johnny

6 hours ago, Designer100 said:

How do I place a flood light on a exterior column or exterior soffit? Aalso placing a electrical outlet on a column. I have made a small retangle wall in past to do it. 

Any suggestion? this is something cheiv developers need to work on.

It says walls or cabinets! Ther should be a simple solution. 

I make a lot of my columns from Cabinets.  I would suggest that, very easy and lots of control.

2 hours ago, Richard_Morrison said:

I just tried "Edit Area" on Johnny's plan, and it worked just fine, including rotating.  

Yeah, this is an older thread.  It appears to me they fixed it in x10 since its now working for me as well.  Perhaps the person that revived the thread is working with an older version of Chief where this was a problem.  Although, I will note it was an odd bug that seemed to not be consistent (if you note the comments in the thread).

17 hours ago, Richard_Morrison said:

Whoa.... That's almost 500 sets per year! 10/week or 2/day. I don't know of any other firm that cranks out two permit sets per day.

Yep - a lot of the plans start with a "base plan" as in a pre-designed plan but the changes and locations vary and plans range from a few changes to full customs.  6 Drafters, 2 architects and 2 structural engineers keeping that pipe-line going.

This is a "starting" point plan example below...and then changes from there.

Madrona-Sales-Sheet.pdf

We use Chief Detail system with every plan, and now completed 1200+ permit sets in the last 2 1/2 years and no issues with losing them.  Our templates contain our "typical" or "standard" details so we can call them up as needed, or draw or own.  Its actually one of the strong points I like about Chief....though I think it would be WAY better if there was a 3D environment in each detail as well.

Does anyone know on the 3D viewer if there is a way to set the default settings so HD and shadows are standard?  Honestly, I dont know many computers/tablets/phones today that can't view just fine in HD, and MANY times clients don't understand that HD turns on textures....or that you can turn shadows on for better visual.

Unlike other CAD apps, in Chief nothing exists "on a layer" - it exists on a floor.  Layers are designed for visual reference display settings only. 

What about making that first riser a "landing" and shaping it how you want?

Id like to say that though "live" i guess works good for presentations, without Plot Lines I think the CONDocs don't look very sharp at the edges - and its a bit sloppy for the visual.  I hope Chief still fixes this issue so we can use Plot Lines.

Here is a quick PDF when i cut and past into a new file and send to layout.

test.pdf

1 minute ago, Chopsaw said:

 

I will look for Michael's video but there must be another factor as well because for me it won't even work on a 1200 sq ft plan.

Did you cut out the terrain and everything else?  Its the size of the model or anything else in the model.

1 minute ago, wjmdes said:

 

Any idea on what the cut off is?  And do you know if it is building size or the amount of detail?

Its a matter of the virtual size of the terrain/building.  What i remember about Michael's report on the issue is that the problem is progressive based upon size.  So, i think if you cut it back down to the main section of your proposal - along with the terrain etc - you should be fine.

3 minutes ago, wjmdes said:

I have been going through some house plans with this issue and have "checked" the "Edge Smoothing When Idle", that fixes it on those smaller files and it looks good.  Does not fix this file.....

Its the SIZE of the structure/terrain that is doing this.   If you shrink down to the min size you need (maybe copy the file) you might see it work correctly.  Shrink the extra structure on the sides of the proposal along with the terrain and any objects far from the center.

I remember there was a thread about this issue - related to the size of the building.  Since this is a commercial building Chief doesn't really spend the time fixing things like this.  If I remember correctly Michael showed how this is a real issue with larger structures (and/or terrain).

Added:

Looking back for that thread I can't find it, but I do see some notes that this problem was supposed to be fixed in an update.  There is a chance it crept back into X10.

if Michael sees this thread he will be able to give you a quick answer, as I think he even did a video to show.

1 hour ago, Alaskan_Son said:

I personally think 3D moldings kinda stink.  I almost never use them...especially for any that need to be applied to more than 2 planes.  For that situation though, I would probably either use three 3D molding polylines, or I would use primitives/faces/boolean operations.

I agree with Michael.  Its more trouble than they are worth getting all the settings right.  I suppose the exception to this may be if you spend time developing something you can use over and over.

Good to know this is a bug.  I guess we should submit it.

Not sure why this is a problem for me in X10 but i can no longer tab-enter a wall value without the angle messing up things.  Does anyone have a suggestion?

THanks

36 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

I could be misunderstanding, but just draw a short section of wall using the wall type from the library and then delete it.  This will add that wall type to the plan.   Then you can simply select the wall type from the drop down.

Thanks Micheal - although this doesn't seem to come up for me.  If you notice the 1st image below (railing 2) then you see the railing I am trying to use in the library, and when I use the drop-down the railing isn't present apart from the generic type.  Going above the upper rail (pic railing1) then you see the same rail selected - but I dont have an option for the one I want...both in the library and in the file.

Does anyone know how to replace an existing wall in a plan with one in the library?  I could swear that was possible but I don't see the method.

Declaimer - perhaps I am just searching the wrong phrase, but I did try to find the answer to this on my own and couldn't.  I am searching "replace wall from library" and "switch wall from library" and I can't seem to find the answer.

That was a cool video.  What is interesting is game developers are trying to get photo-realistic ray tracing on the fly at 60+ FPS and here in Chief it takes hours of ray trace time per 1 frame.

20 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

I too have spent hours and hours and hours trying to get Chief's 'auto anything' to really help in plan preparation - never had any luck. I just spend the extra 2 - 3 minutes to prepare my elevation heights; plan key notes; and anything else that takes way more time and effort than it has been worth.

Fully agree with Larry here.  It can be more work than its worth.

Worked like a charm - i can't thank you enough that was driving me crazy and i thought i might have to use p-solids.

54 minutes ago, kMoquin said:

Zero out the Gable Fascia on the Structure Tab

Create the gable trim with a shadow board specified as "Gable Only"

Barge Boards.plan

Great Idea!

I'm working on plans with a large gable fascia/barge, but Chief is clipping the end off to flatten it out where there is an intersection to the corresponding "eave" fascia.  Here is an example.

23 hours ago, solver said:

You cannot break the wall in the correct spot?

 

 

Only pitch and overhang.

 

Using a Roof Baseline Polyline should work, but may or may not.

 

Ill mess with this some more - my initial try i couldn't get it to work but i may be missing something.

20 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

here is how i have been doing it for now, until the tool gets fixed

Thanks Perry - that works!