joey_martin

"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.

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.

Short answer...no Long answer....there will be some others answer this with some macro help for you.

Go to the tool bar and under CAD look down for the PLAN FOOTPRINT tool and it will insert the footprint directly in for you.

I'm gonna be honest here, and it's an unpopular opinion but.... If this is a builder that brings plenty of work into my office, I am not getting into a pissing match over a spec set of plans and how many times it gets built. I am going to sit down and have a very, very, honest conversation with him/her about making sure when a homeowner walks into his office, I am the next call. I have even "spec'ed" the design fees on spec homes until it sells in order to secure more work coming into my office that I don't have to chase. My billings have increased 4 years in a row now after being flat for a few years, and I honestly think it's because I stopped sweating stuff like this. I make it very clear that the street goes both ways. When homeowners come into my office to have a home designed and built, there are a select few builders that get an early look at the plans and a copy of the materials list to help them get a jump start on pricing, because they do the same for me. About half my work is homeowners coming without a builder so I have plenty of leads for them, as long as I get plenty of leads back. Do what feels right for you and the relationship you have with that builder.

Isn't X14 already in your locker? Just put it on your other computer. The install isn't tied to a license number until you tie it to one. Paying extra money to save a :20 second click in order to have the software at 2 different locations was not, in my opinion, a good use of funds. I have had Chief on multiple computers for almost 20 years without ever even considering buying a second license.

Prepare for pain and jump in. No easy answer here.

Are you using those for a cabinet maker? When I provide interior elevations I use standard dimensioning a builder would use.

You can edit those lines in layout. Don't get hung up on them. When using a vector camera lines will pop up from time to time. Sometimes they don't carry over to the layout page, sometimes they do, but either way, they can edited during final cleanup.

I think he is trying to make one of these... The pieces are in the AZEK library but you have to assemble them and make a symbol to use them. The base he is calling a skirt. @Argy67 here is one I keep in my library... AZEK Deck Post w_Cap & Base.calibz

Once you break them you lose control. Big, big issue for some of my cross sections.

@blueriver and @ShaneK I am using a 5 year old off the shelf HP with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 750Ti, which does NOT run the real time raytracing, but does everything else very well. I only say all this because I would expect to have multiple issues with my system and I don't so I think your issues are not related to Chief alone, but something on your end that is causing the problem. I always have auto framing, foundations, and roofs on while I am working on an inital design, and I don't have slow downs at all. And @ShaneK where have you been hiding!? Haven't seen you around for a bit.

Color, plot line, zero "cleanup" B/W, plot line, zero "cleanup"

Rev-A-Shelf catalog has these shelfs.

Go to the foundation level to make the change to the stem wall, or even better open the default setting and make sure the foundation is set to that height and you won't have to worry about it any longer.