rlackore

Check out this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ59vHSFfZA Xeon vs I7 explained.

See attached. I think something was corrupt - but not sure what. Everything seemed set up properly. When I drew new interior walls, they all had beadboard, even though the defaults and wall type specified drywall. So on a lark I used the spray can to paint the drywall on one of the walls, and after a rebuild everything was fine. Plan 2 Main Level X6 Current.plan

I Googled Lanai, didn't get any hits that made sense within the context. Thanks for the explanation.

Did you use the Material Painter (spray can) to apply the beadboard texture to the exterior walls? If so, any changes you make in the Wall Specification dbx won't matter until you set the wall's Exterior Wall Surface to Use Default. You have to do this for every wall you've painted: If you painted EVERY wall, simply select the exterior room and change the material in the Room Specification dbx.

Jon, noticed you've recommended Boxx in several threads. I was on a Boxx for about a year before we hired a guy to specifically do our 3D stuff (this was back in 2006), and it was a good machine, solidly built - but, loud as heck and I thought a bit over-priced for what we got. Excellent interior build, though - easy to upgrade and good support - they still have our custom build on file and retrievable via the web. Our latest purchases are from Falcon Northwest, a custom gaming rig builder, and they have been impressive as well: Falcon Northwest Talon.pdf

Don't know what a lanai is. For a covered porch you could use a railing wall to define the extents of the porch, and use a soffit (or other method) for the tie beam (if I understand what you mean by a tie beam):

DWG and DXF formats preserve 3D information - they are not exclusively 2D formats. Have you tried FILE>IMPORT>IMPORT 3D SYMBOL?

Post the plan and you'll get better answers.

You can have invisible walls "visible" in plan, then when you send to layout choose "Make a Copy of Active Layer Set" and turn off the Walls, Invisible layer in the layout layer set. However, if you want them visible in layout, but not print - I don't think that is an option. I would love to see a tickbox in our layerset manager that allows for layers to be no-print. This should be a basic feature of layer management. Another work-around may be to use a slightly off-white background, set your invisible walls to use a white color, then when you print from layout the white lines won't be visible. Just a thought.

Okay. This confirms what I suspected. I believe the SIZE of a plan affects the SIZE of an undo, which affects the speed at which an undo (or series of undos) can be applied. Thanks Doug for the info.

Yes, I know. I've tried and failed. Again, please post your plan so I can learn.

Then the floor framing won't build through to the ledge. I've tried messing around with all the main layer and the settings, but can't make it work. If you can, please post the plan so I can examine your settings.

Doesn't work for me: ...though in X6 you can always use the wall intersection tool to manually clean it up: ...which I should have thought of before.

Winders are the answer. Check the Reference Manual beginning on page 536 for a detailed explanation. It's not a perfect solution, but it should get you started.

You may be able to get what you're after using the standard window tool:

When you created the window symbol, did you notice the Opening tab in the Symbol Specification dbx? It appears that this is what drives how the opening in the wall is cut. I'm not sure you can change this to fit your custom window shape.

This is what I call a reverse brick ledge. Do what Perry says: pony wall with upper wall lowered the depth of your floor framing+sheathing+sill. Open DEFAULT SETTINGS>FOUNDATION and set the Treated Sill Plate width to the width of the top wall (if you want them to match). Select all the walls and open WALL SPECIFICATION>STRUCTURE and check Platform Intersections>Hang Floor Above on Wall. Build the floor framing and cut a section; with auto-detail you get this: For some reason CA never builds the ledge plate - you'll have to draw that in yourself. The disadvantage to using this technique is in plan view. If you set the pony wall to display the lower wall, which makes sense for plan view, interior partitions are shown drawn to the upper wall. I've never found a way around this: If someone else can resolve this issue, it would be great.

You may be able to use the align-center command to center the molding on the opening - either in plan or elevation.

Here are the specs to the last two workstations we purchased: Falcon Northwest Talon.pdf They are working well - the users have no complaints so far. However, you could easily spend another $1000 on a quality laptop.

Ok, thanks - didn't know that. I have mine set at 50. When I think about it, I would never have the patience to sit through 50 Chief undo operations. I'll try bumping down my undos, and auto-saving more often (though I hate sitting around for autosave to finish - on my computer it's a very noticeable hiccup).

Is this true? I've never tested it. Chief saves its undo information in separate .plan and .layout files. I can't open any of them - an "assertion failed" error dbx pops up when I try; but the file sizes are large enough that I suspect they must be near-duplicates of the original file, and this might explain why undo operations take so long. I don't think that the number of undos set in preferences affects working within the plan/layout, though the size of the plan/layout file definitely affects how long it takes to undo an operation.

No data in the plan. Be sure to quit the plan before zipping.

One aspect you will want to think closely about is collaboration with outside firms and your contract employees. What software/format do they work in? Chief does export to dwg, dxf and other formats, but it's not a seamless transition. If exporting for dwg/dxf is a requirement, I would recommend some testing fist. Here is a link to a Legacy Forum thread that discusses the issue: http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?65204-Line-weight-changes-when-sending-elevations-to-dwg-file-to-open-in-AutoCad-Lt-2010&highlight=dxf+autocad+export

Okay, I figured out my problem. I've discovered that Ceiling Planes, like Roof Planes, use a "baseline", and it's critical that I locate the "baseline" over the outside face of the wall main layer. When I do this, the parameters I set in the Ceiling Plane dbx work as I expect them to.