madcowscarnival

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.

That's good to know Chris, I suspected there was a setting for it, but I've never needed one would and didn't know where to look.

Just an aside, I don't think they'll be able to create that. There's a significant moment at that interior peak. I suspect they'll ask to build a girder truss at the interior peak then hang truncated trusses on each side.

I'm sure there are more proper methods, but my "jank" solution would be to break the 2nd floor wall +/-24" from each end. Set the interior portion to build as gable, outside as hip, then autobuild. The eyebrow could be set manually.

That's what mine looks like. I use the default plan.

I haven't drawn anything in the new update, but I have opened some other folks plans to see if I could help with their questions (on the forum). When I draw exterior and interior walls in a new plan from scratch, they are appearing gray and light gray rather than the old blue and yellowish. Was this part of the update or did someones plan defaults change some of my settings? It's not a problem, and I believe I know how to change the display if wanted. Just curious.