rgardner

28 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

 

There are a handful of different custom text macro solutions that could be used and that I would be happy to write for a fee, but for your particular use case, you don't really even need any custom macros. Simply create a text box that looks like this...

#%room.schedule_number%

%room.name%

%room.internal_area% sq ft

 

In order to get the floor number you just need to either change the prefix in the schedule to the appropriate number for the floor it represents.  You could also optionally use %floor_number% as the prefix which would work for all floors, but you would need to place each schedule on the appropriate floor for that to work correctly. 

BTW as I am still trying to figure out macros and writing/tweaking the simple ones.  Is there a way to see all of the system macros?  I know there are the ones that come up when you click on the insert macro button in a text/label box but it seems like there is a short list there of the most common ones.  Is there a list in ruby that I can look at?  Or is it you just look for the property characteristics for different items and just list it the same?  How do you know to use a period to space vs. underscore?  I know lots of extra questions.  Trying to soak it all in from you guys!  Sure appreciate all your time and valuable input to the forum.

21 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

 

There are a handful of different custom text macro solutions that could be used and that I would be happy to write for a fee, but for your particular use case, you don't really even need any custom macros. Simply create a text box that looks like this...

#%room.schedule_number%

%room.name%

%room.internal_area% sq ft

 

In order to get the floor number you just need to either change the prefix in the schedule to the appropriate number for the floor it represents.  You could also optionally use %floor_number% as the prefix which would work for all floors, but you would need to place each schedule on the appropriate floor for that to work correctly. 

Thanks Michael.  This actually helps alot more and I think having three schedules broken apart by floor would not be an issue especially as I organize them this way anyways.  Thanks for the nudge in the right direction with this.

16 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Yes, just have a separate finish schedule for each floor.

Great that was super simple and works perfect. 

For this particular case that I am needing it for is it possible to do in a rich text box?  I cannot seem to get it to work in one.  I use it for one builder who has a very detailed finish plan they keep on site during the finishes phase and we have callouts for all of the walls.  We use a symbol that calls out the different walls and the idea is that we can use the room number, name, and interior square footage placed in the middle of this symbol.  Is that possible to tweak the macro or?

Thanks for taking the time to help out and to offer this macro.  If you could check your inbox I am interested in buying a few more from you when you have the opportunity.

Exact same setup and though I have a professional DROBO NAS network hard drive that I use to do my time machine backups to at home on the network both of my devices (almost same specs as your machines) I use icloud mapped for both of my hard drives for both computers, as long as I allow a few minutes between using one or the other the hard drives are automatically synced and updated.  The good thing is that since I use my laptop while traveling mostly, my desktop can sync while I am gone and I never have to worry about it.  I get to my destination open my laptop change Chief over to it through the portal and bam there are all of my files.  

As most know I am a strong proponent for Apple devices and that is because it just works!   But now sounds like there is a good option for PC that you have found.  I know lots use dropbox, Google Drive, One drive or others and I use or have used all of these as well.  For me personally I use apple's iCloud for my own stuff and use dropbox mostly for the clients that I collaborate with.  I do use google drive with one client but he seldom uses the plan files as he is so busy he farms most stuff directly to me, but honestly I have seen more issues with google drive not syncing properly so I just use it as a file sharing option and keep a local copy of everything for him. 

Gotta love technology!

1 hour ago, Randall30 said:

Thank you Eric / solver.

I am confused though, my product is a Chief Architect branded product, it is Chief Architect Home Designer Suite. Are you saying this forum is for the Chief Architect Home Designer Architect product maybe? I might be upgrading to Chief Architect Home Designer Architect and if so would this then be the forum I should use?

 

This particular forum is for Chief Architect Premier (the professional version of the software).  Home Designer is a pro-consumer grade line and although they are all produced by Chief and are similar in many ways they are different in lots of ways too.  Many of the suggestions you can get in this forum do not work in the HD product line.  So although this forum is a great resource to learn lots, it is not the best for your questions to be posted in as it will waste your time and others who will try to answer based on the other software's capabilities.  Many of the Premier power users here are also on the Home Designer forum page as well so you will get some expert advice there and more tailored for your needs.

Best of luck.  BTW yes this material is available in the premier and is quite likely available for HD as well but ask over there to confirm.

1 hour ago, glennw said:

Open the deck's dbx and go to the Deck tab.

Check Automatically Regenerate Deck Framing and see if that does it.

That is interesting and I think that it is something that we many of us can learn from.  Is that typical Glenn from what you have seen

So @glennw if I am manually framing the deck it loses all capabilities to change via the room dbx including material changes so the only way to change the decking for example after the fact would be to use the material painter or to group select all of the planks and change the material?  The Auto-generate framing has to be on to use the dbx controls means I might smell a suggestion coming up, if we have to make changes to the plans after the deck has been adjusted as I for one almost never use the oob framing of the deck.  I usually try to do that towards the end of the design but lots of times customer come back with changes after that point.

MacBook Pro 2019 16” Maxed out is the way to go.  Especially if you are a current Mac user.

Is there a way to force it to start at 1 on each floor?

001, 101, 201, etc.

2 hours ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Yes to both,  I posted last year but I'm not sure.  I'm actually using it in a Rectangular Note with the number on the top and the room name on the bottom.

 

THANKS JOE!

2 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

Then would just build out a note schedule. I dropped a CA file in our shared drive under templates

Thanks I will check it out once it syncs up.

26 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

Only other thought would be to use window, door , casing, sill materials to drive the other finishes and simply rename in columns to include

The client also wants crown, base, casing, flooring, etc.

Is there a way that a custom component added to a room could be reported in a schedule automatically?

Case:  Builder wants a very detailed Room Finish schedule where a 2d symbol will be placed in each room that defines each wall as A, B, C, or D.  In the room finish schedule there would be corresponding columns and it would report the finish type and color that was added to the room components such as "Wall A: BM Bone 3333-30".  I have been trying a few different ways to do this and am not happy with any of them so far.  The best I could come up with was create a new material called "Wall A: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4" another named "Wall B: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4", Another  "Wall C: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4", and a fourth called Wall D: BM Red 9999-90 skip trowel) then add each one as a wall material to the room.  But doing so gives me a combined wall finish that reads: "Wall A: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4, Wall B: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4, Wall C: BM Bone 3333-30 level 4, Wall D: BM Red 9999-90 skip trowel all in the same Wall Finish column.

Anyway to add the custom components?  Another way of doing it that someone smarter than me has figured out.  I know that I can convert the schedule to text at some point and copy paste the information into custom made "blank" columns but would love to know if it's possible to do so with chief automatically???

On 3/19/2019 at 9:53 PM, Joe_Carrick said:

I have a macro that can be placed in a Note to display the number.  Actually the Macro generates a number composed of the floor number followed by the schedule number without the "R".

 

I will post that macro tomorrow.

So Joe does that mean it is similar to:

Basement level 001, 002, etc.

Main Level 101, 102, etc.

2nd Floor 201, 202, etc. ?

I am assuming it can be entered in a Rich Text box as well?  I have one builder who wants this numbering scheme for their houses and have had to do it manually but a macro would be that much better if possible.

Also search for cross-sections/elevations 

There was just a pretty good thread on this within the past month or so.  Try searching for sloped or slanted walls.  It doesn’t go step by step but does help with the basics and theories.

Maybe this will help a little; just remember chief builds “rooms” of everything.  Walls contain what’s inside the room and the roof contains the wall tops.  Floor system the wall bottoms.  Once you set your rooms correctly the missing walls will fill in (in the form of non room defined “attic walls” usually.

Best of luck and post pics.

55 minutes ago, wjmdes said:

Joe, is this something you still have?

Also interested.

1 hour ago, Alaskan_Son said:

This is something I too would like to see and something I requested a number of years ago.  Maybe add your support over there...

 

 

Added a +1 to this previous recommendation.  Thanks OP for bringing it back to life.  I see a great suggestion here.

13 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

With only an image to go on, no one can do anything except guess, please share a copy of your ".plan" file so helpers can then look and report.

 

DJP

12 hours ago, rgardner said:

Plan file?

 

The plan file is the actual drawing file itself.  The best thing you can do is save it.  Closet it out of chief then upload it to here for someone to take a look at.  Seeing the 2d floor plan and  a cut-away section does not help or let us know what the issue is.  A well worded concise note about the issues with the .plan file included will net you lots more answers.

8 minutes ago, kwhitt said:

They are most definitely sitting on the wall - not in it.  They are symbols that I created.  The brick was aligned on these symbols before I changed the height of the crawl space which is when the problem started.  Could it be that the texture is now UV projected which is why it won't move? 

Not sure about this but I am wondering if since it was made into a symbol and then added if the global mapping is not tied correctly to the pattern?  Since it wouldn’t know what plan it is supposed to be tied to?

maybe try painting the pattern to the symbol?

1 hour ago, OnlineBuilder2 said:

Can anyone tell me why my dormer window is all strange inside? 

Plan file?

1 hour ago, OnlineBuilder2 said:

Anyone know why my railings are cutting through the ceiling? 

Probably best to post the plan as there are too many variables.  Sometimes opeing the roof or ceiling plane and hitting okay will refresth it.  Looks like maybe you have been adjusting some walls manually though also?  I would recommend opening those walls that are not "finishing to the roof" and in the structure dbx select default wall heights for bottom and top.

5 hours ago, Designer1 said:

Can someone explain to me how export the entire plan with materials helps maintain all your textures? 

 

I just completed my first back up entire plan plus referenced files.  When I opened it up on my desktop I looked into the file and nothing was familiar that was even used in the plan.  It also didnt have any textures that were used widely in the plan like wood floors or kitchen cabinets.  I then went back into the plan and purged any textures that werent used and backup entire plan again but the same unused textures were in there and yet no commonly used textures in there either??

 

Im puzzled how this helps save your plan should you get newer versions of chief that dont have the same textures if you dont even see them in the backed up plan file??

 

Thanks!

It will maintain textures that are set as defaults for items even if you have "painted" another color or texture on the item.

1 minute ago, kwhitt said:

 

Thanks again, Ryan.  That does help.  At least I'm getting closer.  If only I could adjust the top and bottom concrete cut-outs.

I don't follow but in lots of cases there is not really a casing and will on vents and/or windows in brick walls...  If it is then its usually a brick or stone.

9 minutes ago, kwhitt said:

Thanks for taking a look Eric.  It took me a while to delete some stuff.  What's left was necessary to demonstrate the problem.  Kevin

vent_wall.plan

It is the rough opening setting for the window.  Try to set it to 0 instead of 1/2"

3 minutes ago, carowe said:

I'll give that a try!  Right now when I try to paste the second floor over the first, they overlay each other, so my guess is I should have started out building it by floor instead of separately.

 

you will need to create the 2nd floor and use the create from blank option and then paste, then align using the reference layer tool.