Help Database

Creating marriage walls in Chief Architect is easy using the Double Wall directives in the General tab of the Wall Specification dialog box.

For the purposes of this example, we used the basic shell of a duplex plan below.

Both the left and right exterior walls are set to Full Gable Wall on the Roof tab of their Wall Specification dialog boxes and the roof has been built creating a basic gable style. We used the default Interior-4 wall type for the two interior walls.

1. First, launch Chief Architect and Open  the plan in which you would like to create your marriage walls, or start a new, blank plan by selecting File> New Plan .
   
   
   
2. Select Build> Wall> Straight Interior Wall  and click and drag the two walls in the same Start to End direction.
   
   
   To turn on your S and E (Start and End) indicators, select the Edit menu, go to Preferences and in the Preferences dialog box, click on the Edit category. In the Selection section, place a checkmark in the (S)tart and (E)nd Indicators option and click OK.
   
   
   
3. Once you have both of the Interior Walls placed, use the Select Objects   tool to select the first wall, and then hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click on the second wall so that both walls are group selected.
   
   
   
4. Click on the Open Object  edit tool to display the Wall Specification dialog box for both of these walls.
   
   
   
5. On the Structure tab, move the radio button down to Split Framing under the Double Wall category and click OK to apply this change to both walls.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Group select both of these walls again, and select Edit> Copy .
   
   
   
7. Move up to the A level, or Attic level, and select Edit> Paste> Paste Hold Position .
   
   You may receive a warning that you are placing an object on the attic floor.  If so, click OK to continue.
   
   
   
8. Now that we have pasted copies of the Split Framing Double Walls on the Attic floor, with both walls still selected, click on the Open Object  edit tool to display the Wall Specification dialog boxes for them.
   
   
   
9. On the General tab, select the Options for Attic Wall and Retain Attic Wall and click OK to apply the changes.
   
   This double Attic Wall will not be created automatically by Chief Architect, which is why we need to create it manually for it to build and frame correctly.
   
   
   
10. Select Build> Floor> Build Foundation  to display the Foundation Defaults dialog box.
    
    For the purposes of this example, we will leave all of the default values except that on the Foundation tab, we will increase the Min Wall Height to 48" and click OK.
    
    
    
11. In the New Floor dialog box, choose to Derive new Foundation plan from the 1st Floor plan and click OK.
    
    
    
12. Chief Architect will now display the foundation level, also known as Floor 0, and a single Foundation Wall will have been built beneath the double wall above.
    
    
    
    
    
13. While still on the Floor 0 level, select Build> Framing> Build Framing  to display the Build Framing dialog.
    
    
    
14. Click on the Foundation tab, and in the Subfloor for floor 1, place a checkmark next to Build floor framing.
    
    
    
15. Click OK to build the floor framing.
    
    If you do not have the "Framing, Floor" layer set to display, a dialog box will display asking if you want to turn on this layer.  Select Yes to display the layer.
    
    
    
16. On the foundation level, you should now be able to see that the floor framing for each side of the double wall on the structure has framed independently.
    
    
    
    
    Tip: If the floor framing is not displayed as you expected or desire, consider using the Joist Direction  tool to define the direction that joists are laid out.
    
    More information on this tool can be located from within Chief Architect by selecting the Help menu, going to Contents and Index, and in the space provided, type in the keyword of Joist, select the subcategory of Direction Line and click on the Display button.
    
    
    
17. You are now ready to continue with your design, including building the Wall Framing or manually editing any framing members if necessary.

The above Render Framing Overview  is just an example based on our basic plan.  Recall that building your framing is one of the last steps to take in creating your plan, after adding interior walls, doors, doorways, windows, etc.