Whatever Happened To The Full Masonry Fireplace And Chimney?

[Electromen]

Back in Chief Architect '97, yes 1997, Chief had a full masonry fireplace.  It showed the firebox on the outside of the wall with the fireplace face  and hearth on the inside.  It also built the chimney.

[Kbird1]

in X6 under Build>   there is no option for Fireplace ?   no icon on the toolbar for same?

[Electromen]

in X6 under Build>   there is no option for Fireplace ?   no icon on the toolbar for same?

Yes, there is.  That command / icon does not place the firebox on the outside of the wall with only the face on the inside.

Unless of course I'm missing something.

[lbuttery]

It also built the chimney

 

Greg:

 

HMMM, I started with Chief 9.5 and Chief hasn't had the ability to create chimney's

 

so they lost that feature ???

 

I have always wondered why no chimney builder and have moaned and pi$$ed about it often

 

Lew

[Kbird1]

Don't use it a lot but I have always had to Ctrl-Drag it thru the wall to the outside after placing as far as I remember.

 

I too ,don't remember auto chimneys

 

Mick

[Electromen]

Broderbund owned the company back then and it ran on Windows '95, which was an upgrade from Windows 3.1

The chimney was basic, no chimney cap or flue liner, just rectangular outside walls of brick.

[Electromen]

Did anyone else start with 3D Home Architect back in the 90's?

[DRAWZILLA]

I use this a lot and I have never seen an auto chimney tool. I have to make them out of p-solid or walls

Some people have made fireplaces ( and shared) that already have a chimney. You just drag it up where you want it.

[Electromen]

I use this a lot and I have never seen an auto chimney tool. I have to make them out of p-solid or walls

Some people have made fireplaces ( and shared) that already have a chimney. You just drag it up where you want it.

Thanks Perry,  May it was pre-Chief, which would have been 3D Home Architect.

Oh well, I'll do it like you suggest.

[Kbird1]

There was a good discussion on Chimney's about 6-8 weeks ago . Scott even did video's for his method , I had another .....I'll see if I can find the thread

 

M,

 

Here it is

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/1313-chimney-how/?hl=%2Bchimney+%2Bchase

[KilgoreTrout]

As far as I know, none of the Chief products has ever done chimneys automatically.  You can drag the top of the fireplace up or place your own chimney on top of it using another fireplace, poly solid, slab, soffit, etc.  Sometimes I use soffits because I can wrap moldings around them for more details.

 

Chief has two different fireplaces.  One is a freestanding one that bumps against walls and the other one goes through walls.  You get one or the other depending on where you first place it.  If you place a fireplace in a wall, you get a handle to move it through the wall.  You can drag it so that the masonry is flush with the inside or outside of the wall.  You don't need to use the control key to do this.  If you are using a free standing one, you won't actually get a hole in your wall and will have to manually add your own hole using a pass-thru.

[Electromen]

Chief still has fireplace but it functions slightly different. Before it did automatically cut the exterior wall and centered itself. Now it stops even with the exterior side of the wall. This can be adjusted by clicking the symbol and dragging handles to place it as desired. I like this much better. It also gets an automated foundation now where it did not before.

 

Not only still here, but better than before....

I'm glad someone else remembers the early days of Chief or maybe it was 3-D Home Architect, the very early days.

I know it worked at one time because I was always amazed by it.  I'll try you method.

Thanks for you help

[DRAWZILLA]

All these years and that fireplace has always been wrong the brick should extend below the terrain surface. I now have to make 2 of them one on top

of the other or just use s p-solid instead of a foundation. I guess it will go the way of the pocket door and never get fixed.

[DRAWZILLA]

It's different with a slab. Not to good

[DRAWZILLA]

I disagree, when you drag the fireplace down the firebox goes down with it so the interior view will show the firebox in the ground. I'm talking

about how Chief handles it not how we build it. The way chief does it it's 8" above the terrain.

[Kbird1]

My experience is the same as Perry's if you drag down at all it pulls the fireplace thru the floor , so I only drag up , it stops you at each floor level then lets you continue up, you need to place a fireplace (box) on each floor using the reference layer by the look too, they are not added auto as you drag up it seems .

 

I don't get an auto foundation for the chimney , not in this Stemwall foundation Plan anyway, perhaps need to rebuild the foundation ?

 

you also need to set the distance off the framing for firecode if needed default is 0"

[Electromen]

I want to thank every one for your help.  I was able to get it to work.  At first I couldn't click & drag.  I found you have to drag the handle at the rear of the chimney.

Placing the fireplace before you build the foundation shows a footer for the chimney.  As you said, dragging the chimney up in 3D view took it through the roof.

Thanks again everyone.

[dshall]

I disagree, when you drag the fireplace down the firebox goes down with it so the interior view will show the firebox in the ground. I'm talking

about how Chief handles it not how we build it. The way chief does it it's 8" above the terrain.

This is very true.  However, if you drag the fireplace down 12",  you can go into the dvx and add 12" to the hearth height.  Now you will have the fireplace box go to the grade,  yet the hearth will not disappear.

 

I rarely use this tool anymore.  Most of my fireplaces are prefab.  If I do a masonry fireplace it is an outdoor fireplace and I then build out of psolids because it is usually a very custom fireplace and the CA fireplace tool can not handle the design.

[DRAWZILLA]

Scott, that's it , it just isn't correct, if you have a raised hearth it would have to be set at 24" or more thick, not correct and wrong. Fireplaces just haven't worked correctly ever. Also if you want a full height face , there is no adjustment for that. Also in just about every case, I want the face wider that the fireplace, can't do. This all takes extra time to do when it doesn't have to. P-solids is the only answer and I do this on every plan b/c all of the older homes I remodel have them, of course any new fireplaces are metal, sometimes I will have a custom masonry that requires lots of brick. The new "Wall material region" really helps with that.

[DRAWZILLA]

Yes the tool exists but is in need of a major re-vamp.

[windjammer]

Glad to find this discussion.  Do CA developers read chieftalk?

Considering the typical automation level, the fireplace is pretty dumb.  I do remodels often, and am required to show the existing conditions - this very often includes a basic brick fireplace box 5' wide and a brick chimney 3' wide.  And of course a significant foundation.  Someday I'll be expert enough to write a macro, but would sure be nice if Chief had added two simple functions to the new x7 - which instead prompts me to extend the fireplace box up as a "chimney".  Sheesh.

[JLDrafting]

There was a masonry fireplace standard when Chief was by ART. A lot of symbols were dropped when CA took over.

[DRAWZILLA]

I also see a lot of masonry fireplaces, its pretty much a dead trade now, but we still need to draw them.  Chief has really not done much with them. I usually use a Chief standard fireplace and use p-solids from there to customize the chimney.

[lbuttery]

I was amazed with ver 9.5 that there was nil/lousy fireplace/chimney tools

and I am still amazed a decade later

 

Lew

[MickeyToo]

I was amazed with ver 9.5 that there was nil/lousy fireplace/chimney tools

and I am still amazed a decade later

 

Lew

 

Yup. Could not agree with you more.