country

Ours are generally inches too. I just use the window schedule and labels so all the dimensions are clear for specs.

Thank you very much Mark. Made my day:-)

I was hoping that would work. Does it just copy over the originals or will I have a bunch of duplicates to delete?

I have also completed quite a few plans in X8. I did all of these display options in X8 and they are set up in my template plan so they are not in the X7 plans. One way or another I have to change the options in these drawings so I was just wondering if there was an easier way.

I have my new templates all set up in X8 with the layer display options all revised for proper printing of the construction drawings. I have quite a few plans I would like to bring forward from X7. Is there a way I can bring them in to a template plan so the layers will adopt the new lines and colours? Changing these one by one will be very time consuming but if necessary I will do it. These plans are all in various design stages and I want to finish them in X8.

Once the program is actively installed on both machines you do not need to use the licence key just to deactivate and activate. Very simple to do from either machine.

My annual SSA fee is part of my business budget, as are taxes, equipment, etc. that are (to me) an essential part of making a living. If I did not think Chief was using that money to improve their product on an annual basis I would not pay and look for another software provider. This has not been an issue and I will happily pay a small portion of one job per year to stay current.

Obviously Perry knows you better than me:-)

Believe me, SSA is considerably more money right now in Canada and Australia, but still worth every penny IMHO. (As a side note, I'm doing great and our Christmas dinner was enhanced with help from "Mrs. Perry" aka Baking Nana.)

Exactly what I need for a current project. Thank you very much.

"Tech support", as you say, is for technical issues. Training videos, etc. for SSA are also well worth the investment.

Part of SSA is priority tech support. I had a problem yesterday, called in, got the help I needed and was back working in 5 minutes. I thought that was pretty great service!

I would talk clients out of that window just from a safety standpoint. Cleaning it would require a ladder in the tub!! As Robert said, a solar tube would give them natural light. If the surround was tiled you could lower the window to a more reasonable height and possibly have it work with a tile sill.

I tried to use it but having only rectangular rooms was way too limiting. If you could beak and reshape it would be much more useful.

That appearance works fine with trusses.

It's looking really nice Bob.

Thank you Perry. I think I'll just delete my reference manual because there is no way I could have figured this out reading it. If it was paper instead of on my iPad, a roaring fire would at least make me feel better after wasting so much time. I always do a site plan and basic boxed in house first too. Setback and height requirements can be really tight on many lots.

Good choice with Joey. He was and is a great help. I am with all the rest on never drawing lines again. I just had some revisions on an old plan come back from the Engineer because of a foundation change. I have to do this all in Vectorworks CAD and can hardly wait to finish and get back to my Chief drawings.

When I first started, I used Terry Munsons training book and DVD. It was much easier to follow because it had a logical step by step approach. You can find it at www.chiefapprentice.com. Now many of the videos, this forum and some extra help on specific problems make sense but I needed that initial basic stuff first.

Thanks Joe, I am starting to understand why some people only do the foundation on Level 0 and put the Lower level rooms on Level 1. I do like using the living area macros and could not do that with my current method. Hopefully I will get some time on a basic drawing to do a trial run on this style of working.

I have not done one of these in CA but have always done the living and bedroom levels on the main floor plan and the lower level & basement (or crawl space) on the foundation plan in my other program. This allowed the roof planes to work properly. I am waiting for responses to your question to see if I have to do it different in Chief.

I find it much easier to turn off the deck framing once the floors are in place and manually place proper posts and beams. If you do this and then have to adjust the decks you don't lose everything and have to start over.

There are some really good videos on different method to accomplish this. Try the help section or google it.

I was hunting for a sofa table to put in for space planning. Nothing there, so I opened the grouped living spaces where I had seen some. Brought in the group, unblocked and selected the table. When I opened its dbx the name was "side table" so I put that into the search box. 6 items came up but none of the ones I wanted. I then tried another group that I unblocked. The table in there was a "sofa table" in its dbx but nothing came up when I used that in the search box. Do I have to use special filters when I have the exact name?

To seperate the spaces to make the lean into a room, use a room divider wall and turn that layer off so it doesn't show. Or: If you put a sloping roof plane over, it will cut the walls at the correct height.