joey_martin

I'm going to toss this out again for everyone. I seem to be getting a lot of requests from the South East to possible come and do some one on one. Is there interest in a 2-day training session somewhere in the Southeast that everyone could get to? Atlanta comes to mind. I am willing to set up the 2-day training session so that we can do some "hands-on" face to face training if there is interest in me getting down there. Flights from Indy to Atlanta are pretty reasonable, so I am sure I can keep cost down if we can get something scheduled. Please let me know via email to joeymdp@gmail.com and put Atlanta Training in the subject line so that I can group them together. Thanks everyone.

If you are upgraded to X8 you can change the glass material and translucence to get the effect you are after.

I am working on a 4000 sqft spec. Pretty detailed, with full MEP, Framing, etc....I am at 42 hours right now, and have at least 20 hours of details and sections to produce....if I can keep it below 70 hours I would feel pretty good about it. Keep in mind though that, there have been minimal revisions using Chief. I sketched most of the prelim, so that is about 10 hours I would guess.

I had to make a new template plan for X8...had some issues with the template I have brought forward over the years. Sometimes it's OK to start fresh and take a look at how you do things now compared to how I did things in X1 (which is when my template originated). I did find some things to change, a few things to "update" and what not.

Umm...no. Not even close. The problem with that theory is that, if you are charging $150/hr in Kansas, there will always be 10 designers willing to charge $75/hr, which means you are out of business quick! I'm in Indiana, which I think is probably similar to your general area. I charge $80/hr here if I'm doing hourly drafting/light design work for builders/developers. I prefer square foot pricing, and again, it depends on what I am doing. Full service design and spec will be a higher rate that if a builder brings me his sketch and needs a set of "builder plans", which in this area is simply a few pages.

Yes. Just export your existing title block (DXF/DWG) and import it onto page 0 of the layout.

You can't. Chief files cannot go backwards. If you have files created in X8, they cannot be viewed in x7.

I think a compromise would be to give current SSA members the opportunity to download and backup what was previously included. Give us a grace period to get what we need.

Uncheck the threshold box

I am one of the users that always puts basements on floor 0. It works for me, not for others....but yes. Simply raise the door off the slab to where you want it to be. Keep in mind though, unless the same flooring is used on each side of the door, there may be an issue. For instance. A bathroom and a family room are next to each other. The bath has tile, the family room thick carpet. You are going to want the door to open into the bath most likely so that it doesn't get caught on the carpet.

I have done a couple Church/Fellowship projects (Conventional Construction), I did an office duplex for a local HR Block rep, and had a State Farm suite next door. It can be done. High rise commercial....maybe not so much.

There may be...but it's pretty painless. Simply open a text box and click the insert button. There are a number of macros that can be used.

It is...its a macro for the room. When I paste it in another room it takes on the properties of the room it's pasted in.

Could it be your framing needs updated?

Yes. I pulled this Simpson LU28 from the 3D Warehouse and placed it in the plan. It shows under Fixtues by default, but that can be changed.

I do it with a macro. Just copy and paste it around the plan as needed.

Not automatically, but they can be brought into the software and added manually.

Bingo. My layer set is called ELEVATIONS, EXTERIOR. All line weights and colors (grey scale) are set via the layer set.

If you can get the scale right, re-draw is faster. I have even brought a CAD (DXF/DWG) file into Chief and lock the layer its on to trace over. CAD files should come in already to scale.

Try a ramp

Restarting the computer will fix the issue as well. If you leave your machine on for extended periods, like I tend to do, restarting or shutting the machine down for the night will fix the issue.

There is NO process that will allow you to put a plan from Sketchup into Chief and have a workable plan. It's simply not true. You can trace a jpeg (see above), you can export DXF/DWG and try CAD to walls to formulate a model, or re-draw from scratch.

I take care of it with a note

You are correct sir. Changed the length 1/2" and all is well.

I am able to push the window against the CMU without any problem.