johnny

^^^ that looks to be the issue. Wall materials regions would be an awesome solution if Chief would have allowed us to go around the corners with them.

If I was going to build a scaled terrain model in real life the last thing Id do is grab a roll of cellophane wrap and try and stretch it over toothpicks. Yet, I feel this is exactly how Chief developed our terrain tools. Not a fan, and I dont see any difference.

Not that I know - and if you draw in a certain view it means you won't be able to edit fully or even snap in other views. So then to get around that if you go make psolid sections in different views and put them together and block, moving that block often results in glitch-outs. I have been able to use "place point" to get some better control - but as Larry said needs work badly.

Since profile lines are kinda painful to apply in CA, the live view full color (then convert to greyscale) allows my elevations to pop with the shadows. Since there is no such thing as "plotters" really anymore, why not use greyscale I say.

Thanks guys - I understand the difference so i'll work with that.

Sorry, not a great video but I think it may help. Also, I am working from home today and my son is on spring vacation (you hear in background).

Its not letting me select that line at all...its one of the auto generated lines (does that matter?).

Id like to be able to move the terrain elevation data (actual number that breaks the auto-contours) so its in a different location. I'm cropping the site down to fit my sheet, and that data gets lost in the crop. Thanks!

....or use the Material painter when in 3D view. You can then experiment with different types of materials, and if you want to adjust something slightly use the "rainbow" Adjust Material Definition tool.

Check this out - sorry took a but longer to figure out. Sorry I am working from home today so you may here my son in the background (its spring break for him).

Nice Val. Justin did an amazing job with the pool, but i'm curious how having a terrain under the pool works with having a terrain for the house - can you have 2 terrains or did you export as a symbol or something for your composite model?

Yeah, id say Richard uses Archicad like I do Vectoworks. If you office does a fair amount of mid-large commercial projects Chief alone isn't going to cut it. Doesn't mean you can't use CA if you are doing some interior design and unit "staging" etc. Its just CA has given almost no time and attention to tools related to commercial - outside those tools which happen to be also useful for residential. Consider this - I dont think i've seen a single training or webinar video produced by Chief showing a commercial structure being designed/worked-through. Perhaps someone can point to one, but i've never see it. I did this presentation model in CA a while back. Once past the presentation I took the project into Vectorworks to complete.

I haven't used it yet but are you telling me the area ends up with 7 decimal regardless if you want that or not? So you want it to show 24.50 SF and it shows 24.5072054? That is nuts if thats what we are talking about.

oh, and no curtain walls in Chief. Some have gotten "railing walls" to sorta look like curtain walls...but its not the same thing.

Yes, Chief can do all this. Just not as conveniently as other apps designed for commercial. Even looking at the site, the parking etc...those tools are all in other apps. Yes, Chief has blocks and symbols, but not "components" as you probably understand them from Sketchup. No, Chief cannot block certain 3d objects like walls, windows, doors, and other things. Yes, many have done commercial in Chief.

Since you cannot block walls/windows/doors etc in CA, imagine having 5 units per floor (x9) = 45 smaller condo units. In apps like Archicad/Vectorworks you can have "versions' of those units such that it populates the entire building with "copies". If you make a change to a single "unit" it can update all the units in the building. In Chief that would have to be done floor-by-floor and unit-by-unit. Further, the structural elements typically between floors 3 and 4 are the same as 8/9 etc - and again, in CA every floor structure/element is individual and not part of a more organized workflow that would allow changes in one area to reflect through the entire plan set. Yes, CA can be used for these buildings but it will be a lot more effort. Chief just isn't designed for these types of structures - but it can obviously be done.

Light commercial or larger projects? I know some will say they have no issue using Chief for commercial, but the lack of 3D group/block instancing and no true custom schedules is almost too huge a draw-back for me to suggest it for commercial projects. Commercial is all about repetitive elements and Chief has no good way to manage that process IMO. I know Chief can handle commercial, I am just saying Archicad and other apps are better suited. For me, I am 90% residential, but I do use Vectorworks as well so i'm covered between the two apps.

If your focus is on residential, Archicad isn't "superior in every way" - and id say Chief beats it out in key areas. I own a copy of Archicad, and I pretty much never use it (its like 3 versions old) - and I keep track of whats available in the newer versions. Archicad is owned by the same company that owns Vectorworks, and id actually place Vectorworks ahead of Archicad unless you are doing massive commercial projects (although Vectorworks works well for that too). As i've told other designers/architects - Chief has some amazing ease of use tools for residential that make it unmatched. The downsides to Chief are lack of "tactile" precision (drives me crazy), lack of 3D instancing/grouping, not great 2D, and a very strict set of modeling "rules". However, at this present moment I think the positives still out-weight the negative and there are just a whole lot of things 10x harder in other apps that Chief makes easy. I honestly feel Chief is nearly a no-brainier if you focus is residential.

Fully agree. We have it in VW this way and you basically can get all your drawing set to the correct sheets before you start working in that other "section".

I think we have a new tool (maybe not brand new) for that which looks pretty cool (truss base). Check out this video and tell me if this solves your question - specifically the section in the video dealing with the garage truss area (3:15)...

If you take a cross section before and after you will see it modifies some eave/roof heights doing it this way (particularly for the front of garage). I suppose Acad knows if that works or not, but there is no question the auto-feature cleans up part of the modeling.

Hey Acad - here is a vid for a few of the issues - may help, may not.

Nice Kevin.

roger - got it...thx.

I have greyscale content in my layout file but want to send a site plan to it in B&W. However, even when I send my site plan to layout in B&W it comes through in color. Is there any way other than sending an image of a site plan that I can send to layout in B&W but retain my "color" layout?