HumbleChief

Seems to behave much better with Angle Snaps off, then you can snap to perp from any corner to any arc, with no additional steps, but will keep your tip in mind if needed.

It really just depends on how much you'll use Chief in your business. Huge leaps in productivity since X8 but if you're only designing a couple houses a year then it's a pretty big bite of your operating expenses. If you're serious about getting a lot design done in a given year then the price is more than reasonable IMO.

So I'm curious, "Is Buying A Different Program The Best Way To Draw Dormers?" Just askin'...

Yeah no sweat, I'm learning that most people don't watch the vids and as I posted above I've struggled with Perp dims for the longest time, especially on plot plans so the exercise really helped me out. Genuinely did not know they worked the way they do until I started messing about this morning.

Actually learned most of those tools/methods this morning by doing the vids as the whole challenge posted by the Diane/OP has snowed me for years. Glad it helps and glad to learn new tools in Chief.

Looks like it will snap perp to the mid point or end (with mid point/end snaps turned on of course) but no where else along a curve. You can snap perp from a point to the curve as the vid above shows which should work in most cases.

...and Yes Chief will snap perp to a curve consistently with all the other tools and snaps. Never knew that...

It only appears when you have something selected that can be set to perp or parallel otherwise it's not there. Does that help?

Kelly, did you watch the video? I've struggled with this for years and I just learned a bunch about how perp snaps work and it looks like, with Angle Snaps turned off, dim lines will snap perp to another line if perp snaps are turned on. Never knew that and always followed your steps above but was never really happy with the results.

The perp and parallel tool will also set dimension lines to be perp to a line. Select the dim line, click on the tool then select the other line and your dim line will be perp to the selected line. The curved PL line will have to be faked in as close to perp. as you can. EDIT: Perp snap actually seems work OK. Re: the video, not sure Chief will find the corner of the house as easily as it find the corner of the CAD line (EDIT: turns out it does) but you can figure out how to make that work I'm sure. ALSO make sure Angle Snaps are turned OFF.

The only way perp snaps works is to follow the help file instructions precisely but I think the perp and parallel tool will work better for your purposes. Have you used it? It will set any line perp or parallel to any other line. Can you post a pic of what you are trying to accomplish?

...or wherever you have your tool bars set up. My tool bars are on the side and drew a red box around the tool icon in pic above.

Diane, Check the help files, it might help, but I've always had trouble getting perp lines to draw but probably user error on my part... There's also a perp and parallel tool that will position lines perp or parallel to another, perhaps that will work better?

Select a room and a new tool will appear in the tool bar, looks like the regular Atuo Dim tool only white.

Do you have PDF's on your Layout? My computer slows to a crawl with PDF's.

...and I have Carbonite which I've only had to use twice in the many years I've had it but it saved a couple plans and many hours of work those 2 times. I feel your pain and these posts don't help much as I've lost work too but it's much rarer now that I understand some of the options out there...

Mick, This is a long time too late but I had a file that I overwrote the other day which was a pretty long and painful correction list for The City. I went and checked DropBox and sure enough there was a 'version history' option. Checked that, there was my original file, restored it - SIGH. Very nice feature.

Hold the alt key when drawing stair?

Already done and thanks again....

Just posted that above Joe, may solve the whole issue. Nah, still gets over ridden by the previous Auto Dim setting. Thought I posted this - It does now and that solved it! Thank you Joe and Chris.

Yeah did that with no discernible effect. When you change that text style and its size the dimensions get larger and/or smaller? Not seeing that here. Still curious as to what 'text' that text style affects? AHA!!! I was NOT using text style for my dims, instead I was using a custom text size. This will work me thinks. Thanks so much for hanging in there. Testing now. Nah, every text style still gets over ridden by the previous Auto Dim setting. Does your Automatic Dimensions Default specify to "Use Layer for Text Style"? This solved it. Haven't messed with that for literally 20 years. Thanks so much for the help Chris, Joe.

Text style doesn't change the size of the numbers in the dims on my computer. Not really sure what "Auto Dims Text" might even effect? Dimension text? Maybe leading text? Trailing text? Nope. What is "auto dims text" and what does it control? Does it control the Dim Number size on your computer?

Hmmm, why is the behavior I illustrated so much different? Do your Auto Dims not inherit their defaults from the original Auto Dim defaults as it does on my computer? Or are you hitting the Auto Dim button in each Plan View to change the Auto Dims? I must be missing something because my SPV's are all set up correctly but see the behavior in the video above. Curious Chris, did you watch video? What might I be missing?

Yeah this is the issue and question at hand. All other dims are driven through SPV's as you've shown but Auto Dims behave differently as I've tried to illustrate in the video above.

+1 it would definitely address the issue.