Northriver

Here is my take. Shed roof from hip to align eve. Build over existing roofs and eliminating hip. I left the hip ridge in place so you could see what I did. Or you could make it a gable end and have both gutter lines line up.

105946584_Roofchallenge.plan

4 hours ago, andypapamarcos said:

I recently decided to build a new home and because I have been using Chief Architect for over 20 years for previous home additions, I did all my modeling in CA. I then brought my ideas to an architect, who used REVIT for the construction drawings, and then the build was contracted to a robotic builder who used SketchUp for all the framing models.

I ended up working with all three tools and (from a computer engineer perspective) was able to understand the pros and cons of each which I will summarize here. Also, the timber framing contractor used CADworks and then gave me a 3d model I could import into CA.

 

Chief Architect - the best overall home design tool and especially excels when it comes to views and renderings as well as walk throughs. Many people who looked at the work thought I had already built the house.

 

Revit - very complex and powerful tools for creating wall assemblies, schedules, construction drawings, etc. In terms of the construction details, it did everything 2D that CA did, and more, but took a lot of effort to correctly use even the most basic tools. The 3d rendering capabilities did not come close to CA.

 

SketchUp - even today, I use the 3d sketchup model when I want to know what is inside the walls. It is unparalleled in examining the inside structure of the building especially in how it reacts to a 3d mouse for rotating and zooming. It would be great if Chief Architect would output the framing model to a sketchup file. I have tried some of the export to 3d model stuff but not been able to get it to do what I wanted.

 

If I could only use one tool it would be CA, but the combination of these 4 tools came in handy for the full project.

Good luck!

I use Chief Architect to produce floor plans and construction documents. I use Sketchup with Medeeks wall, truss, foundation, and electrical plugins to produce details. Most of my details are in 3d, I have copied the details workflow from architect Nick Sonders from Truckee, CA. who uses Sketchup in its native form to produce some spectacular mountain vacation homes in Truckee, CA. His work is nothing short of amazing.

If you want accuracy, you need to use this:Leica BLK2GO - Mobile Mapping (leica-geosystems.com). Not sure it's worth the hefty price tag. Cost more than my 1st house.

2 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

I'm a little confused by your wording. I do often place columns at the extents of the foundation wall, but there's always a 1-1/2" lip on the slab around the foundation wall.

 

If you're talking about a typical 1-1/2" lip on the slab around the foundation, I do that with a 1-1/2" concrete layer added to the wall dialog. I also make the interior layer 1-1/2" so the main layer of the wall will be centered on the railing/posts:

 

 

However I do also sometimes place columns inside the extents of the foundation, and use other methods to also accomplish that automatically, if that's what you meant...

 

 

Great advice.

Would the same work for an invisible wall ?

That was one heck of a much-needed update. There is lots of new hardware, updates to existing hardware (SDS applied) and 99.9 % of everything is available in 3D now.

Thank you Chief and crew. Keep up the great job. 

Jeff K

One thing on my wish list would be a catalogue with all types of fasteners (nails including spikes, bolts, nuts, washers, and screws.) Flashings for wood and metal buildings especially for metal roofs.

Michael,

On 4/5/2023 I bought a Dell Alienware 18" lap top  as I needed something portable. Dell had a 10% off sale so I put all of the upgrades that Dell would let me put on it including the 4090 Video card.

Long story short just found out 2 days ago the bastards at UPS either lost or stole the laptop. Dell they gave me a $400 credit plus 10% plus off plus a $99 back pack. Suppose to be here next week if they do not loose it again.

The entire unit cost me $2685. This laptop actually weighs almost 1/2 of what my 6 year old Alienware 17" laptop weighed. Hopefully this will be the last laptop I will ever need, I highly recommend getting the best video card you can because Chief is not really dependent on the chip as much as the video card. My old lap top would freeze up viewing in 3D otherwise it would run the program OK.

I sent Perry a PM about monitors and he talked me into 2-43" monitors. They are LG.

Good luck !

I do not think Chief is going to gain too much by going to a subscription based software. The people with SSA will continue to pay the yearly fee so no gain there. They already have a rental version and the subscription version will just replace the rental version at the same price. Where is the increase in revenue coming from? Are they hoping for new users? I think this could force new and the existing customers who do not have current SSA to stop and start their subscriptions on an as need basis in this current housing environment. With all of the different options available out there they will have to market really hard to drive customers to Chief Architect to increase revenue.

Set the additional rough opening size to "0" in each direction. Your RO will now be the window size in the schedule and your header lengths will be correct at 3" or 6" over callout size depending on how many trimmers on each side of the window.

On 7/11/2021 at 4:53 PM, ACADuser said:

It can wait until Monday, the job is not due until Wednesday

The previous drafter did the job in Rivet in 2018. I got the CAD export & needed to separate the two houses.

This is the little one that they decided t build finally. It has so may tags that reference sheet numbers that I decided not to redo the sheet numbers, just start the sheets at A16

 

Nice boat house. Puts mine to shame.

Parkwest,

I was having the same issue with the RTX2080TI.

If you have an Alienware computer with the Command Center you need to turn off the Nahimic Audio Software as this can cause various video card problems with Chief Architect.

On 6/3/2021 at 6:53 AM, joey_martin said:

Check your code book first. If using dimensional lumber it's still code to support those walls. Some situations with I joists will need the extra joists under those walls.

Unless your State amendments to the IRC require double joists under interior non bearing walls, the IRC does not require it.( R502.2). If the wall is a braced wall panel or an engineered shear wall you will need double joists, blocking  or what ever the Structural Engineer requirements are.

It needs to have an ASTM, UL testing number. Any company can draw a detail claiming fire resistance but if it has no testing certification it means nothing. I went thru the same thing 5 years ago and per the IRC and IBC to be considered fire rated it must have testing documentation to back it up. Call the company up and ask for the testing information. Usually it's ASTM or UL number.

Thanks Alan.

I have been involved as a Construction Manager on tilt-up projects and we use ledgers for floors and roofs (top bearing trusses) and looking at your drawing it's very similar. I have never drawn anything commercial or mixed use only single and multifamily up to 4 stories in height. Looks like you have a lot of experience with commercial structures by following your posts. It would be awesome to have the knowledge you have in designing those types of buildings. I wish you would share more of that experience with us but I know time is a rare commodity now days as we are all extremely busy.

Thanks

Jeff K

42 minutes ago, ACADuser said:

I seldom see sill plates any more in Florida.

Truss sits on the block bond beam with s galv. plate that comes with the truss.

Simpson META16 in the bond beam to anchor the truss.

 

 

Does the mason install the fasteners for the plate or are they drilled and epoxied to get the anchors in the exact location needed?

For heights are you stuck within the limits of the block heights? I know it commercial buildings ceiling heights are sometimes not relevant as they use drop down ceilings but what do they do in condos and apartments? I am not familiar with how they build town homes,condos and apartments in Florida but I would assume that they use a lot of block to withstand hurricanes and tornados along with dry rot issues?

While I agree with Joey Martin. See ACAD (Alan) plan he posted.

There is some logic to standard rough ceilings being 97 1/8" and 109 1/8" instead of 96" and 108" so I would not recommend you make your rough ceiling exactly 9' if you want to use drywall that is 54" in width thinking you are saving the dry wall contractor time when in reality you will cause the dry wall contractor a lot of unnecessary work.

If you created a specific layer to display text in a layer set you need to remember to turn off the layer of the text you do not want to see in the new or existing layer set.

On ‎5‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 8:56 AM, dshall said:

 

Jeff,  It would be awesome if you were able to do a vid showing your process or better yet,  a GOTOMEETING that I would be willing to host.

Scott, I do not know how to make a video. I am not as computer savvy as some of you guys.

The program we use to convert  DWG is http://www.backtocad.com/pdf-to-dwg-converter.html. Recognizes both Vector and Raster lines along with text. Still figuring out all the options this program offers but have limited time as of lately. I am sure the person I hired to take over my responsibilities will figure it out.

Glenn, thanks for sharing your methods and will I pass those along.

I never import PDF files into Chief Architect anymore. Adobe allows you to convert PDF's to a word document then I copy and paste into a text box . Any details on PDF's I convert to a DWG file and bring into Chief.

With chief architect open you can drag the folder where its located on your computer into chief and the files will load into your library.

Why are you dimensioning the width of every wall? It is common practice to dimension from the outside face of the framing to the face of the framing when dimensioning a plan. If you are concerned with the Subcontractors being able to differentiate 2x4 and 2x6 wall from each other then use a different hatch pattern for 2x4 and 2x6 walls and create a wall legend.

For cabinet and Interior Deco plans it is common practice to dimension to the inside of the finish layer of the walls.

You need to change the direction of you ridge cap 90 deg and/or and specify it to be a sheet material in the material DBX.

Change the line weights in light areas. Make sure any light grey are black.

Newel it looks like you printed it to a PDF ok.

Post the plan and someone running X4 can give it a try. I only go back to X5 and currently running X9.

There could be something running in the background that you do not know about?

How big is your plan file, do you have any PDF's in your plan, anything in your plans from the 3d warehouse and do you have anything with a high surface count?