pacificstart

I am looking at the materials list and can’t figure out where certain materials are coming from. Is there a way to locate where a particular material is being used? I am using X8. I seen a similar question asked a few years ago and apparently there was no such feature back then....

I am trying to create roof trusses for a clerestory roof and when I draw them, Chief draws only one truss for each of the roof planes so I end up with two trusses instead of one. I could swear I was able to create a single truss with two different pitches before but I cannot figure out why I cannot anymore. I created a sample plan and attached it here. clerestory roof.plan

My son is doing a presentation to his classmates on how an ICF house looks like and I was hoping there is an easy way to turn these layers on and off do the kids can see this easily.

I am using X8 but please go ahead and post it. I may upgrade to X10 soon anyway. Thanks a lot!

No - I don't need to display framing members or the concrete in plan view.

There are all good suggestions here but what Glenn has posted is exactly what I am trying to do in perspective 3D. I am not sure why you made that custom hatching for the plan view. In any case - I was hoping I can do this only via the Layout display option. I would have expected this could be done by displaying only the Main Layer of the walls without having to juggle with anything else. Based on all the answers this sounds like a missing feature.

Thanks Glenn. That did it for the stud walls. But that still won't display the concrete in the ICF wall. I just added an ICF wall to this sample plan and although the fir framing shows up the ICF wall won't. 3d framing.zip

I am using X8 and I can't figure out how to display only the concrete (main layer) in in ICF wall. The interior fir framing shows up fine, including concrete floor layers. But the ICF wall is either displayed entirely with all the layers - including the insulation form block - or not all all - depending on whether I switch the layer "Walls, Normal" on or off. So I tried to create a new plan and take it step by step to figure out what is the setting that I'm missing. Turns out I can't display framing in a new plan no matter what I tried - the default 3D Framing Layer Set renders absolutely nothing. I think whatever causes this may be related to the issue I'm having with my ICF walls. Any ideas? I attach the dummy plan here 3d framing.zip

Thanks for the explanations, this helps a lot as I am getting closer to understanding how this works. I am still not clear on how to force the dimension lines to latch on to the object though. I am using End to End dimensions and I found that the dimensions get to latch on neighboring objects. For example - in elevation view I have some 3d boxes around or close to windows. When I use End to End dimensions for the windows I found the dimension lines latch on to these 3d boxes even if they are a few inches away. So what I ended up doing is resize or move the windows edges away from the closest 3d object, place the dimension lines, then put the window back where it should be. It's still not ideal as the dimensions still have a tendency to latch on some other objects - especially when I move the windows around. So I'm thinking that it must be some setting somewhere to improve this or prevent it from happening at all but I can't figure out what is it ....

I am not sure how to ask this question as I'm still new to CA but it sounds like it would be a fairly trivial requirement so maybe I'm missing the obvious.... In plan view I need to be able to draw dimension lines (for walls, doors rooms, etc) that will automatically adjust whenever the objects are re-sized. The same with elevation views.- I need to show the height of the roof eaves and peaks automatically, the same for the windows. Is there a way to draw these dimension lines and have them automatically display the size as soon as the objects change? I don't want to use the automatic dimension feature as this seems to draw dimension lines everywhere but I only need a few of them, not everywhere. This because when I delete the unwanted ones then I believe they all automatically get recreated by the Auto Dimension command which puts me back where I started: as soon as a re-size occurs I need to manually delete the dimension lines I don't want displayed. Is there a way to do what I need?

Just figured it out actually. Thanks for the tips. There were multiple layers checked as Main layer in the wall definition. As soon as I left just the concrete core to be the main layer everything magically worked out!

It's not a single layer wall, it's an ICF wall with multiple layers. And the Build Platform To Selected Line stays selected to the exterior layer (siding in this case) no matter what - all other layers have the option grayed out.

I am fairly new to CA and I keep running into this issue and I couldn't find a better way of fixing it than start every time from scratch. I have attached a picture showing the issue and the plan. Any idea why this happens and how to fix it? I'm using X6 btw. alberta 6037 chief.plan

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks a bunch Johnny!! I tried with an architectural block but I couldn't place it properly. Still learning all this stuff... I have been using CA for about months and I absolutely love it.

I got the form. I just need to stitch a few of them together. insuldeck 12.plan

That's exactly what I am talking about. Here is what I have right now. Now I just realized that my method can be very tricky. While the hash lines are a good guidance for the floor penetrations they aren't good for the ceiling as the wall thickness varies from floor to floor ...

Greetings I am new to Chief and currently designing an ICF house with Insuldeck floors. What I did to build the floors is a main concrete layer with 2" insulation below. This is not completely accurate since I need to mark the floor penetrations for HVAC / plumbing and create tray ceilings where ducting and pipes cannot be placed between the concrete joists of the floor system. So I layed out a floor material region with vertical or horizontal hashing lines depending on the direction of the joists and set it so it appears to be spaced at 24' in order to match the floor joists spacing (24" OC). This is not completely accurate since the actual joists have a profile that varies in width from 5" at the bottom to 7" near the top while the hashing lines represent only the center of the joists. And this method only works in floorplan view. It does give an indication on where the joists are though. I am wondering if there is a better way to represent this type of floor structure in a more accurate manner? Something like creating a molding profile and placing it inside the floor?