DavidJPotter

I have a friend that owns a pool company. He asked me to check out Pool Draw for his company. I have been using Chief Architect since 1994.

Pool Draw is specialized for drawing 3D pools and is not that great when  doing straight Houses and Buildings. It does a great job on Pools in 2D and 3D.

Doing the same work in Pool Draw that one does in Chief is NO PICNIC in terms of 3D swimming pools. It does a good job on surface place pools and fountains but accurate, 3D pools is VERY time consuming, even for someone like me.

If I drew pools for a living, I would choose Pool Draw.

DJP

Whether layers are visible or invisible is controlled in "Display Layers/Objects", while in an active camera view you open its Layer Display Options Dialog and uncheck all name layers that you do not with to see and check on all layers you do wish to see. I also use a "Framing Plan view" to streamline that effort. It is always to  be found in Dialog boxes.

With the wall covering create an elevation camera and face the wall covering, open the wall and remove the covering in that wall's wall covering tab. If it is still there after that open that wall's dialog box- Materials tab  and change the  apparent "wall covering" by altering the material surface setting of therouge wall surface. If all else fails, delete the wall and draw another one to replace the offending one.

DJP

Post a copy of your plan and an example image of what look you are going for.

DJP

DJP

Marty,

All CAD programs internally use Real World Scale 1' = 1'. So the ONLY time you need to worry about scale is when you print to PDF or Paper so the drawing fits the smaller space of those graphic environments. Wish you some success on your journey!

DJP

I draw what the client desires,

DJP

In thirty years of use I have not had this happen to me once I trained myself to carefully set and check settings and draw exterior walls in a clockwise fashion.

DJP

Your posted image looks  NOTHING like your plan file. It would help if you could share a little more data as to the intended outcome. Why is there a parapet on one end? Is that the pitch you wish the auto-roofs to be? Is the ceiling height for the first floor correctly set?

DJP

You need to turn down the "Sunlight" using RTRT. Photo realism doesn't just happen if one is a "good buy", rather it is resident completely your responsibility to tweak a rendering by adjusting its settings (material and lighting) to obtain an acceptable result. Unfortunately it is an Art as opposed to a Science, you learn via study followed by practice-trial and error.

DJP

Saved Plan Views earlier iteration was called Annotation Sets. Saved Plan Views are preprogrammed to group things of a type to a drafting result in terms of layers (on and off), Text for different layers (Electric-Text , Plot Plan-Text, Text, Text-Framing, Text-Framing), so when you select a "Plan Set" it automatically switches to the programmed layer, layer set, Text and CAD layer for theselevted plan set chosen.

DJP

I either just draw one plan file in the case of just two structures changing the settings as necessary.

When I have had large projects I created a .plan file for each building, then convert that model into a symbol to show the entire project of multiple buildings and using the individual .plan files for con docs.

DJP

IMAGES MADE IN X1

In each Room Specification Dialog Box - Structure Tab - Ceiling over this room, you "uncheck" the ceiling and that setting for each room it is checked, will take away the flat ceiling and the underside of the roof above then defines the ceiling or common rafter vaulted ceiling.

DJP

Post a copy of your file please.

DJP

I commonly use "3 D Solid" objects I make on the fly.

DJP

There are no Window or Door labels, no header heights, no dimensioned floor plan. Are you taking responsibility for those relative to accuracy? Do you have any data as to the "terrain drop at the back".

     I can and will do this provided you can fill in the apparent blanks. It should not take more than an hour provided my questions are addressed.

Thank you

DJP

Allow cookies.

DJP

       By default Chief uses 15 and 7,5 degree angle snaps for objects including walls. Most builders try to stay within norms but sometimes the overall design begs to differ.

       In order to free form draw slanted walls to be a "Hall" they must still be perpendicular to each other and I hope you don't mean slanted relative to the floor! To override the default "Angle Snaps" you find the icon for Angle Snaps and turn it off to draw the first wall where you wish it. Then open the Wall Specification Dialog and copy-paste or round off you wall angle and place the results in the "General Plan" note dialog -"Allowed Angles" input boxes. Once that is done you can turn "Angle Snaps" back on. You would only turn this off for such specialized actions.

DJP

The first and last time I imported and changed contour lines to elevation lines the resulting Terrain Plane was slower than molasses' in the Winter to view in camera and plan view. It had so many 3D faces it was overwhelming my then computer. I am with Rabbit on this one.

DJP

18 hours ago, decorators3 said:

Not sure If I should charge by the hour or sq ft. 

I always charge by the hour ($75.00), some of the users here have accreditations that demand higher fees (Architects, AIBD , & etc.). When you get more answers you will, I think, have more amounts  from $75.00 - up. You should also see variance's in per SF. figures as well.

DJP

Posts are programmed to meet the established ceiling. It appears you ordered no ceiling, so then "No Post". Make sure it is set "post to ceiling" in the Wall Specification Dialog and "No Ceiling" in the room -structure tab.

DJP

This guy is also very good: Jintudesigns.com

       I have been helping Chief and Home Designer users for a couple of decades remotely. I have a Zoom Meeting online meeting service and have helped others with their projects all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Russia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Kenya, South Korea, and Australia/New Zealand. I can and will help you.

       Send me your plan file, what software you used to make it (version and name), this way we can quickly fix your plan while you actively help guide me to what you need help with. At No extra charge, our session can be videoed for later reference by you. I charge $75.00 per hour, Let's get you started!

DJP

On 12/1/2023 at 6:49 PM, winterdd said:

I believe ya man, I know you speak truth but I was hearing about a lot of bugs earlier on so I wanted to wait.

Always, this is the way,.

DJP

I can help you, when can we discuss the project on the phone?

DJP