ComputerMaster86

There is not really an easy way to auto rebuild a certain section of roof. If you turn "Auto Rebuild Roofs" back on it is going delete your manually edited roof planes. With "Auto Rebuild Roofs" turned off, you have to re-edit the roof planes everytime the footprint of your building changes. I like to use the auto generated roof planes with auto rebuild roofs turned on, when I can. Every wall has a "Roof" tab inside the "Wall Specification" dialog box. Those settings along with the settings under the "Build Roof" dialog box the software uses to auto generate your roof. Sometimes you can break a wall into two sections using the "Wall Break" and modify the "roof" tab settings for one of the segments. This method allows you to keep "Auto Rebuild Roofs" turned on. The one big downside is sometimes no matter what combination settings you adjust, the auto generated roof can't always give a person exactly what they need. In these situations I just manually modify what is auto-generated to get what I need. Many prefer to manually generate their roof planes right from the start. Some users would say manually editing roof planes is easier than trying to adjust the different combinations roof settings to get what they need.

Here is a short video I generated where I manually edited the roof planes to create a rear gable on the back of my structure . Rear gable is the same with as the front gable. My video creation skills are not the best.

Most people prefer to manually edit roof planes to get what they want. I lean towards using methods that keep "Auto Rebuild Roofs" turned on when I can. I have started to use the "Gable Roof Line" tool on some of my projects. If you are using auto-generated roof planes, you can place a "Gable Roof Line" using the "Gable Roof Line" tool. Line it up with your far front edge of the main wall layer and draw the line the same width as your front gable. Then you can select line and move it to the back relative to the where you want the back gable. Keep the line centered on your front gable. Some users would like say this is not the best method of accomplishing what you are trying to accomplish. I like it I can keep auto rebuild roofs turned on.

Pictured below is pretty much what I was after. I normally don't get this detailed on my projects. I was challenging my self at creating the look of steel ratguard trim using an actual to size molding profile. The ratguard fastens to a treated grade board at the bottom of a post-framed wall. The steel sheet metal panel sits on the ledge of the steel rat guard trim. I have been experimenting with the extension wall layer feature too see if I could come up with something like I have pictured below. I wish we didn't have to have walls placed on floor below to make use of extension.

I added foundation walls on the floor below. The foundation walls were placed to have the same footprint as my walls on the 2nd floor. Those foundation walls were set to hidden, no room definition and no locate. I also turned off the sill plate and footing. I was then able to get it to do something. It frustrates me that you have to have some form of a wall below to get the extension to do anything.

Below is inside the zip is my X16 plan I was playing around the extension settings with. Extension X16.zip

Inside the wall type definition dialog box I am trying to make use of the extension setting. I can not for the life of me get wall layers to extend past the concrete floor or by using a negative number get them to extend upward exposing the concrete floor a little. What am I doing wron?

Daniel Bauman has a bi-weekly free webinar called the "Designer's Show". I have picked up on a lot of things over time viewing his free webinars. I have also viewed some of his paid content. I also pay for Rene Rabbitt's YouTube video content. Both have allowed me to pick up on a lot of things over time.

I have had that happen before. I never understood what causes it but, restarting CA always fixes it.

Just out of curiosity, I merged all the materials together so there is only 1 material. I wanted to see if their was still a lag with the 3D model in your elevation views. That did speed up the load time of the elevation views. I am guessing if you have some method of condensing and cleaning up the materials so their is not so many that may help speed up the load times. I wasn't able to pin point any specific textures causing the slow down.

I like to save the most recent and latest Chief installer for each version (X14, X15, X16, etc.) for a just in case scenario. I have a special folder on my NAS I keep program installation files in. You just never know when you will be saying a few choice words while realizing you have to reinstall something. Plus it's handy for setting things up on another computer.

I am not liking how Chief handles the primary wall side for interior walls.

Is there a way to control what side of an interior wall that "Auto Exterior Dimensions" terminate. to? I would like it to terminate to the edge of the main layer but, on the same side of the wall as the edit handles. Based on my settings it does terminate to the main layer but, there is no consistency as to what side of the main layer it connects to.

With the new newel spacing options and controls in X16, I can use a railing wall to mimic a potentially place 3D posts of a post-framed building. I can quite easily adjust the position of the individual posts, where I need them. X16 newel spacing options make that possible. I just wish there currently was a means to place these railing walls inside or overtop other walls. Inside my regular wall types that have all the finish material layers, my main layer occupying where the posts would go is always set to Opening (No Material). Then I manually place posts w/ footings where I need them. That is if I want and/or need to show 3D posts. A railing wall set to only show posts (newels) offers more potential and a faster method of generating the individual posts. Secondly, I can adjust and alter their position faster and easier with the new newel spacing options. Currently, placing walls on top of other walls is not really feasible that I am aware of. I wish I had an the following options to... + Specify and define a footing for each Post (Newel). + for each individual Post (Newel) to have a different size and shape of footing, if need be. + Override the default top and bottom height of each Post (Newel), on an individual Post by Post basis. Ability to type in values of the top and bottom. + Change both the width and depth of each individual Post (Newel) while keeping them a part of the railing wall. Example 4 X 6 treated posts. + Specify defaults for all of this and revert back to the defaults. Thinking about railing walls and the new to X16 newel spacing, I just know there is a lot of potential for more advanced auto generated and editable post-framing. Being able to place the railing wall that is auto-generating the post inside other walls without affecting the other wall is what I am after at this point in time. Maybe I can explore referencing another plan file plan file with use of "Reference Display".

If I was chief I wouldn't waste time with AI. Their resources are better spent on other things.

Thank you for the reply. I somehow overlooked the e-mail.

Has the option to renew SSA and retain our perpetual license been complete done away with. I used to receive a notice this time of year indicating what the SSA renewal fee is? It appears at first glance legacy license holders are being forced into a subscription plan.

You can run Chief Architect on Core i7 and Ryzen 7 Processors just fine. I actively do on both an Intel Core i7-10700K and AMD Ryzen 7-7700X. Both are 8-Core 16-Thread CPU's. The Intel processor has a base frequency of 3.8 Ghz and the AMD 4.5 Ghz. The i9's and Ryzen 9's depending on model have a few more core's and/or a bit faster clock speed but many i7 and Ryzen 7's are still decent work horse processors. I try to shoot for 8-core processors with around 4.0 Ghz speed as a baseline for a processor for a computer that is going to run Chief. If you are going to do ray-trace renderings get a good graphics card. I've been using a RTX 3070 super on my semi-portable open air desktop quite a bit this week. My big ole desktop PC in a more traditional case has a RTX 4080 super on the inside. I honestly haven't used the 4080 super much but, others on here actively use RTX 4080 supers for raytrace renders.

Its not a laptop but, I picked out the components and had a local computer shop put this machine together for me. It's a mini ITX computer built on a OCPC frame. After it was built, I added the RTX 4070 super graphics card. Almost doesn't fit. I call it a semi-portable computer. It has a... + OCPC Mini ITX Case + GIGABYTE B650I AORUS Ultra Mini-ITX AM5 Motherboard + AMD Ryzen 7700X Zen 4 Processor 8 Cores, 16 Threads @ 4.5 Ghz Base Processor Frequency + 32 GB's of DDR 5-6000 (3000 Mhz) Memory (2 DIMM's @ 16 GB's) + 1 TB Samsung 990 PRO NVME M.2 SSD + GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Super Eagle OC 12G Graphics Card After my 8 year old laptop gave up the ghost on me, I had thought about another laptop. Hearing people having problems with brand new laptops, I decided to go this route. I am so happy I did. I even cart the machine back and forth to my daytime employer.

I think the easiest thing would be for Chief to implement and allow two customizable hot keys. The hotkeys would be dedicated to each option. One for Angles/Corners and the other for horizontal / vertical. I actually use the corner snap with "Reflect About" a lot and would hate to see that go away but, I also have experienced the issue shown in the video.

Thank you so much for the tid-bits.

My window schedule has a custom object field that is linked to a column of the schedule. In the custom object field I have typed the following... %@rouSil[1][4,0,0]% My macro works and does what I intended it to do but, I am having trouble getting the macro to execute automatically for all items in schedule. I have to click on "Open Row Object" and then close out the dialogue box for the macro to execute. Then it will execute for just one window. I have to keep repeating the process of clicking on a line item, clicking on "Open Row Object" and then close out of dialogue a number of times equal to how many windows I have in my schedule. There must be something about how ruby works I am not understanding. How do I trigger the macro to run automatically for every window in the schedule? My knowledge of ruby is limited. Here is my macro... @sill = (owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom).to_f.round(4) @rouSil = [ -> (thickA, thickB, height) {(owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom).to_f.round(4)}, -> (thickA, thickB, height) {( owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom).to_f.round(4) + thickA + thickB + height}, ] puts = @rouSil[1][4,0,0] Schedule Issue.zip

I revised my code (see below) and got it working to a point. It still is creating a seperate line item and runiing the macro for the first instance. I can open up that line item and then close the dialogue box and will force the macro two run. But I have to do that multiple times. Maybe I can get video footage of that. @sill = owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom @rouSil = [ -> (thickA, thickB, height) { ( owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom).to_f.round(4)}, -> (thickA, thickB, height) { ( owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom).to_f.round(4) + thickA + thickB + height}, ] puts = @rouSil[1][4,0,0]

With my limited knowledge of ruby I am running into another issue I can't understand. Let's say I have 6 quantity of windows listed as one line item on a window schedule. Currently, it will run the instance macro and do the math formula calculation for the the first window of the line item but, create a second line item and not perform the macro calculation for the remaining 5 windows. In the end, it theoretically should still result in one line item. The result of the macro is going to be the same for all six windows. Very baffling. @rouSil = [ -> (thickA, thickB, height) {owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom.round(1) + thickA.to_f.round(1) + thickB.to_f.round(1) + height.to_f.round(1)}, -> (thickA, thickB, height) {owner.bottom_elevation - owner.rough_opening_clearance_gap_bottom.round(4) + thickA.to_f.round(4) + thickB.to_f.round(4) + height.to_f.round(4)}, ] All 6 instances of the window are at the same rough sill height. My macro just does a simple math calculation where I can manually type in the concrete thickness and it adds that value to the rough sill distance. It spits out a vertical distance from bottom of grade board to top of rough sill. A value the builders can reference for framing the window openings.. For upper story windows, I manually type in three values. The lower floor concrete thickness, the lower level ceiling height and the upper level floor assembly thickness. It will do the same calculation and spit out a value. I just don't know why its creating another line item when the result of the macro is going to be the same for all six windows listed in the original single line item.