How does one separate a new addition from the existing house, in a single plan file?

[ChiefChuck]

Hi All,

 

I come from a world of mechanical and electrical CAD, where grouping objects and abstracting them into a virual "box" is a commonplace thing.  So I have a tendancy to want to do the same thing in architectural CAD with Chief, but I have this feeling I need to see things through a different lens with Chief, hoping someone can educate me here.

 

I have a plan file which has both an existing home (as-built) and a proposed new addition.  Right now it's all one plan, but obviously when it comes to framing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, materials, etc etc, the only thing that is going to matter for drawings, planning, costing, etc, is the new addition.  It's a very clean line of separation, just 16 feet of exterior wall where the original home and the new addition meet.  One side of that line is the original home, the other side is the new addition.

 

So my goal is to either "group" the entire original house as an object, and "shut it off" when it comes to using functions like auto-framing, materials lists, etc, or alternatively to "group" the new addition and identify it as such, and then apply such automated functions/materials lists/etc to only the new addition, so I can gain some idea of what the materials list for just the new addition will be.  I've found some mentions of "slab pour numbers" and "framing groups" that initially sounded promising, but I can't seem to find further beneficial info on those. 

 

Basically I just want to define a section of the plan and treat everying in that section, from the foundation to the roof shingles, as a separate plan.  Yes I could copy it into a separate plan file, but I want to always show the existing structure for context when displaying 3D views etc, so I want everything in one plan file, it's just that only the new addition matters when it comes to the actual building effort.

 

How does one accomplish something like this in Chief?  What's the right "perspective" here, how does one go about grouping an entire addition or existing structure into something that can easily be included or discluded from any particular function?  Please keep in mind the plan file that includes both already exists, so I can't just develop this from scratch. 

 

I'm happy to watch some training videos if I can just know what is the right video to search for.  Any thoughts or suggestions appeciated.  Thanks!

 

~Chuck

 

X14 on PC

 

[DRAWZILLA]

I have always used two separate plans   1 for existing as-built and the other for the existing plus new. Just copy the as-built plan and re-name to new, then use the as-built as a reference plan under the new plan then when you remove any wall the as -built will show up automatically. just make sure the as built plan has is own layerset showing what you want to show.

[mtldesigns]

I'm sure we all have our ways of doing it.  But when I did an addition, my main wall I used the white as my stud layer color, also renamed it "existing".  I did the same thing for a demo wall, but added a hatch and gave it, its own layer name.. and then on new construction I used the standard wall layer.  By doing this I could control each layer in a view.  It wasn't to obnoxious, but if it did get confusing, I would do the same and create different layer sets for each one (Existing, Demo, Addition) and then do separate views.  A little more work, but those projects are hourly, so it is what it is..    

[MarkMc]

I do what Perry does, reference an as built plan.

In some cases you can draw the addition only and reference, most often I draw a new plan with the addition. (80% of my work is renovations, not always as neat as just a clean bump)

In either case you can reference the as built in 3D, much improved in X14 where now, you can also now reference elevations (with some limits).

Material list can be limited to new using a "material list polyline".

Walls and roof planes can be group selected to use "Build Framing for selected Object(S)"  (and X14 now does nice job on overbuilt roofs)

[Kbird1]

I too use the As-Built > Proposed method for most Projects.

 

If you don't have an old revision of the plan where you had only progressed to the Existing building ? .....

 

one option maybe to stop the existing part of the build reporting to the Materials list and Schedules by removing everything from the Objects Components List (see Objects' Tabs > Components and Schedule) stopping all Materials in those Walls, Rooms, Roof planes etc  and Existing Doors and Windows reporting to Schedules or ML.

 

  

 

 

  

 

[QualicoreHomes]

I have a similar question about separating new construction from existing construction.  My question is about this issue in elevation drawings.  I don't do a lot of renovation plans but when I do, I like to overlay the existing construction with a somewhat transparent filled polyline to give it a "faded" look.  With simple additions it is usually no problem although it can be time consuming but it really gets difficult when I have a covered deck added to an existing part of the house (as in the picture).  It takes too long to make all individual polylines for in between the railings etc. I was hoping it would work with placing the existing construction on a separate layer and have it displayed on the elevation drawing with grey lines instead of the black lines for the new construction.  Then I thought to make a separate drawing group called existing and place that behind the cad group or even place it on an different drawing group behind the cad group but that also doesn't seem to work.   Do you have any ideas or pointers?