madcowscarnival

I wasn't able to check the original layout files, but I did open the PDF that rlackalore posted. Just an FYI, my (admittedly old) printer took the border line and some of the text in lower right and title block for page margins. Oddly this happened even printing on a larger sheet, like it needed some minimal margins for the print size regardless of sheet size.

OP, I would focus on being an excellent designer instead of pursuing a professional degree unless you are a recent HS grad and are seeking a degree in College. I work with several designers who can draw a set of plans better than most Architects, they just work with a professional Engineer on structural analysis and certification. I also know several professional architects who DO stamp their own plans, and in one municipality in particular STILL need to have structural review and certification. At a bare minimum, if you start an accredited school Fall semester, you're 8 years from a professional license. Those designers above? They command their salaries, which are approximate for professional salaries in this area, because they are darn good.

I'd recommend a call to them as well, in my experience they are good to speak with as everyone wants to be on the same page before a plan is finished and submitted. Check how/what they measure setbacks to. We have a nearby municipality that counts the fascia line for building setbacks. Another one (less than 30 min away) counts foundation footprint (though likely cantilever framing line too). That could make a big difference on a small lot like that.

I'd recommend an old-school HDD array in raid1. However, I also always start with new hardware (and 250GB is fairly small). I also backup this raid to an offsite usb SDD using windows "SyncToy" which does a remarkably good job for built-in windows tool. I'm not worried about high-speed connections between the drives. My setup that I'm very pleased with (lots of redundancy): work PC -> file server* (w/ mirrored array) -> home PC -> usb HDD (redundant backup) I've previously used OneDrive as well, but prefer the server. * - this is just a regular tower with a pretty basic board running Windows Server OS (very robust) connected to the LAN. Minimal performance specs. It runs continuously except for a few extended power outages (~1 hr) when I learned my UPS battery was bad). As its a separate machine, my workPC doesn't see any decrease in performance. I maybe have $1000 into all of this excluding the work PC (~6 years ago).

geez Solver, that's impressive. Thanks for helping those of us out that don't have such a complete grasp on this program as you and the other major contributors on here.

I should have looked a little further down my file. Here's one in .PLAN format. PLINE TEXT - HOLLOW.plan

Here's a DWG file of outlined text I'd made in ACAD a number of years back if you'd like. It's just a single font, but they're all plines without going through manipulation of sketchup objects HOLLOW TEXT PLINES.dwg

OP, if you still look at this thread, the second computer in my signature is my "home office" computer. It runs x11 just fine. File loads and saves over the cloud take some time, but work within the program is just fine. You would be hard pressed to find a laptop less than 10 years old with specs that couldn't run circles around that machine. Also, as I always do in these threads, I recommend Microsoft One-Drive. It is mappable to your local machine. You can work right off it with no additional download or sync steps. I used it before I moved to a VPN into my office server (also a mapped drive).

I will post plan when I'm finished up if needed. I created using a previous file, a lazy and incorrect way to get the various sets I wanted. I've finished annotating and was moving some notes around. However, the notes are no longer associated with their leader. I move the text and the arrow stays where it was rather than moving with the text. Have I inadvertently turned off a setting or have I corrupted behavior by using an existing file. It seems that this mostly affects text/leaders after I had edited default settings (going Chief font to Arial). Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you kMoquin.

If anyone else pops on here, is anyone aware of any potential legal liability of separating the models in sketchup and uploading individually? The free version of sketchup (I'm a very novice user) does not appear to permit saving to local files, only within the web-based program or in 3-D warehouse. I gave credit and described the original model, it just seems to be the only way to get the items I want on to my local machine.

Thanks for the reply. That's unfortunately what I suspected.

I found a 3-D warehouse model that has several things that would be helpful for a layout I'm working on. Its called "bakery shop set" https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/de34180f-37b7-4cb5-a0dc-1e3a73a3a09b/Bakery-Shop-Set It seems like it is designed to pull out the various items for use. However, in Chief it is blocked together with no apparent command to explode or unblock. Is this possible in Chief or do I need to do that in Sketch up then save individual items? That may be the best direction as the model is very large and definitely slows down the initial camera load-in.

Dermot, thanks for the tip. Nice insight into the inner workings.

living area.plan

I have two 30'x60' mfg. buildings in a 'T' shape. One is a garage, one is living area. The common wall between the buildings is being included in the Living area calculations (I'm assuming) indicating a living space of 1809 sq. ft. rather than 1800. Is it possible to instruct the program to disregard that specific wall area or should I just manually modify? Our AHJ takes the outside dimension (30x60) and is asking for a correction to 1800.

Chopsaw, thank you. I was looking for the convert to symbol button, but it was not available until I converted my basic cad to a plinesolid, then to symbol. Excellent, I appreciate it.

Is there a way to simply tell Chief Architect a pline (2'x4' rectangle) that it should be recognized as an electrical lighting object so that it will connect electrical runs? I need to demonstrate a basic lighting plan in a large open barn where they will be using 2'x4' hanging high-bay LED's. I did find the "short double recessed tube lighting" that will work for the symbol, and can edit that object, but might want to create a 12" diameter high-output LED basic symbol too. To clarify my question. Is it possible to draw a basic shape, perform a special conversion, and assign it as an electrical object?

FYI, first thing to check looking for a property boundary is internet search "county name GIS map". Tulsa's is a little more rudimentary than most, but that's where Chopsaws file is from. On some of these abbreviated legals it almost seems an automated program to abbreviate the legals. A brief rundown: W - west SW SW - Southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of referenced section N - North BEG - Beginning SWC - Southwest corner SW TH - Southwest third (though that would be an awkward description) APR - Approximate CRV RT - curve to the right APR - approx. distance along the curve POB - Point of beginning ACS - acres W348.56 SW SW LESS N601.53 THEREOF & LESS W50 N272.12 S APR 718.47 W348.56 SW SW & LESS BEG SWC SW TH N APR 446.35 E30 S APR 195.63 CRV RT APR 247.83 SE APR 95.43 S APR 148.50 W348.56 POB SEC 1 19 10 3.524ACS

FYI Rob, might want to delete that build sheet with ship-to address.

Minimal comment here. I would say the 2TB m.2 onboard drive is a big waste of space, especially with a quasi-server for your office. With the m.2 I would highly recommend only installing your OS there, and you only need a fraction of that space. All of your file storage should be saved on the server where hopefully you have some manner of redundancy set up there (ours is 4 ~ 2 TB drives "striped"). Even programs which don't properly run if not on your root drive won't take up a fraction of that space. My root drive is 500GB but I could have easily gone with 250GB. I don't have any other manner of on-board storage in form of SATA SSD. On my home office computer I do have a 2TB USB SSD that I frequently backup my server files with Windows built-in SyncToy. * edited for explanation, reason for only OS on the m.2 is plan for failure and easy replacement/reinstall without losing a bunch of stored files. I don't know what the limit of read/write was on the old HDD but the new SSD do have a defined limit before potential failure.

How ridiculously simple, and foolish that I never even tried that, thanks Alaskan_Son. Also, thank you everybody else for the suggestions.

I had no luck on the first page of google results. Is it possible to force a word wrap on a room label without simply manually placing text? Bonus question: how can I place a standalone backsplash behind an oven, below a vent hood? I see the option for "custom backsplash" but it is not selectable in the menu. I can just dropper match the adjacent, but that applies to the entire wall. I have not investigated further, just out of curiosity.

Well, thanks folks, that's unfortunate. Though I thought that may be the case. I've never had to produce a roof plan dimensioned in this manner. The City must be having some issues with site plans and setbacks.

A city is requesting a separate dimensioned roof plan. Is there a way to direct the auto dimension tool to snap to the fascia on the roof framing plan? It seems like I can use the Roof Dimension Defaults to place those dimensions on a separate layer. I attempted to create Auto Dimensions with the default settings to "surface" but that doesn't do what I intended. Manually snapping them works great, but there are enough to make it onerous. Thank you in advance.