adventhomes

Thanks everyone who responded ... that was exactly what I needed and worked like a gem ;-)

Is there a way to create a cabinet door style which is essentially a shaker with a mid rail and the top panel is glass whereas the bottom panel is solid (in this case paint grade)? Basically the top 1/3 panels in the doors shown should be glass. The only options I can see are either for both to be glass or both to be paint grade.

This is a weird one ... after I select one upper cabinet in X10 in an elevation view, make any changes and close that cabinet specification window again, the only way I can then select another upper cabinet is to zoom in or out first then click on the next cabinet. If I try to select an upper cabinet again without zooming/in or out first it doesn't work (ie. I am unable to select the upper cabinet no matter how many times I try to click on it). Even stranger, I can select appliances in the same elevation view ... it's just upper cabinets. I can also select base cabinets OK. This seems to be a very specific issue. Anyone else seen this? I can only assume it is a bug as I can't imagine there being a good reason ;-)

See my response to my own question from 12hrs ago ... it's a setting in the Preferences which seems to have changed in terms of what the default does compared to what the default used to do. Also Joe Carrick already answered this above confirming my findings (thanks Joe).

OK figured it out ... one of the Preferences seems to behave differently compared to how I have had it set for the past umpteen years. Changed to Resize and works how I wanted it to. Not sure what the purpose of the new default setting is but working as I want it to so happy again ;-)

Ok so it used to be really really simple ... if I wanted to resize a view (such as a plan view) after sending it to the layout I could just grab a corner of the view on the layout page and drag out to make it bigger. All of a sudden all this does now is literally pull the corner and make a weird shaped box but doesn't resize the view. I know I can right click and resize that way via the Transform/Replicate option, but it's more guess work to fill the page and much more time consuming. What am I missing that something previously so simple is now not?? I am hoping there is a setting somewhere to override whatever this new "feature" is. Thanks.

Just down the road from you here in Squamish ... face the same issue pretty much every deck we design & it's a real pain in the butt. What I have resorted to is a CAD drawn insert in the drawings that shows how the railing should really be fascia mounted & to basically ignore how they look in the automatically generated elevation & 3D views. Perhaps Chief will eventually "fix" this but I have my doubts as it seems to come up a lot from the user community. There is a railing post offset setting now that I think is new'ish, but it moves the posts without moving the railing so pretty much pointless as a means to resolve this particular issue. I'm not a fan personally of manually modifying the framing any more than I have to because this then makes subsequent design changes (ie. client now wants deck bigger or smaller) a bit of a pain. It's a bit of a judgement call for each specific case whether I do that or just add notes/CAD details instead.

Does anyone else know if this is a bug or intended feature or a way to prevent with settings? When I have an existing floor plan with wall elevations & then go to insert a new floor below the existing one, the elevations drop down to the new floor ... definitely not what I want / need. Anyone know how to keep them on the floor they were created on? I am on X9, Mac version. Also should be noted that if I attempt to add a floor above, then "Exchange with floor below" it fails to copy the elevation views to the floor below.

Thanks folks ... time to delete that app then. Well at least I gave it a try, if only briefly.

File in question ...

Anyone experienced this same issue ... Created plan of an existing kitchen layout in Room Planner, exported it to the Cloud, then imported it from the Could in to Chief Architect (X8 on an iMac). The wall layout is there including the doorway but all the cabinets & appliances are gone. They were there in the thumbnail image when I went to do the import & they exist in Room Planner but CA does not appear to like cabinets & appliances. Ideas? Think I will be sticking with sketching as-built & concepts on my iPad using sketching app (then have to create it from scratch in CA X8) versus Room Planner & import as it seems to be too much of a pain to work efficiently given the significant limitations.

Thanks ... the psolids appear OK in the wall elevation view (we started using those for the bunk hand-rails). Our fix has been to abandon the wall elevation view and use the cross section/elevation view instead and then just zoom in to the one room we are interested in. I guess it will work ok, but interesting that no matter what you do it ignores the active layer settings in the wall elevation view for the ceiling joists. Mental note for future reference I guess. Thanks again.

Here is the plan file as well as a 3D view showing the framework of the bunks (ceiling joists used) and the wall elevation view with same elements turned on but for some odd reason still not visible. CA issue file 1.plan

Is it possible to post a reply here with an attachment (ie. the plan file) or can I only post an attachment when creating the original thread? Haven't been able to figure this out. FYI I am on version X8.

We are using ceiling joists to create the framework for some custom bunk beds and these are visible in every type of view (plan, 3D floor camera, perspective framing overview, cross section elevation) except for the wall elevation view which is odd as even flipping the display checkbox for "Framing, Ceiling Joists" to on in the active layer display options for the wall elevation view does not work ... whereas it works in all other types of view as one would expect. Is this some obscure feature of wall elevation views or perhaps a bug that you can't see framing details in a wall elevation view?

Well I figured out a way to generate fascia mounted posts in 3D (as well as elevation & plan views) ... using polyline solids for the part that extends below the deck level. And I created a new railing wall type with an "opening - no material" exterior layer which was 7" wide. I'm not quite sure why 3 1/2" wide didn't work given my posts are 3 1/2" square & they were previously right on the deck edge ... but I am happy I just have something that works, even if it did take quite a while to get this far. At least the next one will go much faster. Thanks for the tips !! The other tricky part I had is due to the railing having panels with a top cap running across the top of everything. I used another polyline solid for the top cap as CA wanted to make everything the same colour/material of course if I tried one T shaped top rail. Also when it came to the stairs, no matter what I tried the railing that I created on the flat & tried sliding in to position did not want to follow the stair so I opted for another polyline solid slid in to place as the bottom rail & then I'll include a CAD detail showing the air gap between it and the closed stringer. That's close enough for now. [tried including an image here but did't work & not sure quite where I went wrong]

Thanks ... I'll check out both above tips later. First time in 4 years I've called support and they were as much use as a chocolate kettle ;-)

I just called support to try to find out how to extend a deck railing post (newel) base so that it can be fascia mounted without having to basically spend hours piecing a railing design together post by post, etc. I was told that as CA are based in Idaho then it us based on meeting their code and not the Canadian code that we must follow in BC. I was also told that nobody has ever requested this functionality of support so it has never been a priority. I guess I'll have a bunch of notes on our construction drawings and permit application stressing that the real details of the post detail are actually like this & then show a CAD image of what one post should really look like. Also can't figure out how to have a bottom rail on a stair railing as well as a newel post midway down the star rather than a 12' run with no newel post ... and I know that's not just something we do in Canada ;-) FYI I am on X7 ... the latest and not so greatest.

Thanks ... will take a look.

First computer I used was a Sinclair Spectrum with 64K and a cassette drive when I was about 15 back in Scotland ... I created a program in Basic for my mother to use to generate her grocery shopping list. Now that was a long time ago! My father used to work for a local construction company and he ran their Olivetti which used punch cards ... and it needed a room of it's own so it would not over-heat. But I detract ;-) I use ConstructionSuite for project management/scheduling, estimating, proposals, change orders, etc. It integrates with the Desktop version of QuickBooks I use for generating PO's, Invoices, etc. Since posting this thread I've come across an app called CutList Plus ... looking in to this a wee bit to see if it might do the trick. Last thing I want is to have to create the designs again in another application. It seems to essentially be a macro that takes the parts dimensions for gables, etc and turns them in to a cut list for the sheet goods and dimensional lumber. There was a time when I could perhaps have written a macro myself (I once wrote a complex MRP system using Lotus 123 for an electronics manufacturer) but those times are long gone. As I've aged my artistic side has blossomed but my inner tech geek has suffered a bit ;-) Any ways plan to try this CutList app thingy as apparently you can import details in to it ... so will see if it will accept materials list from CA.

Given the volumes we may just go with the spreadsheet idea ... I figured that may be the answer but always worth asking. Thanks for the feedback.

We do mainly kitchen and bathroom renovations and we have recently added a custom cabinet shop ... so I am trying to figure out what the most efficient way would be for me to get from a kitchen design in CA X7 (with the various cabinets of course) to a cut list for the various sheet goods ... any ideas? The materials list or components list will just say I need a cabinet, for example, 30"x24"x36" and seems to be assuming I will buy that as an end-product fully assembled cabinet ... it doesn't tell me of course what individual pieces I need to cut to build this (ie. gable sizes, base, back, etc) and so I cannot easily tell how many sheets of ply, etc are needed. I realize if I had a list of actual component parts then there is software available that can turn that list in to a cut list to maximize the use of each sheet, but it is the in-between step I can't figure out a solution for without abandoning CA altogether and doing everything in a cabinet building solution ... which then would't cover all the other aspects of the construction which is why it would be preferable to keep as much in CA as possible & reduce duplication. I hope the question makes sense ;-) Basically how can I get a list of actual component parts of a cabinet shell or drawer box so I can work out the sheet goods to buy and create a cut list for the shop? Does anyone know of another application perhaps that would be compatible with CA that I could export the materials list from CA in to if I can't actually achieve this in CA?