rlackore

Did you export as 2D or 3D? My experience has been that 3D DWG exports from Chief aren't as reliable. If 2D is what you're after, try exporting as 2010-2012, or as a DXF. Civil 3D supports both, so I expect one of these options should work.

ScottSchafer, you should  download the Reference Manual and start reading at page 858. Mick has good advice. Home Designer Pro doesn't provide an option to choose the Layerset to use for export, but it's not difficult to create a new "export" Layerset and activate it before beginning the export process. Index Colors is another story - I don't know what Home Designer Pro does with this - maybe it automatically exports the Index Colors, maybe not; regardless, the draftsperson should be able to cope. Ultimately it's up to the draftsperson to work with what you give them - it may involve more work, but drawing exchange between software products is always an issue.

Thanks Eric. I did a forum search for Wall Niche and your referenced post didn't come up. Sorry for the duplicate question. 

Why does the wall niche casing float off the wall surface?

This is a brand new X10 plan, nothing else in it except a wall and the niche. Any suggestions are appreciated.

This behavior confused me also, then I found the answer in the X10 Reference Manual:

I suggest contacting Tech Support. Submit your plan file and they can take a closer look.

I would look into learning SketchUp, then importing your creations into Chief. Plus, the Trimble 3D Warehouse has lots of shopfitting components already created that you can download/modify/import. Then, learn the limitations of Chief's Symbol paradigm - it will save you lots of time and frustration when setting up the Symbols to achieve what you want. Chief can do a good job of creating the interior shop environment, but it's not so great at creating the components.

Try turning off Image Properties>Use Tone Mapping.

I can think of a few reasons you can't delete it:

1) It is one of Chief's protected layers (e.g. Walls, Normal; or HVAC; or Foundation).

2) The layer is referenced within a an Annoset, in which case you would need to remove it from the Annoset definition before it can be deleted.

3) The layer is referenced within a Block definition , in which case you need to delete and purge, or redefine, the block definition before the layer can be deleted.

There are probably other reasons - I'm sure other folks will chime in.

I've opened a ticket with Support to address this issue.

The Home Designer site is here. From there you can use the pull-down menus at the top of the page to navigate to whatever form of support you need, including the user forum:

Using Plot Lines>Color Fill also fixes the problem, except of course for the color fill:

...which doesn't resolve itself when printed to PDF:

I've discovered that if I send the view at No Scale, the problem goes away. But at No Scale the view is too small, and there is no way to adjust it:

I had this problem in X9, and it persists in X10. Here's an ortho view in Plan:

I send it to Layout as a Live View>Update on Demand:

Here is the view on my Layout page:

When I update the Live View, each successive update shifts the view left-and-up until it disappears from the Layout Box:

I've saved the Camera, so I don't understand why this happens. If anyone has some insight, I'd appreciate the help.

Rene is correct - Chief hasn't implemented queue management for farming out raytracing.

I regret that none of my posts has actually addressed the OP's question.

Joey, your graphics card is a bit underwhelming to be running Chief. Quadro cards are less than ideal - and the M2000M is mid-range at best. When my office made the switch  from AutoCAD products to Chief we were using desktop workstations with very expensive Quadro cards, and their performance with Chief was poor. Now we buy custom gaming rigs and everything is golden.

He has different Youtube channels. Originally he made "joke" videos (like the ones DJP posted) on his ThioJoe channel to garner clicks and revenue. Then he branched out to do serious tech reviews on his ThioJoeTech channel. Now he's rolling his TioJoeTech content into his ThioJoe channel - so it will be even more difficult for people to discern between his "joke" videos and real tech reviews. IMO he's a jacka**. But hey, it's a free internet, right?

Here you go: ThioJoe Is Fake. Straight from the horse's mouth.

DJP, I have to disagree. Several of this dude's videos are complete BS and following his advice can lead to seriously messing up your system. All you have to do is read the description below the videos:

...or just read the comments sections.

I think Chief will work fine. Important things:

1) Set up your wall definitions appropriately. I don't know what kind of insulation values you need in Florida, but here's an exterior wall with exterior continuous insulation, filled CMU cores, and interior steel stud furring:

Interior walls can also be defined to use steel stud sizes and materials.

2) Do you use slabs-on-grade for residential in Florida? If so, set up your foundation defaults appropriately:

3) Define your room structure for CMU nominal wall heights and a slab foundation:

4) Set up your framing defaults, such as floor and roof beams:

5) Set your lower story exterior walls to hang the floor framing:

These very basic settings can start to get you there:

There are lots of other settings to tweak, but these are some of the basics. Then draw the house using a standard Chief workflow and you'll discover what else needs to be done. And as Johnny mentioned, you'll always need to utilize some workarounds and CAD details, just like stick framed homes.

You also need a Ceiling Plane - I can't find one in your plan file. Once you define a depth for the Structure (any depth really, it shouldn't matter), use the Ceiling Plane to control the actual depth of the trusses. Then Chief should draw a truss for you:

You need to define a depth for the roof structure in Roof Plane Specification>Structure>Roof Layers>Structure. The roof plane in your drawing has this set at 0". Chief won't draw a 0" deep roof truss.

I would send the architect's CAD operator one of your finished plans as an example, and ask them to send you a CAD file with only the type of information shown on your plan. That should allow them to NOT export all the layers of stuff that you don't need. But that's a lot more work for them, and they may be resistant to the idea.

I suggested a fix to this a while ago, right here. I guess they didn't fix it in X10. I agree with you, if the walls on both sides are defined as Furred Walls, then the opening should recognize them both.

Go Through Floor Below seems to help: