CARMELHILL

27 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

I just tried doing this by creating a second floor, floor structure like a ceiling structure, i.e. no sheathing, 2x6 joists, made the height of the "floor" 1.5", and autoframed with 2x10 rafters.  Comes out just right.

Thanks Gene. I was hoping for something more automatic, but this works. I thought Chief had incorportated something like this for their roof module since almost every old style CapeCod house is built like this.

1 hour ago, DRAWZILLA said:

yes just set your roof planes as high as you need them the studs above the ceil. jsts will generate for you with attic walls on automatic

Yeah, but that's for doing manual roofs. If you do that and then hit auto roof it gets deleted and redone on top of the lower top plate. (Attached). I though there was a way to tell Chief to frame it at a higher plate height (without adding a silly false floor above like GeneDavis's solution).

Is there a way to set up auto roof to be done ontop of the ceiling on a perimeter plate? I need it for a portion of my roof design, not the entire project. So it can't be a setting for the entire project. Just a few walls.

See attached.

My office assistant has had this happen constantly but I don't remember if it was only on plans with bay windows. I though it was a glitch with the program on his computer. But today it's been happening to me all day. And yes, I have a plan with a bay window. It hasn't happened to me at all, until today, and until today I haven't had any bay windows in the plans.

I exploded the bay window to see if that makes a difference, and so far there are no repeats of the bug.

On 11/9/2023 at 12:05 PM, Renerabbitt said:

clever, understood

Sometimes I feel like you guys are speaking a different language. I've built 5 computers, do my own website, networking, etc., but when it comes to coding for Ruby and this mesh stuff I get lost.

Is there a program that will downsize/simplify the poly count on a model, apply the texture to make it a part of the model, then export it as something that Chief can recognize. If it's not a simply process then it's not much use. I'd rather not make life even more difficult.

Example: doesn't a Sketchup dae collada file export retain the entire texture on the model itself?

Holy crap that's more complicated than I thought.

This has a lot to do with 3d rendering and textures.......Rene are you listening?

I want to add some custom objects to make my renders more relevant to the tastes of my clients. I want to add some beachy decorative items like wood carved fish, pelican, sea birds, and build up a good 3d user library to quickly drag and drop into my scenes, etc..., But I keep getting stuck on the texture applications. Is this even possible or is it a dead end?

I've been experimenting with 3dphotogrammetry, RealityScan from Epic Games, Meshroom, 3DF Zephyr, and a few others. 

RealityScan uploads your model to Sketchfab and then you can download it from there. You have to convert it from gltb to either fbx, obj, or stl. When I import the model it's just a white object. I have no idea how to properly apply the 3d image as a 3d texture map.

So.......Can I take a 3d model I photo scanned using 3dphotogrammetry and uploaded to sketchfab, and download that model into Chief or Twinmotion? I've tried a few times and the textures are always messed up. I'm assuming the textures aren't overlayed automatically and I need to somehow do it manually?

For renovations and additions......

I'm sure I've overlooked something, but to speed up my design presentation floor plans I'd like to use the automatic exterior dimensions tool to add my dimensions.....but, BUT, this darn tool dimensions to every window/door, whether it's new or existing. I don't want the existing windows/doors dimensioned because it gives clients the assumption that particular window/door is being replaced with new.

Is there a way to set up the auto dim tool to dimension to only new windows/doors, or maybe to windows/doors that are in the window/door schedule (new windows and doors), or to items that have a label (existing windows/doors have the labels turned off).

Any ideas? Dimensioning is such a waste of valuable time, especially when we have a dimension tool that should be capable of this.

aGHHH. Thank you buddy.

Can somebody check this for me before I send in a bug report?

With the Layout Box Specification I just realized we can Link a construction detail to a callout within the plan. The callout can reference a detail either within the plan, layout, or a master detail file you've put together. OMG, I've been wanting this for years. I don't know when it arrived. But I think I found a bug relating to:

%referenced_view_callout_label%

The detail number does not show up in the callout on the layout sheet. See attached and let me know if your seeing it the same way.

4 hours ago, robdyck said:

Hey Ed,

what Chief did was to consolidate that function into a single layer set, as opposed to having it's own check column for every layer set.

Thank you. I looked at the change briefly yesterday. I'm going to spend Friday goin through it on X15 and adding new layer sets into my templates. I'm still heavily into X14 while I get my assistant up to speed on X15.

On 12/3/2022 at 4:44 PM, robdyck said:

This requires that existing walls be on their own layer, not include in materials and preferably.

Older versions of Chief had this ability, to set certain layers to report to the material list. I think it was removed in X14.

I was surprised last night to notice we lost the ability to set up which materials report to the estimate by using the layers dialogue box. There used to be a materials column, but I think it was removed in X14?? For a renovation/addition there needs to be easier ways to include/exclude certain items, or items from different parts of the floor plan. My project last night ias a two story addition with the roof being reframed on the existing, and a few bearing walls removed and replaced with new beams. Setting up line boundaries to only include those areas is cumbersome. It would be nice if you could set up individual estimate reports, associated to individual polyline boundaries, and you could individually decide if they report back to one large estimate, or separate estimates for first floor framing package, second floor framing package, wall stud package, or everything by floor level, etc..

You can setup which columns output to the report via the plan defaults preferences but then that affects every material list in that plan. I'm not ready to save 8 versions of a plan to have 8 different material lists.

Anyone have a better idea? I spent A LOT of time playing with this back during the covid shut down. I created a Master Material Price list for every item, only to realize a few weeks later that materials costs were fluctuating wildly, and my work was worthless. I REALLY wanted to be able to give clients instant budgets for different designs. But the quantity lists alone are pretty value for the contractors I send work to.

Thank you. A little bit of each of you answers helped. I turned off "Scale Images" on the schedule. That seems to have fixed it. I also had adjusted the wall section callouts text size in the Note Specification and that was the final fix. Thank you both.

Is there anyway to include callouts from two different drawings views that have different scales, without the callouts populating in the note schedule at different scales/sizes? I'm doing a building section at 1/4" scale and a wall section at 1" scale. The callouts in the note schedule look like this, attached.

I've played with it for a little while and I'm not getting results.

5 hours ago, GeneDavis said:

The 3D Warehouse has excellent content for Charlotte pipe DWV fittings, with points positioned for accurate and quick joining.

 

Gene,

Are you using these symbols within Chief or are you using Sketchup to provide the drainage drawings?

This has always bugged me so I figured I would ask the GODS.

This might just be me, but the Plan View Specification dialogue box, General tab, Save Options, Never Save, seems pretty useless to me.

If I have all my layers set up correctly. I open a plan view, for giggles here lets say I open a roof plan. I want to take some rafter span measurements, so I turn on the layers for all my walls. I take my measurements. NOW, if I have "Never Save" clicked, when I close the view shouldn't the layers NOT CHANGE in the saved plan view......I mean not save, I mean not change from my perfectly set up layers? This option has never worked for me. I really want this one thing to work right.

Sure, I could click "Prompt to Save" which works correctly, and just say no when it prompts me to save. But why doesn't Never Save not work correctly?

Or do the GODS just hate me?

I don't think it was fixed. My blueprints definitely look different. I use standard Arial font and the font just looks different on the page.

Instead of waiting I wanted to move forward. So I ran through all our notes and details and did the old standard....

grab all text

nudge left once

nudge right back to original position

reposition any wandering text that overlaps

It REALLY sucks when you open a client file from 3 years ago.

They are aware, and working on it. But please submit a bug report so it stays a priority on their list.

12 hours ago, glennw said:

At a wild guess, for rich text, it may be worthwhile checking the status of the Cad Style Font Sizing setting to see what happens.

Rich Text Specification>Options>Size

Checked it,

Same settings as X13.

Thanks. Sending in the bug report. just in case.

Has anyone noticed that text is printing slightly larger in X14 than it was in X13? I only use Arial font to print 3/16" and 3/32" main text. I measured my 3/16" printed text and it's printing at 1/4".

I have a bunch of construction details that now have text running out of the viewport. I also have some text has started to wrap in X14 when it didn't in X13.

On the bright side, X14 handles sheets with large amounts of text a lot faster and snappier than X13 did.

Is it just me, or does X14 not cut the ceiling joists correctly at the roof sheathing?

I've replicated it a few times. Works fine on X13.

1 hour ago, Dermot said:

 - if you had reported this issue 3 years ago instead of just posting on the forum, you might not still be having this problem

 

I remember I found a work around back then. I think it was either , start with a fresh blank plan and create a new template for the new release (I might be wrong.), or I also noticed a difference if you resave the file as a new name....that's how I got to layout #90. Lately I've been only updating the same file and overwriting it, but this might also be the source of the problem. I've only RECENTLY started having this issue again. I assumed, probably wrong after Dermot's input, that it was because of an update. It appears more likely it's because I've used the same file for too many updates.

The economy is taking a crap, so this is when I usually update all our borders, estimation item costs, etc. So I'll have some down time soon to do a new fresh X14 template.

But seriously, EVERYONE, thank you.

2 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

Interesting. Did not know there was a field for designer info in preferences.

 

I know. Me too. Learn something new everyday.