Michael_Gia

If by geometric shape you mean polyline then you can insert a note in your polylines and create a note schedule for those polylines.

So, is this the accepted method to accomplish this now? Or, what Joe said above, “X11 Railing Wall Follows Stairs”? Which, by the way, I have no clue what he means... Great video!

If you select the room and make a room polyline as mentioned before you can insert the %perimeter% in the label tab of the polyline dialogue box.

You can export your plan as AutoCAD format or even PDF. You can also export a Chief 3D model as Collada and it will open up in Archicad no problem.

Thanks everyone. I’m on a MacBook so some of the solutions don’t apply. I did try turning off all non-visible layers but it only helps marginally.

My aging laptop might be showing its age but vector view has become incredibly sluggish to the point that I now only use standard view. Is there anyway to improve the speed of vector views? (Besides the obvious of upgrading laptops). I’ve had this issue since X10. If I remeber correctly, traditionally standard view was the slower of the two. Might be dreaming on that one.

Your stainless steel and those seat cushions are just amazing. My 24hr raytraces don’t even come close to your PBR’s! I even watched all of RenéRabbits’s PBR session that Scott hosted the other day....

Thanks to both of you. I get it now.

I can’t seem to use the new “perimeter” value for a standard polyline. It only seems to work for the room polyline.

If I have a text box with a macro, then I can change the text style just fine for that text box, but how do I refer to my room polyline so I can display info about the room polyline? I can create a room polyline and use its object specific values but how can I get a random text box containing a macro to refer to those polyline object specific values? I know I can use a text box in a room to pick up room specific values but not the polyline values. Or is there a way?

thanks, will do!… I thought I was going crazy for a minute

Are polyline labels locked to only one independent default text style? Example: If I create a "room polyline" and open it's "object layer properties" I get the two lines highlighted, one for the "polylines, labels" and the other is the specific layer that I have set up to change color, line style etc... I want to change the text style of the polyliine label but if I do this it will change the text style of ALL polyline labels used in the plan. How can I change the polyline text style only for that item?

I had asked for the “perimeter value” in room to be available in Ruby and it’s now in the latest update to X11. I asked for it a week before the update....yes I realize it probably wasn’t because of my suggestion but I chose to believe it was, ha ha ha.

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.