tahoebrian5

I know this has been covered a bit and I've read through a few threads. I see how you can change foundations to dashed or turn them off with layer sets but the problem is usually there is a little bit of the stem wall that is above grade. What would I do If I want to dash or hide only portions of the footing and stem walls that are below the top surface of grade? Also how are you guys going about adding an earth hatch pattern below the finish grade line? Just cad objects or is there a smart way? Btw, this is in reference to an elevation view that has been sent to layout. Thanks!

Hoping for the ability to have multiple ref sets on at the same time. For 3 or more stories this is a huge drawback. Fingers crossed!

Ref sets won't work if you have more than one level above the foundation that have posts that originate on both floors. Having to use cad blocks is not very appealing either. Unless the cad block can be attached to the post object?

On complex projects I use the software as an error checking device to make sure all the loads get picked up and having to move more than one object if a post gets moved is a pretty big draw back. I'll have to do some more experimenting.

I'm starting to wonder why we need multiple "floors" though. If objects are sorted on layers properly why not just put all the stories on one "floor".

I'm still gnawing on this problem like a dog with a bone because I do have a complex 3 story project coming up.

My main worry is how to show all the posts on the foundation plan. For example I will have floor 3 posts, floor 2 posts, and floor 1 posts and all of them need footings and need to be shown on the foundation. So how about this work around... What if I just put more than one level on a "floor"? I could create a floor like usual, put all the objects on their own layers, then copy/paste the stuff to a new floor and move them to the appropriate height. Thoughts? Anyone have a better work around? I do have my fingers crossed the X8 will improve the ref set functions.

I'm a licensed PE and in the process of switching over to CA. I'm also in the process of seeing a lot of work come in the door. I'm definitely interested in collaborating but I'm in Reno so you guys would have to do any site work for me. I can do inspections via video though so it could work out. Give me a shout.

Keith did a good job of understanding my thought and showing how to go about it above (see his link). I haven't tried it yet

Wow, that is way more info then I knew was out there. Good to know and probably a must have for doing accurate color schemes.

What I'm getting at is much simpler.. Just what colors give a 60% transparency for example. In autocrash I used 10% thru 90% for different things and it really adds a lot to the presentation if done right.

I know Mitek has a 3D viewer called Sapphire so it does export 3D files of truss objects. Is it possible to import these in Chief?

It just occurred to me that elevation and 3D views show all the floors at once. Is there a way to trick chief into thinking a floor plan is an elevation?

Thanks a bunch you guys. I did eventually think to search outside of chief talk.. I'm a bit slow but I get there eventually! It's all starting to coalesce into something approaching an understanding. I see now that we REALLY need to be able to have more than one ref set active at the same time. Either that or have the ref set capable of showing items on any level. And.. Have certain objects that operate outside of floors.. Terrain and vertical framing members like steel posts. Fingers crossed for X8. I can see that this is probably going to be my biggest challenge for 3 story projects.

I would love to see your videos but unfortunately a search for MRLS did not bring them up.

In the mean time, I've added a post to my floor 1. I want to see it on my foundation plan which is on level 0. How would I go about this? Let me see if I'm close... I need to choose floor 1 as a ref set?

Ok, I'm starting to sneak up on understanding how chief works... Just barely!

What I'm seeing is that objects belong to a level, and the only way to display things from a different level is to use reference sets. Please let me know if this is correct. And if so, is there any exceptions to the rule?

What I'm getting at is this.. I do a lot of very complex homes where walls don't stack and posts and hold downs sometimes go to the foundation, and sometimes get headed off and new posts carry the loads down, etc. sometimes I will have a steel post that starts at the foundation and is continuous thru various floors all the way up to the roof framing.

What I absolutely NEED out of a drafting program is a way to see how posts and hold downs stack compared to each level of the house. When I frame a house I always start at the roof, drop in posts where I can for roof beams, then I go down a level and if a post is over an open area I head it off with a beam and add new lower posts, if it's in a wall I consider the post continuous and go down to the next level, etc until I get to the foundation.

So, all that being said, what are my options in chief?

So far what I'm coming up with is using the 0 level for grids and use it as my ref set so I can show the same grids on each level to help make sure nothing is out of wack. If I was drawing in 2d I could put the posts on the ref set also and handle continuous vs discontinuous with different post layers. But I don't think that will work because the posts need to interact. So there's my issue. What do you guys think, and how do you handle posts that go across multiple levels?

Thanks, I found and downloaded the catalog

Ok I got it, thanks a bunch!

It looks like greyscale is the way to go. I tried to fight it! Anyway, other than a trial and error method, is there any guide or resource to determine what the different line colors will look like plotted?

I'm definitely in the new knucklehead group. I've have tried the manual, believe me. I learn most things by reading obsessively. The chief manual is simply terrible. Yes you can find certain things but they stick to the bare minimum and it is really dry. Most of the answers I find only bring up several more issues. For example the section on sending an elevation to layout. There are SO many issues people need to know about once it's sent but chief has minimal contextual links to this info. Anothe example is the edit line style. There are specific instructions and for some reason I still can't get to the right menu. I know I'm dense but it shouldn't be that hard to edit a damn line style. I'm usually pretty good at learning new things and this is turning out to be a real challenge. That being said I think I forgot there was a separate doc called the users guide. I'm going th check it out now and hopefully it will decrease my knuckleheadism, but I doubt it.

I've created a custom user line style. The spacing wasn't quite right and now I can for the life of me figure out how to edit it.

From the reference manual...

To create a custom line style

Select CAD> Lines> Create Line Style , or right-click on the User Catalog folder and select New> Line Style.

You can also edit an existing line style by choosing to Copy it to the User Catalog, then right-clicking on it and selecting Open from the contextual menu.

Seems simple enough right? Not so much.

When I open the user catalog and right click, the only contextual menu I get is "show/hide selection panel" what am I missing?

It seems like I get stuck on the simplest things. As a new user learning chief, my main complaint is the interface is very unintuitive. Most programs have better right click to explore or edit things.. Shouldn't be this hard to find things... Rant over

Thanks guys, I will look into ref sets. It's kind of pointless to do grids if they are multiple objects!

Joe, I'm interested. Do you have an example showing what is included?

Ok, I got another stumper. I drew some grid bubbles on my floor plan and put them on my exterior dimension lines , as in grid a, grid b, grid 1, etc. I put them on a cad layer and they show up good on the floor plan, and also I turned the layer on for the roof framing and all was good. Now I created a foundation plan at level zero. I can't get any of my cad objects to display despite turning the correct layers on. Help!

It's another day with chief and here's where I'm at in life

I've got my roof framing plan sent to layout and I'm using the auto label. I've also got the %box_scale% field after the plan label which is a cool function. Is there anyway to format the scale portion of the label to reduce the font size without affecting the main label?

Second question, i usually callout rafters and joists with a double headed arrow extending across the framing members and have the callout centered on the arrows with something like "2x12 roof joists @ 16" o.c." Is there a smart way to do this or just use text and arrow tools?

One more quicky, I'm just getting ready to start detailing, is there built in detail indicators? This would be something like a circle with editable text inside and a arrow handle off one side similar to a section marker.

Thanks a bunch for helping everyone. I'll try to find a way to contribute back. Maybe I can share some of my structural design spreadsheets if anyone is interested. It's certainly going to be a long time before I can contribute with chief knowledge!

Yes, but what about line type scale and transparency? I haven't been able to find settings for these, other than fill style transparency.

Another line question.. Is there a setting similar to autocad LTScale? Or do you have to define new line types to get a different line style spacing?

I've found how to change transparency for hatch/fill but what about lines, either cad or part of objects? For example I like to shade back my electrical symbols if I include them on my main floor plan instead of a dedicated electrical plan. Another case is showing demo walls shaded back and dashed. I would much rather do this than try to find greyscale colors that look similar. It would be great if you could set transparency by layer but does not appear to be the case.

Great, thanks again. I while try keep my syllable count down in future posts

Yes they are, does this preclude turning off the display? Thx !