rlackore

You're bearing wood on steel? The easiest method is to attach a wood bearing plate to the top of the steel (I believe you have this shown). The plate-to-steel connection depends on 1) uplift (maybe seismic?), 2) thickness of beam top flange, and 3) thickness of bearing plate. If the top flange isn't too beefy, you may be able to use self-drilling screws; otherwise you're stuck with bolts or stud anchors. Fabricators are used to drilling bolt holes on either side of the web, typically at 24" oc; but, again, you need to verify the size/spacing for the expected forces.I would be just as concerned with the design in regard to thermal bridging at the beam/exterior wall interface - but maybe you've got that covered. FWIW, I sometimes prefer S-shapes (rails) over W-shapes for exterior exposed applications - the aggressive slope on the S-shape flange helps drainage and deters nesting birds. Plus, if you're not familiar with the standards for Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel, check out AESS Code of Standard Practice at AISC.org.

9 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Note that you can use a "Tudor" half arch and manually set the height of the arch to the needed dimension.

That looks like a good solution - better than mine, I think. Auto-framing, however, is a mess (the left is mine, the right is Joes'):

I think your best bet is to create a custom symbol with the proper pitch:

then insert it without casing, etc., and lay a window pass-through over it and adjust the pass-through arch to match the roof:

It's a bit of work, but not too much.

Can the Dogear Arch give you what you need?

EDIT: No, I guess not - it only clips at a 45 degree angle.

24 minutes ago, EconBlueprints said:

I still have to figure out how to get the siding off the gable end that is visible in the family room.

EDIT: Eric is super-fast.

I had no problem drawing a polyline and using Convert Polyline>Hole in Roof / Custom Ceiling:

EDIT: Lew beat me to the punch, but here's a step by step guide, for what it's worth:

Terrain objects lose their intelligence when you copy/paste them between plans. Here are my recommended steps:

1. Open both plan files.

2. Within the lot1 Modified plan, activate the Edit>Edit Area>Edit Area (All Floors) command:

3. Window around the terrain so everything you want to copy is included in the selection box, then Edit>Copy:

4. Within the Sharrock_New_Plan, Edit>Paste the terrain selection and plop it wherever you want:

5. Select the polyline object that represents the terrain perimeter - if you examine its properties you'll notice that it's no longer a Terrain Perimeter, but a Special Polyline:

6. With the Special Polyline selected, use this tool to convert it to a regular polyline:

7. With the polyline still selected, use the Convert Polyline tool to convert it back to a Terrain Perimeter:

8. You have now successfully imported the terrain into the house plan:

15 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

possibly this setting if you have it in HDA 2018?

 

Good tip. Perspective Floor Overview cameras have that setting, though Floor Cameras do not. Maybe your tip will give the OP a good alternative to using a Floor Camera.

1 hour ago, ChiefUser8377 said:

 

Second, when viewing using perspective full overview and zooming into the design, the floor is visible (concrete slab w/footings), but somehow walls have generated in the attic. 

I assume you're referring to these attic walls:

Just delete them and they're gone.

1 hour ago, ChiefUser8377 said:

 

First, when viewing my plan using the floor camera, the floor disappears and terrain appears. 

This is because the Structure is defined with Floor Supplied by the Foundation Room Below. It's a Floor Camera - it won't display things that are on the foundation level.

I suggest:

1) Cut the elevation regions and set Terrain Specification>Building Pad>Subfloor Height Above Terrain to manual, and enter a value that places the terrain where you want it, relative to the first floor/garage:

2) Now Paste Hold Position your elevation regions back in place and finish manipulating the terrain as required:

In my opinion setting the terrain height manually makes subsequent manipulation easier and more predictable. That said, modifying terrain in Chief can be very frustrating.

This is the only place I know of that you can set the Preview Pane display style:

The only choices are Standard or Vector View. However, the Define Material dbx has the option to preview the material in PBR:

On 7/20/2018 at 10:53 AM, HumbleChief said:

Robert did you add lights? Or just use the recessed cans? I can never get them to look OK by themselves.

I used the lights already in the OP's plan - nothing extra. I agree that lighting is half the battle (material definitions being the other half), and supplemental lighting is often needed to achieve acceptable results.

I'm on X10 Premier, so I don't know if Interiors is going to give different results, but here is what I did:

1. Changed the aluminum and stainless steel materials from Material Class>Pre-defined Metal to Material Class>Shiny Metal. I've found this improves rendering speed and quality, and gives reasonable results.

2. Reduced Ambient Occlusion from 5.0 to 3.0.

3. Reduced the resolution from 2000 to 72 dpi. 2000 is extremely high - most high-resolution printers do just fine with 300 to 600 dpi.

4. Increased the number of passes to 30.

By the way, if you can tell us exactly what you don't like about your original rendering, it would help us zero in on fixing any specific issue.

Melissa, your solution looks very nice. Sorry that I missed your signature - I hadn't realized you were on X9. Anyway, I took on the challenge of creating the buttons, just as a personal exercise. This is in X10, but maybe it will be useful in the future: panelmeshwithbuttons.calibz

It renders well at a distance, and up close it's acceptable, but the normal and bump mapping could use more work. If you're interested in trying to recreate this in X9, here are the loose image files and settings (I think X9 won't have the Normal Map and Ambient Occlusion Map):

Give this a try: panelmesh.calibz

Renders pretty well, though you may need to play with it a bit. No circles at the intersections, though:

Make the sections of walls shown in red "No Room Definition":

Maybe this will work: 3D Model with terrain.plan

As a general rule of thumb, it's best to control the wall materials using the Wall Type Definition, not by using the Wall Specification dbx, unless you need to over-ride the default for a specific wall.

Open the Wall Specification dbx and change Materials>Wall>Exterior Wall Surface to Use Default.

I'm confused by the description of your problem, but might it be related to using Grid Snaps?

Have you tried Print View>Advanced Options>Open System Print Dialog...

Here are two PVA panels I've created for my Library: PVA Panels.calibz

The Canadian Solar unit is set up with a ballasted frame set an an angle for low-slope roof applications:

The Hanwah unit is to be flush-mounted on sloped roofs:

18 hours ago, Kmankey04 said:

When I try to install solar panels it installs it in the attic. How do install the solar panels on the roof plane ?

Open the symbol's Specification dialog box and set General>Elevation Reference to From Roof, and tick the General>Options>Flush Mounted checkbox.

28 minutes ago, NRST8TRKR said:

When you define your wall type if you set to dimension to exterior layer, choose OSB

Thanks for reminding me of this - I'd forgotten about this feature.