Michael_Gia

That is also how I use Saved Plan Views. It’s to give me the ability to have two different views of a plan open at the same time without having to mess with changing Layer sets or Anno sets continuously. Then some SVP’s go to layout and some don’t.

On your floor plan click on the foundation to see what layer it is on. Go to your 3D and display the active layer set and turn on your foundation’s layer.

I remeber Softplan had a repeat edit tool. I really missed that at first when switching to Chief. It’s a different workflow in Chief. The sélect similar items in X11 is a great alternative to that tool in many situations. The object painter tool comes close but it doesn’t quite work all the time, for me at least.

I'm probably not explaining myself clearly. I do have a separate dimension default for each anno set. A foundation dimension default whose layer is "dimensions, foundation" and another dimension default, "dimensions, parent" whose layer is "parent" layer. When I change the dimension default in one anno set it changes in the other as well. Anyway, I had to make a new dimension default from scratch and give it another name and create a new layer from scratch as well. It works now. I sent the plan in to support and they're looking at it. Spent some time on the phone but they need more time. My layer sets and defaults have become a spaghetti mess of a list. I should start from scratch building off the X11 residential imperial template. But, who's got time for that?

Unfortunately, I get that problem even though I have a specific anno set. I think that it might be a bug that relates to any anno set that is created by copying an existing anno set. (just guessing) Also might be related to the fact that I use the SAM method and these layers have gone through some changes over time from plan to plan. I don't seem to get the problem when I create a "new" anno set, that is, I don't use the "make a copy" of an existing anno set.

I'm in X11 although this was always kind of a problem. Example: You create a foundation anno set from your main 1/8" or 1/4" anno set ( let's call it the "parent" anno set) You create new layers in the foundation anno set for dimensions, text and cad. (for obvious reasons) Now, at random times your dimensions or text from the foundation anno set will switch to the back to the layer of the parent set. So, you go back into your foundation anno set defaults and switch them back to their proper set, and then that also switches the text, cad and dimensions to the foundation layer even in the parent set! Anyone else ever notice this catastrophic and criminal ghost like activity from Chief?

Here ya go... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1554/applying-backdrops.html

You don't usually add the landscape items from the front elevation view (although you can in theory) You normally add your landscape items from the plan view and then take an elevation view. (make sure the layers containing your landscape items are turned on in the layer set of your elevation view) You could then split your screen so you can move the landscape items in plan view and see the effect in elevation simultaneously. (tile vertically in window menu). So it sounds like you first need to watch a video on how to setup a terrain and do some landscaping.... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6051/chic-cottage-building-project-part-18-terrain-landscaping.html

I think OP's issue is the same that most of us have initially with this software. We get caught up in the human lingo of "outside" and "balcony" and "wall" or insert any other English language representation of any physical part of a house. We forget that this is all an illusion that Chief uses to make us think the software is smarter or just as human as we are. We lose sight that for Chief, these are all just lines or vectors in space as calculated by a mathematical formula. For Chief there is no such thing as a wall or floor, roof or door,... they're just lines. I remember this hitting me hard when I first saw a video by Scott Hall, where he used a cabinet to draw a column or some other non-cabinet object. I watched in horror as he did this, (probably my ADD acting up, lol) I was certain that using a cabinet in this way would somehow mess up the plan in some other way since Chief would get confused with this non-intuitive approach...Chief doesn't care. ha ha

If you create your front patio like you would create any “room” in Chief, that is, with invisible walls in your case, then just open the “room” dialogue box, and set the ceiling height you want. Build roof, tada!

Actually on my MacBook, if I back-clip I loose all of my exterior dimensions. It’s really weird. I think it’s a video card issue. Although the video card is Nvidia which isn’t suppose to be a problem. The fact that is from 2013, it might be outdated. So far the easiest solutions are to either drag the elevation camera into the house and then go back in elevation view and “hide the label in this view” option for the offending doors or windows, or just make windows “opaque”. There are worse things in life.

Yes.

Edited my response as I didn't understand your solution to the problem. The delete surface tool eventually allows you to get through the building until you can click on the offending door or window and change the label display option as you mentioned, but it's not easy. Unfortunately you can't simply move through the house with the mouse like you can in a full 3d model view. It would be nice if you could in this situation. Opaque glass is really the only viable option.

The problem is these interior door labels are showing up on exterior elevation views.

Using "opaque windows" as temporary solution for now.

Thanks for the recommendation. I was just on the phone with tech at Chief. They also asked me to try the edge smoothing preference. It didn't work. I'll send the file into support and see what they can do. This wasn't happening in X10, so I guess X11 is the culprit. My aging MacBook might also not be helping. (I'm not a RayTrace kind of guy so I don't really have the urgent need to upgrade. Might have to though)

Hi there, I can’t remeber or find the fix to this issue. See photo showing an interior door’s dimension showing up on an exterior elevation view. I can always put my exterior doors on a different layer and then turn off the doors layer label, but I thought I’ve seen another fix for this in the past?

That looks better than my best Raytrace! Are you saying there are absolutely no lights or sun in that shot? Only material emissive properties turned up?

You mean, "create cad detail from view" in place? Like the "copy in place" command? that would solve a lot. good suggestion, if I understood you correctly, that is.

Howdie, When working on an elevation or cross-section there are a few challenges and frustrations when trying to snap to items, faces, edges, surfaces etc... I know a lot of people use the technique or work-around of creating a cad detail from view and then pasting back lines, points etc to locate items but that's not very efficient. It seems like trying to dimension the top of a window is like looking for Waldo when you can't seem to drag your dimension line to the right spot. I often open the window dbx copy the absolute elevation of the window and then draw a line and paste the height in the line dbx. I guess I could also us Story Pole for this sort of thing... Why does Chief have such a hard time locating items in elevation view? Why can't I snap to a p-solid in every view of that p-solid? Does everybody have the same frustrations as I do? Has this issue been brought up with Chief by anybody, formally, or even in a phone call to tech at Chief? (the dimension default does absolutely nothing to help, so don't refer me to the locate objects of the dimension default dbx)

Layers and Annot sets is head and shoulders above what Archicad and Revit has to offer in this area of functionality. We are fortunate for that. Just wanted to point that out. Revit has “categories” and are not global. No layers. No creating new layers or even assigning a drawing element to a new layer. Archicad has layers like in Chief but you can not have an anno set that will place a drawing item or annotation like a line or text on a specific layer in advance. You have to select the tool and then change it’s default layer and then begin to draw....every time! For every item.

Can someone expalin why you would ever need this? I mean it’s not like whatever you draw on the elevation or cross section will ever end up being visible anywhere else in your plan or layout. Right? That is, all annotations of any kind on the given cross section or elevation only “live” there. Am I missing something?

“I'm embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what annotation sets are, let alone what the correct one is to use. It's not something I use. I'll take a look at some training videos about them” Well, if your only designing models and doing interior decor etc then I think you can live without them. However, if you create construction documents then they are necessary.

You should make it a habit to always open the Layout Box dialogue box to ensure that the right annotation set is being used. It mysteriously switches sometimes to “using active defaults”. This is because you may have inadvertently messed around with layers or annotations while in the plan view. Which is why we should have an “apply” or “update” button in the layer set so you can temporarily switch layers on and off without affecting your layer set permanently. Here re is a video from Chief... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5222/plan-view-panel-in-layout.html

Any quad-core 15” MacBook Pro with 16gigs of ram and an SSD hard drive will fly through Chief Architect. Of course for the same money you can get a windows gaming laptop which will have more powerful specs. The actual difference in speed will be negligible except when it pertains to the time it takes to generate “raytraces”. Raytrace time is dependant on CPU number of cores and CPU speed. This is where windows machines blow Apple out of the water, dollar for dollar.