robdyck

Welcome Jim! Looking forward to some of your future posts / inquiries!

Pattern lines on wall don't always change with certain adjustments. To get the wall to refresh, simply double click the wall then close the dialog without changing anything. F12 forces a model rebuild however pattern lines don't always rebuild correctly for all object when using F12. Sometimes you need to 'open' and then 'close the object to get pattern lines to update.

Automatic Framing can slow things down, especially for roofs. It can make a big difference to turn off all automatic framing throughout the design process and only build the framing once you are working on section views.

Siding 7-3.calibz

I will post this texture in the Symbols and Content section of the forum.

You can make a texture by using a rendered image of a modeled surface using Chief. Here's a bit of an example: I created a model of siding boards using 3d solids and spaced them with 7" and 3" exposures. I then replicated them up the wall in 10" increments. The 3d solids were painted a material to resemble a single siding board. I then rendered a image of the wall and cropped it so it would be seamless. I then created a new material using the cropped image as the texture file. It took about as long to create the texture as it did to type this up! Rendered image showing my model against my default wall: Cropped image: Image as texture painted on the wall:

There are a few ways to get the exterior casing continuous. The windows must be spaced so the exterior casing from one is perfectly butted against the casing of adjacent windows. If they have the same material, they should blend seamlessly. For example if there is exactly 6" between windows then the exterior casing should be 3". Remove the casing from all those windows and use a Material Region to represent the casing. A 3d solid can work as well but is more work than the Mat Reg. In some case where there are multiple stacked windows with various sizes / spaces, the Material Region is the simplest.

The amount of unwanted lines is entirely dependent on the model which is dependent on the user. For 99% of my elevation drawings, I don't have to clean up a single line; they are perfect. All it takes is about 15 years of practice and about 20 versions of Chief and about 15 different computers!

All one needs to do is make a symbol for the post with the correct offsets and then use 2 railing walls, the outer wall is the fascia mount railing with no room definition.

You didn't post a plan with that cabinet Gene, so no one can actually tell what you've used. Notice that the handle notch is off center as well. In the image below I used the drawer that was discussed in your topic. The notch is centered and there is no angle line.

The closest shelf I could find was Rev-A-Shelf 4WDB-15. I used a height of 3" but it doesn't show drawer slides, if that matters to you. Before I made a custom drawer symbol I'd tell my client that these days, we only use undermount drawer slides.

Without knowing anything regarding the programming, it would seem logical that a price could be added to a material. That could make consolidation of materials / prices a bit more efficient. As for being tedious...yup it spreadsheet work! It gets even more fun when all the concrete / gravel is priced per cubic meter.

There are 4 optional places to enter pricing data: the Master List, a Materials List, the Components Tab for an object, or in a spreadsheet after exporting. The best choice for automation is the Master List and the Components Tab for objects. If your Master List is at first incomplete in its available materials, you can create a Materials List from a comprehensively developed plan and then update all those materials to the Master List. You can then perform the reverse function, ie: update all the items in the Materials List from the Master List. This will update any new data to an existing Materials List. Simply click the upper left box to select all items and the click the 'Update from Master List' too at the bottom of the screen. I'm sure you've read this but its worth mentioning: the Master List is always saved. You don't need to perform any function for this to happen.

You could create a new master list or uncheck "Use" for the unwanted materials.

Are you using the macro (=thermal_envelope_area) as an accessory wall component? Does that work for any walls? That macro (added as a wall component) doesn't actually produce any data in the component tab when I give it a try. I'm sure you are aware, but you can export the thermal envelope area separately.

For some (if not all) objects, there is no easy way to transfer information from the Components tab to another similar object in the plan. Likewise, for some (but not all) types of objects, information entered into the Object Information Panel of a library object will be lost when placing the object into the plan.

In X14 this function is broken.

Type 'scale' into the library browser.

You can make a copy of the cabinet door symbol and then adjust the size and stretch planes. Although the door has an edge profile and your end panel does not.

Select View / Project Browser / Schedules... then delete one of the duplicates.

Ditto, room divider, uncheck railing.

In this app, which I've never used before, you can isolate various components:

Take a look at the difference here using a free 3d online viewer and a 3ds export:

Scott, the 3d viewer does have terrible viewing quality and there's really no way around this. For better viewing quality you would be better off using an orbital walkthrough video (or similar) and then sharing the link.

Gene, it looks like you may have overlooked posting the plan.