johnny

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?

I was just playing around with this using Orthographic floor overview and a "slab" for the PL, the new cross section slider. However, when I move the slider around at different "z" intervals the inside line of the walls disappear at random locations. I'm curious why that is. Otherwise this works pretty well.

Thank you both for the help. I've done these windows in Vectorworks and have to say it is much better in CA for creation method. The only difference in Vectorworks is I can save this type of window setup with the walls etc in a block to use over and over. Wish that was true in CA - but I remain hopeful. I've actually learned a lot about that window "overlap frame" issue so that was more helpful than even just my issue.

Thanks Glenn - yeah, I wasn't looking for mullions but the wall as you said. However, I did turn the exterior casings off and it still didn't give me a wall like that. I'll have to play around more with it.

The first few box windows i've done have been using corner boards and material regions. However, i think the more logical way to do this type of treatment is using wall layers/thicknesses to relate the detail i am looking for. The windows should be "inset" into the finish layer. I made a video to explain the issue since its hard to type it. issue_file.plan

I honestly didn't know what to expect when I opened the file, but I would recommend you find an architect/designer to finish the plans with you. There are code issues, and impossible build elements throughout the plan. Its not a criticism of the plan/design as much as seeing too many to list issues and problems that need to be solved and re-worked. I think you could use this as a stepping stone to get where you want to go, but the design as you have shouldn't move forward without some major re-works. All the best...

Ah, this probably solves my problem - thanks.

Works well for the general arch, but what about the molding poly? For some reason when I convert the arch to a molding poly it doesn't retain the curve but goes to line segments. If you have a arch you want to place molding around can you not match? I'm trying to duplicate this so I know if I ever run into it while working on a project.

I've been trying to narrow down my issue with line widths. When I send prints to be made I use PDF - but I notice that when I print in-office (but smaller size often) my line widths seem "off". The issue could be on my end with the way I am making PDFs, but I wanted to see if anyone has an issue with Chief's line widths and changing page sizes..? Do they all remain the same width for you guys no matter letter vs Arch D/E sizes?

For the double wall/windows I would use material regions below and above - so you have the stucco correct - and the plan is more controllable IMO. See attached sample, but please keep in mind I just roughed it out to show a basic example - obviously you'd need to set the correct depth, and have the correct window details. material_region.plan

Yeah that would work well too. If I actually did remodels more often I could see putting some time into this to perfect it, but to me it looks like you could do some cool things.

Could it be possible to have 1 file be the As-is condition, make a "symbol" of the entire 3D model and then import that symbol into the "remodel" file and display the as-built symbol in a graphical way to help? Maybe make it some sort of semi-transparent material?....perhaps you would need to make a symbol per floor so the 2d block made sense? (added) i just did a quick test and this method would have possibilities if you played around with it some. Turned everything to a "grey glass" and I had both the 2d from the symbol and 3D so it showed a transparent grey where walls on the original plan were. This method is definitely classified as a "work-around" but if you wanted a graphic for your client it would work well for that sort of thing. For CD's 2D block way to go.

I've noticed you need to model very cleanly inside Chief or these "glitches" can become issues. Just looking at your model you don't have very clean transitions between roof-lines - and you can visually see the "glitch" in elevation - so you may need to clean up the model if you wan to eliminate.