Chrisb222

Yep, that's basically what I wound up doing. When I tried it in the sample plan it created some footer clean-up, but when I applied the "trick" to my actual plan it didn't disturb my foundation at all. Because I was already way past "Auto Rebuild Foundations." Thanks.

Thanks. The plan I attached was a quick sample plan, not the actual plan in question. Alaskan Son's #2 suggestion worked, with a few tweaks.

I simply added a foundation wall to your basement, then grabbed the top of the wall and dragged it down. You need to change the wall type to one of the foundation types such as 8" stem wall, and check "Foundation Wall" in the general tab.

Didn't work, Chief still thinks it's an interior door even though it's in an exterior wall type. No footing is necessary, it's just a partition wall, not loadbearing.

Thanks Michael. "Porch" worked but it screwed up the room structure / foundation. Your other suggestion worked but I had to manually delete the small room's foundation. I would prefer to have more logical control over the door designation, instead of a work-around. See Eric's Suggestion submission. Thanks again.

Hi, did a search couldn't find this topic. I'm finishing plans on a house that has a very large garage with a center wall dividing it in two. The homeowner wants a garage and a separate woodshop, that will be made from what is essentially one large garage with one slab but with a wall separating it into two rooms. There will be an insulated, sealed exterior grade door in the wall between the two rooms. When I place a door in this wall, CA automatically labels it an interior door since both rooms are specified as "garage." I couldn't find any way to override the automatic "Interior" designation. Is there any way to change this to an exterior door? I can change something about the garage or the woodshop to force the program to see it as an exterior door, but then the door going into the house becomes "interior" which is just as wrong. It's messing up my separate exterior and interior door schedules and callouts. Sample plan in CA-X9 attached showing the problem. Thanks DOOR-PROBLEM.plan

I used Accoutedge for Mac years ago. Not using any accounting program now, except Excel, but if I went back to accounting software that would be my choice. I was very happy with it, no complaints at all. I found it very intuitive and easy to use. Having said that, Macs typically give you a long time period where you can still use aging software. You could probably go another 5 years or more after a program is no longer supported. (I've been using Macs for 30 years)

Nice. One additional level of control is in "3D View Defaults" under "Options > Surface Edge Lines" where you can check "Use Object Settings" and all objects that have special settings specified on the Line Style panel of their specification dialog display will display those settings, overriding the layer settings in their Layer Display Options dialog.

Got it thank you.

Yes.

If you really are using Chief Architect 3D Viewer, under Render Quality there is an option to toggle from LD (low definition) to HD (high definition). Models automatically load in LD and LD does not show textures, just flat planes. Have your client toggle to HD and he will see the textures.

Eric and Joe, thank you for these ideas. I've been working with this method and almost there... almost. When I converted the fireplace to a doorway, it wouldn't accept the custom casing and lintel. When I imported as a door, it would accept the casing and lintel, but neither option would let me assign a custom 2D Block. I would like to create a custom 2D Block that accurately represents the unit in floor plan view. In the picture, on the left is the fireplace I used to recreate Eric's idea. Then I built my custom fireplace (on the right, shown with custom casing and lintel). Neither of them would accept the trim when imported as a doorway, both will accept trim imported as "door." When imported as "Doorway" it gives the "Edit Symbol" button but doesn't give a "2D Block" option, "door" import method doesn't even have the "Edit Symbol" button. Am I missing something?

It's all in the settings. This program has a labyrinth of settings and sorting them all out, knowing how they interact, is quite the puzzle.

Wow, that's groovy, thanks. I can work with that trick.

Haven't downloaded X10 yet but will look for that feature. Export/Import as Cabinet worked, but it cut the baseboard to the outermost edge of the mantel shelf, not at the legs. I couldn't get blocking to work either. I couldn't block it as a symbol, and so I blocked it before converting to symbol but no difference in the baseboard... Thanks.

Wow. While it's fantastic that there are people here willing to help figure this stuff out, I'm dismayed that it requires such arduous programming to do things that should be easily accessed by the average user. Does CA actually think contractors in the field are working with decimal inches?? This program should have easily-accessed ft-in designation for EVERYTHING... OOB.

Cool, good to know. I was doing that task to make a fluted leg for a fireplace surround/mantel that I use in new homes a lot. I made this thing to scale and now have it to place in plans that will be accurate to the actual field piece. Does anyone know a way to make a symbol automatically cut the baseboard where it's placed, like a base cabinet does? In the pic attached I converted the room molding to a polyline and manually deleted the section where the mantel is.

I just converted the "Circle" into a polyline solid, then converted that to a "Plain Polyline." That gave me the smooth arc pretty easily. Thanks for the vids Michael. The union with another rectangle is a pretty good workaround. I actually posted this because I was going to make a suggestion that Polyline Subtraction should have a push-pin repeat function option, like other tools, or at least the ability to "remember my choice" on the annoying warning dialog... maybe I will.

In the pic attached, I'm subtracting these circles from the rectangle, but have to click the poly line subtraction tool for each circle, which brings up the warning dialog every time asking if I want to delete the original... which is annoying, since this warning dialog doesn't have "remember this choice" option. When using this tool, is there a way to make it repeat the task more intuitively, or, like the push-pin feature in other tools, keep the tool active through multiple clicks, or, select all the circles and have them subtract from the rectangle with one command? Thanks

I really thought they were onto something with the vertical heat dissipation through the center. Oops, I guess even Apple has a dud now and then.

Haha, I was looking at those recently too. They have better architecture than the Mac Pro tower, but I understand they're revamping the pro tower for this year. I use a humble late-14 i5 Mac Mini. It runs X9 just peachy, even (2) 24" monitors with OOB video.

I learned this the hard way. It's all very logical to me now, but that lesson prompted some thinking. To the OP, it doesn't seem reasonable or logical to me to expect the layout file to automatically know you changed the name of the plan file. Yes, it's updating the contents of the layout view window dynamically, but the link is still to the old plan... as I would expect, once the logic hit home. Attractive layout, BTW.

Change. I was using Components in a non-intended way that got lost when I upgraded to X9. Learned the new way and went on. My first serious computer was a Macintosh SE in 1987 (pic below for those unfamiliar, and/or who have never worked on a 9" monochrome screen). It has always been, and always will be the dilemma of software upgrades: accepting the new, different, and better means losing some of the old, known, and comfortable.

Check your wall type definitions. Some of your exterior walls don't have an exterior layer. Such a wall will not cover the floor platform. Move "Stucco" layer up one, to the exterior layer:

Thank you both for these ideas, that will work for now. Yes I will, I would prefer to have the control within the door SDBX. Thanks.