joey_martin

I have stayed quiet on this but in all honesty, I simply don't see the issue. I use Chief daily, make a very, very good living with it. Even if my SSA goes to $2k/yr at some point, I am in. I can't imagine leaving now and starting over after almost 20 years with this software. 

Now, what I do see is this. Chief Premier is, in my opinion, a professional grade architectural software, and should be priced as such. I think what this model will eliminate are the DIY'ers that ****** it up and do a project and move on. There is a Home Designer product line for those folks. If this change brings more professionals on board, I'm good with that. For at least the last decade I have felt that there could be a huge, untapped market for Chief with more design professionals. Residential architects and designers that are looking for a more residential friendly package will now see a package wrapped accordingly, rather than seeing John and Jane Doe soliciting for help cleaning up their mess because they got in over their heads. Is Revit ripe with DIY'ers that think this job is easy?

Just my thoughts. 

Casings, Exterior

Look in the ARCH area of the window dbx. There are options in there for dogear and gothic as well as arched.

@todd3drhda solid template is the key. Walls, for instance, I have maybe 30 walls already set in my template so that I don't have to worry with such things. I come across an assembly every now and then, but 98% of the walls I and my builders use are already in my template. Same with schedules, common notes, etc. I took an entire work day when X14 came out just to focus on getting my template updated. Well worth the time.

As others have said, it is doable. Here is my scenario...

No lumber. Chief makes my brain ache with lumber, so honestly, I don't even bother and my models are pretty accurate. I have a few builders that rely on my materials lists for siding, roofing, trim, flooring, casing, sheathing, doors, windows, cabinets....pretty much everything but lumber and fasteners. 

Now, as for lumber. Their lumber guys handle those take offs, and honestly that is the way to do it. Lumber is a commodity and unless you are going to update all those lumber numbers weekly in the master materials list, leave that to the lumber pro.

My honest assessment is, you can price a new home 80% right from your model, the other 20% is lumber, fasteners, caulk, plumbing, mech.

I work with a black background (easier in my eyes, and a hold over from AutoCAD days) so working with color helps me differientiate between what I am seeing and working on. Ceiling joists=green, floor joists=red, beams=magenta...etc...

I use Chief to create a 3D Model of the project I have been hired to create. Once approved by the client, I then use that model to create the 2D construction plans, and also to create the renderings. 

I'm sure that is a very simplified version of what you are asking. I do have occasionally have a client that has worked with his/her architect on a project and they hire me to model it in Chief so that they can then use that model on their end, or have me create some renderings. I also have a couple architect clients that prefer not handle the drafting of the construction plans for projects they have created, so they hire me to produce those plans....2D services....and the modeling is simply a by-product of what I need to produce the plans for them. 

That help?

13 hours ago, DCortes said:

I did not delete anything

David deleted his comment.

Did you get the issue resolved?

Sooo.....what will the SSA program cost annually going forward?

He deleted the comment. 

2 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

Then set the "Ceiling" to zero inches and set the ceiling material to "Opening, no Material".

With all due respect, that is a long winded and unnecessary way to do this. Simply remove the ceiling material all together and uncheck the box for the "room" to have a ceiling.

Try just double clicking on the terrain perimeter to open the default and set from there and see what happens. 

Tranforms/replicate may work as well

"About a $5k set up."

Me, personally...would spend $2500 on the PC and $2500 sipping drinks on a beach. My off the shelf 5 year old HP works just fine with X14 other than RTRT, which I don't do much rendering so I haven't even starting to look at upgrades yet.

Check the framing defaults for that information...

@BadgerEngineer Chief will do that sometimes as well. Usually after working with elevation changes and updated, or if I have moved the elevations around the page multiple times. You may need to simply remove those elevations and resend them to the layout page to get the shadows to update correctly.

@Renerabbittcorrect me if I am wrong but using that method will cause that cross section line to remain visible. That's a big no go for me using this method for cabinet/architectural elevations.

14 minutes ago, JKEdmo said:

The callouts can be "dumb" and graphical only.

Not if you link it back to the camera view.

Try Google Earth. There is a little more info in there.

I've done multiple homes in Georgia. Shoot me an email and I'll have a look.

I have used local GIS online mapping services when there are no surveys available. I have found them to be reasonably accurate when needing to measure a distance. They are also, most of them anyway, linked to the tax reports and property cards that can give more information. 

For example, here is the GIS for your area. https://maps.cityofrochester.gov/propinfo/

Thanks Jeff.

I am going to look very close at this. One question @Designers_Ink, can I "sketch" to scale? In other words can I have a 24x36 or 11x17 graph paper and sketch, or just 8.5 x 11?

I am very old school when it comes to getting new ideas for plans out of my head and onto paper. I can't go directly to Chief and start working on an idea, I always sketch first. 

The garage is a "room", open the dbx for the room and use the structure tab to set all the heights relative to 0'-0", which is the sub-floor of the home. If the garage is 3' lower than the house, then you need to tell Chief that.

Just select the "doorway" opening that Chief auto places at the top of the stairs and make it smaller.