you might need to have piers. I've never done or seen interior beams stop like that but I know things are different from place to place. I don't know soil conditions or slab thickness.

Lower the porch ceiling height until it looks fine. You're seeing the ceiling break. In plan view, you should see it if that layer is on.

BTW, something else I do. After it's placed on the column, slab, solid or whatever so it looks good in plan view, I then open that symbol and set all the origins to "0" so the bounding box is good.

That's the ticket and is what I do. Much easier and faster. No walls. If the symbol is set for wall mount, just place it on a wall and do as Michael said.

Room dividers really aren't necessary. They've made this a lot easier to do in X10.

I'll call you.

Katharine, if you like, I would be happy to do an online meeting with you and see what's going on. I would have to watch and see how you're doing it. If interested, please call my cell 832-754-6160.

Has anyone found that they need to enlarge the cad block for the ceiling smoke detectors? I have. 99.9% of my plans are ay 1/4" scale and the plan checkers find it hard to see the smoke detectors. I've been using a larger can block and have had less comments from the city plan checkers. I never hear anyone comment on the size of the smoke alarm cad blocks so I thought I would bring it up.

I remember when a test like this was offered many years ago like maybe back in Version 10 or so. Can't remember who set it up.

Cherel, I may be old school but IMHO I would always make a separate plan file of each design and name them "option 1, 2" etc.. You could always use one layout with multiple plan files linked. As you see, you have many options on how to do this.

Good answer. I agree about drawing manual.

Took a look at this plan. Something is wrong with a setting somewhere. The only way so far that I can get the 2nd. floor roof to build automatically is to not have it build a roof for the front porch. I can redraw the perimeter walls as shown in his plan in a new blank plan with the front porch and it builds all roofs just fine. Spent 25 minutes trying to find the problem and still haven't found the problem but could actually draw all roofs manually in 10.

Instead of saving it as an architectural block to the library, try creating a symbol of it instead. Then save that symbol to the library. You'll probably have better results. I quit saving architectural blocks years ago for things like a trailer.

I had this issue many years ago with the program freezing up when closing an elevation. The problem was that I had a couple of things in the plan that had real high face counts. You might check a different plan and see if you still have the problem. If not, the problem might be plan specific.

My rule of thumb so for is any dwg received from a surveyor will be in feet....everything else in inches.

Mick, I don't believe it's a snap grid issue. I don't use snap grids and have them turned off on my profile plan but I'll check later this afternoon if the control key helps. Didn't try that.

Rob, feel free to call me if you like Cell- 832-754-6160. I often help a lot of people on-line for free to show them something if they get stuck. I can use Skype or Team viewer but I prefer Team viewer.

Tracer, just my thought. You mention that they "sometimes won't show" or "don't always show up". This tells me that it might be a plan specific problem. To help with a specific problem, it could be helpful if someone sees a plan with cameras that aren't showing the ceiling planes.

If the existing barn was drawn in Chief, try doing an edit area (all floors) and then copy and paste into the other plan.

Here is a Marriott Hotel where I just did a render of a new porte-cocher they were wanting (no construction drawings). They liked it but found they couldn't justify the cost. This ray trace was done many years ago. There are people here who will take your plan and do high end renders for you.

If you're interested, email me at the email address below or call me 832-754-6160 and I'll do an online meeting (free) with you and show you an approach to doing your layouts using anno sets and layer sets. As mentioned by David, in most cases, you only need two plans, existing and proposed for each project. BTW, it would be helpful to know what version of Chief you're using in advance...especially if you're using a home version.