SHCanada2

attached is a video which shows the problm e 1245980094_bandicam2021-05-2322-18-49-572.mp4

thats where I was, that what the screenshots were from. But I found something more interesting. If I keep the inside wall away from the wall, I can select the "room between the two walls" nd I can set it to 91 in the dbx, click okay, but if I open back up again, it reverts back to 98-5/8, but if I move the left inside side wall by the stairs to the right two bumps, it will keep the 91. I've seen this before, I remember keeping the inside walls away from the concrete foundation walls. This works most of the time, but because I have stairs along the outside wall in this plan, I need to maximize the square footage. I cannot be losing inches simply because I cant get the program to work. Maybe a double wall is the better answer? I cant be the first person to have this problem...

so this got me thinking. The screenshots above are the defaults. so why is there a default checkbox in the defaults dbx. by simple definition wouldnt anything in he default dbx be "default". why is there a check box there? perhaps this is the default from somewhere else? if so, I cannot seem to find it, and the documentation does not seem to differentiate between the dbx called from the default and not called form the default. i tried checking and unchecking, and it does not seem to make a difference, but now it seems that it is working. No idea, its almost like some setting changes a cache or something

found a programmer in France to do it up, $18 see attached video. Where I notice this could be most useful is creating plan options for clients. I just did 5 options of the same plan in the same day for a customer. after option 2 I gave up creating new layouts and just made the changes betting they would not go back to option 2,3,4. So even though I had 5 PDFs of layout with different options, I only had two plans and two layouts. With this tool, I could quickly copy the layout and the plan to a new directory, run the tool, and KNOW that the previous plan and layout were never touched. Part of the problem with the whole renaming method, is I question as to if I "got all references" and am worried that I did not and am worried I will be altering the previous plan. So what I would do to mitigate this is copy off the plan and layout to a backup directory as well. Then on the first save I go and check the filedatetime of the plan file to make sure I am changing the right one. Kind of a pain if you are trying to get a bunch of options quickly in front of the customer, and you know the layout will not change. bandicam 2021-05-23 14-32-56-963.mp4

not with the ladder method of cribbing as you can then nail away on the ladder... or if an engineer says you do not need it

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/334/framing-walls-with-different-studs-and-variable-stud-spacing.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5317/multiple-wall-framing-layers.html

I did something similar in my example above, changed the roof pattern. the problem is that is great for the roof, but he wants everything else plot line. It looks like your example is color plot line, same as my example. which from what I can tell, one cannot get only the back and white pattern to show. i.e. your wall, doors, batten, and if you had brick there, show color fill, as opposed to outline line.

it is "measure on gen 1" that I have

I'd strongly suggest you get the GLM50C with bluetooth. Bosch Model # GLM 50 CX 165 ft. Laser Measure with Bluetooth and Full-Color Display: Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement with the bluetooth connected to the app, no typing. saves a TON of time. typing numbers is no fun. I use Meas on gen 1, it says v1.3.8 on my tablet. interesting that there are two now, as I was emailing the Bosch people about 3 months ago and they said a new version was coming, but I never saw it, so maybe it is out now. Nice guys, very open to suggestions (including the snap to angle for detailed). I just looked in google play and I do not see just a measure on, maybe it is the new version and only available in the US or only on apple or soemthing Couple things. use on a tablet, dont try on a phone. practice one first. it takes a bit getting used to switch the mode from panning to clicking walls. I will accidentally draw walls all the time because I forget to change back to panning. use quick sketch and then convert to detailed to measure. you can use the detail right away, but its a bit of a pain as it does not snap the walls to 90/45. I used to actually start with detail every time, but I practiced with the quick sketch first and it seems better attached is what it looks like, and the resulting output. One limitation is on T walls. You can see in the attached. The software breaks it into two walls. So what I will do to double check the inside dimensions is to create a "dimension line" and take a reading. I also do that for larger spaces, as a double check. Be careful not to measure a wall, and then create a T after you measure. you will lose your original measurement as it does not know how to divide up the measurement correctly, it just dives it, presumably based on scale of where you added the T wall. the other limitation is posts. so I either put a note in or draw a dimension line. one thing, dimension lines do not show in regular wall mode, you have to tap on the arrow For windows, it takes, W, H, from floor, and distance to wall, you can pick left or right the workflow I use is to draw all the walls, then go from wall to wall, tap, tap which side of wall then press the button on the bosch, and it will show up as the dim on the app, save, repeat. The extra dimension lines in the screenshots are the double check for the longer distances. Before I leave I do the rough math in my head to see that the walls add up I dont export for CA, I just move around the app, as the export numbers overlap. you could export and trace in CA, just be careful to use actual measurements. once the app detects an incorrect ratio it will no longer auto size walls, so you have to double check the walls lengths anyway in CA vs Bosch 64ave_se_New_detailed_plan.pdf

It is actually relative to elevation 0 from what I can tell. The label is misleading, it is only "subfloor height above terrain" if your subfloor elevation is at 0". i.e. if I set my subfloor to be at 36" (in the structure panel of the main floor), this parameter is then set to 0 (grade level), assuming 36" is 36" above grade at the point you are choosing as your reference point. Room structure elevations are referenced to "Something". it does not have to be the main floor subfloor. it can be whatever you deem zero to be. in the case below I deem zero to be elevation of grade, main floor is 33" above. I do this because that is how I think. i.e. I need 12" of basement wall to be above grade. And when I measure an as built, it is from grade, so I can see the elevations in the structure easily without having to do a storey pole on an elevation, or to do the math. I believe most do not do it this way, most put 0 as main floor subfloor, and adjust the storey pole ground elevation. of course on a sloped lot, this reference then has to be grade somewhere. For me, it is typically the front door it is the terrain object elevation, not contours.

thats what I did, the roof is okay, but then the wall shows, stone shows. yeah I was hoping people were not going to say that. I don't like the style either, not sure why anyone would care to see the eave area in an elevation. Trying to avoid the CAD if I can as I have to move/resize/redraw ...and I'm not that great with it yet.

a potential customer contacted me and asked if I could do his "style". It is basically plot lines with a grey roof surface. I've tried to get this by doing a color plot lines and white stucco, but it does not work. (roof turned out well but walls, stone did not) I also tried turning layers on and off in elevation to try and get the dashed lines for the eaves, no luck. anyone have any ideas for these two things? thanks

thanks, I put in a suggestion to document the behaviour

I do manually but I am also ignorant to perhaps a better way

My own house gable is about 24' H x 42W but with a break for a loft at 12', so call it 24'x30W with 8 windows (2 rakes) and patio doors After I drew it up I sent it to my engineer. He specified 2x6 wall framing with 4' blocking. 6ply 2x6 main column holding up the ridge beam(which differs from yours) I framed it, and it was wobbly. I called the engineer and said I thought it might fall over. He came within a few hours and looked at it an basically said, the calcs are good. If I wanted to add reinforcement I could add a column LVL on the inside My opinion was it was wobbly because there is essentially no sheathing with all the windows, and because the 2x6column was built up. He asked me if I glued it and I said no. So the jury is still out on if it was the glue Instead I added 2x6 below every header (I was originally trying to keep the distance between windows to a minimum and did not put in any framing below or above the header (other than 1 2x6), which differs from the drawing below), and put Simpson L50 L brackets on every window corner and two L70 L on every header(vertically to attach to columns as you have 5.5 less 3= 2.5 in to put in a bracket), and bolted the 2x6 column together. It was much better, but still a little wobbly. Once the windows went in, eveything was pretty much good (no cracks on the windows yet (6 years later). below is the framing, except I never built the framing above/below the headers as shown (except the top), only a 2x6 on flat above and below. oh and in the end it wasnt a christmas tree for the middle column(as shown below). I think it was 6 for the column plus 1 for the jack stud on either side, so 8 total

Many years ago around here, what was called a "2x10 on flat" was often detailed at the bottom of stairs to make for more headroom. What are people doing these days and how are you detailing it, given the auto joist creation feature in Chief? Thanks Jason

also, thanks to @Alaskan_Son for explaining a few things about macros: 1. macros fire when the text macro management box is opened 2. global variables instances on one view and used on that view should always be correct, as long as the macro which creates the global variable is called on that view (which seems to be my layout test above)

On a layout I've been testing two layouts which create the same global variable, lets call it $layoutglobal, which is set by a macro, lets call it globalmacro. This macro sets the value to "Layout14". I create a read macro which is called readlayoutglobal and it has in it macros.globalmacro If I create a textbox on my layout, lets suppose my layout file is called Layout 14, and put in %readlayoutglobal%. The text box will update to show "Layout14", as one would think. I save as my layout to Layout 15 and reopen Layout 14 as well (two layouts open) I then change globalmacro in Layout 15 to have $layoutglobal="Layout 15". the textbox in Layout 15 changes to "Layout 15" If i click back on layout 14, the textbox is still showing "layout 14". If i goto another layout page and add a text box and add the macro, it shows "Layout 14", if I go back to Layout 15 and do the same thing, it shows "layout 15". I also created this global variable in a plan, and set it to "plan 15", but "plan 15" would not show up in either of my labels This would imply one of two things, when clicking on a layout, the macros always fire, or if there are two global variables with the same name in two different layouts, there are two instances (effectively not global between layouts) Either way this seems to guarantee one can depend on the global variable in the layout to not be overwritten? or am i missing a use case? where I am going with this is: The plan file layout box object in layout contains the "Referenced file". I could put in a macro in the label for the layout box which then retrieves all values of interest from the layout plan, and stick them in global variables, for use in the layou, with no fear of being overwritten from somewhere else

so i just tried changing the directory and it works as well I changed: C:\Users\Jason\Documents\CA\test folder to C:\Users\Jason\Documents\CA\testy folde and changed Untitled 12 to Untitled 14 and put in this new directory. Then repeat the steps above The only thing I missed is after you open the modified layout. Select Tools-->Layout->update all views to update the cameras. But this is no different than usual for me as I keep them as update on demand so what this implies is you could create a layout like steven described, and save it as the template, but instead of using the default plan, use the plan in the directory structure you want to use(by copying the default plan to it). Or you could open the default plan and save it in the new directory and then send it to the template layout, either way works. as long as the template file is referencing a plan which follows your directory structure For instance suppose this is your naming convention: C:\CA\JOBDESCRIPTION\JOB NAME.plan note that the path is 22 characters for the directory and filename would be the one referenced in your template layout. Then if you have a new job you would create a directoy called C:\CA\JONS JOBSITE__\ and create a plan called Johns jo.plan as the filler of __ and the truncation of job to jo maintain the same number of characters then you would copy the template layout to C:\CA\JONS JOBSITE__\ then rename the layout to whatever you want then open up the layout in a hex editor and replace C:\CA\JOBDESCRIPTION\JOB NAME.plan with C:\CA\JONS JOBSITE__\Johns jo.plan and voila, when you open the new layout it will point to Johns jo.plan when you start s new project plan you would then save the plan ideally back in my younger years I'd create a little windows program to just setup the directory and create them, and create the new file name and copy the layout to that directory, rename, and replace the Hex. There might be a command line hex editor which takes a search and replace as a parameter. If this was the case, it could all be done with a batch file

I just tested it by doing the following: create a new plan called Untitled 12.plan create a new layout called Untitled 12.layout keep in same directory send a camera, floor plan SPV, elevation, another SPV form Untitled 12.plan to Untitled 12.layout save close CA copy Untitled 12.plan to Untitled 13.plan open CA. open Untitled 13.plan, change some walls, that change the roof. observe that the camera, elevation, floor plans have all changed save close CA download a hex editor. open Untitled 12.layout in hex mode change Untitled 12 to Untitled 13 in 4(or however many are created) instances in the file where it they have a view named (the other instances are for last file opened). These are at the end of the Untitled 12.layout file save open CA. open Untitled 12.layout observe that it shows the contents of Untitled 13.plan, not Untitled 12.plan This means you can effectively change the referenced plan file in a layout file, outside of CA. IF and only if the path is same number of characters. i.e I tried changing to Untitled 123456 and it did not work of course I did not try to change the last directory, but I'll give it a go and post back

interesting as I'm tired of sending to layout and then adjusting where it lands. . I'm not sure for your demo why after connecting the first plan, why you could not just delete it. i.e. instead of picking the default plan to put to layout, open the default plan, save as, then put those views to layout, then delete that plan. ..probably the same effect as what you have. The plot line thing is interesting. I'm almost thinking there may be a way to automate this...well I just checked and there is a way to automate this if and only if you maintained the same number of characters in the path. i.e. if your path on one project was: C:\Users\Jason\Documents\CA\JohnnysDesign\JDPlan.plan then your next project would need to be C:\Users\Jason\Documents\CA\BobsDesign___\BDPlan.plan The way to do this would be to alter the layout file with an outside program. I used a hex editor to replace all instances of the plan name, with the new name, in the layout file and then saved it, then opened in in CA and it worked. I tried the same thing with different file lengths but it did not work so if you maintained same number of characters in the file path, you could automate this even further than you have. As well, when I tested, you do not have to change the view or do anything for the updated views to show in layout. ..might not be a bad solution if one could live with the same number of characters in the plan. The layout filename size should not matter

do you adjust the scale of the plan (File->Print->Drawing sheet setup) to match the house size. i.e. if you start and draw 50' wall and realize that is only half your real estate, do you then go and change this scale so the 50' wall is now 75% of your real estate, or do you do something different? thanks

yes, because it shows in the connect leader line box. and I write to a log file every time I read it (For testing),so i can tell it is being read successfully below you can see the problem. before I took this screenshot, the floor area was 1273. Then I moved a wall in the plan and went to layout and this is what it shows. Connected leader line box is now at 1218(which matches the new area in the plan) but rich text box is still at 1273. The rich text box has only %firstfloorarea% and all that macro has in it is $firstfloorarealayout but if I open up the text box and then close it, it will change to match correctly:

and here i thought it was my graphics card. good to know, thanks i suppose i wasnt expecting to not see it show on the 3d when I add it in 3d. especially when there are lots of videos out there showing thats how it works. I fiddled around for an hour or so thinking it was a layer problem. The above states the terrain is rebuilt when a road is added, it doesnt imply to see the road, the terrain needs to be rebuilt. as a poor analogy, I do not need to rebuild the wall framing to see the cabinet attached to the wall. anywho glad it is sorted out

found the problem "auto rebuild terrain" must be checked, or user must manually build the terrain. elevation of building is irrelevant. The user doc is silent that this affects driveways, unless one is to know that driveways is "elevation data" Building the Terrain When terrain is generated, Chief Architect gathers all elevation data that has been added to the model and creates a terrain surface. The program interpolates the data to produce smooth contours. A terrain perimeter with no additional elevation data drawn within it generates terrain that is flat at the elevation 0' - 0", or sea level. Select Terrain> Driveway> Straight Driveway, then click and drag a line within the Terrain Perimeter. Multiple driveway sections can be connected together.