HumbleChief

Yeah these things are funny because as I'm trying to explain the concepts I realize I barely get it sometimes as Chief can just scramble a brain given even the smallest opportunity. I bet we see some more changes with Plan Views that will make them even more powerful in the future.

BINGO....

You can absolutely use the Electrical Annotation Set - but you don't have to. That Anno Set can be a part of the active defaults for that Plan View or not. If it is a part of the Saved Plan View and you want it to remain a part of that Saved Plan View then any changes need to occur in that Anno Set. It actually adds an additional step where active defaults covers everything that an Anno set does in that single dialog box.

My interpretation of Saved Plan Views in video below but it's always best to find a method that works best for you and your work flow.

One of the things that use to drive me crazy about Anno and Layer Sets is that they were never floor specific. So I had a Foundation Anno/Layer Set but whenever I'd change to that Set I also had to change to the foundation level to view the Foundation Plan and its associated Anno/Layers. Then back to the Floor Plan Set and would have to then go up a level to the floor plan. Plan Views now allow floor specific views. FIRST FLOOR PLAN VIEW always shows the first floor plan. SECOND FLOOR PLAN VIEW always shows the second floor. FOUNDATION PLAN VIEW always show the foundation. All the navigation, up, down, specific view can now take place in the Plan Views without ever chaning floors manually or having to save views more than once.

Yeah that strategy is completely understood and I was super cautious at first until I made some bone head changes that weren't a disaster then began to relax and understand the intent behind Saved Plan Views and Anno Sets and the role of active defaults. ...and the active defaults are specific to that plan view so it's hard to screw up another plan view for that reason but stick with what works for you as Chief is already confusing enough.

General right path in my opinion but not sure about #2 as Saved Plan Views take advantage of 'Active Defaults' which replace the need for Annotation Sets. Confusing yes, but we can now choose to ignore Anno Sets and simply use the Active Defaults as set up when creating/modifying/editing a Saved Plan View.

Steve, The attached tool bar set up has helped a lot when implementing/creating/editing Plan Views as well. Hope it helps.

I think 'saved plan views' is one of the most important and useful Chief features that has EVER been introduced. I also think they will be leveraged to add even more power in future versions so learning them now will only benefit Chief's basic work flow.

...and a couple other fun boxes you can check from Robert's post above, both starting with the word 'Retain'.

Can also be done with a railing symbol though the corners remain unresolved. FENCE_RAIL_1.plan

Whoa, had no idea how blissful ignorance can be. Thanks for the example Chris, I'll stick with grid rounding.

Interesting. I'll explore a bit more Thank you.

Wonderful!! Had no idea those settings existed. Changed to distance rounding in Dim Defaults and problem solved. NICE and thank you very much.

Thank you and good call but that did not change anything. Actually the grid snaps were on, as I normally don't use them, to try and fix the issue. Did you try the plan on your computer? Have you ever seen this happen? It's the second time in a recent short while so maybe I changed something somewhere in my template plan file? Baffling.

Saw this once again the other day. Never before, after thousands of dimensions in Chief. Any help greatly appreciated. DIMENSION_QUESTION.plan

If I might dare to summarize. You were gifted Chief XI. Is that Chief X1 or Chief 11? You also have the hardware key that the older software came with and when you 'plug that in' to we can assume a USB port, the key code that should allow you to run X1 (or XI) will not respond and allow you to open Chief? Is that accurate? If not my apologies, if so what I would do is call tech/sales support at Chief, if you haven't already and get their advice. In my experience I have never been denied using older versions (as David attests to above) and they have no specific policy against that usage but the fact you were 'gifted' the software, meaning you are not the original user, may trigger another policy and lessen the willingness of Chief to offer any assistance. If, as the unoriginal user (is that a phrase?) you can get no help from Chief then trying to unlock that hardware key may be the only option. What that 'trying' looks like is difficult to say. Either way good luck and let us know about any progress.

City of San Diego has just changed their submittal process to digital and it seems like there's a few land mines waiting to happen and so far I have not done a digital submission so don't have any experience. Anyone out there submitting digitally? Upsides? Downsides? Thanks

For anyone interested the hard part is getting the first and second floor transition lined up (if the second floor is not added with the transition wall in place) as Chief snaps walls to is own drummer sometimes. I ended up adding the second parapet floor AFTER the wall transition was in place and it preserved and lined the wall transitions correctly.

Thanks Perry, hope you're well! Yeah I figured it out with post above THANK YOU

AHA... Cntrl 'X' the window, move the wall in to position, then cntrl alt 'V' the window back in place. Too easy.

Have a bit of a unique situation. The house has a parapet roof and in the room addition there's a new window that spans the new and old wall transition. If I extend the new wall to its new location the window disappears. No real surprise but am curious how you all would deal with this condition? Thanks WINDOW_TRANSITION_1.plan

Yeah that's been my experience...

I use live views 'update on demand' and don't experience any slow downs - I don't think.