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

My recollection is that until very recently when I clicked on an item, a word would pop up in the (bottom) toolbar to at least tell me what type of object I've clicked on (such as "slab" or CAD object or cabinet, etc.).  I don't see that any more and wonder what I did to lose that handy feature!  HELP?

Thanks Stephen -- I had thought of trying a build framing route, but as I've never had to do that before to get a normal floor to show, I didn't pursue (thinking I could find a box checked or unchecked that should fix the whole thing).  Just weird.

You know, I just deleted all my roofs and started over with roof-build, and that worked.  Why this happened will keep me up tonight, but unless you're curious to solve a mystery, ne'ermind...  I recovered but still no answers as to why.  Just like life.

I am just baffled -- never had this happen before.  I am modeling an existing house, to prepare a remodel plan.  I have my floor defaults set where I measured them to be, and the roof approximately where I believe it sits.  I cannot get the 1st floor ceiling to show in 3-D or section: it just shows the space as if there is no floor for the 2nd floor.

attaching plan and throwing myself on someone's mercy after 2 hours of experimenting with defaults, roof heights, everything.  HELPPPP!!

(x7, and know that the stairs are only graphic -- figured mathematically before I build them.)

Bogar stair challenge change bedroom.plan

THANKS for that!  that did work.  Fortunately this plan doesn't have a second floor... if it did would that have messed up the floor level above?  (I first tried deleting that particle board layer AND adding that amount of thickness to the fir to make 9-1/4 become 10" for that single element.... interestingly that did not get rid of the board sticking out.  When I set the fir back to its original 9-1/4 (still without the particle layer) then the problem disappeared.  Go figure...

Greg HOW???  when I open it it's there.  Are you pulling my leg?

WAIT no i think i see it on your screenshot.  It's just foreshortened in that view so harder to see.

I don't have any framing listed as "used" in the layers.  Loved that idea, though!

Just posted the plan file.

I'm sure this will be easy for someone... what the heck?  I do have the lower gable roof paralleled and snapped to the upper gable's wall surface. 

(Offending lumber visible just above black shutter in the middle)

x6

Hogston porch gable 0902160813.plan

Well Lew and I must be similar thinkers (should I be concerned?)  because last night I actually did try a screen capture of the pdf, turned that into a jpg file, and imported.  Printed that test page today, and YES it is pretty fuzzy.  Definitely cut down on the file size, though!

Yes - the McAfee, and whatever else is causing them to request I update Adobe nearly EVERY DAY??  Maybe that nonsense stops when you shell out the money to buy the premium version, which it sounds like i may need to do.

Thanks all for your help ... it sounds like I'm not doing anything unusual or wrong when importing .pdf pages, which ends up creating these huge file sizes.  Just wondered if there was a C.A. option box I need to check or uncheck when importing or printing to .pdf that would reduce the file size.  Guess not!