kwhitt Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 I've got a main house with concrete foundation walls and some 16 x 16 CMU piers here and there. I also have some 6 x 6 wood piers under a deck. The builder wants to change the wood deck piers to 24 x 24 brick piers with larger footings. I have already customized the framing for the deck and don't want it altered so have turned off auto-framing. I just got the terrain data and I'd like the piers/footings to conform to it, however I don't want to alter my deck or main house framing in any way. Do/can the pier footings work automatically independent of the framing? I am seeing that the piers and footings are now two separate items that can be opened. The footings allow me to specify distance from the terrain, but the piers have no such control - at least that I can find. Is it now necessary for me to manually size the piers? Thanks, Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 1 hour ago, kwhitt said: I've got a main house with concrete foundation walls and some 16 x 16 CMU piers here and there. I also have some 6 x 6 wood piers under a deck. The builder wants to change the wood deck piers to 24 x 24 brick piers with larger footings. I have already customized the framing for the deck and don't want it altered so have turned off auto-framing. I just got the terrain data and I'd like the piers/footings to conform to it, however I don't want to alter my deck or main house framing in any way. Do/can the pier footings work automatically independent of the framing? I am seeing that the piers and footings are now two separate items that can be opened. The footings allow me to specify distance from the terrain, but the piers have no such control - at least that I can find. Is it now necessary for me to manually size the piers? Thanks, Kevin I may be a little dense but I am a little confused as to what you are searching for with this question. If I am understanding you correctly you have placed piers in what way? I believe for modeling and 2d you should be able to change your original 6x6 posts into the 24x24 cmu piers by changing the post to 24x24 and setting the material to CMU, resize your footing appropriately. You would then just need to set your post top height to the bottom of your beam. Am I understanding your question correctly? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwhitt Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 Ryan - Thanks for the reply. I am adding terrain after the fact. I can open the footing and change to whatever size/material and specify that the bottom be 18" below the terrain. This makes it necessary for me to resize the pier manually (taller in this case) unless there is a setting that will force the pier to sit on top of the footing automatically. I ask as I have a very rocky terrain and all of my pier heights will be somewhat different. Is there a way to make Chief resize the piers (while locked at the top), so that they automatically meet the footing? Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robdyck Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 27 minutes ago, kwhitt said: Is there a way to make Chief resize the piers (while locked at the top), so that they automatically meet the footing? Not that I know of. But you can make them all the same height and depth relative to the terrain which is adequate for any drawing. For instance, in my region, cylindrical piers on footings must have the bottom at least 5'-0" below grade for frost coverage, and the top at least 6" above grade. So I end up with a 4'6" cylindrical pier on a 10" footing, set to the terrain as mentioned and they are always the right height...however the deck posts will not 'find' those foundation elements on their own. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 10 minutes ago, robdyck said: Not that I know of. But you can make them all the same height and depth relative to the terrain which is adequate for any drawing. For instance, in my region, cylindrical piers on footings must have the bottom at least 5'-0" below grade for frost coverage, and the top at least 6" above grade. So I end up with a 4'6" cylindrical pier on a 10" footing, set to the terrain as mentioned and they are always the right height...however the deck posts will not 'find' those foundation elements on their own. Yup that has been my experience. It would be an awesome tool if the pier/post tool could be set to the top height manually (or automatically if using auto deck framing) and have it set to a certain point above terrain. Would make 3d terrain modeling look that much better with lots less effort. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robdyck Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 19 minutes ago, rgardner said: Yup that has been my experience. It would be an awesome tool if the pier/post tool could be set to the top height manually (or automatically if using auto deck framing) and have it set to a certain point above terrain. Would make 3d terrain modeling look that much better with lots less effort. I have a library of pier/footing combinations for regions of different frost depths, varying sizes for builder preferences and/or loads, and I've converted them to fixtures, set the elevation to terrain, set the layer, set the label, set the schedule parameters. Then, all I have to do is drop them onto the post centers and everything else is done, except for dimensions in plan view of course. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwhitt Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 30 minutes ago, robdyck said: Not that I know of. But you can make them all the same height and depth relative to the terrain which is adequate for any drawing. For instance, in my region, cylindrical piers on footings must have the bottom at least 5'-0" below grade for frost coverage, and the top at least 6" above grade. So I end up with a 4'6" cylindrical pier on a 10" footing, set to the terrain as mentioned and they are always the right height...however the deck posts will not 'find' those foundation elements on their own. 18 minutes ago, rgardner said: Yup that has been my experience. It would be an awesome tool if the pier/post tool could be set to the top height manually (or automatically if using auto deck framing) and have it set to a certain point above terrain. Would make 3d terrain modeling look that much better with lots less effort. Thanks Rob & Ryan - I thought there might be some interactivity between the pier and footing after initial placement. Rob - you are correct. I don't do many decks, but am finding that manual is the way to go. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robdyck Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Just now, kwhitt said: Thanks Rob & Ryan - I thought there might be some interactivity between the pier and footing after initial placement. Rob - you are correct. I don't do many decks, but am finding that manual is the way to go. Thanks again! Keep in mind that if you have a structure layer for the floor joists in your deck room dbx, the deck may (will) auto-frame at some point and you'll lose your manual edits. I know I'll hear that Chief can't do that if auto-frame is off but I've experienced that way too many times (yes, when it's off). All it takes is to move a railing wall that defines the deck and it'll jump back to auto-frame. So if you're using the modeled framing for plan or section views...be careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwhitt Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 Just now, robdyck said: Keep in mind that if you have a structure layer for the floor joists in your deck room dbx, the deck may (will) auto-frame at some point and you'll lose your manual edits. I know I'll hear that Chief can't do that if auto-frame is off but I've experienced that way too many times (yes, when it's off). All it takes is to move a railing wall that defines the deck and it'll jump back to auto-frame. So if you're using the modeled framing for plan or section views...be careful. That's scary. Thanks for the heads up. So far no problem with this plan over three days and nearing completion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 If you do a of of manually reframing for a deck it maybe an Idea to also set the Retain Framing if Room is Deleted Checkbox too , incase you accidently detach a railing or something. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwhitt Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 13 hours ago, Kbird1 said: If you do a of of manually reframing for a deck it maybe an Idea to also set the Retain Framing if Room is Deleted Checkbox too , incase you accidently detach a railing or something. Mick - yes, I learned that one the hard way a few days ago... Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robdyck Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 5 hours ago, kwhitt said: Mick - yes, I learned that one the hard way a few days ago... Thanks. Don't forget about the undo button after those! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskan_Son Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 On 6/30/2020 at 9:58 AM, kwhitt said: I thought there might be some interactivity between the pier and footing after initial placement. There's not. One thing that can be a lot faster though is to just manually place NEW posts after the fact. When the post is initially placed, it's automated behaviors will find the footing below and the beam above and automatically fill in the gap. So, rather then adjust each and every posts manually, just delete them, and place new ones. Could cut the time from minutes to seconds. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwhitt Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 28 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said: There's not. One thing that can be a lot faster though is to just manually place NEW posts after the fact. When the post is initially placed, it's automated behaviors will find the footing below and the beam above and automatically fill in the gap. So, rather then adjust each and every posts manually, just delete them, and place new ones. Could cut them time from minutes to seconds. Thanks for the tip Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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