robdyck

That's interesting. I received the email about contacting Sales regarding long term purchasing. So I responded accordingly by email and phone mentioning that and they responded only offering to help me with my annual renewal.

I use this type of setup in every home and they are just terrible to deal with in Chief. If you get lucky, the only manual part you'll need to place is the newel post. Most times, the entire railing will need to be modeled manually. The only solution I've found is practice. It doesn't take that long once you know exactly what you need to do. I use millwork, 3d moldings, p-solids. Also, a separate layer for some components just for 3d display (not plan view con docs). And some CAD work for plan view con docs. The rail on pony wall setup is not a very sharp tool.

Chief X13 is a very costly version!

Keep in mind that not all trim / extend functions work the same. Using a CAD line versus another framing member to perform the trim / extend operation will give you different results. Some will generate a bevel, while others will keep a square cut. To miter two pieces, make sure they are short from the connection before using the miter tool.

Joists are usually specified using text in combination with a double-headed arrow that indicates the joist direction. One example:

I'm not sure you're allowed to say that. A few things that have helped me reduce the number of crashes: switch all camera defaults to Vector technique. turn off the library preview panel adjust material default preview to vector view. Only use PBR or Standard technique in a saved camera. Save the file before opening any camera that is using anything other than the Vector technique.

The ridge caps appear fine, it is the seam portion of the roofing material that is problematic. To properly troubleshoot this, you would have to post the plan.

The best plan is to open the layout file for that particular sample plan, then investigate those layout boxes to see what was done in that file. You can 'reverse engineer' it that way to replicate the process. They are probably a CAD detail. Have you downloaded the sample plan files?

The wall type contain the door would need to use a material checked as framing in the wall spec. dbx.

Have you tried using light sets specific to each camera? I recommend creating a light set for each saved camera and naming both the light set and the camera something similar so it's obvious that they belong together.

https://help.dropbox.com/guide/individual/how-to-share-files-folders

You can zip it up to attach it or use a google drive link or drop box link or something similar.

Nope. You are SOL on that one. There are offsets for the posts, but no offsets for the beam, or an option for a flush beam. I never use Chief's deck framing because almost every deck I draw uses a flush beam because they are all covered decks and the roof beam and posts need to be at the outside corners.

No, it doesn't seem to. I also lose the deck perimeter wherever there's a floor beam because they are all flush beams at the exterior!

Actually, I can use the Opening (No Material). The deck perimeter above gets an 'unnamed' material which I need to paint to my aluminum trim material regardless of the patio wall type material.

Ahhh, I missed that little check mark. That works Ryan, thanks! It creates a slight oddity on the deck above, so I kept the wall material as my alum. trim material. It covers the deck perimeter, but I'm ok with that. My deck layers are vinyl decking for the sheathing, and black aluminum (not framing). This creates an appropriate appearance in elevation views and section views (I don't show floor framing in section views).

That one wall is not invisible, all the others around the patio are invisible.

But doesn't it still need to be made invisible to avoid showing up in Vector views? And then the plan view line dilemma remains.

Has anyone figured out how to create an invisible wall that can display only a single line at the exterior in plan view? The closest I can get is to create a wall that is 1/16" thick. The inside line is set to the invisible line style, and it's color is white just for redundancy. I make it invisible but place it on the Walls, Railings layer. Because it is invisible, the lines will not follow their settings from the wall spec. dbx, but rather both exterior and interior lines display based on their layer. If I make this wall solid, then the lines follow the wall spec. I use them to define concrete patios on ground. It's a bit frustrating, because I'd prefer not to add CAD line work when I need to define the space with walls.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5439/choosing-material-painter-modes.html Open 'Help', then search "Material Painter Tools".

I already have the cameras I mentioned in my template plan so they exist in every project. I believe I'd access this view type with less clicks assuming my project browser and your library are already opened. I also have a library of frequent room fills and I'd recommend other users do the same. Without going on too long on this subject, one of the nice things about the camera view is being able to edit patterns / textures simultaneously, including making copies of materials to adjust direction & orientation, which can have a spin-off benefit for all other camera views.

Ahh, yes, I wasn't thinking of it as a use for Con docs, more along the lines of a marketing plan is what I had in my mind.

Something worth looking at is an orthographic floor overview / top direction. This will display the materials and their patterns. Quicker than using room fill.

You could add a terrain feature, about 1/8" thick. That should get consistent lines to generate.

Could you try the fill pattern: 191-SIDG_Stucco