glennw

Post the plan

You could convert the cad lines to Molding Lines and assign a small, simple molding to them - like a cylinder. The length of molding will report in the Material List.

Select Stretch Cad (Edit>stretch Cad, or from a toolbar button) Draw a selection box around your cad box Drag the selected cad box to relocate it The ends of the lines attached to the cad box will stretch and relocate with the cad box The other ends of the lines will stay where they are Here is a video

Here is another way. Copy all the roofs and move them off the model so you can work on them. Select a roof plane. Convert Selected To Symbol. Rotate the symbol around it's X axis so that it lies flat. Generate a new 2D block for it. Select the cad block in Cad Block Management and Inset into the plan. Explode the cad block. You can now dimension the roof plane with it's true dimensions.

You can get the dimensions of roof plane edges by selecting the roof plane, opening the dbx and looking on the Selected Line panel, noting the Length At Pitch. Of course, this will not dimension it - it will just supply the dimension. There may be another way to dimension actual roof plan sizes in X10 and earlier. There was a tool called Print Model (removed in X11) that would print a .pdf of the unfolded roof planes. If someone knows a way to convert a .pdf to a cad drawing, you could then import the cad drawing and add dimensions. This pic shows the exploded roof .pdf next to the floor plan. Or, maybe one of the ruby gurus can do it with a macro.

Depending on the existing text and what you want to replace it with, would the Find/Replace Text tool do what you want?

Select an object and look on the Edit toolbar for the button with black and white squares and a curved arrow. It is the View Draw Order Edit Tools button.

I would start with a Box, Convert To Symbol. You then have full rotation control in all 3 axis. Takes about 5 seconds.

Bob, Why don't you post the Layout file as well to see if someone can save you a lot of work. Do a File>Backup Entire Project from a layout and that will include the plan, layout and referenced files. I am off to bed now, but will have a look in the morning.

Rob, To clarify. When you do a Backup Entire Project from a layout, this will also save the .plan file, the .layout file and all the referenced files, so maybe no need to do the Backup Entire Plan.

Yes if you are printing from layout ? Your Page 0 Drawing Sheet Setup should be set to 1" = 1" for Drawing Scale. Note, in the Drawing Sheet Setup dbx, that Drawing Scale should be 1"=1" (or, 1=1 any units) NOT 1"=1'. Also down at the bottom of the Print Layout dbx, check Update Automatically and then in the preview pane you can see what the results will look like before printing.

Rob, For plans, use File>Backup Entire Plan. For layouts, use File>Backup Entire Project. This will save all the externally referenced files that are needed with the plan and layout files, like images, backdrops, textures, pdf's, etc. During this process, Chief gives you the opportunity (not mandatory) to save all the associated files to a zip archive which can be handy for sending to others or for archiving purposes.

Open the dbx for Bedroom #5 and uncheck Flat Ceiling Under This Room. I am not 100% sure why at this stage. I will poke it a bit more.

Bob, No. Select the Layout Box and open it's dbx. Click Plot Lines. No need to go back to the view or resend to layout.

Collapse All only works on the current folder or catalogue - depending on what level of the folder tree you right click on. You can't collapse the whole library in one go - the biggest you can collapse in one go are the catalogues. ie, you can collapse all the Core catalogues by right clicking that folder. Same for Manufacturer, User, Bonus...

Scott and Steve, Just to clarify. The hilight works when you are not using a Color Theme.

Be aware that different room types have different properties that influence how the model is built. Another way to do want you want is to have 2 layers for the room names. Each layer being associated with different By Layer text default heights. You could then use the Layer Painter to click on the room names and the room label will change size in accordance with the text style associated with that layer.

Many versions back, I remember that Chief used to automatically reduce the room name text size for mall rooms like closets, etc. I haven't seen it work for like that for a long time. Anyone else remember that?

The Dimension Defaults units will determine the formatting of the input.

Scott, I worked it out! Go System Preferences>Keyboard>Shortcuts tab> Down at the bottom of the dbx, click All Controls. Still doesn't hilight the boxes, but better than not being able to do it at all! I wonder if at some stage Chief changed whatever it is to make these boxes behave differently - either by mistake or on purpose? I have sent it in to Brian and asked for his comments.

Steve and Scott, If I start out with the focus in Latitude, I can Tab, and the focus goes to Longitude, Tab again and the focus goes straight down to Length Of Plan Symbol. The boxes are hilighted. The focus jumps straight over the Date and Time section. I am getting the same as Scott.

If that wooden gutter returns down the side and is fixed level in cross section, It won't mitre in the corner. Assuming the gutter around the corner needs to lie flat, you will need a small horizontal piece of gutter before the raking gutter turns the corner. There was a thread on this a while back where I posted the technique. I think you woud need 3 molding polylines to do that. 1 3D MP for the gutter (down the roof and around the corner), 1 for the sloping frieze and one for the flat frieze. Do you have a pic of the shop mock-up from around the corner? Post the profile for the gutter and the frieze.

Scott, I don't think you are missing anything. The ability to do what you want with the dynamic shadow changes was lost a couple (?) of versions ago. The Date and Time Fields no longer hold the focus and the arrow keys do not work to dynamically change the shadows. Could any Windows users comment please, to see if it just a mac problem. A big loss in my opinion. I can't remember if I sent in a bug report or not - I will check back and see.

Read up on Architectural Blocks

Rob, It is possible to get the note number to display level with the top line of text, but it may not be worth the effort. Add some carriage returns under %simple_schedule_number% in the Object Information>Code box - the number will vary depending on how far you stretch the note schedule. You will need to add or delete the carriage returns as you stretch out the schedule - so maybe not worth the effort if you have a lot of notes.