glennw

Have you had a play with the Link function in a text box. This would allow you to link to an external file from a text box. The way it works is that you could have a text box that says "NOTES" or something similar which links to an external spread sheet, or text document that stores all your information. When you select the text box and click the Follow Hyperlink icon on the Edit toolbar, the external document opens. .

Do you mean that you want zero degrees to be up and angles measured clockwise? If so, click the Number Style button at the bottom of a lot of dbx's. Select Quadrant Bearing or Azimith Bearing. Note that this setting only changes the appearance of the angles in dbx's - no angles displayed in the drawing.. If you want to change the angle format for a line with Show Length checked, you need to change the default setting at Defaults...Cad...General Cad...Display Line Angle As. Angular dimensions have their own setting in their dbx.

By default, the Esc key will cancel the current command and selection and make the previous command current. Another Esc will go back one more previous command...etc, up to 100 previous commands (is that enough?) If you look at the status bar it will indicate the current tool as you press Esc and cycle back through the command list There are separate tools for Next Command that cycles forward through the command list (default shortcut is Shift+Esc), and you can have separate commands for Cancel Selection and Previous Command by assigning hotkeys to those commands. These commands aren't on a menu and don't have toolbar buttons - they can only be used with hotkeys and the only commands that come with hotkeys already assigned are Cancel Selection/Previous command (Esc) and Next Command (Shift+Esc). For the others (Previous Command and Cancel Selection) you will have to assign your own hotkeys. I think you are out of luck with "select previous objects".

If you are using something like a Coronado stone that doesn't have a pattern associated with it, you can be a bit naughty and use a pattern from the Cultured Stone catalogue. You aren't restricted to the Chief patterns. I mean that you can use a Coronado texture and assign just the Cultured Stone pattern to that Coronado texture. Assign a Coronado stone material to your wall. You will get a stone texture in a Standard view, but just a plain color in vector view. In a 3D view, select the stone texture with the Adjust Material Definition tool (rainbow tool). Go to the Pattern panel...Pattern Source. Select Use Custom Pattern File. In the box below, Custom Pattern Options, Browse to the Cultured Stone folder in the Patterns folder and open it. You can now choose a Cultured Stone pattern and assign it to your Coronado stone texture.

I just had a play with this and you can do a lot with the Watercolor with Line Drawing on top. I assume that the watercolor mode uses the rendered (standard) view to start Generate a 3D rendered (standard) view. Open up the Rendering Technique Options dbx and turn ALL the options to zero and OK out. This means that you will essentially get a rendered view with straight lines, no overlap, etc. While still in the 3D view (or go back to an elevation if you prefer), you can use Adjust Material Definition (the rainbow tool) to change the Pattern size and Offset (or angle if you want) so that it coincides with the Texture. Or, you can go the other way and edit the Texture X&Y scale, Angle and Offset, so that it coincides with the Pattern. Either way, with a bit of trial and error, you can get the pattern and texture to match up as I did for the bricks in the attached pic. The first pic is a normal rendered view (Standard). The second one is a Watercolor with Line Drawing where I matched up the brick pattern with the texture. The third one I changed the roofing definition from an Area material (which doesn't have a pattern) to a Strip material and rotated it 90deg to get the lines on the roof to run the correct way. This is all very flexible and you can display the materials any way you want. You can even delete the brick texture and just have the pattern and brick color, as shown in the fourth picture. The fifth picture I thickened up the Line Thickness to 10. You should be able to get close to what you want using the above.

Gerry, I gotta agree with that. I can't see the problem with Chief's handling of the building pad. It allows flexibility. I know d dot gripes about the lack of auto conversion between the methods, but I find that once you decide which method to use, I never need to convert to another method. The auto pad option is just a down and dirty method of relating the structure to the terrain so that the structure isn't buried underground or floating in the stratosphere. Does it really matter where on the structure height is calculated - it is an approximation only - if you want more accuracy, don't use auto pad elevation. It only takes a few seconds to add a manual pad elevation and an elevation height. FYI in Oz, all levels are related to AHD (Australian Height Data) which is mean sea level in 1996. All my building pads and height information relate to AHD - this allows seamless comparison with situations like adjoining sites, etc. It would be easier to use manual heights in stead of auto pad height than to use multiple plans and symbols. I don't get the logic in that one.

The pad elevation is very flexible and can be used in 3 ways, but you need to pick a method before you start: 1. All levels relative to sea level (or absolute elevations). 2. All levels relative to zero floor level 3. All levels relative to an assumed datum. I think what d dot is asking for is an automatic conversion between the various methods.

So Lew, with your experience and in your opinion, is the topic of this thread a "workaround"?

No need for any workarounds or invisible walls. This can all be done with the Edit Wall Layer Intersections - that's what it's for. Lew, you need to be aware that even though a post claims to be a bug or workaround, it is not always the case.

JG, I am not sure from your diagram, what intersection you are talking about. Do you mean like this? Use the new Edit Wall Layer Intersections tool. It is made for this situation.

Kathleen, Try having a play with Preferences...Render...General Options...Zoom Using Field of View. You probably want to have that unchecked.

Gene, Are you talking about something like this? You can do thisby opening the window dbx. Treatments panel...Exterior Millwork Above Casing and picking a keystone from the library.

Thanks guys. The check is in the mail.

Mike, I am in Oz and would be happy to hop over for a little "holiday". I could also do on line sessions using Skype screen sharing.

Timmy, I wouldn't use the thickened walls - I would do it as per my pic. Looks like you are using 2 separate doors - use one Double Door to eliminate the central fin.

There are at least 2 ways to do this: 1. Use Build...Wall...Wall Hatch to hatch the walls. Turn on the Walls, Main Layer Only layer. Make sure Walls, Hatching layer is turned on. 2, Do it all in the wall definition by applying the same Fill Style to every layer in the wall. Then make the wall lines white where you don't want to see them (everything but the main layer).

Timmy, I think Joe means this:

Julie, You can do something like this pretty quickly with Chief's standard tools - including the Spline Distribution Path and the Elevation Line tools. And a hint - you can use the Copy in Concentric mode for the rocky stream bed. My advice would be to steer away from the Terrain Modifier tools as you have very control - better to use the Elevation Data tools where you have complete control. This rough one took about 10 minutes.

Yes, you can convert a spline into a wiggly line - these are most useful for all sorts of things. There is no problem deconstructing a spline. The problem is what to do then. You can copy an object along a straight line by using either the Multiple Copy tool or the Align/Distribute along line tools. But I think these only work for a single line. I don't thing that there is another tool (apart from the Distributed Object tools) that will allow you to distribute along a polyline or a spline. Probably easier to just trace over the existing spline with the Spline Distribution Path tool.

Curt, Glad I could help Curt. Who would have thunk it was so easy to be a genius (and I can even spell it proper) . If I had known it was that easy to be a genius, I would have been one long ago!

Curt, Have you tried turning off the Walls, Thru Wall Lines layer? That's the simplest one. And don't forget the Edit Wall Layer Intersections tool, which will work in a lot of cases.

Perry, I can fix the problem by turning off Auto Build Roof Framing and Auto Build Floor & Ceiling Framing. I haven't got a clue why this works - but it does. Have a play with these settings and see what happens for you. Could have something to do with the Auto Rebuild Walls Floors/Ceiling setting that Alan covered. The poly solid error message is coming from your post brackets.

Perry, I am seeing the freeze with labels off. But I am also getting an error message that says : This polyline solid overlaps or crosses itself. It may not look correct in 3D. Filled objects may also draw incorrectly in 2D. It appears 3 times in a row. Are you getting that message? Another thing - as soon as I delete one of your sidewalks everything comes back to normal - even if I undo the deletion.

There is a tool to do exactly what you want. Have a look at the Distributed Objects tools like Polyline Distribution Path and Spline Distribution Path - at the bottom of the Build menu.

The foundation doesn't display when you turn that layer off because that layer controls all the objects that make up the foundation like foundation walls, footings, framing, etc. It's just a quick way to turn off the display of all the foundation in one go. You can still control the display of the individual foundation items if needed on an individual basis.. ie, you can turn off just the Walls, Foundation layer, or the Framing, Rim Joists layer if you want. What makes you think that when you select 2 walls, they are on the CAD, Default layer - because it says CAD Layer: CAD, Default in the status bar? This is not indicating that the walls are on the CAD, Default layer. That is indicating that the current cad layer is the CAD, Default layer. It displays like that when you select 2 or more items. The best way to quickly see what layers are being used by an object or objects is to select them and then use the Object Layer Properties on the Edit toolbar.