Richard_Morrison

In X8, turn on "Legacy Shadows" in rendering preferences to get sharp shadows.

Edit the text style associated with that layer.

Dan, I would be great if you could fix the link to the old Chieftalk site. It just redirects back to the new site. Thanks!

Joe Carrick is going to be so hurt when he finds out that you have been calculating behind his back. What, like HIS macros weren't good enough?

Opening and closing the file is not the issue. Make an adjustment to one of the roofs, or as Glenn suggests, open the Roof DBX and close it. The gutters will rebuild. This has been true for awhile: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/5778-gutters-keep-reverting-back-to-default/ , or https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/235-gutter-rebuilding/, and this has been reported a NUMBER of times.

About the only thing you can do is have a separate "warehouse" plan with these items, which then will be available to copy-paste. I'm not sure what problems you're having with the copy-paste process, but I don't think you've listed anything that is a serious problem.

X9 files are not readable in X8, Alan, so you won't get too much help here.

There will never be an end to Mac vs. PC debates. The best advice is to get the operating system that best supports your most important software. If you have an estimating program, for example, that runs only in Windows, then that may be the system you should go with. Yes, I know that using a virtual Windows machine is possible on a Mac, but usually this is less than ideal.

Have you turned off automatic updating for those views in Layout?

If there is just ONE thing that is slightly different in the displayed columns, then a new line will be created for those objects which would be grouped otherwise. (In this case, headers are slightly different.) For example, if you remove the "header" column, then the doors will group as you wish, but you will have to click the renumbering icon to renumber the labels, too.

This has come from the inherent conflict of interest in design-build. Architects, in their traditional fiduciary role, are supposed to be protecting their clients' interests, rather than their own. The AIA has now grudging accepted design-build as a typical method of project delivery. It wasn't so long ago that advertising was frowned upon by the AIA. It seems almost laughable now, but it used to be that advertising by doctors, lawyers, architects, etc. was seen as extremely low class, unbefitting a true professional. An interesting (at least to architects) paper on the history of this is here: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/downloads/pubs/faculty/shanken_2010_breaking-the-taboo.pdf

It is most likely a graphics card issue. Make sure that you have the latest driver for your Radeon card.

I'm not sure that having lots of libraries is necessarily an issue. I noticed on a recent webcast that Dan Bauman had a huge library. I'd love to hear from Chief about the downsides to library bloat.

I have been requesting for years that "Tab" characters (like a little arrow) be made visible so that we can see where they are. It's pretty bad with standard text to find these. Maybe X9.

This is just getting another opinion, and the advice of "do what you want to do" is grossly irresponsible. Just read the specific state laws yourself. They aren't that hard to find and understand.

This is really the only appropriate and "safe" way to do it. (assuming the jurisdiction doesn't require an "A" seal, too, which it may.) If an engineer affixes his/her seal to drawings labeled "Acme Drafting Services" there is a good chance that they are guilty of professional misconduct. Also, many states have provisions that "responsible control" means that the engineer was involved all of the way through the drawing preparation process. (i.e. marking up and getting revisions to a set of completed plans doesn't cut it.) Now, obviously, a building department doesn't know exactly when an engineer gets involved. Nor is a building department likely to report possible misconduct. It will get reported by a disgruntled client, or maybe another engineer who doesn't like "plan stamping," and then there will be an investigation by the Board of Professional Engineers for that state. You will find engineers who don't understand their own professional licensing laws, and THINK they can just review and stamp someone else's plans. This is a state-by-state analysis, and no one should make any assumptions.

Perry, the OP was asking about getting his plans stamped by architects in other jurisdictions. This document addresses that very issue.

Here is a document worth reading on this topic: http://www.ncarb.org/Publications/~/media/Files/PDF/Special-Paper/signseal.pdf

Nick66, You should be aware that "plan stamping" is generally illegal in virtually every jurisdiction I know. Some states allow a relatively loose standard of "responsible control," others require that the drawing actually be done by the architect or an employee of the architect. (Not even by a subcontractor.) There may be architects stupid enough to stamp someone else's plans, but finding one may pose some challenges. (Yes, I'm aware that some of you think that just about EVERY architect is that stupid, and so it shouldn't be hard at all.)

I would have the decorator send you a DWG file. When you import it, you are given the option to state the original units it was drawn in. You won't get 3D Chief objects, of course, but maybe 2D is enough?

Unfortunately, you can't edit the placement of this label. The best you can do is to turn it off and add a bit of independent text.

Because the bank is the one who really owns the house, and they already know everything there is to know. (BTW, you left out a zero in the home price.) But it's a good question. Actually, CalGreen DOES require an operations and maintenance manual now.

Having used ArchiCAD at least as long as you have, I understand the frustration. Here are a couple of issues: 1) Unlike ArchiCAD, there is no "saved" layer set. You change a layer set on the fly, it simply changes it. There is no saved version that you can easily revert to. (Well, you CAN reimport it from a template, but that's not what you are used to.) The ability to have a saved, stable, layer set has been requested, but not there yet. 2) Annotation sets can globally change a number of things, which is quite useful, but they can only use the layer set as you've defined it. A plot plan annotation set will always chose the "Plot Plan Layer Set" if you've designated it, but if you change the "Plot Plan Layer Set" on the fly, the Annotation set will happily use the changed version. With that being said, you CAN de-link the layer set from the layout set when sending to layout, so the view will stay in its own layout layer set. Then you can change layer sets to your heart's content, and it won't affect the layout version. This can be either good or bad, depending on your own thoughts about how you want to control things globally.

You don't even need to do that. Just open (double-click) and close, and it should be fixed. I'm not finding that Chief loses the checkmarks, just that it ignores them.

There is something to be said for storing all of your details in a CAD Detail window, rather than the floor plan. The reason is that the CAD detail windows remember the correct scale (assuming that you set it under "Drawing Sheet Setup") and name, so when you send something to layout, it is automatically labeled. If you have details at many different scales, this should save time. Also, when you double-click on a CAD detail in Layout for editing, it will take you to the correct CAD detail with the line weights and line scaling set correctly. You can have one detail per CAD detail window, and they will list alphabetically in the Detail Management, so that if you are using a system like Uniformat II, it will be easy to find the detail. You can also have the details "pre-sent" to the Layout so that you can move details from sheet to sheet easily, as well as being able to print a "catalog" of your details. I also suggest using your Layout to store all of the CAD detail windows so that the plan files don't get bloated. I like the Library for finding details since it can have hierarchical organization, but it is harder to place them directly onto Layout sheets from the Library. However, you might consider having a CAD detail window that is set up for "Window Details" at 3"=1' (say), and place details from the Library onto THAT.