Dermot

The label positions are not dynamic defaults.  This means that if you change them in your window defaults, the existing windows in your plan will not automatically update.  You should be able to group select all of your windows (using the marquee select while in window mode) and change them all at once on the label panel of the window specification dialog.

Another option you might want to consider is the rental program.  For $199 a month, you will get access to the current version X9, SSA (which allows you to get technical support, all of the newest libraries, and training videos), and people on this forum are going to have an easier time helping you .  If you continue to get more work and stick with the rental, it will convert into a full license after 16 months.  You can also stop the rental program at any time for any reason.

For more info about the rental program, check out these FAQ's:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/software-rental/

Technically, you don't need to use annotation sets to get what you want.  Annotation sets are a very powerful tool but I always suggest that people think of them as a quick way of changing your current defaults.  The important thing is to understand how your dimension defaults work.

All you really need is to have two different dimension defaults.  You can setup the dimension defaults in either your Defaults Settings or Active Defaults dialog.

Once you have the two dimension defaults that you need, you then need to make sure they are being used in your CAD details.  If you want to draw a dimension using a particular dimension default, just make sure that it is active in the Active Defaults dialog before drawing any new dimensions.  If you want to change an already drawn dimension to use a different default, just open the Dimension Specification dialog and change the dimension default.

Do you mean like this?

You can specify either round or clipped corners on the Box Construction panel of the Cabinet Specification dialog.

You can specify a curved door for a diagonal door corner cabinet by setting the Bow Depth to something other than 0 on the General panel.

Sherry,

You are most welcome.  Glad I could help someone.

Regarding reference floors and reference display, please note that I was talking about changing the floor in plan views, not layout views.  Each layout box will remember all of the appropriate settings when you send a plan view including the reference floor, reference layer set, and even whether your reference is displayed first or last. 

The only way I know of to change this data for the layout is by using the Plan View panel on the Layout Box Specification dialog. 

Regarding the layer changes affecting other views, I know of no bugs that would cause this.  Sherry did send a plan and layout to tech support regarding a different bug and I verified that she was using the same layer set for multiple layout views.  This would certainly cause the behavior she was describing.  If some one thinks they have found a bug regarding this, then please report this to tech support so that we can look into it further.

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Mon Cherie,  not sure if this issue,  I am not sure this is my issue,  but it is an issue for me,

I don't think your issue has anything to do with Sherry's issue.

I think your issue is that you want the program to remember which floor is being displayed as your reference floor every time you change the current floor.  Unfortunately, the program just doesn't do this currently.

The program will automatically change your reference floor every time you change the current floor.

So here's my recommendation to make your life less confusing.  Instead of using the floor up/down tools, use the Change Floor/Reference dialog (click on the floor number button).  Then you can specify both the Current Floor and the Reference Floor at the same time.

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I was having a problem finishing up a layout set yesterday.  I had sent everything to layout, looking the way I want, went to print a check set and found problems.  My roof layout was showing some CAD default items from the main level (2 story house).  I opened that plan view and turned off cad default layer and when I returned to the layout set the cad default items in my separate cad details had also disappeared.  If I turn them on in the detail, that also turns them back on in the roof layout!  It was an endless loop.  I changed everything to different layers and managed to get a printable plan.  Why would a roof layout plan affect CAD Details that only had PDF (cad default layer) and notes (text layer) in it?

Must be user error and I will send the old copy of plan and layout to tech support but would like to know if anyone else has seen this.

 

My best guess is that your different views are using the same layer set.  If you make a change to a given layer set (like turning some layers off or on), then all views that are using that layer set will be affected. 

This is why we used to always make copies of your active layer set when you sent views to a layout.  If you make a copy at the time you send, you can then make changes to your original layer set and not affect anything on the layout views.  Most people felt that this was not the most efficient way to work so we changed the OOB default so as not to make copies of the layer sets.  You can change this any time you send a view to layout on the Send to Layout dialog.  Just select the "Make Copy of Active Layer Set" box and specify the name of the new layer set.

If you are using the default template plan that ships with Chief (profile.plan), there should already be a built in macro that will show you all of the object properties.  Just create a text object and draw an arrow from the text to the object you want the properties for.  Then open the text object up and you should see the %ObjectProperties% macro appear under the User Defined macro list.

Another way of seeing all of the available properties is to use the Ruby Console.  First, select any object in the plan.  Then open the Ruby Console and type in owner.names.  The list of available properties will show.  If you type in "owner.names.sort", they will appear in alphabetical order which makes it somewhat easier to find things. 

Just to clarify, you should probably not use the "cabinet mounted" electrical symbols from older versions of the library anymore.  These were really just floor mounted symbols that were turned vertical so you could bump them up against cabinets.  They never really worked that well so we got rid of them.  In X9, all wall mounted electrical objects can be attached to cabinet sides the same as they are attached to walls.  Also, you can move them from walls to cabinets or vice versa.

The "Separate Trim and Materials on Each Side" checkbox only appears for interior doors because exterior doors always have separate trim and materials.

The number of materials that appear on the Materials panel depends on what Door Style you choose.  If you choose a door symbol from the library, then it could be built with only one material or it could be built with 100.  It's all up to the door symbol designer.  If you are using one of the parametric door styles, such as Slab, Panel, Glass, or Louvered, you should see separate materials for each side.

My best guess is that you have "Post to Rail" unchecked on the Rail Style panel.  This means that the railing stops at the post instead of going over the top of it.  It usually looks better if you then adjust the post height so that it is taller then the rail though.  If this does not solve your problem, then you probably need to post a plan for someone to look at.

Regarding the post spacing, you can specify this on the Newels/Balusters panel.

I don't think it has anything to do with no room definition walls.  I think it has everything to do with whether or not the cabinet corners are connected. 

To disable this automatic behavior, all you need to do is open the General Cabinet Defaults dialog and turn off "Create Automatic Fillers for Angled Connected Cabinets".

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I really don't want to mess with making a railing symbol

not sure I remember how to do that ?

place chief railing in a cad detail then make a symbol ?

 

It's really not hard.  Just draw your 5' railing in a blank plan, create a camera view, and use the "Convert to Symbol" tool.

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really amazed I can't just drop 4 railings in the plan and be done with it -  sigh

 

That's because you can't just drop a railing into a plan and expect it not to work like a railing.  Railings are designed to be connected to other railings and walls.  The best way to make it not behave like a railing is to create a symbol out of it.

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Is it also possible to adjust the width of the curtain rod so it would be wider than a window?

You can't do this if you make the curtain part of the window through the treatments panel on the Window Specification dialog. 

You can take any of the curtains from the library and just place them directly into the plan.  You can then resize them and position them however you like.  The only thing you really lose by doing this is that if you move or resize the window, the curtain will not move or resize with it.

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That's what I actually did but when I use this feature it works for the whole wall.

There are other tools that may work better in other situations but for your case, the wall covering should do exactly what you want.

By default, the wall covering tool should give you an 8" wide band around your room.  You either used the wrong tool or you specified something wrong. 

Take a look at Eric's picture above.  You can specify the wall covering for your whole room in the Room Specification dialog box.  If your chair rail is 36" above the floor, all you need to do is specify the wall covering height as 36" and 0" above the ground.  You can also specify a wall covering for a single wall by using the Wall Specification dialog box.

Or, you could just modify the cabinet schedule defaults in your template plan.

If you convert a curved line into a faceted polyline, you can never change it back into a curve again.  This makes it very difficult to modify the shape of the curve later.  This is why I prefer adjusting the facet angle instead.

Please note that you need to be sure and select the polyline by clicking on the curved line in order to get the "Selected Arc' panel where you can change the facet angle.

No for some things like the arched window but yes for things like walls, roofs and most other things that are polyline based.

All you need to do is turn off the "automatic facet angle" checkbox and then specify a smaller angle to smooth out these curves.

Sounds like you have "Edit Object Parts" turned on.  You can turn this off in the Edit menu.

In X9, this special mode is called "Connect CAD Segments" and it works a bit differently then it does in X1.

In X3, we added a feature so the program would display a special cursor if you accidently left one of the special modes turned on.

In X8, we added a feature so you could just disconnect a single line of a polyline without having to turn this special mode on and then have to remember to turn it back off.

You are probably going to find quite a bit has changed over the last 8 versions.

Or you can change it in the Active Defaults dialog.  In the active defaults dialog, you can also change all of your other default settings for things like dimensions, text, callouts, etc. 

The problem with the annotation sets dialog changing your active defaults should be fixed in the next update.  For now, you can avoid this problem by working through the active defaults dialog instead.

The problem with screen flashing sounds like a machine specific problem.  Could be a driver or some other system issue.  I am pretty sure tech support could help you solve this problem.

As of this morning, we still have not received any bug reports regarding the null pointer problem.  This sounds very much like a bug in the program.  Unfortunately, there is nothing else we can do about this without a plan and steps to reproduce it.  Please contact tech support so that we can get more information and look into this further.

Regarding the null pointer error, neither I nor anyone on our testing team could reproduce this problem based on your descriptions above.

You need to report this directly to our tech support team.  You will need to send them a plan you are having problems with and let them know the exact steps needed to reproduce the problem. 

If you need to see accurate reflections, I would recommend creating a ray trace view instead of a standard render view.

If you find the single reflection too confusing, you may want to turn off all reflections in your camera specification dialog.  Then all of your mirrors will be solid grey.

You may be able to create an image of your bathroom from the mirror's point of view and then use this image as the mirror's material.  This is how people used to create reflections before the program could do them automatically.  It's kind of a pain to do and it will be nearly impossible to make it look accurate though.

Another alternative would be to show your client a different kind of view, such as technical illustration or even a simple vector view.  These won't show reflections either but maybe they will look less confusing and your client won't be focused on what they do or don't see in the mirror.