And this video,
we're going to look at how to build decks and Chief Architect Premier.
We're going to start by looking at the different deck tools,
automatic deck framing features, and ways to manually modify your deck.
In the top toolbar, if you go to build and then railings and deck,
you have several tools for drawing decks, either with a railing or just an edge.
When you use these tools to enclose the space and form a room,
Chief knows that because you're using the deck tools that the room type should
be set to a deck and she fall,
automatically apply the deck room type settings to this room.
So let's take a look at the default settings for the deck room type.
To access your default settings, go to edit, and then default settings.
Here I'm going to go down to floors and rooms,
and then I'm going to double click on room types.
From the list of available rooms, I'm going to select deck and click on edit.
Here you can see the general information about the deck room type.
And if we go down to structure,
there's an option here that says planks and joist,
where you can specify information about how your planks and joist should
automatically come in. If we click on edit,
this brings up the floor structure, definition, dialog box.
You can see that my deck has two layers with the top layer, being our planks,
which are set to be a Redwood material that's one and one eighth of an inch
thick.
The second layer is going to be pressure treated lumber and is set to seven and
a quarter inches thick. And if you look down below, you can see,
I have this marked as framing, and it's using a lumber framing type,
but if you wanted to change it to different framing type, you can do so here.
Over on the right hand side,
you can insert new layers into your deck floor structure, move,
layers around, delete layers,
and see your total thickness for your deck floor structure.
Let's cancel out of this.
And next we go over to the deck panel on the left-hand side.
Here you can see that there's a check box that says automatically regenerate
deck framing.
When this is checked and you move your deck railings or deck edge around,
Chief will automatically rebuild the deck framing.
Next to you can specify information about your deck planking,
starting with the plank overhang, the plank width,
the plank gap width.
If you would like the plank orientation to be at a specific angle,
rather than the automatic direction, you can specify the plank direction,
whether you would like your deck to have a border and the number of border
planks, and whether you have border planks against the wall,
whether you would like the border planks to be cut in a herringbone pattern.
And whether the border planks are treated for your materials as calculations.
Next,
you can specify information about the deck joist starting with a joist width,
the joist spacing, and notice that it's on center and then the joist direction,
if you'd like to override the joist direction.
If we move down to the deck support panel,
here's where you can specify information about the deck beams,
starting with the maximum on center spacing between the deck beams.
Here's where you can edit the beams themself by clicking this button,
or you can specify information about the beam depth, the beam width,
the type of framing it's going to be,
and whether it's treated for your materials list.
And then on the left-hand side on the materials panel,
you can pick the material being used for your beam. If we cancel out of this,
next you can edit information about your deck posts,
starting with your maximum on center, post spacing,
and how far you would like your deck post space from the end of your deck beams.
If we click on the edit post button here,
you can edit information about the posts themselves,
including the type of posts you're going to be used,
whether it's displaying as a cross box in your floor plan view,
whether it's treated for your materials list and the post size.
And then on the left-hand side,
you can also specify the materials being used for the post. Next,
if we cancel out of this and take a look at the deck post footings here,
you can specify the height above the terrain you would like the footing measured
from the center of the footing, the footing thickness, the footing,
width,
the shape of the footing and rebar for your materials list calculations.
Let's cancel out of our deck room defaults,
cancel out of our available room types. And next,
if you're drawing decks using the deck railing tool,
you have default settings for how you would like those to get added to the plan.
So let's take a look at our deck railing default settings,
by going down to our walls, default settings,
and then double clicking on deck railing. And then next,
if we go down to the rail style panel here,
you can see that my railings are just using traditional balusters,
but if you would like them to be panels or a solid material,
you can make adjustments to it here. Next,
you can specify information about how high you would like your newels to build
up. Under the top bottom rail setting,
you can specify if you would like to include a top rail,
bottom rail and how high you would like your bottom rail to be raised.
Then moving down to the newels and balusters panel, here,
you can specify the height of your railing, the width of your newels,
the newel spacing, and the type of newel being used.
You can see that I'm using a square newel,
but if you'd like to change it to a round Newel or pick a different one from the
library browser, you can do so here.
You have similar settings available for your balusters such as specifying the
width of them, the spacing and the baluster are being used.
If you have previously picked that you are going to be using panels,
here's where you can specify the panel being used.
Moving down the rails option on the left-hand side,
here's where you can specify information about the size of your rail profiles.
Let's go ahead and cancel out of this and click on done.
And then next, add a deck to our plan by going to build,
railings and decks, and I'm going to select the straight deck railing tool.
And then I'm just going to come off the back of the house and left click and
drag where I would like that deck to be placed.
You can see that because I used the deck railing tool,
Chief automatically specifies the room type as a deck,
a you can see how that looks in our 3d view. Next,
if you want to be very specific with how far the back deck railing is located
from the back of the house an easy way to do this is to use your temporary
dimensions.
Let's make sure our temporary dimensions are turned on by going to view and then
temporary dimensions, and then next select that back deck railing,
select the temporary dimension and then typing in our desired dimension and
pressing enter.
And you can see at that railing is now 20 feet from the back of the house.
Next,
if you want it to be very specific with where your deck railing is located from
the side of the house and easy way to do this is to use your manual dimension
tools.
So I'm going to go up to our dimension tools and I'm going to select the end to
end dimension,
and I'm going to zoom in close to the deck railing and with my left mouse
button, click and drag a dimension going from the railing.
And you can see there that the dimension is picking up the main framing layer of
the house.
But if you want to adjust this dimension so that it's picking up the exterior
siding,
you can select the dimension and then select the diamond handle and move it to
the exterior siding. And then from here to adjust the railings position,
you can select the railing and then select the dimension and then type in your
new desired dimension. In this case, I'm picking 18 inches and press enter,
and then do the same thing on the other side. Zoom into the corner,
select the end-to-end dimension tool, select the deck railing,
and then click and drag out your dimension.
Adjust its position so that its picking up the siding and then select the deck,
railing,
select the dimension and type in your new dimension and press enter.
There we've got the deck dimensioned 18 inches from each side of the house.
In some aspects, decks, behave similar to walls,
making them easy to edit their shape and configuration.
If I select this back railing and the bottom toolbar,
there's many of those same wall editing tools.
I'm going to start with adding a break and I'm just gonna bring a mouse over
this back railing until I pick up the center of the railing and click once.
And now we have this railing separated so that we have a right section and we
have a left section that can be modified independently. From here,
I can modify this left railing's distance from the back of the house, by again,
selecting the temporary dimension and then just typing in our new desired value
and then reconnecting the deck by selecting the diamond edit handle at the end
of the railing, and then just reconnecting it.
Similarly, if you wanted to curve part of the deck,
you can select the railing and then select the change to arc tool in the bottom
toolbar.
And you can see how Chief modified that into an arc and then from there you can
use the triangle handle to adjust the radius.
Another quick deck editing tool, if you didn't want a railing,
and instead you wanted a deck edge,
you could select the railing and then the bottom toolbar select the make
invisible tool. And you can see that Chief has now made that invisible.
Let's go ahead and undo that edit so that we do have a deck railing.
Next it's easy to add stairs to your deck.
You can do so by going to this stair tools, selecting the straight stairs,
coming over to the deck railing that you would like the stairs to be placed at.
And then clicking once and Chief will add the stairs going from the deck down to
the terrain. And if you wanted to modify the stairs,
you can double click on them to open up their specification and make
modifications.
Let's go ahead and cancel out of this and then press space bar.
And then next to view the deck framing,
switch from the working plan view to the framing floor plan view,
and then go down to floor zero here.
You can see where Chief automatically placed the deck framing,
but if you would like for Chief to regenerate the automatic deck framing,
you can click in the deck room. And then in the bottom,
left-hand toolbar select the open object specification,
go down to your deck support panel and then make changes to your deck spacing.
In this example,
I'm going to change our beam spacing from being a maximum of 168 inches on
center to being 120 inches on center and click on OK.
And here you can see in the floor plan view how the deck framing automatically
got modified, but if you wanted to make manual modifications, you can.
Let's say that we did not want this beam and three posts and post footings in
this location.
And instead we wanted this beam and post and post footings to continue through
our deck.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to select the beam and simply delete it.
And by pressing the delete button,
we're going to get a message that pops up that says,
because we're making a manual modification to the deck framing,
we're going to turn off the automatic deck framing.
We're going to go ahead and click on yes, that we want to do this.
And you can see how that got adjusted in the floor plan view.
And then we're just going to select the deck post and the footing and press
delete, and then do the same thing for the other posts and footings.
Next, I'm going to select the beam that I want to extend,
and then just extend it to the end of the deck.
And then next I need to get additional posts and footings underneath this beam.
There's several ways that you can do this and how I'm actually going to do this
is I'm going to delete the existing post and post footings that are along this
beam, and then take a copy of these posts and post footings,
and then place them directly underneath this beam.
So what I'm going to do is I first need to select the three posts underneath
this beam and delete them and to do that,
I'm going to go up to our framing tools and I'm going to select the post tool.
And if I hold shift on my keyboard and then left-click and
marquee, in the area that those posts are located,
I'll select only those three posts.
And you can see in the bottom left-hand corner,
it says I have three objects currently selected.
I know that they're the posts because I selected the post tool and then marquee
the area, and then I'm just going to press delete.
And then next I need to delete these three footings and I'm going to do so just
by selecting them and pressing delete on the keyboard.
And then next I need to select the posts that you see underneath this beam,
make a copy of them and center that those copies underneath this beam.
Before I do that,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to select this beam and I'm going to
temporarily extend it past the edge of the deck so that it's easy for us to
locate it and center those posts on it. So zooming back out, I'm going to,
again, go to my post tool,
hold shift on my keyboard and left-click and marquee, select these posts.
And then in the bottom left hand corner, press copy,
and then I'm going to select the sub edit tool to center object,
and then come over to this beam. And then once we have the center of it,
I'm going to click once and that will place a copy of those posts underneath the
beam. And you can see in the 3d view, how that starting to come in,
and then I'm going to do the same thing with the post footings.
And in order to marquee, select those post footings,
I'm going to go up to our slab tools,
select the slab with footing option,
hold shift on my keyboard, and I need to be in my 2d view to do this.
So I'm going to jump back to our plan view, select the slab tools,
select the slab with footing tool,
and then just come over here and hold shift marquee, select this area.
You can see, I have five objects selected in the bottom left hand corner,
and those five objects are the footings. I'm going to copy them,
press the center object tool,
and then come over to the beam and then just click once.
And that's going to place a copy of those footings underneath those posts.