existing conditions and demo plan?


gcs2790
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we do a lot of residential additions and remodels and therefore deal with existing homes.  I am new to chief. Is there a way to draw an existing condition of a homeowners current residence so that it does not pick up material selections when estimating?  And is it possible to create a demo plan of what would be demolished?

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All Chief Architect software is programmed on the basis that whatever you create is the entire construct. so when I do remodeling projects I make an "AS built" plan file which becomes my demo plan and then make a copy of that to portray the addition or reno plan. I suppose you could create the as built part of the addition plan with custom walls called perhaps, existing walls that would look right but not then read into a Materials list but I have never bothered to do so. The thing about Materials lists in Chief is that it reads only what you put there to be read, nothing more or less so to do so in that fashion is  a lot of additional work just for a useable materials list. Go for it if you like or if you must.

 

DJP

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Just put the existing walls on their own layer and uncheck (Mat) in the layer's column. A lot of times you are patching existing walls , so include any walls you think you might patch. I use new and existing walls but don't worry about the materials list. Once it's set up correctly in your template plan, it will work smoothly but its a lot of work to set up.

I use a cad mask for any demo work, it doesn't mess with the model and when you remove a wall, the cad mask shows up automatically. Search cad mask here.

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unless I missed something in recent upgrades

it's impossible to have two walls occupy the same space

even if they are on different layers

 

so it has always been necessary to have two plans

 

Lew

If one wall is set to "no room def., you can do it.
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A CAD mask seems to be the most popular method and makes a lot of sense, but I also use multiple plans.  An As-Built plan first, then I do a Save As of that plan and make a Demo plan, then I do a Save As of the Demo plan and make a Proposed plan. 

 

You can use the same steps and just use the As Built plan for a CAD mask under the proposed and/or demo plans, but by having the 3 separate plans you can keep better records of what is what, and if necessary you can always go back to a starting point. 

 

Just a few things to consider.

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I always use an existing plan, and a new plan also, A lot of times I will get a call for another job on the same model or a second job on the same model. This has happened to me at least a 100 times in the past. Like those jobs , the existing plan already done.

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I always use an existing plan, and a new plan also, A lot of times I will get a call for another job on the same model or a second job on the same model. This has happened to me at least a 100 times in the past. Like those jobs , the existing plan already done.

 

I've had nowhere near 100 of these, but definitely a handful.  A recent example...

 

I did designs for "Remodel Project A" and owners (let's call them the Smiths) decided to buy a different house (we'll call it "New House B") and called the whole thing off.  Smiths hired us to finish the basement in the New House B instead, so I drew up an As-Built for the new basement finishing project and we completed that job.  In the meantime the new owners of "Remodel Project A" called us to remodel that house, and so we did.  And now we're back to "New House B" again for a second phase. 

 

Point is that those As-Builts as Perry suggested can most certainly come in handy. 

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