misterwiley

A work around solution would be to -draw a poly line box around what you want to be dashed, -open the box and in X11, go to the Fill Style tab and select the hatch setting and give it the angle and scale. Maybe 45 degrees at 4" width -make the color white and check the box to have a transparent background. -you will then probably want to make the line weight in the FillStyle something a little bigger so the dashes are little more substantial. Something like 15 should do it -go to the Line Style tab and make the line style blank for the boarder of the box to disappear Now where ever that box is located on the plan everything behind or underneath it will be dashed. You might have to turn on line weights to actually see the effect. This might not be the answer you're looking for but I thought it might help solve the immediate issue

This would actually be pretty easy to replicate by modeling in plan view with general framing members and 3D molding polylines. Then take a orthographic 3D camera view and position it to capture the same shot as the image you attached. You can then use the create detail from view tool in this camera view which will give you a 2d cad view just like you have. This is where you would add notes and such.

OMG you did it! That was the answer, thank you thank you thank you.

Good idea! This will be a quick solution. Thank you

In this case, I'm using the same Plan View for all the floors...its the framing set. I guess another solution might be to use the reference floor feature but that seems overly complicated for such a small request. I'm surprised this hasn't been an issue for others yet. Thanks for your suggestion.

I'm wracking my brain on an issue with the callout displayed from a cross-section. In the camera DBX->Plan Display Tab I have unchecked the Display on All Floors options. The callout is showing on floor 1. I would like to move the callout down to floor 0 and not have it shown on floor 1. How do you move an existing camera callout down a floor? This cross section has a bunch of details in it and I would rather not delete it and redraw it on the lower floor, just move its display down a floor. Does anyone know to accomplish this? Thanks for any help.

In case anyone else comes across this thread, Micheal was extremely helpful in assisting me with my question and providing me with insight as to how macros work in Chief. I'd highly recommend him for consultation. Thanks again, Micheal!

Hey guys, I have what I hope is a simple question with a simple answer. I have a bunch of Framing Posts on my plan for a pier construction home, all with different heights. I currently have each posts label set with the Object Specific Label Macro "%length%" which displays the length of the post in inches. I would like to change the format of the length shown with the macro from inches to feet-inches. Is this a simple macro adjustment or am I going to need to dive into macros and pay one of you guys to show me how to do this?

Bump. Is this true, even in x10?

In my experience with renovations, once you get to the permit stage, a contractor has usually been selected, and the client is expecting some serious work to start in their home. At this point I'll personally go over to their house and punch a few holes in the walls or cut a small hole in the floor where I know it can be easily patched as part of the renovation and take note of the framing within. Then I'll revise the plans accordingly in order to get past the specific existing framing specs that the city or county requires. You shouldn't be afraid to get your hands dirty with a hammer or cordless skill saw when designing a remodel on 100 year old homes. I usually bring a cordless vacuum with me to clean up afterwards as well. Every client I've dealt with has been fine with me doing this so long as I clean up after myself and the contractor is always happy to oblige because he/she wants to know the same information just as bad in order to plan the building process properly. My advice would be to forget the new fancy and expensive gadgets and simplify this process by doing it the old fashion way

This has bugged me for years, so glad this option is available. Thanks so much for sharing!

Richard, Thank you for posting those related topics. Group selecting all the text boxes and clicking "OK" was a fast way to insure they were all corrected.

Wow! I just had a set of plans come back from the city because all my text was cut off. The liability and time/money being wasted because of this issue is unacceptable for a program of this caliber.

I believe this might be the same issue as THIS person's post however all my text boxes have the auto height and width selected already.

For a while now when I open a plan that I haven't worked in for a while, I'll notice almost all my RichText boxes have the last few words cut off. If I open the text and then close it then it suddenly appears correct again. Why is this happening? Example below., the first image is the correct way and the second is how all my text is appearing. This is happen across all my plans and all my text notes. This is causing extreme problems for me while print my plans because all my notes are missing words now.

Doesn't make a difference. When you run a program on your computer it primarily moves into your RAM and will operate there until it is closed. You can see this by opening the task manger in windows, while Chief is also running, there you will see the amount of RAM Chief is using. This amount or percentage will increase if you open a bunch of Plan views, 3D views, and layout views which could eventually start taking up your RAM capacity. Solid state drives are extremely efficient and fast so that small amount of activity Chief is writing to the solid state, which is mostly the auto save feature or when you manually save a plan or layout, shouldn't make the program run any slower. My advice would be to increase the amount of RAM in your computer to make Chief run more smoothly.

I too have this issue in X10. It usually happens when I remove the display of a bunch of layers, then suddenly my mouse will pickup all kinds of hidden layers... My quick solution is switch to a different "Plan View", then when prompted "would like to save the current Plan View", select "Save", then just switch back to the "Plan View" you were working on previously. Something about this quick change in views resets the displayed layers and everything works as it should until you go changing a bunch of layers again. I probably do this a few times through out the day but it is pretty fast. I also imagine that this might work with annotation sets for those not using plan views...try switching to a different annotation set and then back again to reset your layers. I hope they fix this issue soon.

Dermot, Thank you for that! That is exactly the information I was looking for. Cheers! I hope that this topic helps others in the feature.

First off I absolutely love Plan Views! They are a game changer when it comes to organizing plans and using reference layer sets however I'm starting to discover that I have a ton of Plan Views pilling up. When it comes to multi level plans, I'm starting to feel like I might be using this feature improperly. For intense my plan views are looking like the following attachment. Because Plan Views are locked to specific floors, I'm finding I have to create a plan view for each type of plan (i.e framing, plumbing, electrical, hvac, etc), and then the same for each floor (i.e framing level1, framing level2, plumbing level1 plumbing level2, electrical level1, electrical level2, hvac level1, etc) because I wont be able to send them all to layout without them all defaulting to one level. I'd hate to think about how many Plan Views I would end up having for say a 4 story structure not to mention the tedious time waste it is to go through and make all these extra Plan Views. I would love to hear how you guys are setting up your Plan Views for multi level buildings and how you send each level's various plan to layout, hopefully in a way that is not as cluttered as my method.

Joe, this seems like the answer indeed. If I want to accomplish what I'm asking for then I need to go in and manually change the elevations of each level after they are created which is just fine but tedious. The macro idea would definitely be a good work around for elevation views. Thanks for your help Joe!

And "Level 1" will always be the absolute elevation of 0, correct? No way to make "Level 3" the absolute 0 elevation?

Jay, The reason is for like a commercial building or large residential on say a mountain or hill side where the grade of the driveway would go into the 1st floor but then you might have 2 or even 3 basement levels below that and then maybe a 2nd story floor above the main level 1st floor. All I want to do is make the 1st floor elevation at 0 and then say add 2 floors below that at negative elevations. Chief dose not seem to allow multiple "foundations" or "basement" levels below the "1st Floor". I could be off my rocker but this seems to make sense to me

Joe, Understood about work from the top down but Chief wants you to work from the bottom up. I guess I'm asking how do you insert a floor below the "1st Floor" without the current 1st floor being turned into the "2nd Floor"?

So recently I started modeling the attached house and have gotten myself confused about absolute elevations and want to know the best practice for arranging floors. I will refer to the below image in relation to floor levels. I started drawing the main level floor first which put the absolute elevation "0" on the main level subfloor and at the time is was actually the 1st floor. Then I "Insert Floor" below which effectively turned my main level into the 2nd floor and also changed the absolute elevation of the main level from 0 to +120". Now I understand what chief is doing, they are making whatever floor is labeled "1st Floor" the 0 point on elevations however I would have liked it if there was a method to leaving the "Main Level" or 2nd floor at the absolute elevation of 0. My question is, could I start modeling this house on the main level then add a basement and then add a foundation while keeping the absolute elevation on the main level floor 0? I guess i'm trying to add two foundation floors in theory so that the absolute floor elevations look as follows... Attic = 120" Main Level = 0" Lower Level = -120" Foundation = -240" instead of looking like this.... Attic = 240" Main Level = 120" Lower Level = 0" Foundation = -120 I hope this makes sense.

Cheers Eric, that was pretty simple.