Friday, April 22, 2022

Chief Glossary

Chief has a glossary of architectural (and other) terms. Most are familiar, with the definition you would expect, but there were these outliers:

AFCI - another term for a GFCI outlet or circuit (arc fault circuit interrupter)
belly band - decorative siding running around the building. Not clear if it's the "chair rail" I have on my house, or something between two floors, or something else.
floating dormer - a dormer that rests only on the roof plane, not on walls in the living space below (except for the front, which may bear on the exterior wall)
frieze - a molding to hide where the wall meets the soffit
hip - sloped ridge line
light rail - not a trolley. It is molding under cabinets to hide under-cabinet lighting
marquee selection - dragging a box in the UI to select the objects inside it.
marriage walls - walls built side by side, often called Double Walls
plenum - the space between floor/ceiling platform and a suspended ceiling
plinth block - trim at the base of door casing
pony wall - two wall types, one over the other
skillion roof - a shed roof (I've never heard this before)
transom - the header between a door and the transom window above
tray ceiling - often incorrectly spelled "trey" in Chief

My list of Chief-isms:

callouts - This is a detail reference, an interior elevation bubble, and so on. Not just a note with an arrow.
floor - This can refer to the floor platform or to a building level (Floor 1 is the main floor; Floor 0 is the foundation; Floor A is the attic)
half-wall - Not a pony wall, more like a solid railing
layer - This refers to layers on the drawing (Walls, Normal and so on) or to the components of a wall type, platform, or roof assembly.
pony wall - one wall type over another--you specify the height of the lower and two walls. You have a wood stud wall over a concrete retaining wall? That's a pony wall. Full-height studs but the siding changes halfway up--that's a pony wall. Same with brick veneer exterior wainscoting. Don't confuse with half-wall.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Metal Roofing

Of course, Chief has metal roofing. Just don't look for it under Roofing. It's under Siding and Paneling.

Plan Development Sequence

This began with the sequence in video #5415 The Plan Development Sequence, but I have added to it.

Known defaults (Doors, windows, platform thicknesses, ceiling height, walls/floors/roofs)
Sketch walls
Precisely locate walls
Deal with room elevations and stairs. Beams, soffits, porches.
Now add additional floors (but the basement waits for the Foundation)
Build the roof
Fine-tune the stairs
Now we have the building envelope. “Decorate” with doors, windows, cabinets, decks
Foundation comes after rooms are identified (for Garage; see video #72)
Framing (at this point?)
Terrain once the building is completed (although, sloping sites might want Terrain before foundation)
Elevations, Sections, presentation views “once the model is finished”
Layout and Print

First batch of tips

I've been through the short Foundation and Framing videos, and I jotted down these items:

If you label a room "Garage" after you have already built your foundation, you have to rebuild the foundation to have it apply Garage-ness on your room's floor and foundation.
You can have a Pony wall (a "two-part wall") on every floor. Different kinds of siding don't have to stop at the floor platforms.
Terrain or no terrain, it's sometimes easier to just draw a CAD line on the elevation or section
You can take a section view on an angle--for example, a 45-degree section pointing at a corner of the building lets you align two things on the corner. Otherwise, you'd have to adjust one elevation, then the other.
Don't forget that you can choose how Pony walls look in plan views--upper, lower, both, or ?
You don't have to build framing for everything all at once:

The Build Framing dialog has panels for Foundation, each floor platform, Walls, and Roof, each with a checkbox.
Second, just select something--one wall, say--and click "Build Framing for Selected Object" in the lower toolbar.

When you're sketching walls (not placing them precisely), hold down the Alt key. Then release the mouse button to turn corners.
Doors and Windows have a 'Framing' panel for specifics about that opening.
Build Framing > Openings panel is, basically, a span table
Wall > Structure panel has a checkbox 'Retain Wall Framing,' which locks it against being rebuilt
You must have Roof Planes before you can build the roof framing
Edit > Defaults > Floor & Rooms > Floor/Ceiling Platform creates a hole for the platform that you can fill later with framing. It's all about specifying the height of that hole.
Floor framing is always done on the floor below. For the first floor, go to Floor 0.
You can tell Chief where to start laying out framing, so that 16" oc studs align with 48" wide panels, for example. This is called a Framing Reference Marker.
Looking at the Display Layers list, start typing what you're looking for and it will jump there.
Choose a tool (like Exterior Wall), then hold down the Shift key as you drag a selection box around stuff and only the exterior walls will be selected.

I have to learn more about Chief, I guess. Their videos are a good place to start. They have them about kitchen and bath, color, cabinets--all kinds of things. I made this checklist based on the topics that have given me trouble lately.

Chief Architect Videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/