Interior Remodeling in Chief

[Angie Rasmussen]

Hi fellow Chief artists,
I could use your feedback on Interior Remodeling in Chief. I have the X5 Interiors version and I've been learning the program for about a year.

Q: How does one show an existing, construction and proposed plan of an existing home interior without the layer sets conflicting with each other?

I need to be able to create a standard set of plans (Existing, Construction, Proposed, Mechanical & Elevations). I am in the industry of remodeling existing interiors, more specifically Kitchens and Bathrooms. Our standard practice is to move walls, windows, doors, fixtures & cabinetry around to reconfigure the home within the existing footprint. I have created separate layer sets for each of the plans that I need (Existing, Construction, Proposed, Mechanical) and I have even identified and specified each of the layers within the layer sets.

My issue, for example, If in the 'existing plan' I have a door and I want to propose to place a window where that door once was I can't. When I attempt to place the new window in the 'construction plan' and 'proposed' where the door is in the 'existing plan' it won't let me because the door is there on another layer set in the same location. This is a big issue with cabinets, doors, windows and fixtures but not as much of an issue with walls because walls have the options within them to 'no locate' which allows walls to essentially stack on top of each other so they can be viewed within the same space on different layer sets. I hope I am not confusing you. I have attempted to create a layer Mask but I find myself with many additional issues with that method. Any suggestions? I switched from Auto CAD (which I am fluent and fast) to Chief because I am burnt out on drawing everything from simple lines and recreating everything nearly from scratch every time. When i purchased Chief I was under the impression that I could create remodel plans simply with layer sets and essentially dragging and dropping walls, windows, cabinets,fixtures, etc.. I am starting to get discouraged in the mere thought that I am wrong in that. Please help!

Thank you-Angie
Chief Architect X5 Interiors

[Joe Carrick]

Here's one option:

Create 2 Floors:

Floor 1 - Existing/Demo
Floor 2 - New

Use the Reference Layerset if you want to superimpose the New over the Existing.

[perryh]

I use a cad mask of the existing in the background so when you remove a wall the cad mask will show up where the wall was removed. Search the forum there is a lot of talk about it. Chief has a whole video series about remodeling

[rongobong]

Hi Angie,
Great question. My company is primarily in the remodeling business, so I run into the issues that you describe on a daily basis. I solve the problem by creating separate plans for the existing conditions and the new remodeled plan. After the "as-built" plan is drawn, I copy it with the "save as" command to save a new file to use for the remodeled plan.

When I create the construction drawings, I often use construction lines to locate where a door or window used to be if I need to keep track of something that is changing. I will go back to the as-built and change walls to the demo layer as necessary, and add hatches and notes to the plan to show what the extent of demolition is.

This is probably not the ideal because I am probably not using the "power of layers" to their full potential, but I learned a long time ago that sometimes walls, doors, windows, cabinetry, etc. can suddenly move when you start deleting things from a plan. This happened to me once before, and the error was a huge one because it meant that the kitchen I was designing was smaller in real life than in my plan. With my current method, once the as-built is done, it never changes. Drawing on the existing plan makes me nervous because of the "jumping" issue potential. Also, as you noted, trying to draw a new wall over an old wall (or wall intersection) can create problems.

So that's how I do it. Hope this helps!

[gawdzira]

I do what Perry mentioned. Once I have my as built plan I hide all layers except for walls with "Main Layer Only" on. I them make a cad block out of the walls and change the line weight to 10 and make the lines dashed. Change the layer and block them. I then paste that into the remodel plan and lock the layer. Wherever the walls do not move they will mask out the dashed lines. Move a wall and expose the dashed lines of the wall that was removed/moved.

[Glenn Woodward]

I agree with Perry and Alan.
Don't try and model old and new as 3D entities.
Once you demolish a wall or remove a door it is no longer an entity, so don't try and represent it with a 3D entity - use cad - either cad lines or use the cad block method that Alan mentions to do it all in one go.