Doug_N

ok that symbol is for building the terrain. It means that a build is pending. you have automatic terrain build turned off. There is no terrain definition in the plan that you posted, so I am guessing that the terrain had not been created at the time that you saved the plan. First define the terrain perimeter, and then click on Terrain/Terrain Specifications Turn on

I have allowed for editing in home designer in this version if that helps. Attic Walls.zip

Which symbols? Please upload the plan file.

Robert, I agree with you 100% and was not attacking your solution. I am sorry if it seemed that way. Perhaps I should be more careful in what I am saying when I point out a weakness in the modelling capability of CA. I understand what you were saying and the problem that you were addressing. I guess what I am saying is that for every good deed there is a complimentary punishment.

Maybe not, but I certainly see your point and what you are trying to achieve. Have you posted this in the suggestions section? The stair tool has seen some great enhancements this revision, and how to treat the top of the stair connection, riser offset etc would be great enhancements.

OK so here is the problem that I can see using the 1" invisible wall. It disconnects the railing so a transition is lost. Maybe someone can see a way around this? The railing above on the left has an invisible wall, the one on the right does not. Here is a better view from the other side.

You are right. I just used that as an example of the railing problem. Maybe with the wall it will work. I hope to try it out when I get a chance. Trying to finish a project right now.

Maybe I did miss the point. Does that solve the railing problem? I will have to try that out.

That is exactly what I was expecting actually. That was my comment about moving the stairs away from the landing to allow for materials on the final riser. It solves a problem but creates others. It is not a viable solution. Just saying.

If you manually move the stairs back, sometimes the railing regenerates across the stairs, AND the handrail will not connect (continuous handrail required by code).

Your problems with the attic walls were related to the roof plans. Most of the planes were cutting into the walls preventing them from generating attic walls. Attic Walls.zip

Chief Architect has a neat cad tool to create a building footprint as a cad detail. You can copy the footprint detail and display the area of the footprint in the polyline label. Open the dbx for the object and on the label tab insert the macro area.

I have the same problem, so I have to click on my desktop, the cursor comes back and is usable in CA until I do something that makes it disappear. Usually, this happens when I update layout views.

Thanks

How to create an upload file without the problem of closing the file first. https://1drv.ms/v/s!Am8Ktm_KVQE5golbHGG1VB1Uw8Bxzg

The best way to create a file that can be uploaded directly is to use the backup utility built into Chief Architect. Test File for Upload.zip

Well here it is, the links to usefull resources for Ruby in Chief Architect

I agree.

Wow, thank you Joe and Ben. Ben your solution is very elegant,

Here is a little macro I made for displaying area in meters instead of sq ft. a=area*0.092903 a.round(2) As a habit, I use the three letters own or ref to tell if the macro is to be used in an item label or attached as a referenced macro. If I put this into a macro such as "object_area_own_metric" in an imperial drawing, and insert the macro into an enclosed polyline it returns 112.52 SQ FT. Why is it attaching the units to the output? If I use a referenced macro "object_area_ref_metric" and connect a text box to it the output is 112.52 with no units. Obviously I want sq m not sq ft after the output, Any idea how to stop the units from displaying if I use an owner macro in a polyline label?

Sometimes it helps to use a macro that says what floor level you are looking at in the view. It will look something like this And then placing the text box in a room will look like this (except for the red rectangle that I added for clarity. Then when you send the floor plan to the layout, you can instantly see what floor is being displayed.

That looks like a pretty slick macro. How do you use it? Is it a custom field in the room schedule?

Thanks Rob

I have a pdf of a skylight installation details, and it prints as expected. However, when I imbed the pdf in a CA file, the printout is so faded that you can't read it. The plans examiner has refused to accept an attached sheet, and is calling for the detail to be on a drawing set title block page. I have tried importing the pdf to the layout directly and putting it on pg A5, and importing it to the plan file then sending it to the layout page. The printed result is the same in both cases. I also tried the Chief Architect save as PDF and Nuance PDF print driver, they both have the same result. Printing directly to paper is even worse, so the problem is not with the PDF files, it is with CA and printing in general For any of you that are interested, I have included all the files for the project as it involves both the layout file and the plan files. The image on the left is what you see in CA and the one on the right is the resulting printout. Printing the source PDF file exhibits no fadeout at all. PDF_Printing_Problems.zip