Renerabbitt

3 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Rene,

The reason for making a metric version is to create a Layout Template with the same borders, title blocks, text, indexes, etc.

Offhand I can't think of any reason to attempt the same thing for Plan Templates since I would simply create the model in the appropriate Metric Template.

Of course an Imperial Plan can be sent to a Metric Layout at the scale.

I literally want to convert my plan template from imperial to metric. I have put it off for 2 years now because of how much work it is. I want to convert all of my CAD details to a system that works in metric, I want to run all of my same macros without having to re-script for different inputs and formatters, and I want to transfer defaults and cad blocks and text styles and wall types etc. 
There is NO easy way to do this, it is a lot of work

1 hour ago, JiAngelo said:

Cut and paste between mixed unit plans wasn't the topic of discussion. 

This was to illustrate the point of the dimensionless 1:1 conversion and why you can't simply "convert" imperial to metric.
 

1 hour ago, JiAngelo said:

convert the imperial plan to metric

There is no tool for this, what are you suggesting?

Chief does a unitless import of defaults, which means all of your text style dimensions will be wrong for instance
 

2 minutes ago, CAmichael240114 said:

 

Not sure if this comment fits in with what you are saying of how Chief handles or converts units, this is what I find.

We are metric only so my template is metric.

For example;

I download a plan or symbol say from this site which is in imperial units.

Open the imperial plan, add items to my library.

Open my metric template, the imperial items inported into my library are now in equivelant metric units, a length of 12 in is now shown as 304.8 mm

Bo that is a separate function. Take a text box that is 4 inches with size 4 font and copy it from imperial to metric and it will resize as a 1:1 number to number context. It does not convert the dimensions

All of these answers missing one very crucial bit of info. If you have something set as 5" in your imperial plan defaults, it will be 5mm in your metric plan. Chief just sees these as numbers not dimensions so its a 1:1 translation.
I know this because i've been working for countless hours trying to recreate my templates in metric

10 minutes ago, steve_stuart said:

I was in the middle of working on a plan and lost my custom toolbar configuration, everything went back to the Default configuration. Pretty sure there is a way to get it back by getting the program to look at the correct location (see image) but I can't figure out how to do that. Any help would be appreciated.

Right click your toolbars, 

then:

1 hour ago, jaaos123 said:

I have created a room with its specifications, room type, name etc and saved it to my library as "add objects to Style Palette" by right clicking on specific room. But when I open this style palette from my library, the room type is still Unspecified, even though I chose it earlier. Even saving it again does not work. Though I would be able to use this as quickly specifying my room types from library. What am I doing wrong? 

Send in a suggestion, it's not capable, I've been asking for this since they introduced style pallets 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/28956-room-type-to-style-palette/?do=findComment&comment=230884

1 minute ago, kwhitt said:

Michael - thanks for the reply.  I'm not sure I follow you though.  Would you mind giving me some more info on your technique?  Kevin

Make your text box the same size as the size of the extent of your symbol in place of the lines you have to delete 

23 hours ago, djhplanning said:

I believe this is how I did it before!  I was missing the part of having to be in a 3d view to have the option to convert to a symbol.  I like this method because there is more control over the elevation of the building vs. the site terrain as I can just selected the symbol and manually move it up or down and around.  Thank you very much for the help!

Why are you building your site plan in a separate file? Why not use the plan with the model, it's far more dynamic, especially since we have additional capabilities when the house is present such as flattening pad and retaining wall intersections 

35 minutes ago, rlackore said:

Here's a library with two versions: full polys (53,987) and reduced polys (21,140). I don't have the hardware to test the light settings, so you'll have to tweak those no doubt.

Embra.calibz 4.55 MB · 0 downloads

Would probably add a emissive material area light in this and change the glass to translucent with a clear coat

Would suggest you bring it into the very free and robust software blender and decimate it and then remap it using the tutorials available or the knowledge base. 

I've started selling a standalone package for Area Analysis of your project. It is the same package that exists in the Pro Plan Template that I sell.
You can download an example PDF of how the system is installed and how it works HERE
It comes with free installation which you can schedule at your convenience SCHEDULER LINK
The Listing is HERE
The system works with a single polyline for your lot perimeter and then specialized macros and schedules that are modifiable. It does come with a free toolbar configuration with 5 tools included in the package for single click modifications to reported values.

37 minutes ago, DHerb2014 said:

default template

residential template

18 minutes ago, DHerb2014 said:

Rene, I don't have a Default Settings in the DBX. It's asking to open the file on my PC. My file is corrupt as I deleted a lot of Wall Types. I need to find the CA default settings somewhere?

default template is in program files if you are on a PC within chiefs directory

5 minutes ago, DHerb2014 said:

Rene, how do I get to this screen or dialogue box?

File/Import/Default Settings/

2 minutes ago, BrianMSmith said:

It appears DropBox

Use dropbox for plan and layout
Data files require manual work for multiple users. Advice you to store your chief data directory off of the cloud and when needed, export or transfer the data files to another machine.
If multiple users are adding symbols or textures, make sure they save them to their library then export them as a group, then take the export to your cloud server and have other users import.
In this way, chiefs core data remains off cloud and independent for each machine, causing no redundant issues, and you are simply transferring assets as needed.
For sharing files, make sure to create backups which will export materials and pdfs as a zip archive for another machine that does not have that asset
 

1 hour ago, BigKahuna said:

Is there a way to fix this ? 

Export your entire user library and it will prompt you to locate missing data files and point it back to your directory where you restored them

 

1 hour ago, BigKahuna said:

from  3d warehouse before it went away from free site

It's still free
 

26 minutes ago, BrianMSmith said:

Thank you all! This is the info I need to research a solution away from OneDrive but still cloud-based.

What is your end goal?

In case it isn't clear, you cannot work on the same project file at the same time.
Also, having your Chief architect data in onedrive will cause a redundancy over time as onedrive tries to cache files while you are working in chief which locks those files, causing onedrive to say create a duplicate of your user library with a suffix which will not be read by Chief.
Furthermore, as someone else said, you would need to set your onedrive to offline all files for Chief.
I would not use onedrive for projects, its terribly slow and has terrible caching and redundancy algo's when compared to dropbox.
I still use onedrive for backups as well as google drive for some email storage but dropbox is my main cloud backup service as well as a local NAS and secondary drives for redundant backups.
In terms of using chief within an office environment, chief looks for missing files in two locations, within its data files and within the folder that the plan and layout are stored in. If those files are not there, missing file errors will populate. So either export plan material libraries from one machine to import into another or backup your plan file to the cloud and then extract contents on the second machine. (if you want to get fancy, just drop the extracted image and pdf files from the backup to the second machines data directory
 

2 hours ago, BrianMSmith said:

First off, please forgive me if this has already been suggested as I am a new Chief user, but have been using AutoCAD since 1988.

I would like to see an additional stretch plan added to be able to stretch columns or other objects such as the one in the attached image.

Selecting 2 stretch areas is great, but for this example (which we use often) the 3rd seems to have no function. Adding a 4th would allow stretching between two different areas of the object while keeping the other area intact.

Let me know if I need to provide more detailed info.

See attached video for solution on what you are asking for:

1 hour ago, BHRConstCorp said:

I have a custom home blueprint purchased by a client that needs extensive sheets added. Overall may as well redo the plan completely using the chief architect software. We could do it but arent experts at it and the client is on a tight timeline. Could yall recommend someone (Architect or designer with expert certificaiton from Chief) that is licensed / works in the South Carolina area?

I appreciate it!

Murky waters...Do they have permission from the designer of record to modify there original drawn plans per the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act?

2 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

(although I had a new one the other day doing up a house for my brother, the basement is included in the FAR if 60% of the volume is above grade

you could do it, a polyline for area and then you need something that reports elevation reference to bottom like a geometric shape. 
 

16 minutes ago, MicheleInteriors said:

Select Enable All Applications then select Chief Architect X16 and then it will open

take it one more step and put a check mark in always open with

one polyline for lot size and just a bunch of schedules...didn't do any work but shape the polyline which you would have to do anyway and choose my room types

3 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

So new house plans will always show each floor sq ft, and the sum of above grade on the first page of the plans (or in the title block). The basement below grade is reported as "finished area" if it is actually being finished (which is rare unless it is a walkout basement). Finished area excludes furnace room.

If I understand you right, this would be really easy to do just by making custom room types with a prefix or suffix "Below" and then doing a schedule that includes area from below grade room types