Kitchen Design frustration

[DBJMain2]

Atlanta - Sounds like fun - and WARM.

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska, and it is -8 deg. F right now and we still have about 2 ft of snow on the ground. But the sun is shining.
Try setting "0" for the accuracy. This will get rid of the 1/16"

Each room has specific built-in defaults for the type of room you specify within Chief. So closing and dpecifying the room type has its advantages in that respect.

When I dimension to an area that has a door or window , I either extend the wall to pick up the dimension or set a cad line and dimension to it

[Benson]

Oh dear, -8, I feel for ya.

How do I specify room type?

When I set it to 0", it just rounds everything off to whole numbers. I'm on the phone with tech support right now. they are acting like what I want cannot be done with CA. How does everyone else do this?

[DBJMain2]

Put a check in the eighths & "0".

Put a check in "surface". This will place the snap to the sheetrock or inner surface of the wall. Unless you have the cheetrock specified as the main layer, and I do not think you would do that, would you?

Where you have the 1/2" specified only applies to an "opening" in a wall.::

[fcwilt]

As boring as it may be you need to read through the manual and understand what it says.

You should go through the tutorial as well if you haven't already.

If you hate to read then get the Training CDs and go through them until you understand what CA does and why.

Aside from bugs, like any other CAD program, what CA does in any given situation is predictable. Once you have an understanding of how CA works then you will have a much better idea of how to achieve an given result.

Just diving in and trying to produce a finished product without study, practice and/or training is a sure way to get frustrated.

[joelglanton]

Benson
I do mostly high end kitchen designs and chief works great for me.
It takes some time to get use to as any good program does.
If you are going to be doing kitchens and would like some training to get you through the basics and beyond you can email me at jglanton@chartermi.net and see if i can help.
Joel Glanton
Great Lakes Cabinetry
Otisville Mi

[Benson]

F. Wilt, I have read the entire dimensioning part of the ref manual, as well as the book. I talked to tech support and they conferred that CA will not allow me to get dimensions at 1/4" increments. Looks like 3months invested, I am going to have to return it.

Joel, I am interested in speaking with you. My boss wants me to send it back immediately since our 90 days just expired. Does it bother you that you end up with measurements of 15/16ths? I know you can manually change these, but everytime you move a wall in order to make room for a new appliance or whatever, it makes all the dimensions off again.

Thanks for your help everyone.

[fcwilt]

Hi

I guess I don't understand what you want to do. Are you wanting CA to round off the displayed dimensions to 1/4 regardless of what the real dimension is?

If so just make sure that all of you objects are dimensioned to multples of 1/4 and that's what CA will show.

[Benson]

Well, for kitchen remodeling, I measure the client's kitchen to the 1/4". This is how I want it to appear on the plan.

[joelglanton]

The 1/16ths dont bother me if thats what the actual dimension is.
On the locate objects for walls i use surfaces this way when you use the interior dimension ruler you get drywall to drywall measurements. If you get a 20-15/16 measure in the kitchen and dont want this you can simply move the wall 1/16 if this does not cause you a problem with you design.

[fcwilt]

OK if you measure to 1/4 then simply place all the existings walls, etc to the actual measurement and that's what CA will display.

You are aware of how to use the temp dimension lines to place a wall to an exact dimension?

It's a little hard to say what is going wrong at your end without actually watching you work but CA can do kitchen designs quite easily.

Perhaps if you describe the steps you are going through and where things go wrong we can figure out how to help.

[dgavin]

Benson,

I think you need some one on one. Kitchens can be done however you want. Personally I would never design a kitchen (or bath) to 1/4". Being off that amount could really end up costing you. Are you doing new or remodeling or both? I am a remodeler and have my dimensions set to dimension to casing on windows and doors 'cause I need to know exactly where they are located in the room. I think Chief can do what you want but you just don't know how to "use" the program. By that I mean there are tools that can get you what you want but you have to know how to get Chief to do what you want. I think that is the same with any program.
I think that youn are taking an approach based either on your own logic or logic from using another program. Chief has it's own logic and when you understand the approach you can do "almost" anything. I really think you need to talk to either myself or another user to help get you on the right track.

[gmohr]

Benson-

It will work. Just draw the general shape of the room. Place interior dimensions everywhere (excellent point joelglanton). Don't use the autodimensions for your application, they'll just confuse you at this point.

Click a wall, click the interior dimension and type the dimension you want it to be. Don't try dragging it with your mouse. Once you go around the room once (or maybe twice first time you do this so you see which direction the wall gets moved by Chief), all of your dimensions will add up as you expect.

HTH.

Grant

[quickdraw]

Benson,

Rooms must be closed to work. Once I understood that it made my life much easier. That is what the invisible walls are for.

Frequently I have a plan where the kitchen/nook/family are all open to each other at points. You must divide up these zones with invisible walls to turn them into "rooms" so Chief can work properly.

-R

[sdsinc]

Boy I am confused -

Chief certainly does a good job with kitchens, and I agree that measuring to the 1/4" is dangerous.

In any event, one thing you mention that is clear on your plan is that sometimes the leader origin is not where you want it - this happens a lot, but if you select the dimension line and grab the leader, you can re-set the leader origin to any location you want. Further, you can kill certain intermediate dimensions and add intermediate dimensions simply by watching the tutorial segment on dimensioning - that and a little patience will prove to make this software well worth the investment.

Finally, if you are a kitchen remodeler, than you need to re-think your walls. If you are truly only interested in the ACTUAL finished dimension, then you should create a simple wall type with the outer surfaces set as your main layer - no intermediate or extra layers and surfaces. This will solve a lot of your dimensioning dilemas and the walls can still read with surfaces and textures as you like. Plus, you can store an abundance of wall types for each field condition you encounter.

Finally, be sure to watch the tutorial on walls, which will explain how to set wall locations using the dimension lines that pop up when you select a wall.

Good luck - this is a great program, but if you're trying to learn it while under a deadline you are setting yourself up for failure.