TeaTime

Turning on Print Preview while looking at your Plan view will display the line style and weight as it will be printed, otherwise zooming in and out changes the appearance of line styles, etc. So to get the best idea of what it will look like when sent to the Layout, enable Print Preview first. That aside, it's just a matter of setting up/using a Layer w/ Line Style for those plumbing lines and dialing in the right look.

By adding something similar that's not a wall. Lots of creative options out there, 3D Solids, soffits, molding polylines... Bottom line: Chief has never liked this condition and has always been kind of a pain.

Ah, I stand (slightly) corrected.

This is adjusted through your Arrow defaults - check Edit Active View list of Defaults. if Auto Position Tail is unchecked, it'll stick to the bottom, checked it will move based on where you drag the arrow, moving to find the closest edge So pull it straight away? I Don't understand this one. You're pulling a line, just like if you're drawing one. As long as your Angle Snaps are on it should pull straight down, or at whatever nearest snap angle you're pulling it.

Sort of. In this exact example, if you're using a Auto Dormer tool then the dormer's roof can be changed from Eyebrow to Shed. But looking at the size and position of either picture, it wouldn't be quite as simple as just changing the type. Technically possible, yes, but I think its far more common to just save a second version of the plan so you can have one with the eyebrow and one with the shed then create elevations of either plan so the client can choose which they prefer.

Nope, just Right-clicked User Library, New> Backdrop. Nothing weird. I am using X15 though, maybe something changed.

@KnotSquaresorry I'm just now seeing this -- tagging ppl by typing @, then their name, will notify them. Nope, not at all! Sounds like you found it -- in the Material Definition, Materials List settings If you have two Concrete materials, one Existing and set here to None, and one New and set to Volume, then only the New concrete material will be calculated, regardless of what layer its on or if that layer is set to be used for the Materials List.

Hm. Seems to come in fine for me. Not sure if it'd make a difference, but what version are you using? (you may want to update your Signature to include it)

Maybe a silly question, but was the room set as a Garage room type before the foundation was built? There are other settings that should be set on that type of room - in short: that doesn't look like a Garage room at all.

Neither are perfect. The problem with Reference Display is that it's a per-view setting, and you'd probably need to setup a special layer set for it to really work right. If you want to see posts on multiple views, you'll have to set reference in multiple places. Just, don't move your posts

Depending on the object in question, I usually just make paste a CAD object on each floor. Posts are pretty simple objects so you can just make a CAD Box or circle around the posts on the floor they're currently drawn on, select the CAD objects and do an Edit> Cut, then move to Floor 2 and Paste Hold Position. Its helpful to set them to the layer of the object they're representing too (probably before you Cut them), so they can be easily displayed/hidden alongside their counterparts in different views.

It sounds to me more of what they were asking was more like in programs with a lot more robust text editing capabilities where you can adjust line spacing, space width, kerning, character width, etc. CA doesn't really have any of that. Well, except Line Spacing, but there's loads of things you can do to text, broadly speaking, that we can't do with CA.

You likely can't, and you shouldn't need to. Controlling what ends up on the Materials List can certainly be done largely via layers like you're describing, however you also have control over exactly how (and IF) each particular material is being calculated. Take the Steel Mesh for instance - this is an automatically generated material based on the Concrete that's being used in the foundations Rooms slab floor. So you can't just change the layer that a particular room's Floor is on. But selecting that material in the Materials List and pressing the Find in Plan button at the bottom, it'll take you to a plan view with the item(s) using that material selected - no guesswork as to where it's being used at. Then hit Open Object and check out the rooms Structure. Editing the Floor Structure to select the material, you can go to the Plan Materials list and change or edit the Concrete material being used in all of the selected rooms. Of course it's probably a bad idea to edit something like "Concrete" overall, but if you have existing rooms with existing materials you don't want to calculate, you can make a Copy of "Concrete", call it EXST Concrete, then edit it so that it's Material List Calculation is set to None instead of Volume. Same with the EDPM - just need an EXST EDPM material that's set not to calculate. This way it doesn't matter if the Layer is visible for new/existing components, you'll have one material being calculated and one being ignored.

Well sure but we're looking for solutions for another Chief user right now, not suggestions to the company that may or may not happen! I agree, having Locate options for all objects, not just walls, would be excellent. I may want that one object to just be excluded for reasons. But in the mean time, any time I'm doing a reno plan, I always save off an As-Built plan. It's just way easier - unless we're only demoing like, A Wall.

Nope, but Reference Display does. Y'all just hate that feature or what? lol

FWIW This can be done easily via the Reference Display as well using a special As-Built layer set and different labeling defaults in each plan.

Just tossing 2 cents into the pool here but "Hourly" is a very aggressive auto archive, and I think for a lot of people probably unnecessary. Auto Save is the thing that'll probably save you in instances like this where the system crashes. It's default is 5 min which is probably fine for most people, no harm in decreasing it though. But Auto Archive is just a duplicate archival save of the file that the program makes every time you hit the Save button. Setting it to Hourly means you'll get a new duplicate save for *every hour* you've worked on the plan. If you have a ton of hard drive space then no biggie, but I think most people are fine with just a daily archive.

No way I'm aware of. The Dimension tools aren't that smart, they just look for things they're told to dimension to. So if you tell it to locate openings, it'll locate openings. period. The only things that I can think of that defy this are walls, they can be set to No Locate, for rails and such. I don't think anything else has a similar option. One technique I'd probably suggest though is to use the Plan Reference for As-Built masking. You could have the As-built with all the openings as they currently are, then Save As a copy of the proposed design, delete all the existing doors and windows, place only NEW windows in the proposal plan, then reference the existing ones back into view. They've got a video on the topic, if you're not familiar: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5435/using-the-reference-display.html

Good call. Extend Slope Down is a great way to force it to lower the baseline to wherever it needs to be to make that height work -- depending on the heights though, again potentially not an ideal solution. A good one to keep in your back pocket for when its needed though for sure. FWIW I've been caught by that overhang thing a few times, myself. If you break a roof edge then immediately try to Join one of the two, it merges the collinear edges BEFORE joining. Pretty annoying, tbh. Gotta pull an edge back first to avoid the automerge.

This ^^. Increasing the In From Baseline literally pushes that transition point back, lowering the height of the upper roof plane. Just increase it an inch or so at a time until you dial in exactly how far back that transition needs to be. The only other way would be to lower the porch ceiling height, which would lower the transition height as well. But that's probably not ideal.

Road objects will always be flat side to side but slope in the direction they're drawn (only the Line/Spline ones, polylines just follow the terrain). So long as you're using the line/spline tools it should maintain general sloped/flatness - however if you're crossing over other terrain elevation data lines, it's going to be competing with that data. I'd recommend cutting away any terrain lines/regions that the driveway is crossing over, making a path for the driveway. Also, depending on the existing elevation data, you may also need to add in some elevation lines within the driveway to force it to behave.

This is a result of using a too-big CAD Block though, not a limitation of the tool - the shorter the repetition, the better curves you'll achieve. Obviously you'll still get really bad results when you force something bad but that aint how ducting works anyway!!

Could be an errant attic wall, could be the wall below with a bad Top height - hard to say without a plan to look at. But I'd start by asking: What's the shape of the selection when you select it in a camera view? Is it just the wall as we see it there on the Interior camera? Does it extend down to floor 1? What happens if you delete it?

OH sure, find the fatal flaw to my brilliant plan, will ya!! No, no it won't. If the Separation could be replaced with a fixture object then it would, but being an Opening it's a face item itself so other face items can't overlap it. Or they probably CAN but likely takes some special something.

Change it to an Opening, then click the Shelves: Specify button. I just tossed down 2 slabs, 4" wide, spaced 24" front to back and saved it as a Fixture. Then on the Shelf Specification, set Manual, number: 1, browse to library and pull that new fixture.