stevenyhof

I'm new so just learning, but when I place a door or window in a wall and want it 3" (lap and stud) away from the corner of another wall, I can't seem to get it to 3" - it's always a little off.

I drew a center circle from the corner with intersect snap so I know where the 3" intersection crosses. And when I move the door next to the wall and then slide it away, and use the TAB key to enter 3" - it still is not 3" - does not line up with my circle - see image.

I cannot get the door to center in the opening either - If I turn object snaps off, I can eyeball it to center. I can see the frame of the door is 3/4", so the gap I am seeing is the 1/4" that remains that shows that the 3" radius circle is not connecting - see image. Maybe I should make the door frame 1" so it fills the gap (space between the frame and the stud) that is there to allow some movement in real life. But for CAD, I want to make sure my objects are placed precisely, otherwise things go down hill from there and allow discrepancies.

Many times I place walls by this 3" (Lap and Stud), then a door/opening and then another 3" and then a wall - like for a bedroom closet. When I dimension the plan, the framers do what they should and the door fits as expected.

Same with the window. When I slide a window against a corner wall, it snaps about 1/2" from the corner wall, but I don't know for sure because it is hard to use the tape measure and see what it is snapping too. Then I drag it away from the corner and TAB and enter 2.5"  - but still it does not line up with the 3" radius circle - See image.

I am new and still working through the tutorial so maybe I am jumping on this too early. 

Thank you

In AutoCAD, you select objects with a window (anything inside), or a crossing "window" (anything the window crosses). A window is made by clicking and dragging to the right, and a crossing is made by clicking and dragging to the left. I hope this can be added some time to Chief as both are used extensively!

So in Chief, I set up the hotkeys for these two options. Select Intersected Objects and Select Contained Objects.

Hotkeys for when in select mode...

Select Intersected Objects - SC (S, C = Select Crossing) Intersected

Select Contained Objects - SW (S, W = Select Window) Contained

Note that I am not using SI, as I like to keep my keystrokes close and on the left of the keyboard if possible so I do not need to look at my keyboard. If the keys I want are on the right, they will be grouped on the right, but I seldom do that. You of course can use SI (Intersected) and SC (Contained) if you understand from Chief's lingo. I come from AutoCAD so I understand these commands from AutoCAD's lingo.

Chief also uses the Shift key (held down) to make multiple selections - very nice!

Thank you Mark for the info. I am excited about researching more about and using Ruby to update text related things, but still finding other ways, perhaps a macro recorder to do other things. Thank you!

I'm new here so maybe this is already covered in some place I am missing. Can someone versed in Ruby offer some guidance to information, books, videos, etc. where I could learn more about Ruby and how it is used within Chief Architect? I'm coming from an older version of AutoCAD ADT and have programmed extensively with AutoLISP. I would think these have similarities, but also would like to know if there is a command line, or how does Ruby communicate with keystrokes/mouse to call a command/script? Thank you