glennw

Peter, You are probably not aware of Chief's Rich Text In Place options. Select the Rich Text tool. If you click in the drawing area, you get the Rich Text dbx. BUT, if you drag a box instead of clicking, you get the text in place method which seems to satisfy your request. Once you have some rich text in the drawing, there are 2 ways to edit it. Select the rich text. You can open it's dbx and edit it there. Or, you can select the Edit Rich Text In Place tool from the Edit toolbar.

Here I pop! The difference between the 2 plans is that the DECK RAIL PLAN 3 (no extra wall line) has the deck floor level set at the default zero height. The other plan with the long name that I couldn't be bothered typing, has the deck floor set at -4" (this is displaying the extra wall line). Once you change this deck floor level to zero, the extra line disappears. Any negative floor height causes the extra line to appear. I am still playing with it to see if I can find the cause. It is weird behavior. I'll keep digging and see if I can come up with the reason. Maybe hand over to tech support?

Johnny, Easiest way I know is to break the foundation wall and change the footing size. Is this what you are after?

For most situations you can use shortcuts for the zoom and pan tools when you need to change the drawing area while editing. I have the following 2 key shortcuts: PA Pan ZA Zoom All (fill window) ZI Zoom In ZO Zoom Out ZP Zoom Previous (undo zoom) So if I am drawing a line that I have started in the drawing window and I want to draw it to finish outside the present drawing window, I drag the line past the end of the screen and whilst still holding down the mouse button, I do a PA shortcut (Pan). This allows me to pan the window and then go back to placing the end point of the line. This also works for the other zoom commands. But yes, an auto scroll would be much easier

Mike, There are a couple of ways to do it. I will do a video - give me a few minutes.

I had been having very annoying computer crashing and mainly freezing problems for the last couple of months - they were random and inexplicable.. I just couldn't track down the problem. I tried all the usual things like cleaning, reseating the ram and graphics card etc. I then thought it may be an overheating problem, but all the fans seemed to be working properly and there didn't seem to be any dust problems. I then removed the cpu fan, cleaned off what was left of the thermal paste (it was sparse and patchy) and applied new paste. I did this about a week ago and haven't had a freeze or crash since - the computer is running like a dream. I can only assume the problems were caused by an overheating cpu caused by the old thermal paste. I have since done some googling and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that thermal paste can dry up and deteriorate, causing problems.

Have you played with the "Color Off Is" setting in Preferences...Appearance...Display. You can select ether Black and White or Greyscale.

Mick, Yes, I hear the dark side calling. I have always wanted a mac and maybe now is the time. Standard or vector view...makes no difference on my machine with 1GB video memory! - almost instantaneous.

Yeah, we call everyone "guys" down here.

I probably have the oldest system here (just thinking of going to an iMac). I don't see any delay at all - it all happens in a flash.

I really don't recommend it, but you could try turning off some of the auto functions like Auto Rebuild Walls/Floors/Ceilings and see what if it makes a difference.

Because he is looking for a tip or technique - makes sense to me.

Is this what you are after. All done automatically.

Michael, Why doesn't it work for the third row down - seems to work OK here. I don't understand why you are saying it doesn't work for the beams - they are in Drawing Group 19 and thus draw under the joists and under the labels - once again, looks OK here.

Jared, I am not sure if I am missing something as my solution sounds too simple. Select the joists and use the View Draw Order Edit Tools and then Send Backward option twice. You want them to end up on the 18 Drawing Group - that is the back of drawing group 18.. This changes the Drawing Order within the Drawing Group and places the joists under the labels and also under the posts - I am assuming that is what you want. Have a play with the Send Backward and Bring Forwards buttons to dynamically see the results in the floor plan. Or...select the joist and use the Select Drawing Group option by changing the Drawing Group to 18 and then use the Send Backward option...same result as the other way.

Johnny, What would a column tool do?

You have a Roof Gable Line drawn around part of the Living Room and Kitchen. I have drawn as red in the attached pic. This is preventing the auto roof generator from building a roof over those rooms. Delete the Roof Gable Line (on the Roofs, Gable Line layer) and the roof will auto rebuild over that area. You most likely drew that gable line manually at some stage.

Defaults...CAD...General Cad...Options...Show Arc Centers and Ends. Or the toolbar button of the same name.

Here is the final one with the sound corrected.

Scott, Try this with the original wall. In a 3D view, click on the block wall and notice how it's boundary hilites. Drag the top of the block wall down to reveal the siding wall. You can't actually select the top part of the wall - all you get is the junction between the top and siding/block walls. Very strange indeed. It's like you have 3 wall definitions in that pony wall. Are you using the next beta version?

Here is another go of the text numbering video. The sound is still wonky. Help please Chopsaw!

Michael, Zooming in and out doesn't change anything.

From my simple tests it appears that Edit Rich Text In Place results in WYSIWYG. I tested using both mono-spaced and a proportional fonts in the same text box.

I am assuming that the wall definition is correct and that you just want to move the walls and not redraw the whole plan. Alt+Q (General Wall Defaults). Change Resize About to Inner Surface. Now when you select a wall the inner surface will be the grip point enabling you to drag the wall over and snap it to your red line. It may help if you toggle off grid snaps.

Johnny, I use Chief Blueprint and don't seem to have a problem. How do I know if I am using a mono-spaced font or not? Can you post an example of how it gets screwed up?