madcowscarnival

MarkMc, thanks. Maybe the problem is that I haven't experienced slow catalog searches yet; that will quickly impact my desire for more stuff. I've found that what I thought was a pretty trick build is now borderline on the X10 minimum specs (at least it was hot 5-6 years ago).

Yikes, seems a touchy subject. Alaskan_son, yep, I simply want them all consequences be damned *as an interjection, I'm nearly a hoarder of all things building/construction related in case I might use it at some point*. It's just a thing I do. Bloat, perhaps, it doesn't slow operation of my machine or program, and storage these days is almost limitless (1TB local, 6TB on server and a couple of unused externals). I actually do very little catalog browsing and typically use the search function. However, just the other day after I upgraded I was pondering how to show an industrial awning (flat roof with struts back to the wall). Searched awnings, and hey, turns out one of the countless catalogs had exactly what I was looking for. If anyone is curious, my fully updated X6 catalog and about half of the X10 only catalogs are 6GB.

I have upgraded to X10 and have the year of SSA. I would like to update my various libraries since the last time I went through and downloaded them. Is it possible to have CA automatically download ones that are not already present on my machine, or just download them all? It take a while going through a seeing if the catalog is new (X10 vers only), selecting download, choosing file etc. I would like to just download the "whole" thing. Realizing this will probably be several GB worth. Also, is it possible to revert the appearance of the tool bars? To my worn out eyes, they look washed out.

I had not even considered that method. Seems easy enough. Thank you.

Is there any method to auto build house exterior walls based on foundation plan first? Situation: We sometimes create foundation plans for a mfg. home seller. Often modified with attached garages/porches/decks The foundations by design, are 1-1/2" deeper than the house. The main floor framing is not as important as the foundation information, and only used for elevations of the various attachments (garage etc.). Problem is, if I build the main floor to the mfg. plan, it creates a foundation plan that I have to go in and modify anyway. Not an issue, just curious if this functionality is available.

I realize this is a PDF (or adobe) forum question, but maybe some have come across it. When I print to PDF from this program (and to some extend from my various autocad drawings), the PDF receives the line-weight info from the program. That is good, and I want to keep that functionality without going in and changing my default lineweights. However, some times, (often even), I need to print that PDF file (or the customer does at a print shop) with a heavier lineweight across the whole drawing. It is difficult to go back to the program(s), modify within that then reprint to a physical printer. Is anyone aware of a setting within Acrobat Reader that would print all lines at a certain lineweight regardless of assigned lineweight?

As I've been searching for this, I recalled where I had used plines for hollow text in AutoCAD. Imported the text into CA to see what would happen, and hey, just what I was looking for. I went ahead and modified the rest of my plines, and saved to the attached file in case anyone else comes across this need in the future without using additional software. PLINE TEXT - HOLLOW.plan

Thank you

I let me SSA expire and haven't upgraded to a new version yet. I would've sworn I downloaded all the 3D libraries, but apparently did not get 3D text. Would anybody be willing to give me a blank file with the following 3D symbols: WASH HOUSE In a basic arial block text, with a 6" depth. Version X6. Assuming 3D text is able to be used in my version.

That must be it then. Signature filled. Running X6, will probably be upgrading this summer.

I have to think this has happened in others' drawings... When I use auto exterior dimensions, the outside dimension line/text is placed right on top of my Living Area label. I've been just manually moving the label, but whenever I do something that changes the label information, it updates the label and puts it right back at the dimension line. I did some searching, but maybe am not phrasing my question in the right way.

I did contact sales shortly after posting. They shot a good deal my way. Better than what I was expecting. Looks like I'll be into a new seat soon.

red seat, blue seat. I'm attempting to justify upgrading to a current version from X6. I use CA more as a side project than my bread and butter, but it's been handy over the last couple of years. Currently (and for the foreseeable future) it's just me in the office and I haven't even had the time to try and become proficient at the program. However, I see that the difference in price between my upgrade cost ($1,600) and the additional seat cost ($1,900) isn't much. Am I looking at apples to oranges, or would purchasing the "add'tl" give me a new seat of X10 (or whatever is current) as well as keeping my current X6 seat active? This would permit me in some future situation to have a part-time drafter working at the same time as me.

That setting was already enabled. I did try toggling back and forth to no avail. I'll go exploring through the default settings some more though. As a nuclear option, would uninstall/reinstall to get it back to the original state delete the various libraries I built up when my SSA subscription was still active? I'll keep my beard around to scare women and children for now. Though the coldest day we've had this winter was only 12 deg F, you Northerners probably have to keep them for function, not just style.

Yes, they're on. It will show temp dimensions to interior perpendicular walls, and laterally to adjacent walls from the end, but not on the outside, perpendicular, to another parallel, exterior wall.

Thank you Alaskan, that was it. I don't have the foggiest notion of how they came to be disabled. Any thought on the exterior temp dimension? or is that something that only existed in my mind. that's a mighty fine beard, I'm preparing to be shorn of mine. Too much gray has been sneaking in.

When drawing, the basic extended/projected object snaps no longer appear. Such as, when drawing the exterior of a house, the program "used to" do a light snap at wall on the opposite side of the house. Or when drawing a parallel line it would snap to the projected intersection of the original line, so that when the connecting wall was placed, it would be more precisely placed. Additionally when placing a new wall the "nearest" icon appears, but if I want to start a new wall at the intersection of two existing, the "intersection" or "end" snap icons don't appear on screen. I just have to hover the "nearest" icon towards the corner until it wraps around to the adjacent wall. I wish I could describe the actions more accurately. I'm not sure when this occurred. It seems around the time I worked on a .plan file that his father had created on an older version of Chief. All of the object snaps, grid snaps, angle snaps are enabled. I didn't realize how much I used that part of the program. I do precise positioning with dimensions, but for quick work (like outlining a bay window or box-out) it is easier for me to use the projected snaps then going back to a wall, selecting it and aligning it with the wall on the other side. Also, though perhaps unrelated or it never existed in the first place, I don't get a temp dimension on the outside wall when trying to set the total depth of a house, no matter where I click on the wall. I have to have the program clutter the drawing with exterior dimensions, or manually place a dimension, to set the total depth. Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you. X6

I am trying to figure out how to do a thing the "right" way. In the image, I am trying to demonstrate exposed beams in the gable areas. For the horizontal and vertical members I could use a soffit which gave the beams depth. But for the angled members it appears you cannot rotate a soffit. As a workaround I created a polyline, converted to a materials region and simply matched properties. The problem is, there is no depth in ortho, and I can't find a method to give it depth. I'm not required to provide a 3-D, but the client is presenting this to an HOA and it would be nice to be able to print out a 3-d pic for him. Bonus question: is there a way to rotate the material fill to match the alignment of the length of the soffit? I realize we're probably dealing with specific length patterns, but just curious. Background: Version X6, rudimentary skills.

That viewer was available for download. Thank you for pointing it out. Guess I'll have to try and put in for an upgrade.

Michael, Thank you for the reply. That makes enough sense. I've never had need for more than 2-d drawing conversion in AutoCad and thus never thought about smart objects or even 3d. I opened up Chief to look into saving backwards from inside the program. It appears that may not be feasible either? So a later version can open and earlier version but cannot save "to" and earlier version.

I have what is now an older version of CA, X6, and don't currently have plans to upgrade. I have a couple of builders that have different versions (one older, one newer) of the program. Does Chief Architect offer a viewer or conversion program that would permit me to convert from X7 or X8 to X6? It is rather inconvenient for the builder to convert files when I need them (during the day) as he is out on the job and is typically doing his drafting work overnight. I would pass it along to the other builder when he may get files from designers that he would be unable to open. AutoCad has something similar with their DWG TrueView which permits any file conversion from one version to another. This is especially helpful with autocad as there are many people with many versions (from the very early R14 to 2015+).

Larry, Thank you, it is apparently the setting in the roof plane dbx. I will try to make sure prior to building the roof, that my default settings are all 16" centers. Jerry, my default settings menu is not quite set up the same as yours (Roof is edited through Framing), but I did have the settings correct in there as well. Appreciate the help.

Hello all. I have set all my framing defaults to 16" centers, we seldom use 24" centers for any res. construction here. My problem is: Build Framing -> Roof Framing keeps creating rafters at 24 inch spacing, even though the global defaults, as well as the info in the dbx all specify 16" centers. This has been a problem before on some plans, and not others. Previously, I just ignore it and correct with annotations, however, that is not how things should be done. The particular plan involved is attached, well, I will continue to attempt an upload in an additional post, it keeps error(ing) out.

Hello all, I'm have been recently introduced to the Chief Architect world, and am full aware I have a LOT to learn. I am using a clients house sketch (pencil and crayon type) to create a house plan. I know CA will perform many functions automatically, but I find myself all too often resorting to CAD tools to simply get CA to do what I need to see. Which leads to: The house is fairly basic. At first, the foundation automatically built just fine. However, there is a porch on the front of the house which must have a frost depth footing of 36" below grade (probably around 50" total wall height). At first I attempted to use the wall DBX (<- I assume this is dialogue box) and check the "Foundation" under general. All this does is create a grade beam which only displays on the main floor plan, not on the foundation plan. Next I re-drew the porch using an exterior wall with the thinking that a wall defined through that method would cause a full foundation wall to be automatically built below. No dice, and with that alteration, the auto-build now creates a negative height floor in the basement and squirrels around with the foundation walls throughout the rest of the drawing, and creates a 16" wide wall below the exterior wall at the porch (default settings are still for a 96" wall). Last try was to attempt to draw the porch walls and a foundation wall below separately, however I could not get them to align with each other with dimensions or get the foundation to even display on the 1 floor. I have had no luck for this specific problem either on these forums (or archives) or the internet in general. Any help would be appreciated. I attempted to upload the file, however, it keeps erroring out; I suspect it is due to this being a first post.