djhplanning

I have a template drawing set up that I start with. Eventually maybe I will have the template drawing setup exactly and have nothing to ever change during a project. But, something always comes up that I end up having to adjust on the fly while working on the new drawing. This will only be saved in the new drawing and not the template drawing. Unless I go back and open the template drawing and make the change again in this drawing. In the meantime I have probably started a couple of more drawings and have made adjustments in those drawings as well. It sounds like I have to start exporting every time before I close the drawing and import the settings each time I open the template drawing and start a new project.

I am struggling to manage my layer sets, annotation sets, default settings and wall definitions. I have numerous drawing projects going at once (about 12). Some of them already have different settings. It seams like every time I work on a drawing project I am always tweaking a layer set, annotation set, default drawing setting or adjusting a wall definition setting on the fly. What is the best way to manage this so I am always using the most current settings. If I change a setting in one drawing I am working on, I have to always try to remember to export the updated settings so they are available to import on another drawing. Do I need to start exporting the settings each time I close a drawing and importing all the settings when I open a drawing file. Is it possible to just have these settings automatically be used in any drawing file I open (similar to preference settings) without having to import them into the individual drawings. It seams like there would be no reason to have separate settings for each drawing you work on anyway (unless you have some builder clients with there own graphic standards or something). If I don't export the settings right away when I make the adjustment, I never know what drawing project has the most recent settings. Any suggestions as to how to best manage this would be a big time saver.

I'm looking for suggestions on the best strategy to show foundation walls that are below grade on my foundation plan (i.e. walkout foundation situation-see attachment). I don't know if I should be drawing with cad lines or if there is a proper way to actually do this. I like to have 2 different floor plans for finished basement. 1-foundation plan that shows just the foundation walls and footings, interior bearing wall footings, and 2nd a basement plan with interior framed walls, cabinets, doors, etc. Is it easiest to just draw the foundation wall and footings with cad lines or setup using an actual wall style. If an actual wall, what level would this be drawn on? Can't draw on the same level as the basement floor plan. Also, is there a way to fill in the spaces shown where there is a door or window in the foundation (see attachment)? There is actually a foundation wall below these openings but they don't show. I've been drawing in a cad line to fill. Better way?

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give both a try

Can anyone suggest how to model a horizontal soffit with the eaves unboxed? See picture.

Can anyone suggest how to add rigid insulation to the exterior of my monolithic slab foundation? I want 2" rigid insulation around the perimeter of my thickened edge slab and be flush with the exterior wall sheathing. (Frost protected shallow foundation) My slab edge thickness will range from 12" deep to 24" deep because of a slightly sloped site. I want to 2" insulation to show on the foundation plan. I have the slab edge showing with a solid line and the footing with a dashed line ok but just can't figure out the best way to show the 2" rigid as well. I have tried also to set up a wall type that has the insulation but maybe I am not doing that correctly. It seams like there should be an option through the build foundation dialog that you could add exterior insulation if you want. Any help would be appreciated.

I currently have a laptop and desktop running windows. I have to buy a new version of windows 10 ($200) because my laptop runs vista (can't get free upgrade if you have vista). I am considering saving that money for the new windows 10 and putting it towards upgrading to a mac book and eventually upgrading my desktop from pc to mac when it needs to be done. Does anyone know if I can use Chief Architect on my desktop PC like I do now and also on a new macbook as well. Would there be any conflicts if I work on a file on my desktop pc and then work on it away from the office on a mac book? As long as I download the appropriate software from Chiefs website, I don't think this would be a problem but if anyone can confirm, please do.

I was excited about this coming out because of the ability to be able to take my ipad to client meetings. Very disappointed to see that the app is not supported on my specific ipad or iphone 4. Don't know why they couldn't have made it to work on all older devices as well.

Ok, thank you Joey. I thought this was somehow automatically connected to the floor finish material when setting up the room defaults.

I'm seeing some plans out there that show floor coverings on the floor plan view. I can not figure out how to show this. I have tried to turn on floor surfaces layer (which seams to make sense this is the layer it would be on) with no luck. Maybe there is a setting somewhere else that I am missing??? Or maybe this is done another way???

Does anyone know if it is possible to "explode" cad polylines into individual line segments? All I want is to draw individual cad lines instead of multiple lines being automatically connected together. If I want to use 1 line as a reference line and draw something referencing it, I then later want to go back and erase the reference line I drew. I can't do this most of the time because the lines automatically connect to create a poly line. I am trying to use the cad line tool to draw simple cross sections. On another note, I think it is possible to draw a line with an angle that is in pitch instead of degrees. I have used it before but I can't seam to find where that setting is. Much appreciate your help for a newer user!

Thanks for the help with setting up a wall type for this. I figured there was a better way but have not been working with Chief for very long.

I just closed and reopened the plan and I get the same problem. Maybe this is something that was fixed in X8? I am currently using X7 and have not upgraded yet.

Here is the plan file for the project I am working on. Addition 1-28-16.plan

The streaks will go away for a while if I apply the siding again or if I open the wall material region dialog box, change nothing and hit ok to close. Then after a while they will appear again. ??? I have also tried unchecking the cut finish layers of parent object box in dialog box.

What is the best way to add horizontal siding to the above grade portion of an ICF foundation wall. See attached photos. I used a wall material region and painted on siding but I am getting these vertical streaks showing. I believe there are walls on the interior of the foundation where these streaks are showing. What is happening here? Is there another better way to show siding on this portion of the ICF foundation wall?

Here are some screen shots of what I am getting

I like the mask idea. But, how do you get toilets, tubs and other cad blocks that were brought into the the existing plan to have dashed lines? Walls are no problem. They don't seam to want to change at all if they remain a cad block. If I try to explode them, there are a lot of extra lines that show up. I don't want to have to always go and erase all of these extra lines.

Can't figure this out. I have tried starting a new plan using one of chiefs template files and it works. But when starting a new plan with one of my templates, it doesn't work. I did click ok because I've done it a lot of times trying to figure out what was causing it. Don't know what I could possibly have set in my template file that would effect this. I've tried using the same settings in my file as the ones that were in chiefs template. No luck & puzzled. Do framing settings have anything to do with it. I've also tried different wall types and still no luck.

I seam to have lost the ability to change and rebuild the overhang and pitch of my automatically generated roofs?? When I change the pitch and overhang settings the roof does not change to the settings just set. Do I have something set wrong somewhere else that would override the settings? Isn't this suppose to automatically redo the roof with the new settings?

Thanks for the help. I'm pretty new with Chief. I'm use to working with sketchup. They have a nice system for just rotating the material per individual surface.

I want to have tongue and groove paneling on the walls and ceilings in a room. I want to have the wall run in a vertical direction, which is no problem. When applied to the ceiling, the paneling wants to run paralell with the rafters. I want the paneling to run perpendicular to the rafters. How is this achieved??? Do I need to make a new material with pattern rotated 90 degrees??? Isn't there an easier way to just rotate the ceiling material and not the walls?

I seam to have an attic wall that keeps wanting to frame above this partial height wall. How do I get rid of this attic wall?

Thanks for your help. How did you reshape the wall?

I'm trying to put a partial height wall into a normal room with 8' vaulted ceiling. The partial wall height will be 7'6" high. I'm using the half high wall/railing tool from the walls menu. I want to put a 6'-8" high 6' double pocket door into this wall. When I try to put a door in this wall the software just puts an opening in with no header above. Is there another way to do this when you don't want a wall to automatically go to the ceiling but still need to have a door in it?