madcowscarnival

DB, thanks. I'd never used that parallel/perp tool before, just what I needed. Never had to deal with something outside of CA line/angle snaps. I am still on X11, don't use the program as a full-time product.

Extra question, just to reduce effort. Is it possible to precisely rotate the already fully drawn garage to this off-angle?

I have a client who wants a very specific front and rear wall dimension in a breezeway addition in order to order to orient a new garage with the driveway. This gives me a wall with an angle of ~99 deg - I've tried & the contractor has tried to talk 'em out of it, no dice. I did get the off-angle wall to snap to the corners of the breezeway wall corners, but I cannot figure out how to get a simple CAD line to snap perpendicular to that wall (perp is turned on in Pref->Snaps, and works everywhere else, just not this off angle). I'm going to try to create the square garage with CAD lines then trace walls over them. Is what I'm trying to do possible?

Rene, Thank you for the reply. Yes, here is a screen grab with a side by side. Autocad makes that leader "tail" automatically, when I move the text, the horizontal segment stays the same length and horizontal in relation to the text. Chief's single segment leader moves around with the text just fine (top). The lower leader on the right is how I would like it to look, but when the text is moved around, the joint stays put requiring additional repositioning. It's not a critical thing, just something I've thought about for long enough that I'd like to find a solution.

This is a really petty (and lazy) question, but I'm not having luck with searching. Is there a way to make CA create a fixed length, horizontal segment at the end of the leader (similar to ACad leaders) automatically? I know its easy to add a second segment, but I have difficulty making them all "match" horiz. length? Something that would also stay fixed if I needed to reposition the text box. Thank you for any ideas.

Hey folks, I'm trying to autobuild a crawlspace foundation for a "house" directly adjacent to a post-frame building foundation (trench footing at the building perimeter, slab above). In CA settings a monolithic slab under the post-frame, walls with footings under the "house". When I go through the foundation dialog box, it doesn't appear that I can specify separate areas for different types. I did attempt to define foundation in the room type structure tab, but when it ultimately builds, it just does same type throughout. Is what I am attempting possible or do I need to draw the foundation plan "by hand". I have not had any luck with internet searching, which in general seems to be getting completely over-loaded with bot-spam articles. Thank you for any input.

Thank you for the responses. TeaTime, that shift click is the handy trick I was hoping for.

I can't search for it, because I can't quite explain my question... Say I want to make a 24"x24" shape be able to move around a room with precise dimensions. But when I try to move it by dimensions it just pulls that one "side" of the object (i.e. stretches it to 30.5"x24"). I did try converting to a polyline solid but same issue. I'm just trying to create a very rudimentary space planning layout. I think it's possible to do this, I just don't have a clue where to look. Thanks for any help.

Mr. Rabbit, Excellent, thank you for the suggestion. It actually led me to try a different approach, dropping the porch ceiling height which allowed the garage hip to plane out on top of the shed.

Existing house layout with addition.plan I'm going to reach out for some roof help or ideas on this addition. Situation is a large residential addition to an existing house (inlaw res) provided by a designer. I'm just the engineer primarily just to specify structural for the addition, and opened my mouth and said maybe I could model the whole thing in 3-D (though it has been excellent practice and relatively enjoyable). Existing house has the three different pitches and room height changes on the "right" side. Addition starts at the 3-car garage and continues to the "right". I was able to successfully match the original Arch drawings from the 70s and create a model of the addition plans. The builder (my contact) and Owner's want to increase the height of the addition great room and kitchen (meaningless without the addition layout) but is large interior area at the far "right". I managed to model it, and though I don't particularly like the "dueling peaks" at the rear gable, I think they can live with that. I'm kind of stuck on how to tie the front porch shed into the garage corner hip without that sliver of fascia. It may not even be possible but if anyone is so incline to make a suggestion, I'm all ears. And thank you.

Brett, Thanks. I had not considered doing it like that. Actually a preferable method too (I may want to show windows on exstg. for ortho views.

I've modeled an existing house with a fairly complex roof in a drawing file. I now need to show a fairly extensive addition on this house. I want to leave the existing roof model completely untouched then use auto build on the addition roof. Is the appropriate move to make the existing house a block in the drawing (sounds too simplistic)? Or make a model in this drawing file, start a new one for the addition and place the existing model in there?

Ah, unfortunately for me, TeaTime is correct. I checked the help index it doesn't even contain the term "girt" (presumably as a build member or in general discussion). I have built a post-frame building from the "older" CA videos so can create girts well enough. That will just have to do. Thanks.

I can do it manually, but is it possible to define a stud wall with girts on the outside face (metal sheating outside of that). I have a 1.5" fir framing layer defined, but it just adds (typical) vertical members outside of the stud-framing layer. In framing ortho I can grab one of those members rotate it, increase width to 3.5", move it to initial position, then multi copy up the wall. More out of curiosity than anything, is it possible to define that 1.5" fur framing layer rotated 90 degrees in the Wall Type Definition? This is not typical to what we normally have around here (post-frame for girts), but I get one or two a year that want to build like this.

I read a similar thread, but it was in regards to dimension behavior at each end of a rail "wall". Is there a way/setting to allow a dimension to locate the center of a "post-to-beam" in an automatic railing on a porch. i.e. a 54' long porch, automatic 5x5 posts at 8' spacing result in posts at ~6'-9"? The 54' number worked out well, but I would like to show post to post dimensions when it divides out to something like 7' 4-5/8" (made up number). I know I can create a CAD detail and set up dims with that, just curious if there is a non-manual option available.

Chris, with sheepish appreciation, thank you. That was it 100%.

Going to be hard to describe... When specifying my room type, as I select different types (bedroom, bonus, utility, etc.) the dialog box automatically places that type in the "Room Name" box. If I change the Room Type, it automatically changes the text in the Room Name to the new Type. I have a file open currently where the "Room Name" box just stays empty unless I manually type in the text. No automatic "update" of room type in the name box. I tried going into the Room Label Default and placing the room type macro, but then if I do want to place custom text in the "Room Name" I end up getting double label info. I'm certain this is a behavior setting that I somehow messed up. I can open another plan in the same instance of CA which does have the "expected" behavior. Thank you for any ideas.

Excellent, I don't know that I've ever manipulated those options, it was just set on default. I must have seen someone else's plan previously. Thank you.

I'm trying to figure out how to display posts in a railing in regular plan view. Unfortunately all my searching has led to displaying posts in 3-D, but they show up just fine in camera/ortho views. I feel certain I've seen it displayed before, but even with "all on" I can't find a layer that would display these posts. Edit: they are "built" (and displayed correctly in 3-D) at ~8.4' on center.

Did OP ever get this to work? I had a similar problem in that I use dark model space in CAD, and when the CA elevations export, the layers are all assigned a dark color that doesn't display well or at all on my screen. I just ctrl+a to select everything and change it to white lines, also zoom extents as mentioned above. Might be the case here, might be nowhere close, worth a shot though.

I was concerned with the slippery slope bit. In the future, I'll end up scaling the DWG in the import wizard down to a 1:1 scale (which makes the dimensions work appropriately).

I'm trying to find out if it is possible to add a scale factor (0.5 in particular) to a CAD detail I'm trying to import into Chief. I have some/many details in CAD that are drawn at a scale of two, then with the dimensions I just change the scale factor and it dimensions as 1:1. However, importing into Chief, I can't find a scale factor in the dims dialog box, or any scaling in the import wizard. Is it possible to add a scale factor to a specific dimension in Chief (so 6' reads as 3')? As a workaround, I just imported dimensions as CAD blocks, but if I need to manipulate the detail, it would be handy to know. General searches just lead me to PDF scaling or the unit conversion scaling which "works" but makes the detail a 1:1 and small. Thank you.

Alaskan Son, thank you. I did see your recommendation on that in the old thread. Went ahead and downloaded and tried out. Its a good program and seems to suit my needs. Still waiting on TurboPDF to send me a working trial download link, but now I at least know I have good options in lieu of PDF Architect.

Hey all. Last year I contributed to this thread (33086) in my support of PDF Architect. If I could keep Version 8 it would still be great. They forced an upgrade to version 9 (had no ability to stop the upgrade) and quite unfortunately it is now awful for my uses (basic line drawing, occasional dimensioning, adding and editing text (at different size and fonts). I've been in contact with their support, did their suggestions (fully remove, reinstall, etc.) but it is not resolving my issues. I think it's something as simple as what I used it for is not their main customer base. So, I revisited the old thread, a number of folks suggested TurboPDF v4. I'm trying to get a trial version, but in the meantime wanted to ask specifically here: The folks that use it and like it, do you make basic shape markups (think if someone brought in a hand drawn scan, could you markup to show potential beam locations, dimensions, leader arrows etc.)? On a created PDF (as opposed to scanned in or "print to") can it edit text in the document? I know Bluebeam is a comprehensive program, but its OTT for my needs. A couple others sound good, but TurboPDF seemed to be the most frequently mentioned. Thanks all.

This is my concern as well. I do not use Chief regularly, nor do I even regularly design houses, it is essentially a hobby software. It is very useful when I do need it though (perhaps not enough to justify costs over the years, but worth it from an investment buy). If I buy outright the last version available, X14, how long will I be able to use it. How long will I be able to do license management to switch between computers (office and house). Will my other perpetual licenses work (not really an issue, but I did pay in full for them)? My biggest concern is Chief will run at this with a full head of steam and fairly soon, try to force everyone on to a rental agreement be simply no longer allowing users to access perpetual licenses. Can anyone from Chief chime in, or anyone point to something other than what Chrisb222 copied from FAQ above?