VHampton

Wendy is a long time user and this is her business. http://www.artformhomeplans.com/index.a5w All plans are made in Chief. This could be a good start.

That's a very good solution. Brilliant. You could also make your own casing out of a polyline but it won't be recessed into the brick thickness as Charlie pointed out.

Here ya go Scott. You is correct. I was happy with the look nonetheless Why the heck do they have a Joint width for tile then?!! Untitled 1.zip

I did this once using plywood as the siding material. Change the color accordingly. Then what you do is change the pattern to tile. You can change the proportion very easily along with the groove depth. The dialogue box allows you to create the groove by changing the grout thickness (aka Joint width) If you are using "standard views" with your camera, just play with the x and y scales in your texture box to make the material read correctly for 3d renderings.

Thanks Guys. ...you're right Perry...Nvidia is known for being the preferred card for Chief. The excess whirring is coming from the video card fan which I suppose is quite normal. (it's an ATI). On a side note...every computer that I've ever had always revved a little faster when sending an elevation to layout for example. It's just that the Ray Trace process makes the video card fan spin like crazy (during the entire process) and I'd rather not wear the thing out. ...So what I'm gathering is that ten passes should be a typical parsing period for an exterior view. ...and if your fan sounds like an F15 ready for take-off, it may or may not be normal. I should have posted a poll, bu how long do you find that a Ray Trace takes on average (exterior view)?

-Hi All, The rendered views which Chief can create are absolutely amazing. For those of you who have the patience to do the Ray Traces, how long does it take to do a typical Ray Trace for an exterior? I started watch each 'pass' during the process. By the time the counter made it to pass number 10, the computer sounded like it was about to blow up. ...My first I thought was, this can't be good....so I bailed out. Just curious if this process should take only 5 minutes or more like 45 minutes? Thanks for your feedback!

Thank you both so much for taking the time to do this! I tried the reflected arch, but for some reason it wouldn't go the first time. I really appreciate it! All the best. Val

Thanks Robert. I'll have to remember that in the future. It's attached correctly now...in both the initial post and here... Untitled 1.zip

-Hi All, The attached window symbol was created using polyline solids. It appears in the library correctly and behaves as a window in plan view. The only problem is that the siding doesn't meet up the window frame. Am I missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Val Untitled 1.zip

I would recommend the flitch plate method as well. They do not need to be posted onto steel columns as is required with I beams. What you've drawn will definitely work, but check your local codes on the requiremenst for steel posts at each end. Flitch plates can be supported by (3) 2 x 6 posts in our area. I beams need columns. BTW....We design everything with an L/480 minimum which results in less than a half inch deflection on any given beam which spans upwards of twenty feet. A double 1/2" x 11" flitch will have far less deflection than the size that which you've selected. A W6 x 12 works better as a window header that it does a floor girder. Definitely get that checked out by your steel fabricator who may be able to run a beam check if you're going to go this route. A W8 is probably more like it.... Very nice details by the way!

I drew the door very quickly...not showing all the clips.Also...typically they would want to hinge off of a wall ...not the door (for the ideal strength), but it can be done. In this case (per the orginal post) they would very likely add a section of metal frame at the top of the staitonary panel to help make everything rigid since the glass isn't being clipped to the door header. And yes country...those clips are very strong. It does indeed looks very precaraious but that's how they typically do it. ...good method Joe on drawing in the doors. Like that one! Tnx

You have the best solution by using solids for making a glass door inside of a doorway. Draw your glass in 2d view where it will wind up on the back wall of the shower after it's converted to a solid. Take a look at the attached plan. Notice how I locked the wall and door layers so that you can grab the solid in plan view and force it into position inside the doorway. Polyline solids and moldings are the way to go everytime you have a unique condition. Untitled 1.zip

I would let the gable over the one story carry all the way through. If you think about it, that room wants to be a cathedral. Why not let the roof ride along the wall plate the entire way? The lower roof will also stop the main roof from diving down and creating that gable end wall condition which is slightly awkward.

You have your answer in the image which you initially attached. Break the roof where it's stepped back and force it to make a "return" as shown in the forward gable. It needs to have a small hip which will connect it to the return section...the same way it does in the other gable return.

Hi Rob, Thanks so much for figuring this out. I have zero AutoCad exoperience and this was above my understanding to say the least. I really appreciate it! Now I can get to work. Best regards, Val

That's it Alan. Whatever the heck the boolean tool is....I'm off to master it!

Thanks very much everyone.Glad to know I'm not crazy. I have the free True View as well and you can see the entire drawing as soon as it opens. I'm going to follow up with your suggestion Rob and see if the sender can make some adjuetsments on their end.

I'm supposed to working on a site plan today... and have tried importing this dwg about ten times. It shows all the layers but the drawing is nowhere to be seen. I've tried everything including zooming way way out and doing a shift select to grab whatever is out there and force it to absolute zero ....but there's no sign of the line work. Can anyone see what I might be doing worng? I would greatly appreciate it if you have a moment. Thanks. Val Eagle Rock Site plan.zip

Didn't know you could do that. I guess you would creat an angle plane and use it as a slice through the cylinder ?

Does anyone know how to make a cylindrical tube have a slice taken out of it ...which would result in the shape as shown in the attached image? I can make the cylinder in sktech up, but have no idea how to stretch the outer rim on one side only. Thanks very much for any help. All the best. eyelid.zip

I've had it happen. The grab handle on a p/solid can get confused with the "stretch" handle. Just my observation, I've adjusted solids in plan view and they look perfect. Then I take a look outside with teh 3D overview and they are shaped terribly wrong. They become sStretched too long and don't look anthying at all like my plan view. I think it's because I've grabbed the stretch handle rather than the grab handle. (Older versions only had grab handles.... that's the way I've always manipulated polyline solids.) It still makes me crazy that we can't grra an image file and stretch it be tugging on the side of it with the grab handle. Now some wierd stuff happens and the whole ability to reproportion imported images is gone unless you pull on them by the corners only. Back to your question and solution....For creating moldings, the safest bet is to make them with a molding polyine. Those are bullet proof in terms of maintaining their length and size in both plan view and elevations. They're also very easy to work with in making a molding turn corners around a room as well as being able to make mitred returns.

As a rule of thumb I always make the roof thickness 1". We use wood shingles on most every project and at the end of the day not only does this make 2d layout views read correctly, it solves the all too common distortion effect from Z fighting. Also...the terrain perimter should ideally be spread pretty uniformly around the model. If you've got too much real estate towards one end of the house it can create a lopsided effect which sometimes results in the Z fighting. In addition to the roofing it can help to thicken the siding as well. Often I will elimnate the plywood layer and make the exterior siding 1" thick just like the roof. If you don't want to kill off your plywood layer, just change it's material property to match up with the siding. Two layers will stop the bleed through effect. (...just like David suggested) Between the roofing and siding changes, this should make your model bullet proof in terms of avoiding distortion.

You could do a 3d view and then use the cross section slider tab to do a slice into the house (from about four feet above finished floor) Then go back to the 3D tab and look for view direction. Select top view. This will give you a plan view which can be rendered using one of the various rendering options. It's not exactly what you may be looking for...but close.

Wendy is surely missed as she posted some very insightful information as she unlocked the many features of each release. ....Louis and Tim were invaluable assetts to the forum. They both were extremely generous with their time, and their posts were incredibly informative. Glad to hear that Louis is well. Tim became a part of (or may have even started) the Chief users group on yahoo when X1 first came out. ...like Louis he was one of the most adept Chief users ever....if not the best.

Sorry Robert. ...the new zip is attached. The roof was given a texture and It does seem to read a bit cleaner in layout. (And yes...that was indeed a really great video Scott.) tower molding profile (2).zip