Auto Dormer Problems

[tmunson]

I have the lasted upgrades for X1.4. When I place an auto floating dormer or auto dormer the front walls do not show right. For example I placed an auto dormer to line up with an exterior wall. The first time the front dormer area above the window was gone (no exterior wall there). So I deleted it, started over. This time the dormer area materialized but the rest of the front exterior wall is gone. On the same building I also placed a floating auto dormer. The first time the side walls went through the roof. So I deleted the dormer and tried again. Now it is okay. Also there have been times when I have tried to select the dormer and it won't select. Is anyone else having these problems?Is it a bug? I went through the tutorials I have, did it exactly as it was done in the tutorial with the same resullts. I have also had similar problem with manuallly placing a dormer. On one project I eventially had to cover the hole with a polyline solid. I would show a picture but don't know how to attach a picture file to this forum.

Terry Munson
Munson Drafting Service
Kent, WA 98032

[louis]

You post a picture like this.

http://www.lfcompany.com/louis/chief...n%20Chieftalk/

[tmunson]

Well here it is the next day. Guess no one has had this problem. I still think it is some kind of bug, but I think I solved it. Before placing the dormers I created an attic space under where I was going to place the dormers. So fiddling around with this for over 2 hours I got rid of the attic space designation (just thought about this on a whim) and made those areas regular rooms instead. I then rebuilt the dormers and they came out okay. I don't know why the attic disignation caused the problem. I was acturally following one of CAX1's tutorials. The dormers on the tutorial turned out fine using the attic disignation. Go figure. Maybe it's a bug of some kind in my computer and not the software. Anyway I submitted a service ticket so will be anxious to see what CA says.

And by the way, thanks Louis for your tutorial on how to insert images into this forum. Great tutorial! The image is what the dormer looked like before.

[WendyWelton]

Terry,

Another thing to check is to see if you have extra Roof Openings. Turn on your layer Roofs, Openings and then use the tab key to cycle through selections, watching the shape of the selection. I've seen dormers create extra roof openings when copied or cut & pasted. I can't quite catch it in the act to report it.

You should report the dormer in attic issue to Chief - especially if you can duplicate it. www.support.chiefarchitect.com

[tmunson]

Once I got rid of the attic disigination the dormers finally came out okay. But previous to that, as I was trying differnent attempts at a solution, I had rebuilt the roof and even the front exterior wall (a 2nd flloor 4' high knee wall). I never thought about extra roof openings, thanks for the idea. Another strange thing that happened was even after the dormers finally came out right and looked okay from a rendor camera overview, the rendor camera vector veiw of the inside of the dormer had a different story. It showed no opening in the roof. So I closed the view and then reopened it and the roof opening was back. I quickly saved the file and I am sincerely hoping the problem is over, at least, for this plan. And this was just practice! I seem to always have dormer 3D problems, 2D is okay, whenever I need them. I have been using work-arounds (polyline solids to fill the gaps in the dormer walls) to make the dormer look right to the client. I did send this in to support and I'm still waiting to hear back.

Terry Munson
Munson Drafting Service
Kent, WA

[tmunson]

The problem discovered by CA support was the exterior wall that the front wall of the dormers were resting on. Somehow that wall had been edited and by going going to that wall's specification dialog and on the General tab checking Default Wall Top Height the problem was solved. I would have never figured that out so thanks to the support staff at CA! I had inadvertantly solved it by deleting that wall and redrawing it, I think.


Terry Munson
Munson Drafting Service
Kent, WA

[Paranoia in 3D]

I have the same problem with internal doors suddenly turning invisible in render views, despite being solid in 2D views & Glass House... although thankfully I haven't had to show anyone inside a model yet.

[tmunson]

I have not had the problem yet with interior doors disappearing in render views. But there is probably an explanation. Send your file into the support center, they have now solved two problems I've had, both within a day or two.

Terry Munson
Munson Drafting Service
Kent, WA