wkshank

Well good grief. Yes. I had no idea. I don't use hotkeys at all because... well because I'm an idiot, apparently. I know most on here wouldn't draw without them. Must learn about hotkeys.... Thank you so much.

Normally if I draw a rectangle, when I click on one side of it, the dimension across to the other side will appear. Sometimes it just doesn't show up, which is highly inconvenient. I have saved, shut down, started my computer up again, and it is still doing this (or NOT doing it, which is the problem). It doesn't matter what file I open... in other projects the program is giving me the same problem. Is there a setting where this feature is turned on and off? (why would anyone ever want to turn this off??) Haaallllpp. (Edit: ALSO - not showing distances for anything, really -- click on a wall and it does not show distance to nearby parallel wall.) Wendy Shank - Chief x14

THANK YOU! knew it had to be simple.

Most basic of questions, I'm sure, but I just want a circle, not a circle with a cross mark in it (center cross). How to turn this off? (This only happens in layout screens, not plan screens, BTW.)

Both of you have my thanks... now I know oob, the 3 shortcut, AND that boxes look JUST like rectangle polylines, and cannot be broken. Sheesh. Grateful -

Saved, closed, and re-opened the plan and it still is not there.

Yep - it's there (works fine) if I start a new plan. rgardner I'm trying to decipher your hint. ?

Normally, if I create a simple rectangle and then right click it, the menu that appears will include a zigzag symbol that allows me to add a break in the polyline. Or if I simply select the rectangle, a menu appears at the bottom also offering that symbol. The symbol has disappeared, in both lists. I searched for that tool in the menu and don't see it. Help? It appears and works fine if I click on a roof edge (add break option appears).

oh for pete's sake... YES apparently I did flick that icon. Had no idea you could toggle that off... thank you so much!

Yes! sorry -that wasn't very clear.

This has happened before and I think resolved when I shut down computer and re-started... but now even that does not work. I did not change any default settings or toolbars, but suddenly when I click on the side of a rectangle, it no longer shows me the dimension across the opposite side. Similarly, when I click on a wall, it no longer shows distance from nearby walls. SO ANNOYING!! Anybody else have this happen, and how do I fix it?

thank you so much everyone for weighing in. I am the sole station for CA, so networking/sharing is not needed. Sounds like my current plan of manually backing up periodically is reasonable, but I will show your comments to my tech support and see if he thinks the new system would work well with a cloud-based system, given what you're saying about how the auto-save and backing up actually works.

I am using my computer's memory as I work, rather than use dropbox or OneDrive, etc. My understanding is that using a cloud as your auto-save as you work can slow down the program. Help me geeks... is this true? I am having a new computer (details in signature) built for me with lots of RAM/power... when I load Chief on this new machine, how do you recommend setting up the program files, auto-backup files, etc? (I do manually backup my client CAD files to dropbox pretty often.. though not the program autosave files. I haven't lost anything so far.) Thanks for your advice!

perfect. thanks so much. i was looking all over TOOLbars...

nope - and god help me i don't even know how to get that back