joey_martin

I have been researching this as well. My office may be going through a growing phase, and will need something. Here are a couple that I have saved to research. https://www.procore.com/architects-and-engineers/ http://www.bqe.com/default_ao.asp https://www.workzone.com/industries/architects-project-management-software/

Build the model like you would build the home. Roof sits on the floor 1 plates, or on a small knee wall. There is also a checkbox during the roof setup to tell Chief to ignore the second floor when adding a roof. That should give you what you are looking for.

Turn on the framing and set the defaults.

There was, at one time, a member/user that worked for Bender Lumber down south that did plans. Don't remember his/her name. Might check with the folks at Bender Lumber

I am about 40 mins north of Indy.

As said above...make sure you don't have the windows recessed. When recessed the extension will run behind the veneer and not able to be seen.

Had an exact conversation with a builder once about the foot length Chief was giving us. He didn't believe it, didn't want to hear it.....ended up buying more base.

I have to admit, I am confused by this. That set of plans doesn't have dimensions on it. Are you relying on builders/estimators to pull their own dims when estimating your projects? In all the years I have been doing this, I can probably count on one hand how many times I have scaled a drawing. Dimensions provided should always override a field scale.

You have to include those things in your model before they can be counted. If you want J-Channel, there needs to be J-Channel in the model.

I made this suggestion back in January. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/8061-roof-planes-roof-plans/?hl=%2Broof+%2Bplan#entry71035

If you want a 2D roof plan that looks like the plan in your example, then Chief may not be the tool for you. Until the issue with overlapped roof planes is addressed, it is what it is. But...if you are using a different plan file, just for an aesthetic reason, then you are truly missing the boat with Chief. Using/learning more about reference sets, layer sets, and anno sets will be huge for you. As for a professional looking roof plan in Chief....I would beg to differ.

Now opened

If your not using the join tool because it changes your pitch, then you have something off somewhere else. I use that tool everyday...every plan...no exceptions.

Not for nothing...but I use Chief on a few different machines, none of them "top of the line" and I honestly can't remember the last time Chief has crashed. I only bring this up, certainly not to rub your nose in it, but so that you can know if it's a Chief thing or a hardware issue. Good luck.

Open and place a framing schedule. Open the schedule DBX and uncheck everything but the roof truss. Rename truss schedule and boom....your done. Take 2 mins.

It's actually a pretty easy process. Make the foundation wall a "pony wall" with the thinner of the 2 walls on top, and check the box for "hang 1st floor platform inside foundation walls" and you are good. You will need to set the heights accordingly, and manually place the P.T. plate below the joists, but again...pretty painless. DJP: There are multiple reasons to model this situation correctly, not the least of which is so that the model is correct, and thus your details, sections, and materials lists are correct. And quite frankly, for someone that advertises to be a professional Chiefer, and to offer training and Chief help services for pay, I am more than a little disgusted that you would dismiss someone that is asking for the exact thing you offer. You don't want to tell him for free, fine...but to simply dismiss the request as a waste of time is appalling.

That would be my guess as well. Don't "attach" the deck to the house with 3 rails...draw all 4 side away from the main structure and use EDIT AREA to select and move the deck into place. See what results you get then.

Based on the layout. The roof is exactly how it should be.

Using the bi-fold will allow you to use the actual specs of the product you might purchase. Like the glass firedoors on the front of the fireplace. You can set the width. height, and depth of the actual units.

I do the same as you, but inherited a project a while back, and found this issue with the fixtures. I generally only want the walls and openings for as-builts.

Use a doorway and suppress the casing...or leave it and apply a surround trim.

He is talking about the individual fixtures. Back in the day...before Chief "updated" the fixtures (especially plumbing fixtures) you could use the CAD from View feature and the plumbing fixtures would simply work. Some of the new 3D fixtures will do some whacky stuff when they are converted to CAD and exploded, therefore.....leave them as blocks and change the layer association. Hope that helps.

When you choose them, are they blocks? If so, select the check box for assigning color and type from BY BLOCK to BY LAYER and see if that helps.

This would be one of the rare instances I would turn off auto everything. You will need to manually set all those floor heights, then go to the foundation level and manually draw those walls in, then add the strip footings below those walls. or open the wall dbx and add the footings via that method. You will most likely need to manually frame the entire structure as well. Once you turn Auto something back on, the defaults will kick in and change what you have completed. Good luck. Won't be an easy model.

If your client doesn't come into the relationship with an understanding of the difference between off the shelf and custom or semi-custom, then there isn't much of anything you can say or do. Sounds pessimistic, but it's honest. If I have to spend more than 5 minutes explaining what I can do over off the shelf, then I have no interest. Wish them luck and move on. EDIT: And be prepared to drop your pants. They will toss around the cost savings of going off the shelf until you are doing the job for break even or worse.