rlackore

I share, and expect the same in return, whether it's for MEP, civil, whatever. It's a low-risk way of cultivating good relationships and making everyone's life easier. Sharing doesn't negate your copyright.

This screen grab is for X11, but I'm pretty sure X10 had the same kind of functionality:

I've downloaded the trial of Substance Designer and played along with the tutorial for creating a first material. I've been using Genetica (no longer developed or supported) which is node-based, but SD is a significant step up in complexity and power. I took a stab at creating a Nichiha fiber cement material (Dimension Series, Ribbed Panel): nichiha_ribbed_panel.sbs Nichiha.calibz The first lesson I learned is that the Substance Designer PBR workflows don't exactly match the CA material definition, so it's necessary to tweak the SD outputs and CA inputs for best results. The second lesson is that improved materials are much more computationally expensive - optimizing the material maps is critical to improving raytrace performance and the performance of the material preview within the Material Definition dbx. Regardless, I welcome anything CA does that provides greater control over materials. Dustin - can we assume that a Substance plugin is coming to Chief Architect? Is this possibility more than a pipe dream?

I use the Object Information fields to add this kind of information, generally under the Comment section:

You can't - it is not allowed by Chief; you can't insert below the foundation level or above the attic level, so you'll have to work around those limitations.

You need to set the default header depth for window objects in Default Settings>Window>Framing>Header: Use the Calculate from Width checkbox if you want it to use the default settings you set up in Default Settings>Framing>Openings.

Default Settings>Framing>Plan Display>Joists, Rafters, General Framing>Use Line for Framing This setting "sticks" for whatever floor is displayed in Plan View at the time, in other words you can set the value independently for each floor.

Turn on the Rooms layer.

Turn on the Roof Baselines layer, select the Roof Plane, then perform a point-to-point move from the Roof Baseline to the porch railing wall. Then you can clean up all your roof intersections.

If you prefer them round: direct vent.calibz

You can also create a greenhouse using a railing wall and roof planes with some rafters thrown in:

Yes.

This is a big part of your problem: Note that the arrow showing the slope isn't perpendicular to the 8:12 roof. You need to orient the 10:12 roof to be perpendicular to the 8:12 roof. EDIT: Kevin caught this right away (I was a bit slower than everyone else).

Here's a handy formula for you when working with unequal pitch roof planes: unequal pitch intersection angle = ATAN (high pitch / low pitch) If the intersection angle (in plan) between your 8:12 and 10:12 roof planes isn't 51.34 (or 38.66 if you're measuring the other way) then you can be assured that something is very wrong.

A polyline solid will appear in plan view as long as the layer to which it is assigned is turned on in the plan view layerset. You need to clarify: are you referring to opening a elevation camera view, or to determining the relative/absolute elevation (z-coordinate) of an object or element?

One common method is to shoot an elevation view of the pergola, draw the knee brace profile using the CAD tools (make sure it is a closed polyline), then convert the closed polyline into a polyline solid. This solid can be copied, moved, rotated, etc. to place wherever needed.

We have done this exact thing many times in the Suggestion Forum, going back several software versions. Still waiting....

File>Import>Import Drawing (DWG, DXF)... will only import 2D data. File>Import>Import 3D Symbol (DWG, DXF, OBJ, etc.)... will import 3D data. A DWG file created by AutoCAD Architecture doesn't include any "readable" 3D data for Chief to import - you'll have to first export the file as a DXF. Unfortunately, this data can only be imported as a Symbol, which will do you no good whatsoever because you can't extract any usable information from a Symbol.

Your room needs to be defined appropriately using the Room Specification dialog box: ...and then you need to change the Baseline Height of the roof planes: I suggest downloading a copy of the X10 Reference Manual and reading the relevant chapters.

Thanks for that nugget Eric - something I've missed and it will certainly be useful for me going forward.

I suggest downloading the Reference Manual. If you're using Premier X10, then you can get it here.

Sorry, I didn't notice that you'd attached the plan file. The problem is that the railing wall that defines the porch isn't aligned with the stem wall below, so when you make the stem wall a pony wall the upper portion of the pony wall extends to the porch ceiling above. The easy solutions are to either 1) align the railing wall above with the stem wall below, or 2) select the upper pony wall and drag it down to your desired height.

Dollars to doughnuts Chief created an attic wall to "fill in" the gap between the top of the pony wall and the roof baseline. I suspect your porch isn't defined as a room. If you make the porch a room (with railings or invisible wall), then Chief won't build the attic wall.

Picture:

No, I don't think so. I painted the walls three different colors and everything seems fine: