ValleyGuy

You got it, I have a Note Schedule on the CAD sheet that I send to the Layout as needed. The 'dumb' call outs are just CAD blocks.

2) consistent notes: This might help for plan Notes. I use a Note schedule on a CAD sheet saved in my template. I just add the note to the CAD sheet off to the side of the schedule (to be clipped out of the layout picture). I created 10" symbols and added them to my library. I use these library symbols to cover the symbol on the schedule (to keep both the schedule and plan looking consistent) as well as drop them into the plan as required. The schedule of notes will be the same every time this template is used or copied and the library symbols can be dropped into the adjusted / mirrored plan view as required. Save the CAD sheet in your Lay out template and you should be set. I have red hexagon and blue pentagon symbols for other note schedules.

Thanks for the pictures, it really helps to visualize what I can expect to see and how the program divides up the tools.

This is one of the same ideas that I was kicking around as well. Thanks

Save one of the adjusted items from your plan to your library. Then choose the item from your user library to put into your plan and it will retain all the adjusted information. You can even change the name and anything else as required of your new user library item.

I'm planning to upgrade to multiple monitor displays and can't seem to see anything specific to CA as to what actually is visible and how things interact. I've never used multiple monitors ever, so I really have no idea what to expect from Chief. I'm hoping that others already using multiple displays will share how things work and maybe some pictures of their set up / screen images. I am looking at having 3x 27" mac displays to match a mac computer, so everything will be compatible. Please keep your wise cracks to a minimum about Apple vs PC, the idea, regardless of which system is used, is focussed on what needs to happen on the screens when specifically using Chief, and see some good useable monitor configurations - side by side monitors, stacked monitors, one landscape and one portrait, different sized monitors, different combos....maybe should I be looking at something different than 3x 27"?? There is lots on the web for video, photography, coding, gaming, web browsing set ups, but what really is working for Chief users? What is actually dragged to the additional screen? Is the whole program (what's visible on the screen) or is it only part of the Chief program (such as only the layout)? Do the tool bars need to be adjusted? (for example; if I have plan view on the main monitor, 3D and elevations and library on a second monitor, and then the layout on the third monitor.... do I need to jump back to the main monitor to use the associated tools? I have different toolbar configurations for different views and of course they are different between the plan and the layout. If toolbars need to be moved over as well, how is that done and what does that look like? Maybe the associated toolbars just populate on the other screens? Maybe I need to have tool bar consistency? Are there any other things that I should be aware of using multiple displays? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I used to sell wood to our local military base for target practice, it had to be clear pine. This was to minimize ricochet on an open air range. If you needed to use wood framing, maybe knotless would be best?? An idea about design: I'm not sure if the lot would accommodate, but you might consider having the range jut out from the main structure to be a shaft into a hill, like a separate 'wing'. Concrete on 5 sides surrounded by earth, just the one end attached to the house for access - still part of the house (basement) but minimize the danger.

Hey @winterdd, perfect timing... my new code books just showed up today... and yup, nothing yet about guns in the Canadian Building Code either that I could find lol... A couple of local-to-you places may offer some insight of the logistics, 1) you probably already checked with a gun store close by that knows of someone that has an in-house range. 2) check with any other businesses that require an explosion room. I remember the city bus barns (of all places) that needed to install an explosion proof room to store the shop explosive items (and yes, from experience, gas cylinders really do act like missiles under the right conditions...). The specs might be different, but the logistics and legal requirements may be similar. Around here, people just slide open the window and shoot at the squirrels and crows from the kitchen... where they can't see you coming .... This is a cool one, keep us posted.

You could try removing the curbs from the road and converting CAD lines into mouldings. I made mouldings and put them into my library. Mouldings allow you to mess around with the height and widths as well as the offsets. It's fairly easy to have a proper looking driveway entrance. With a little more fiddling around, I'm sure the sloped cutaway could be achieved, maybe a 3D solid??

It might just be a Mac thing, I'm not sure what options are on a PC. Maybe someone else could answer this for you???

The 'Archive' folder I have listed is used differently than the CA Archive. I use the CA Archive files as @GeneDavis is showing as more how you described, a computer crash back up that 'Auto saves' every few minutes as per my set up default. My 'Archive' folder holds the plan and layout that is duplicated every time the client wants a change/revision throughout the process of completing the initial construction documents. Some of the benefits that I have seen: 1)I can have the current version in front of the customer making changes, and have the last version (plan, cameras, measurements, etc,) as a second plan opened for a reference. 2) I can tell exactly what revisions we discussed on what day. 3) I get feed back from the time log and the revision notes attached - this helps with gauging meeting lengths vs work vs billing. 4) I always have a solid plan that I can fall back on to have a fresh start with incase I mess something up while sitting with the client making changes. There are others, but these are the main ones. I'm a one man band so it's all purely selfish how I set up my files and I'm sure this system wouldn't work for some. Everyone has their own system, it's just my current way of filing things.

If you are looking to just 'not include' the revision notes in the layout PDF, couldn't you just turn off all of the revision notes for all SPV's using the "Modify All Layer Sets" in one fail swoop? They wouldn't then show up in the layout. As for deleting them all, I don't think that there is a global way to do it.

I just did one in November and did it very similar to how @Alaskan_Son said above. Once I completed one whole plan and layout (with saved camera views), I just saved and closed both, went to the file directory and duplicated a new folder, then renamed it. Open up that plan, adjust as necessary, then open the new layout and relink to the new plan - both are in the same folder and play nicely. Rinse and repeat....

Thanks @MarkMc I've never used that button before, then again I have each CAD type saved with each SPV so I rarely ever change CAD on the same plan view. Good to know though.

This also works! Thanks Michael

Thank you @glennw, sounds so straight forward when someone else says it!

I tried both of those ideas, unfortunately neither worked. Over top just pushes the lower one away to open up a fresh clean space. Dragging outside and releasing just lets me see it zoom back into position again. RH click doesn't do anything. I'm really at a loss. Thanks though.

When you make a CAD line it will have a default layer (CAD, Framing in your example). If you open up the CAD line, there will be a heading on the left "Line Style", you should be able to change the Layer, Colour, Style, and Weight. Just designate it to the "CAD, Hidden" or whatever you have called it. If you are wanting to just use the CAD tools and have the line automatically default to your newly made "CAD, Hidden" layer, that is a different thing altogether. You will need to got to the Project Browser and choose the Plan View > (Right Click) Edit View > Selected Defaults > Layers > Current CAD Layer > Define > un-check CAD, Framing and check CAD, Hidden. This (along with the colour, line style and text style) will now make the default layer when you use the CAD tools follow the "CAD,Hidden" layer. You can switch the default back and forth by doing this through the Project Browser as needed.

Does anyone have an idea how to delete these once they are added?

I've used a few of them, not really all that popular due to price. They are exceptionally useful for egress below grade where there is minimal window well space on the outside. I've also put them in for pass-throughs from the kitchen to the patio eating bar on the outside of the wall - the full glass matches the rest of the house casements but doesn't knock everything off the bar. I can get them in a single side swing or both sides swinging (I think it is called French Tilt & Turn). There are even Tilt / Turn and Tilt /Sliding Doors.

The materials list in Chief can actually produce very detailed and specific lists, but like I said, it takes a lot of work. If Chief put some more effort into connecting the room name in the poly line, then it might eliminate a lot of this work needed to produce a good material list. I did a little mock up room similar to yours and came up with a few more items on the list. I am not aware of a neat way to isolate just the LDY room items. Here are a few things that you will need to consider if you want to keep on going with it: 1) Many different walls with many different individual layers, all making the distinctions between rooms. Thats how to get individual sides of each wall. Many different materials for many different rooms. You may want to use style palettes to spray rooms, and group save walls in the library. You could minimize some of the work by minimizing the number of layers. 2) Individually adjust every single wall's components (ie: I opened up a wall > Components --- Green Board Walls LDY > Code --- typed in "LDY".... then move to Drywall Main Floor > Code ---- typed in "Bed #1"..... the same for paint on green board, paint on drywall, primer on green board, primer on drywall, VB, insulation and anything else making up that specific wall. The amount of work is tied to how much you want to separate out. I used many different wall layers here, but it could be thinned down to just include drywall. 3) Make sure that all of your materials are measuring how you want them to read (ie 4x8 sheets or 54"x12' or sqft area or LFT...) 4)Make sure that the individual components are under the appropriate ID. The material list is driven by ID labels such as Flooring, Insulation, Wall Board,... Having the wall vapour barrier in the wall board ID and the paint in the framing ID will make your material list a mess to read. Also, if you don't report framing on the material list and some drywall is mistakenly in the framing ID, you will never know about it. 5) Put your material list in an order to easily read. Also do the usual stuff like making columns appropriate sizes (in the actual list) and eliminating unwanted columns (in Preferences). Just start messing around with the material list, you may find ways to customize it better toward your needs. Good luck with it.

Yes I totally agree that it would be nice if they could do a little work on it to provide the wall surface area too. You may want to check out this earlier thread, it may give you a little more info on how to get individual sides of drywall to show in the materials list.

If this room is all that you are trying to calculate for, manually estimating is by far the easiest, quickest, and the best sheet size optimizing way. I see five walls that drywall would possibly be best if stood upright, a window and a door opening. There is going to be waste and it needs to be accounted for. Drywall comes in different widths and lengths and can be ordered to save unnecessary waste. As the program will either give you a wall sqft area, or number of sheets based off of that sqft, you are most likely going to get less than pleasing real world board count numbers (I'm not sure that two different board size measurements are even possible in a single material specification on Chief). For example, it would be silly to have the materials list give you a 4'x8' sheet count for a 9'6" x 9'10" room. It's much easier to say 7-10's and 4-8's will cover the walls, with 3-10's for the ceiling. However, you will need to adjust accordingly if you are wanting green board and it only comes in 4x8 sheets. Or maybe you have 9 ft ceilings and want 54" wide drywall that your supplier only stocks in 12's. Or maybe you have 10' ceilings and you will want to stand all the drywall upright and therefore only order 10' sheets. Maybe there are physical barriers (like stair headroom clearances and hallway corners) that only allow you to use a specific size board. As you can see, you will have different sqft totals, different amounts of waste, and different board counts all for the same room, just because of different real world scenarios. What you are trying to accomplish is somewhat possible in the materials list a couple different ways, albeit a different approach than just using the poly line. It will definitely take a lot more effort vs adding up the sheets manually for this tiny room. Material lists are sometimes still best done old school for optimal real world results. If you are still wanting to forge ahead with getting Chief to give you a number in the materials list: the easiest way is to probably make two different wall types for the two different walls that you have (2x6 and 2x4) making up this room. Make the wall layer on one side have a new material for the drywall, call it something different (like 'laundry room drywall' ) and give it a specific wall layer colour to show up in plan view. Replace the original walls you have shown with the newly made walls making sure that the new 'laundry room drywall' material layer is inside the room. Make a new materials list and look for the new 'laundry room drywall' - you may need to delete other items from those specific walls that you may not want like studs and drywall from the other side.

I send the elevation to layout as a live view - 'update on demand', then go to the layout and open up the view and change it to plot lines and make the line weight thinner (1 instead of 18). Only because I want to adjust the default line weight and the only place to adjust the line weight is to open up the layout view. You could send the elevation to layout as plot lines, the lines will be whatever your default line weight is. You have to go to the layout and open up the view to see what your default line weight is then adjust to what you would like. If you make adjustments to an object back in the elevation, then you would need to update the layout view. There will be a prompt before closing out the elevation to ask if you want to update the layout (you can always go to the layout and refresh as well). Yes, changes / additions to text and dimensions in the elevation will be dynamic and not need the layout view to be manually updated. They just appear on the layout and are always current. The plot line weight just comes in at a default that is quite heavy, mine is 18. From another thread from a while ago, no one seems to be able to adjust the default value now that Chief took away that option. I don't like the 18 weight so I adjust it to 1.

@kwhitt DB and Joey are correct, plot lines is the way to do this. All cameras will work as far as I know, and the plot plan view keep dimensions live. I don't like to bog down my computer with constantly updating the layout, plus CA decided to drop the line weight adjustment option in the 'send to layout' pop up window a few years back.... so I always send the camera elevation to the layout as 'update on demand'. Then in the layout I open up the view and check the plot lines and adjust the line weights. This only gives plot lines, so textures don't work and glass house goes to plot lines, however, depth cue does work nicely. If you leave the layout box boarders larger, Text, Rich Text and Dimensions are live and show up automatically when added to the plan elevation with no updating required on the layout. If there was a way to set the default line weights (like it was before), without having to do this step manually in every layout box......