Rashid_Garuba

I think you ask an estimated price based on experience with prior jobs, plus a healthy buffer, but firm quote on a case by case basis.. One 4,000 Sq. Ft. house could be much simpler than another 2500 Sq. Ft. house.. Also your quality relative to the market matters a lot.. By all means get good enough to be in the upper market.. "Volume" won't make you profitable in the lower end.

That is the simplest Roof to accomplish.. If you are having trouble with that there are much more difficult tasks ahead of you in Chief. At this point you'll have to turn off Auto-rebuild and finish manually.. Have you gone through any tutorials..?

Thanks..!

Eric... How to yo arrive at the 3D view with all textures off..?

Looong overdue.. Little things add up and this IS a big one.

Thanks Scott and Michael and Michael... Quite obvious once I realized it's the slab I was seeing through un-framed walls. This house has a second Floor so I thought the slab solution shouldn't work.. but worked fine.

Yes Sir... attached. Remember this is for publishing only so keep that in mind.. Ashburn.plan

Need some help... created a black wall type just for these brochure plans so the walls will be black.. They are black until I lower the section cut to under the header heights, then the walls turn this tan color... ?..

William.. Yes it is and the Turbulence was the issue. Now that's fine. Do you know a way to brighten this view without the Sun which now looks like a lamp above? Reducing the Sun intensity helps but darkens it too much. Hope I don't have to install several lights as in the Breckenridge file. Thanks.

Anyone have an idea why it seems there is a cloudy sky above??? I am using no lights.. no backdrop. Water color w/ lines. The Breckenridge I played with earlier was fine. This is a traced over imported dwg job for marketing illustration only. Ashburn.plan

Glenn, Noticed the same... Fortunately didn't need to use the Vector view. Use a watercolor with lines overlaid.

Thanks Michael!.. I didn't even bother checking the drop down 3D menu. Top view also aligns the plans perfectly..

Michael, Yes.. except I want to use the Orthogonal view.. I don't want perspective. Basically it would be a standard Floor Plan view like Martin's WITH all materials. Hopefully Jeff Dillon can reply as that's what I'm after.

VERY nice Jon... The Perspective may be slightly confusing for my purpose. Anyone know how to lower the Cut plane in an Orthogonal Floor Overview (like Lew's but need to see the door openings)..?? Playing with Scene Clipping to see if it helps..

Jeff, What is your workflow for the plans? Thanks

Very interested in this topic... hopefully others chime in.

Mike... Clearly you haven't been around here very long.

Having to change modes tells me Chief simply cannot accept nested commands as other programs do. Putting a marker down AND changing modes is very archaic. Changing modes should be a thing of the past.. for any edits. Chief is not far from being spectacular but it seems these basic weaknesses (that's what they are) are nearly impossible to resolve.

I will be buried in my Stick-shift V8..!

I am am degreed Architectural Engineer but here is my view.... In college I took a course called "Technology and The Human Conscience" which basically covered the state of man after the Machines take over. We know what technology has done to many a field lately.. Even truck drivers better beware next 10 years. In almost all decimated fields, the view before is "can't happen here" until it's too late. I think in Architecture the only aspect that machines/software cannot replace (I better watch my mouth!) is aesthetics.. Anything else, especially safety-related areas CAN be coded to significantly reduce the number of Humans OR the skill-level of those humans involved. This is why design still cannot be off-shored. Ultimately if an industry is inefficient (Taxi Industry-Uber, Law industry-Legalzoom, Hotels-AirBnB), it represents opportunity for the tech guys that won't care if a few Architects are a casualty... Any Architect Chief hires is technically committing treason as the name "Chief Architect" suggests something insidious. So Johnny, fully agree with you BUT the better Software gets, the less we will be needed which puts pressure on fees, thereby improving the standard of living (perceived or real) of the masses. If guys build from napkins and their end-user doesn't care, then you likely won't want such an end-user.. He/she is suited to the non-licensed/degreed "plan drawer"...

Therefore an equally (more?) important idea is Chief scour these threads for issues that require secret/bizarre handshakes and update their documentation and/or create a sticky thread here. A thread walking new users through several floor structure conditions would be a great start. Such a thread would also free up the demands on those VERY nice members here without which the learning process would be even more difficult.

Better to spend 2 hours on something and be sure than 1 hour and be in doubt. The automation is simply not worth the risk and anguish. Floor Levels are a NON issue in other programs. THE fact that No one at Chief has ever clarified working with complex levels is very telling. There should be a sticky thread at the top of this forum with multiple asterix..

The problem is non-builder programmers have this code and simply don't know which parts of it should be unchangeable (removed from user access).. So they make every option available, including DANGEROUS ones. I have often seen posts where a power user will say "Not sure why that option is even there".

Jerry, In your Dimension defaults you will find a "reach" setting. Set it to 3 ft.. Now drag an end to end or manual dimension within 3 Ft. of the wall corners.. (assuming exterior) You could have multiple offsets but they must be within 3 Ft. to be found by the dimension.. Even if you only end up with one dimension.. the diamond handles make extending the string a breeze.. . I keep multiple parallel CAD lines (18" spacing - my preference) in my template file which I use as a guides to locate the strings.. Much easier than I have described... I am from other CAD as well.. should be a breeze

Money is meaningless unless in context of what value it buys... IF Chief came and said... "Your SSA fee will be doubled for 2 years (and a year's update will be skipped) so we can improve the UI, Stairs, and the Floor system".. I would say absolutely!. Larry.. the reason it makes sense to improve something that is clearly counter-intuitive is new customer retention. The current users that managed to learn the current system will have no trouble adjusting. Jonnoxx is not asking for a cancer cure. Like you I quit asking a looong time ago... and a quiet client base is not always good news as it robs a company of the chance to improve.