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Chief architect x2 tutorial free. Product Documentation
Chief Architect may be ideal for architects but overly complex for designers.. The software is desktop device-based, operating on Mac or Windows computers. This means that a variety of developers can build their own models and add-ons for SketchUp, resulting in an ever-growing number of resources that can be accessed for users.
The program is a more generalized tool for virtual model-making in 2D and 3D, for everything from architecture and interior design to 3D printing. Its cloud and desktop-based use options make it a more accessible Chief Architect alternative.
As a fully cloud-based 2D and 3D design program, it is the most accessible software of the three. It offers the perks of specialization found in Chief Architect while expanding on the simplicity of SketchUp. Cedreo offers the highest level of user-friendliness, eliminating the learning curve for busy home builders, remodelers, and interior designers. Cedreo is the only 3D home design software that enables the completion of entire home designs in under 2 hours.
It allows designers to create detailed floor plans and full interior designs with no special training or version access necessary. The program can also generate top-quality renderings of complete 3D models from interior and exterior views in just 5 minutes. It does have a proprietary library of models and materials, which is continuously updated. Costs for 3D modeling and design software can add up quickly, making pricing an important consideration when selecting the right program for your business.
Each software here offers different pricing models, which can work for different budgets. Cedreo is by and far the most feature-rich program of the three, with the ability to easily draw 2D and 3D floor plans, generate 3D renderings, and seamlessly work from existing plans and templates. Chief Architect comes out as the least versatile option and most difficult to use, although it does provide considerable value via its detailed AutoCAD and BIM tools.
Our review of Chief Architect vs SketchUp and Cedreo found that all three companies offer fairly extensive customer support options. They have an in-depth knowledge base filled with tutorial articles, as well as videos on another section of their site. There is also a forum where users can discuss and resolve issues. Live phone support is available as well, but only for users with an active Support and Software Assurance, which expires after one year.
SketchUp has the weakest support of the three softwares, with most of it being self-guided. There is a community forum, a help center with informative articles, and free courses that teach the fundamentals of the program. Much like Chief Architect, phone support is available only for Pro subscribers with current Maintenance and Support subscriptions. Cedreo is the frontrunner, offering robust support through various channels.
It contains commands relevant to what you can do with the wall. Notice also the selection handles or edit handles that appeared when you right-clicked the wall. Right-click the wall for a second time. The Contextual Menu pops up containing a set of commands that are also relevant to what you can do with the wall. Notice that they are the same commands that are displayed in the Edit toolbar. So you can generally use either the Contextual Menu or the Edit toolbar to carry out commands relevant to the wall.
You many want to use these Contextual Menus but there may be time when you dont. Select the will display Preferences tool button from the All Views toolbar. The Preferences dialog. Click on the Appearance category. Uncheck Click Twice to Display click in the check box to remove the check. Select the menu. Draw a new wall by left clicking the left end of the horizontal wall that you drew earlier and dragging the mouse up.
When the wall is approximately 20 long release the mouse button and the wall is drawn. Right-click on the wall. This time, after just one right-click, the Contextual menu appeared. In the Contextual Menus section, uncheck Enabled. Right click the vertical wall you just drew. Now the Contextual Menu does not appear. The commands, however, are still available in the Edit toolbar, which displays when you either right-click or left-click to select the wall or any object.
Go back to the Preferences dialog and in the Contextual Menus section re-check Enabled. Close the drawing. Select No when asked if you want to save the modifications.
So whenever you want to modify the display of Contextual Menus go to Edit Preferences or. Preferences tool button from the All Views toolbar. Then go to the Appearance select the category and the options you choose will remain selected every time you use Chief Architect until you change them again.
I believe that this configuration set-up will save you time when working with Chief Architect X2. I will be using this configuration for the rest of the book. Open your CSS If you did not create this drawing you can use CSS1-b. Move the cursor over any tool button in any of the toolbars and right-click.
In the menu that appears click the Extended Tool Configuration option. Notice that many of the tools used by the various configurations are now displayed in the toolbars on your desktop. I and others have found that using the Extended Tool Configuration called the All Tools Configuration in Chief Architect X1 is adequate for almost everything you will want to do.
The Extended Tools Configuration will give you three rows of tools and a couple of additional toolbars will appear on the right side of the screen as well and just about everything you see. You may have to use the pull down menus once and a while but not very often.
You wont have to worry about which toolbar configuration to use because all the tools you will probably need will be there. I will be using the Extended Tool Configuration throughout this book.
So you might want to keep this configuration while going through this book. You can always switch back to any other configuration toolbar at any time by either selecting the configuration you want to use from the right-click drop down menu or by selecting one of the configuration icons. Once you have finished with the book you can make up your mind as to how you want to work with Chief Architect. So lets take a look at the toolbars and see what we can do with them.
On each of the toolbars look at the lines or grab bars on the end of each one. Toolbars are actually collections of little tool icons or buttons. With your mouse click and drag the grab bars on the bottom toolbar. Drag the toolbar onto the drawing area and release the mouse button see Figure The toolbar is no longer docked and is called a floating toolbar.
Architectural Tools Toolbar The toolbar you moved into the drawing area in the previous exercise and the one pictured in Figure and is called the Architectural Tools toolbar. All of the tools on this toolbar will be covered throughout the course of the book. Click the little downward pointing arrow in the Straight Wall Tools button in the floating Architectural Tools toolbar. A drop-down menu will appear which lists all the different types of walls.
Click on the little downward arrows in the Door, Window, and Cabinet Tools icons to see what is listed in those drop-down menus. Break Wall tool button. You will find this to be a very handy tool. Before that you had to go to the Wall menu to find the tool.
Look at the next three tool icons after the Roof Tools icon. These two tools are also included in the General Framing Tools drop down menu in the Architectural Tools toolbar. Lets take a look at some other tool buttons that are available on the Architectural Tools toolbar. Take a look at the drop down menu for the Trim Tools. Here you have corner or trim boards and some other things that you can add to your plans. Next is the Slab Tools. The slab tools are one of the things that this book will spend a lot of time on.
Dont think of a slab as a concrete slab but think of it as something you will draw into a 3D plan. It does not matter what it is. One of the things about slabs in Chief Architect or one of the things about Chief Architect in general is that users get the misconception that they are actually building a house on their computer. What the makers of Chief Architect have done is given you a bunch of tools to represent house items, and to represent how a house functions or how a building is put together.
That is Chief Architects niche market. So they give you all these tools that do these things for you very easily. But what it really boils down to is that you are still drawing a 3D model or a digital model of a house on a computer just like any CAD program in the industry today, such as AutoCAD, Vectorworks, whatever.
How you get the end results to make your model work depends on the program because no two programs will go about it in the same way. In Chief. Architects case you have tools for walls, cabinets, etc. So Chief Architect has made some tools that really make drawing a building relatively easy. Sure, you will run into some difficulties and have to deal with some quirks in the program but all and all it works very well. The slab tool will let you draw lots of elements in your plan that can represent molding, trim, for back splashes, for tiles, for whatever.
You can even use it to fix walls. You can use the slab tools to do a lot of different things. Lets continue on with looking at the Architectural Tools toolbar. Click the arrow for the drop down menu and you will see tools that you can use to make boxes, spheres, cylinders, cones and any polyline solid. There are specific ways to use the primitive tools and this book will cover some of those ways. Next are the Dimension Tools and the Text Tools. Take a look at those.
You will be using these tools to add dimensions and text to your plans. Take a look at the two camera tools. They have been renamed in Chief Architect X2. In Chief Architect X2 all overviews can now be either perspective or orthographic. The Perspective View Tools do everything mathematically and the Orthographic Tools do everything with photos or textures.
Anytime you hear the word texture in Chief Architect or in any CAD program or in any program actually, what they are really saying is photos.
A texture is a picture of something. That is all it is. The way textures work in CAD and in all programs is, say you might have a small picture of some roof shingles or bricks, the program will take that picture and tile it over the surface of an object in the drawing. It will keep tiling it over and over until the entire surface is covered.
If you have a good picture it will look seamless. That is how a texture works. So you have just seen some of the tools that are available in the Architectural Tools toolbar. The last item at the very right end of the toolbar is an icon that will allow you to go from one floor in your plan to the next floor and back again.
Clicking on the floor number will display the Change Floor Reference dialog box. You can use this dialog box to change the floor you are viewing and which floor will show up in reference. Reference gives you the ability to; for example, see the walls on the first floor in the plan while you are on the second floor in the plan.
The reference function, beginning with Chief Architect X1 is handled differently than in all of the previous versions of Chief. If you were to go into a 3D view the Architectural Tools toolbar will change and contain a different set of tool icons. In a layout view it will change to yet another different set of tool icons. Same thing will happen in a CAD detail window. The toolbar changes to the options that you will need to work with in those particular windows.
But the All Views toolbar will always stay the same wherever you are working in Chief Architect. With the All Views toolbar you can Save, Print, Send to Layout, open Defaults, open Preferences, open your layers, switch to a different layer set, manage layers, open the library, check your spelling, or get some help. The book will discuss CAD Detail Management in detail in a later chapter, but it is where you store detailed drawings that go with your plan.
The view can be an elevation, a cross section, a 3D overview, or whatever; it can be converted to a CAD detail with this tool. Next is the Terrain Tools button. Before any terrain can be added the terrain perimeter must be drawn. Administrative Tools Toolbar On the Administrative Tools toolbar is the Materials List Tools button, which includes tools for calculating a materials list from all floors, or from just a room, from an area, etc.
The more accurate that you draw your model, the better the materials list is going to be. Next is the Schedule Tools see Figure This contains the door, window, and cabinet schedules, etc. It is a handy tool to use to point out where revisions in your drawing have been made, or just to point something out more clearly.
The View Time Log tool button will create a time log. Pressing this tool will display the Time Log dialog box. As you are working on your plan you will be able to keep track of your time. You can stop and start time logging with last two tool buttons.
Chief Architect will stop and start time logging automatically, which you will learn more about later. This toolbar has the zoom tools to zoom in an out see Figure To see how they work try this next exercise. If you did not create this drawing you can use CSS1-c.
Click on the title bar of the Architectural Tools toolbar, the toolbar you placed in a floating position in the drawing area in an earlier exercise, and drag the toolbar back to where it was originally docked. Release the mouse button once you have it placed in the right position. Move the cursor into the drawing area.
Notice that the cursor changes into a small cross. Click near the left side of the drawing area and then drag the cursor to the right. A wall with a temporary dimension follows the cursor as you drag. When the temporary dimension. A wall 30 long is displayed. Start another wall by clicking on the end of the first wall and drag downward. Click again when the temporary dimension shows Continue in a counterclockwise direction to form a building that is 30 x 20 as shown to the right.
When you draw exterior walls in Chief Architect try to draw them in a counterclockwise direction. That way the exterior material siding, brick, etc. The cursor resembles a magnifying glass. Click a point to the left and above the top right corner of the building and then drag the cursor to the right and below the building corner. A shaded rectangle forms giving you a visual on which area you are zooming in on. Release the mouse button. The screen will fill with the area that you drew a rectangle or zoom box around see Figure To zoom out and see more of the building place the cursor near the corner of the building.
Roll the scroll wheel on your mouse towards you. You will begin zooming away from the building. Keep rolling the scroll wheel towards you until you can see the entire building. Now roll the scroll wheel the other way. You will begin zooming back in towards the corner of the building where you placed your cursor.
So now you know that you can use the scroll wheel on you mouse to zoom in and zoom out. I tend to use this method of zooming in and out more than any other method because it is so handy and does not require you to look away from where you are drawing. In the View Tools toolbar click the Zoom In button or press the minus num key the numbered key group on the right side of your keyboard. You will zoom into the view by a factor of 2. Click the Zoom Out button or press keyboard.
You will zoom back out by a factor of 2. Fill Window the hotkey is F6 button. The drawing window will be filled but it will now include everything in your drawing. You can now see the Living Area square footage. Click the Pan Window tool icon. The cursor. Click the left mouse button and you will be able to move the screen around. This is called panning the drawing. Click the mouse button again. You can no longer pan. You must click the Pan Window tool icon again to pan. Here again is where the scroll wheel on your mouse becomes a very handy tool.
Press the scroll wheel. The cursor looks like a hand and you can pan the drawing as long as you press the scroll wheel. If the scroll wheel on your mouse also tilts to the left or right you can use that function to move the screen in Chief Architect back and forth. Being able to use the scroll wheel to pan was a new feature that came out with Chief Architect X1.
This tool can be used in any view you are in. This includes photos you have in your plan. The next tool is the Show Sheet tool. If you have your printer set up and you have your sheet size set to a certain size clicking this tool will show the sheet on your screen. Generally you dont need to worry about this tool unless you are on a layout page. You would rarely need to use this tool while in floor plan. If you did not create this drawing you can use CSS1-d.
You should still have the building outline you drew in the previous exercise on your screen. Zoom in on the upper right corner. Click the Show Line Weights tool icon. Notice how much thicker the framing wall lines become. Show Line Weights tool icon again. The Click the lines are now thinner and all of the lines have the same thickness. Beginning with Chief Architect X1 you can control the line weight in virtually every object in your plan, including hatching, wall lines, CAD lines, etc.
You can control the line weights on almost everything in the elevation views. The Print Preview button shows you what your drawing will look like when you print it. The next tool, the Temporary Dimensions button is on by default. Click the upper wall in your building. Notice the dimensions that display. Those are temporary dimensions that can assist you in resizing or moving an object. Click somewhere in your drawing away from the building.
The wall is no longer selected and the temporary dimensions disappear. The cursor becomes a cross. Make a small box next to your building by clicking to obtain the first corner of the box and then drag and click for the diagonally opposite corner. Click on the top line of the box. Again you will get temporary dimensions. Chief Architect gives you the option of turning off this Display Temporary Dimensions function.
Click the button. The temporary dimensions for the box go away. Click the button again and the temporary dimensions come back. Click on the box you drew in the previous exercise. The entire box is selected. The box is a polyline object. Edit Object Parts tool icon. Now only the line Click the that you click on is selected. The box is now a polyline box made up of 4 lines. By default everything you draw in Chief Architect is made out of polylines, and CAD items will become polyline objects.
If it is not a 3D item yet, as long as it is a 2D object, you can turn off the snapping function and edit individual lines by activating the Next on the Display Tools toolbar is Show Arc Centers and Ends.
If you have arcs or circles drawn turning this tool on will display their centers with a cross. The next tool and the last one is the Display Reference Grid tool icon. When it is activated it will turn on the grid. Edit Object Parts function. When you first begin using Chief Architect all of the snaps will be on by default. This was introduced in Chief Architect X1. Click the Cabinet Tools icon on the Architectural Tools toolbar.
Move the cursor to the middle area of your building and left click to place the cabinet. Select Objects. Select the cabinet. Notice the little square in the middle of the cabinet? This is the center edit handle for the cabinet. Place the cursor over the top of this edit handle. The cursor will change to a 4-way arrow symbol. Click the left mouse button and drag the cabinet to the right wall of the building. When you get to the wall the cabinet will stop. If you continue to try and drag the cabinet to the right and you drag far enough it will eventually go through the wall.
But when you first bumped against the wall the cabinet stopped. Move the cabinet back to the middle part of the building. Now click and drag the cabinet to the right wall. This time the cabinet will go right through the wall without stopping. Click the back on. In the earlier versions unless you pressed the CTRL key the cabinet would stop at the wall. The next tool is the Angle Snaps button. By default, with this tool on, Chief Architect will snap to a point in 15 increments.
This can be changed to 7. If this tool is turned off you can snap to any angle. This is for everything in your plan; walls, doors, cabinets, etc.
If you dont want to be snapping to a grid turn the Grid Snaps tool button off. By default Chief Architect has a grid that you can snap to. You can adjust the size of the grid snaps and the size of the grid as it appears on your screen using the General Plan Defaults dialog box see Figure You can display this dialog box by double clicking the Select Objects tool.
In the Grid Setting section you can change the snap units by double clicking the number showing in the Snap unit inches edit list box. By default the grid snap is set to snap at every 1. If you did not create this drawing you can use CSS1-e. Move the cursor Select the into the drawing area and click the left mouse button to place a point.
Double click the point you just set. The Move Point dialog box will display. In the New Location section of the dialog box select the radio button for Absolute Location. You will see the current absolute coordinate location for the point listed in the Current Location section. In both the X Position and the Y Position edit boxes type 0. Press the OK button. Depending on where you are in your drawing you may not be able to see your point.
If you cannot see the point use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom out of the drawing until you can see the point. This is the point where you would probably want to start a plan from. Placing the point at the absolute coordinate of 0, 0 puts you right in the center of the grid. Maybe you want to move over or some other value. This is how you can use the snap setting for the grid. Find the origin of the grid and work with it from there. Object Snaps is the next snap function on the Snap Tools toolbar.
You will find that Chief Architect X1 and X2 now have very good snap functions. Later in the book you will find out in detail how to snap things together. Zoom back into the box that you drew earlier. A tool must be selected in order for the snap functions to work. Move your cursor to the box you drew earlier. With the cursor trace the perimeter of the box. Notice the red symbols that display as you move the cursor around the perimeter.
The symbols represent the snap function that will be applied if you click the mouse button. Move the cursor to the middle of the top line. A little red triangle will display. This is the Mid Point snap indicator. Move the cursor to one of the corners of the box. A red square will display. This is the Endpoint snap indicator. As you move from the corner towards the midpoint of a side an hourglass symbol will display. This is the On Object snap indicator.
Place the cursor on the midpoint of the top line of the box. You will know you are at the midpoint when the Mid Point snap indicator displays. Move your cursor down and a dashed line will follow it.
When you are near the center of the box move the cursor to the right side of the box. When you see the Mid Point snap indicator display for the right side move the cursor back towards the center of the box. Again, a dashed line follows your cursor. When you are near the center of the box a vertical line extending from the midpoint of the top line of the box will intersect the line extending from the midpoint of the right line of the box.
Where these two lines meet is the exact center of the box. Click the mouse button to snap a point to this exact center of the box. This is a result of the Orthogonal Extensions snap setting. Move the cursor to the top right corner of the box until the Endpoint snap indicator displays.
Now move the cursor to the right. A line follows the cursor allowing you to keep in an exact line with the top line of the box. Click to snap a point. Go back to the corner. Move the cursor upwards and again a line follows the cursor allowing you to keep in line, this time with the right line of the box. Click to snap another point. Point Tools.
Chief Architect has several useful snap settings that you can use. Generally you would want to work with the snap settings on. The snap icons you see on the Snap Tools toolbar dont need to be showing but that is the way Chief Architect has them set up. That way if you did not want a certain snap function to work you can turn just that one off.
Or you could turn off as many of the snap functions as you like, depending on your needs. If you want all of the snap functions off you would only have to turn off Object Snaps. For example, if you try to draw a line near the box you drew it will try to snap to a snap point on the box. If you dont want your line to snap to anything you could just turn off Object Snaps before drawing the line. Another option, instead of turning off Object Snaps, would be to hold down the S key on your keyboard.
Holding the S key down releases any snaps allowing you to start and end your line without snapping to a snap point on the box. These must be turned off too in order to draw your line freely.
The Edit Behaviors Tools Toolbar One of the really big changes in Chief Architect X1 is the edit behavior of things or the way objects are edited in the program. This new change affected the way things are moved. If you did not create this drawing you can use CSS1-f. Each corner of the box has a diamond shaped edit handle.
Move the cursor to the top right edit handle. Notice that when you are over the edit handle the cursor changes to a two way arrow.
Click and drag the edit handle up and to the right. Now move the edit handle around in any direction. By default you can move this edit handle in this manner.
Window Tools icon in the Architectural Click on the Tools toolbar. Insert a window in the left wall of your building by clicking near the midpoint of the wall. The wall now has a window in it. All rights reserved. This is the place to come for a first look at the hottest new software. Shareware companies need your support. Beta testing is a unique opportunity to try the latest programs and provide feedback directly to the program developers. The final version of many programs is often determined by suggestions from testers like you.
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Chief Architect X2 v. The Great Wall of Words v. HatchKit v. Add or delete elements, zoom and pan, arrange repeats along any two axes, snap to a grid, add layers to form multi-spaced patterns, rescale, Category: CAD Developer: cadro.
Chief Architect x7 Users Guide | PDF | Installation (Computer Programs) | Framing (Construction)
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