HumbleChief

...or maybe just create a simple 2 page index and kill the automatic one - yeah that's what I'll do. Thanks for the inspiration Joe. Hope you're well!

I've got a 20 page Layout and want to 'save as' for a small 2 page Layout, same location and other relevant information. Using the Pages feature of the Project Browser I can go one page at a time and un-check 'Include In Layout Page table' but wondered if there was way to delete/disable multiple page?

I print my PDF's in color so I get good gray scale, then send those to the print house to be printed in B&W, no one will pay for color output from the print house. Smaller jobs I print here on my HP 110, in color, almost always. A print head died the other day so I printed in B&W on my 110. Never found a client contractor who cared much about color ConDocs. Presentation stuff - always color - done in house.

There's a part of me that really wants this to work but I can't see it working in my real world at least - yet. Maybe the dimensions on all the time? Maybe rounding measurements? And taking longer just doesn't seem to make any sense. And what do you do when you get home? Where's the back up real world dimensions? Did you lock the wrong wall? Something's missing but what? My paper scribbles are a very good backup when doubts arise. Again I want it to work but my time's too valuable to test these apps out right now.

Thanks for the info Stephen. I have now converted 3 or 4 full page PDF's and the speed difference is night and day and makes my Layouts much, much quicker and easier to work with. HIGHLY recommended no matter how you get it done.

Never seen that Greg, what keep the walls from falling?

No printing from Foxit? Curious about that. I use it for all my PDF work, nice program.

Thanks Val, The png conversion is a huge time saver. I'll up my DPI back to 300 and see if things print OK.

Funny Kev, some people have no problems but for me they are a severe drag on my system slowing it to a crawl. Do you use a PDF utility? Foxit? Nuance?

Somewhere in my memory I could have sworn the Chief guys said that PDF's were converted to images in Chief. If not then I can understand the speed issues. If so then what utility are they using that's so much slower than Foxit's converter? Curious.

I have had many, many problems with PDF's in Chief over many versions. Slow, Slow, Slow, when viewing page to page. Slow to print. Overwhelms my printer's memory and prints only partial files/PDF's so I have reduce the resolution. Any PDF printed higher than 144 DPI chokes everything if I have large PDF's (full page) in the layout - painful at best. So... my PDF utility, Foxit PDF, has a feature - convert to image. Hit the button save to a new file name. Now everything is a PNG which loads at least 10 times faster page to page in Layout, prints PDF's (now PNG's) without sections missing and doesn't overwhelm my printer, without any noticeable degradation in quality. Sweet. Hope that helps someone else.

BTW you guys are the greatest, really appreciate the help.

Re-visited the symbol and finally got it to 'union'. Looks OK in Chief.

Nice Johnny, only problem is I can't change the distance between the arch as a symbol - don't know how at least. How did you do that? SU?

I ended up getting there and chose to create the arched piece in elevation, then added the bottom pieces but could never get them to really 'union' together so there's a visible line between the 3 pieces. Never got any of the 'subtraction tools to work either. Seems so simple but never got the right combination of shapes to 'subtract'. Just not that smart with dumb tools. How'd you do it Greg?

Not very, Johnny.

Pretty sweet Greg, has those darned faceted edges along the curve but looks good.

OK, That was a horrific exercise in torture. Just don't have the time or will to learn such ridiculously complex and arcane 3D tools. Got it done but really not easy to understand Chief's 3D tools. Never actually got it right but it looks OK. Thanks for the encouragement at least.

That's a pretty cool product Gary. Did you run into any code or engineering problems when spec'ing that bracket? I live in CA and never know what to expect if I were to spec that product on a job.

..or look on page 8 in the PDF linked above - look for, of all things, the detail titled 'exterior deck attachment'. Might be what you're looking for.

http://www.woodbywy.com/document/tj-4000/

X7 has an automatic stairwell tool.

Saw this in a previous thread where the exterior wall material had no thickness, perhaps check that out first.

...or post the plan....