MoeGia

I put my terrain on level 1. Due to poor soils we often have to build the septic system at or above grade. We build up the front grade for the septic system. The back and one (or both) ends of the house are at grade forcing the garage on the basement level. There's often a mud room and windows/doors for future finish in the basement. The terrain on level 1 works great with those conditions. If the garage is at grade (level 2), having the terrain on level 1 isn't ideal, but it's so easy to work around that I leave it on level 1. As Scott noted, floor overviews are another reason to keep the terrain on level 1. The other big plus for me is the terrain heights are mostly positive. It's just more logical for me. I work this way even if I don't have any need to show the basement plan.

I create my basement/garage-under level as level 1. Main floor is on level 2. It gives a lot of flexibility without a lot of hoops to jump through. We do lots of walk-out basements here so my template is set up this way.

I would put the correct order designation in the label box. 1A-1B-1C would be the new label, not Chief's auto generated label.

Thanks Scott and Rene. Great workshop. I appreciate the effort and look forward to rewatching.

Temporarily move your camera into the building so you can select the offending door. Change to hide in this view. Move your camera back to its original position when done.

I often create a new layout for the working drawing phase by copying the layout and deleting the live views. I always use 'update on demand' but find some files are much too slow with the views in the layout. I use a PDF editor to compile the two PDFs in the end. I can't figure out what causes some layout files to be so slow, but removing the 3D views seems to help.

I have been struggling with the same thing trying to clean up a template plan. It would be great to have a way to locate where layers (and anno sets) are being used. Perhaps an interface similar to the find from schedule tool would work. That's saved me lots of time. Or similar to the find and replace text tool? LOVE that tool! As Glenn said, it's a huge task to find buried defaults and layers. Maybe impossible! I've been added a Z before no longer used anno sets or layers to sort them to the bottom and move them out of my way. It's not worth the effort to find them. A merge layer function would be great too. I use a lot of legacy plans and cleaning up old layers can be a bear.

There are a few ways but the easiest (and best practice) way is by modifying the floor defaults. There's an icon or you can access Floor Defaults through the main Defaults dropdown. Sorry, I don't have Chief on this device or I'd include a screen shot. Modify the floor system here too. After you modify the floor defaults, go back to your plan and be sure each room is set to 'Use Defaults'. Select One room, tick the boxes, then use select same to view/apply to all the other rooms.

Those labels may be from the windows and doors on the other side of the building. If they are designated as 'show label in this view', not automatic, they will show. The easiest way to see if this is the case is to move your camera into the building so you can see the windows and doors. Open the unit's label tab and change the display to 'automatic'. Move your camera back to the original location and your labels should be gone.

Create a 3/32 size (layout) text style for these notes. I save mine in a plan file so they are editable without blocking and unblocking.

I usually raise the patio door in these situations (create a curb). If you use decking and sleepers over the membrane you will have to push the door up. This gives a little more room for flashing around the door, but it is still a weak spot. Maintenance will be crucial.

This happened to me yesterday after I imported anno sets into a legacy plan. I had to shut down Chief and reopen to stop the behavior. I find myself having to close out of X10 to correct bad behavior more than in past versions.

Try printing to PDF first, then print the PDF on the Canon. Somewhere along the upgrade line I lost the ability to print directly from Chief to my plotter.

I have a custom materials folder in my user library. Every core, bonus and manuf catalog has shortcuts in the correct category (when I download a new catalog, I copy/paste shortcut everything into its correct category). I then can browse to tile and proceed as you do. It's not a lot better but at least all options are in one location to start. The other option is to search for a specific color. Still time consuming. I do have a My Materials folder for everything I use regularly.

Any plans created prior to V10 can't be opened in X9 and up. If you ever need to open a plan with a .pl* extension you will need V10 through X8 in order to bring the plan forward into X9+. I would keep that old computer and V10 in case you want to access an old file.

Version 3 and trained by Steve Blake.

You could try Chief's export to REScheck tool (File, Export to REScheck). I haven't used it in a while and I'm not sure you can include/exclude gables but it's worth a look. The Material List could also be used for areas.

Try using terrain regions on each side of the retaining walls. Regions are a little easier to work with than terrain lines. The regions should touch the walls, or be slightly within the walls.

Plus 1 to bring legacy shadows back, or give us a better option than X9 provides. The current setup is unacceptable.

Thanks Michael. Yes, I meant to come back and suggest moving the camera too but never made it here, so thank you for noting that. Moving the camera is definitely an easier solution if a number of labels are involved. My problem with this began during Beta when casement window labels were broken and didn't show with 'automatic' checked. I made my windows 'show in this view' to get around it. Oy, what a mess. Occasionally, I still find one of those old remnants.

This has happened to me.What has worked for me is to use the delete surfaces tool until you expose the offending door. Carefully open the door, go to the label tab and uncheck show in this view and check automatic. Repeat with the others. I believe the reason this happens on legacy plans is because when CA introduced door and window labels in elevation, I mistakenly checked 'show in this view' trying to correct some initial erratic behavior.

Yes, this happened to me yesterday copying from one plan to another. It hasn't happened since X9 beta. I'm running the latest update.

A vanity doesn't have to be a full 21" deep. If you have room on the long wall for a shelf, you could fashion a +/-12" deep drawer with countertop. You could do a slide out shelf under the countertop to extend the work surface. A slide out surface would be preferable to a drop down in my opinion so it wouldn't interfere with the seat. You could recess a medicine cabinet into the wall (at the right height) to hold supplies. I think it could be a fun little item and doesn't have to be large, just functional. Search Pintrest for some ideas.

I agree. I have 100 plus files from 1995 to 1997 which can't be accessed through X8 and I don't have V9 available to open them. I do need to open one on occassion. Those houses are now ready to be remodeled! A converter would be a great solution.

For anyone who would like to open old plans: X9 will not open *.pln plans. X8 will open plans back to Chief Architect 97 (released August 1997). CA 10 (2005) creates *.plan files. Version 10 will open plans back to CA 97 (same as CA X8). Version 9 is required to open pre-August 1997 .pln files.