Larry_Sweeney

It's difficult at times to get a good understanding of the terrain when looking at a render or vector view so being able to show contour lines in this view would be great. Is there a way to show contour lines in a render or vector view? "If" memory serves me correctly, some time ago (and probably longer than I think ) there was a video or discussion with a work around showing how to do this, but I couldn't find anything about it. As always any and all help is greatly appreciated.

I'm, I guess, sort of in the northeast area. I live about 10 miles north of Bloomsburg. I've been a Chief user since v10 (2006 I think ). I've built custom houses, restorations and have a custom cabinet shop for making custom architectural details and period furniture. I'm not an architect, but I've been designing projects since 1972. I've been using cad programs since the late 80's. Back in the early 2000"s I got discontinued my general contracting business and devoted all my time to my cabinet shop and design work. The last few years I've been doing only design work (and occasionally what my wife tells me to do ) I thought about retirement, but I'm having fun and I'm basically working every day. I'd say about 70 percent of my projects are from concept to completed construction documents. Like I noted earlier, almost 100% of my design work is using Chief Architect. I still, after all those years, probably only understand and use about half to two thirds what Chief can do, but I can usually get my projects completed and my clients are very happy with what I come up with. If I can help you in any way, I'll be glad to try. Otherwise have a great day!

How does one go about getting a wood porch floor to overhang the trim board (I call it the "skirt board") by 1" or whatever is desired? By default, the overhang is flush. Calling it a deck you can call out the overhang distance in the deck specifications, but with a deck there is no skirt/trim board. Am I missing a simple step somewhere or a work around? Up to now my work around to this is to use a p-solid for the porch floor and make the overhang whatever I want, but there must be a better way. Thanks, all advice is always much appreciated.

Yes, that's how I do it now, but it would be great if this could be "built in" to the window specifications. When you have thirty or more windows of different sizes in a project it can be a PTA. This not only true for the exterior sill, but also the interior window stool. I wish I could understand where CA came up with the size and shape of the windowsill and stool that is built into the program now.

It's a "fairly" simple task to get the right look for side casings and lintels once you are familiar with the program, but we aren't discussing anything about the sill. I wish CA would do some work with their exterior (and interior) windowsills. There should be some type of setting for sill thickness, slope angle and whether there is a "subsill" or not for the exterior sill. Also, show me an actual window that has a window stool attach to the bottom of a window frame like the way CA places a sill (stool} on the inside of a window. They (CA) have been "building" their windows like this since "day one" and it's about time they make it right! I can't believe this doesn't bother anyone else. Sorry about the rant. I "need" my morning coffee.

Off the top of my head there are two ways. The pool house in the picture is probably rectangular in shape with the width being wider than the depth. That is, unless the roof pitches on the left and right sides are steeper than the front and back pitches. With this being said to get the same look you have in your picture you"ll have to make your pool house wider (side to side) than it is deep (front to back) if you are using the same pitch on all four sides. Your other option is to make the side pitches steeper than the pitches on the front and back

I never remember having this type of problem before. My "print view" before printing (and after printing) doesn't match what I want to print. I show in the attachment with the "print review" on the left and the "Print View" for the printer on the right. There are two issues I'm having trouble with marked by the red arrows. The top arrow is an area I "masked" to hide some lines. On the drawing it is perfectly hidden (red arrow), but on the "Print View" it clearly shows and shows when printed. The other problem is noted with red arrow on the drawing at the left. The "earth fill" is on a drawing group that is behind the drawing group that the gravel and CMU blocks are on, so everything looks correct. In "Print View" of this area the "earth fill" is shown as if it is on the same drawing group or one ahead of it. This also shows when printed. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't ever remember having this type of problem and I'm not sure where to go with attempting to correct it. It seems to me it's a "setup issue", but where? As always, your time and advice are greatly appreciated

Jim..........................Thank you! That's what I needed to do. I never used the Margin adjustment before. And who said "Old dogs can't learn new tricks"! Thanks for taking the time. Have a great day.

Is there a way to adjust the spacing on note schedules so the labels are contained in their individual boxes ("A" in attachment)? One way I tried was to hit enter first before typing my note and then hit enter after finishing my note, but that makes the spacing exaggerated ("B" in attachment). In the "schedule specifications" under the Object Preview Options I have "From Plan & Use Plan View Scale" checked. The problem is most likely on my end, but I'm having a "brain fart"!

Steve............That changes the "Fill" color, not the arrow in general. I'm using an arrow that doesn't have fill. If you notice on what you demonstrated it's only the "fill" that changed and not the entire arrow.

I have my 1st floor roof planes on a layer "Roof Planes, 1st. floor" and my first floor roof labels on a layer "Roofs, label, 1st floor" and changed both to color red. The roof outline and the pitch changed to red. The arrow did not, which stayed green. I experimented by changing the original "Roofs, label" color, which are green, to blue and all the green colored labels (pitch number & arrow) changed to blue along with the arrows that were on the new "Roof, label, 1st floor". I'm assuming that somehow the arrows are "hard wired" to the layer "Room, labels" and that this is a "GLITCH".

To show on my Roof Plan the roofs for the different floors, I put each floor's roof planes and labels on their own layer and gave them a different color. The roof outlines & the label "pitch" number changed to the new assigned color but the arrow didn't. What setting determines the color of the arrow in the Roof Label?

Thanks to all for their thoughts on this subject. Due to the size and scale of one project, I will probably finish it in X15. The other one will be a "wait and see" process. I hope all are enjoying this weekend of remembrance.....................enjoy!

As the title says. Has anyone that had projects started in X15 moved them to X16 Beta and finished them? Did you come across any "issues"? I have a couple of projects I'm doing in X15 and I'm hesitant to bring them into X16 for completion. I'm thinking I should wait for the "non-Beta" version to come out. Advice?

Kevin...................My bad. The layers for my 3D solids were on, but when I went through all my layers, lo and behold, my "cross section lines" were turn off. Somehow, from the "get go" of this project, that layer must have been turned off. I was sure I didn't use to have this problem. Nothing to blame but me and "old mind".  Thanks for giving me a "heads up" on double checking layers. Have a great day

When I want to show a sloped concrete slab, I make a 3D solid showing the slope. Then when doing a rendering "things" look correct, but when I do a cross section of the sloped slab the outline of the slab doesn't show. Is there a way to get the sloped 3D solid to show in a cross section? I guess this goes for any 3D solid. I know I can just draw a polyline, but on more complicated 3D solid this really gets to be a real pain and very time consuming.

Is there a simple way to eliminate the "green" grass reflections from the exterior unto interior surfaces when using PBR. What I usually do now is to turn off the terrain layer? I don't use PBR much and it seems almost every time I do I run into this problem. There must be a simple solution to this problem.

Eric.....................Took your advice and it worked pretty well for me. (attachment) I couldn't get rid of a few lines in the plan view, (attachment) but I can look past that. The rendering looks good. Thanks for taking the time------much appreciated. Have a great weekend.

I "think" I dealt with this problem at some point in the distant pass with a work around, but now I can't find the solution. I'm wanting to build a corner like is shown in the lower half of the attachment, but CA is building what is shown in the top half of the picture. I hope I'm not missing the obvious, because surely there must be a way (or work around) to get the wall to look correctly in plan view and in a rendering. I tried a "search", but to no avail. As always, any and all help is much appreciated.

DBCooper............................Yes, that was my problem. Thank you. Have a great day.

Joe............................When I printed out the note schedule it printed just as shown in the "CAD attachment". When I cut and past the note schedule from the cad detail back into my plan all the numbers and circles are red again.

I made a roof framing note schedule while in plan view. All my circles and numbers are red (first attachment). I then made a cad detail and cut & paste the note schedule to there. After pasting the circles and numbers in the cad detail they are a combination of red and green (second attachment). Why the difference when going to a cad detail? I can't figure a way to change the circles and numbers to be all red once they are in the cad detail. As I mentioned, when I sent the schedule from my plan to the cad detail I did it by cut and paste. Is there a better way to move the schedule from plan view to a cad detail? Could the way I sent it have something to do with my "color" problem. I don't remember this occurring before. What am I missing or is this a "senior moment"? As always all advice is greatly appreciated.

I recently purchased this mouse and up to this point I have been quite satisfied with it, but the past week, using the "zoom wheel" has been very frustrating. I might just touch the wheel and what I'm trying to zoom in or out on my screen goes crazy, jumping all over the place. I've only had this mouse for a few months. Up to the last week it has worked great. At $100.00, it's not a huge investment, but I don't think it should be having problems already. I thought this was a popular mouse for cad work with great reviews. I'm assuming it's a "mouse problem" and not CA's. Has anyone else had this problem, either with this mouse, CA, or with another mouse? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

When the "lean to" roof attaches to the upper roof look in the dbx. for that roof's pitch and then change it's pitch to a one that is less. Once you do that attach the lesser pitched "lean to" roof to the exterior wall. (manual roof)

Thanks to all for your responses. All where helpful in understanding "my" problem and not CA's. Have a great day.