Steve_Matlaga

Sample : Change Item to a Different Room for Schedule Organizing. All Button menus will be on a separate screen just under the main screen Again, for anyone interested, I'm using Virtual Scream Deck, but you can use this on Ipad, Android, Mac, Windows... Or get a Stream Deck! Many other apps are out there to do this, and I still believe this is by far the most useful way to work in Chief. It runs completely separate from Chief and has nearly zero affect on the speed your system runs with infinite buttons.

Completely can understand that there are cases where things are limited for a solid reason. Many things have brought Chief to a turtle's pace that you wouldn't expect. Usually, there's ways to optimise a situation to work around those events. I honestly have very few gripes about Chief overall or I would have moved on long ago. I promote it as the #1 tool for kitchen designers who value detail and customization. That all said, to the end user, me in this case, having a limit on custom library icons that pretty much have a very trivial task, is frustrating. They're pretty much hyperlinks triggered by an icon. As they are static objects and are not running any code of significance, I couldn't come up with any reason there would be a limit on modern versions. As mentioned, and you mention as well, perhaps the limit relates to older core programming that if changed could open a massive can of works. I'm extremely satisfied with the simple work around of a third party app to handle those re-direct/linked button tasks. I'll thank Chief Devs for allowing most everything to have a hot key! That feature allows creative interfacing to the software and pretty much made my original point a non issue. Rabbit pointing out another alternative is interesting as well, except one would think connecting additional data sets to a library object might be far for taxing on Chief, vs. just dropping a bit of text as needed. 'KISS'. Push a button, it drops the text label onto the plan, I move on. No programming, no redo's of my catalogs. No complex error chasing via conditional macros. Appreciate you chiming in along with others. I do hope this conversation is helpful to others in the future.

HI, THIS? I love the concept, and what a great way to set up your cabinet attributes/custom fields. I'll give it some thought. Appreciate you taking the time to post the video and explaining a great option though. Gears are turning for sure... Comes down to , create custom fields, create macros, make a new tool or two to pull from the new fields as my annotation. Opps, and also need to mention, what you set up requires far more advance skills to create conditional scripts. That's not something average users can do. (me being an average user). I do have a friend though who can take care of the conditional stuff and macro programming. I'd love to learn, but I can't stop to do that any time soon. Vs. what has worked thus far.... Vs. today's discovery. Cut and paste the existing library text objects into the new icon/button system I'm using. (about 10 seconds or less per new button). Obviously, as a long term solution, what you have been doing is better. The bigger picture though, I'm now in a situation I have an advance tool bar system with virtually no limitations on any features I want. I'm sure a combination of both is in order Thank you so much for the suggestions.

They are simply labels/call outs I use for my floor plans. If I have a base 36, with roll outs, I want a clean text note 'Roll outs'. I don't use cabinet labels, just call out numbers. So, I need to clearly label appliances, points of interest, and other such floor plan/elevation notes. Say, I'm making counter top drawings. I drop the text where I need it. Takes seconds.; I use a lot of rich text, or standard text saved as a library object to save me countless time. Commonly used Keys, Notes etc. In fact, I pretty much try to make all commonly used actions a click ! Can't imagine digging through Chief's browser folders or using this 'tag' system they came up with (or maybe you came up with, lol)

SOLVED Well, I ended that issue fast! In fact, mind blown. The solution outside of Chief is amazing, unlimited, and cheap/free. My complaining turned into turn my Chief experience into a true modern GUI that has complete freedom to do exactly what I want. It's not hidden behind a pay wall or such. For now, I'm going to just tell you, you can use hot keys, and direct any third party software to produce key strokes that will direct chief to place a custom library object. I think half a day of work, I can recreate all the existing chief tool bars, my own tool bars, and shut off all chief tool bars to gain a full screen for design work. I'm getting far more than I hoped all over finding a silly limit by the devs. This might not make sense yet, but a preview is the transparent menu right on my chief screen ready to go to work! Hover over it, to simply click and place whatever you like. In my case, it's all able labeling my floor plans quickly. However, these tool bars can literally be anything and most everything you already use in Chief, including the same icons. It's going to take work, but in the end, I have a tool that does anything I need the way I want it to work.

I deleted them in the actual tool set tools. To help others, please understand how the limit works. 398 icon custom library objects is the TOTAL max across ALL tool sets. In my case, I created all tool sets in the Masterset. No matter what, once I hit the limit, there's no way around that. I could have 50 Toolbar configurations, but it's all limited by the same program wide max! Let's say you are in a toolbar set called 'Tags Only' If you make a new custom placement object tool bar, and populate that with 30 icons of library objects, that is part of your total 398. Even though, that toolbar is only in that config set, it still counts against the global total. This means, you are pretty limited in the number of actual 'custom' sets of tools you can build across all custom configurations. I'm hoping to build something simple, like a screen of icons separate from Chief, that simply fill out the item name in library browser, and click so it's ready to drop on the plan. That replaces all limites. We'll see if that is even possible. Worse case, I rethink what is really important to have on hand. The most time consuming thing to be has been adding text markups to my drawings. Hence, why I'm talking about this to start with. Think about how much time is saved by a click of a mouse, vs editing your text each time!!! Think how much time is saved by those text items being RIGHT THere vs digging into folders and/or tags. Using tags require many mouse clicks to get to the actual sub menu of tagged items. EXAMPLE: Vs ONE click when they are always RIGHT on top in a tool bar. HINT: If you have UNUSED place holders for future library objects in various tool configs, those are counting against that 398 even though they aren't linked yet. As I'm sure I'm not the first to hit the frustrating limits... I'm going to share what I can while I'm digging into this subject. GO THROUGH ALL YOU TOOBAR CONFIGS and remove/delete ALL unused Library Object icons! A counter would be helpful so we know how many we have left! The above really was the main issue for me. I think I'm back to around 100 or more free spaces now. Appreciate the feedback as it led me to dig more. COME ON CHIEF!!! Let's get creative!

Not that I can find. And, yes, working on Stream Deck icon set perhaps, and figuring a simple way to replace Chief's Icon system limits using the unlimited resources of stream deck. I need to explore 'best methods' first, but the answer has been sitting on my desk the whole time. LOL. Simpler alternative will just be a custom API that has unlimited icons and put that on a separate screen. I've actually been doing a few things for several versions. I store a cabinet set of boxes into a single library set. Drop them on the project, and set them as default. However, as I've been experiencing much larger projects with up to 30 rooms, each project need two or three cabinet lines and overlays. Much easier to switch my tool bar set that references style pallet cabinet configs. Hence, the custom library count goes up fast. I realize everyone looks at a GUI differently. THat is the beauty of Chief. We get to config our GUI exactly as we want. We can mimic our thinking/logic and set up tools/library objects any way we wish. Putting a cap on that really doesn't make sense on a global scale. Putting a cap on it PER tool bar set, makes lots of since. Yes, I and my associate will call Chief next week to discuss. In the meanwhile, I feel that looking for a solution outside of chief will be more productive as I can take immediate action on creating that/those tools. I will freely share such to assure others can enjoy the results. I can see it being a game changer to create endless toolsets where the induvial groupings and be shared easily between those custom sets. Also, will free up the main screen for larger drawing area, and only key tools being on hand.

It's very unlikely I have 400 custom library objects. However, if you start really utilize custom tool bars , 400 is not near as many as it sounds. You could have around, what? 40-50 per bar line across a 2k screen That's only 10 rows of full custom bars max, across ALL your potential custom TOOL SETS. IT's not 400 per set. It's a cap across the entire software structure. This needs to be addressed by Dev team IMHO. I'm really stuck at this point though. Now that I am slammed, I needed far more ease of access custom library buttons. I really dislike tags/folders and menu diving. Mainly, it's a screen limitation and my eyes aren't what they were. The custom assignable icon system to library objects really is a god save. The LIbrary Browser is very old school and time consuming. Icon tool bar groups create a reflex response to exactly what is where. You'll memorize the aprox location of 400 items in no time if you are doing this daily. Menu diving, time consuming! Even with tags, you are turning tags off and on over and over to make find something easier. That's just not efficient. Just that one row of commonly used 'tags' as I call them, with Rich Text or even plain text icons saves me countless hours over the course of a week/month! At this point, my system is more or less LOCKED and I'm stuck with what i have. I deleted bars, and still won't let me add anything. Boooo. Oh, also to note. That 400 cap? It's WAY too low if you consider that is TOTAL CAP. Meaning, if you have just a few tool bar sets, YOU ARE DONE and at the limit. 400 PER set? YES. 400 TOTAL system wide? Please explain how that is a good thing? I work with four cabinet lines, and each has it's own set of object icons. If I want 10 or 100 lines, that seems like an obvious ask for something like a high end design cadd program. (even if generic, one for inset, one for full overlay framed, one for full overlay frameless) GUI really should be the top priority of the user experience. You of all people know how valuable that single aspect of chief is!

Hey, thanks. Based on seeing other peeps having SO many custom icon items, maybe it's just me, or maybe they get some sort of special treatment and this is unlocked for them as a sales point? LOL. Rabbit has like hundreds of custom icons!!!

I doubt it. They are so focused on other improvements. They are all about forcing Cloud based storage and organizing. We still have errors with random forced end panels being added to tall cabinets when they aren't there! Basic errors never to be addressed. We saw zero real improvements to cabinet wizards since when??? Style Pallet tool still can't define interior accessories vs. face frame vs shelf config etc.. All grouped as 'front configuration???? At least we got the ability to add cabinet sides as a separate call out! I get tired of 'work arounds' vs. just fix it! Welcome 2020 Design. Exactly, how they do things. Improve something obvious to sell more subscriptions, ignore past issues and hope they go away. Force the cloud, while deleting almost all end user's abilities to customize catalog/ per cabinet tweaks! We pay more for less and less IMHO. Sorry devs, you got me on a very bad day. I bragged on you to so many, and help sell so many subscriptions to my clients too ! I feel very let down that the feature I loved the most has such trivial limitations. If I have maybe 150 custom place library icons, I'd be exaggerating! Should be ZERO limits. Makes ZERO sense.

Hi, X17 user. I'm part of a small team that services accounts for designers/dealers across the USA. I've spend years working with Chief and as I've come along the way, I've embraced custom tool sets as my go to. WELL, in 2026, to find out that the CHIEF DEV team implements a lame limit on custom Icons is INSANE bordering time to rethink Chief. Buttons are the biggest time saver in Chief for me!!!! To think I'm limited to some arbitrary number (not very high either) of custom 'Place Library Object' buttons really ticks me off. PLEASE tell me, this clever Dev team has lifted such a silly limit hard coded in the x18 version? We don't want to switch to x18 until bug reports are done and more positive feed back is seen. If THIS SINGLE limit has been addressed, we'll update today! AND YES,, I have tried to copy a tool set , delete most all of the tool bars, in hopes it would free space for another set of Place Library item icons. NOPE. No go. CHIEF!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? No inherent way to copy tool bars from one set to another. Now I find out that an advance high end super cad package has a limit on something stupid like an icon that simply references a file item in my library? Don't you think this deserves major attention as it's one of the top features being able to customize the GUI to our needs? Tell me I'm missing the obvious so I can delete this post and share the solution with others! I'm just beside myself upset right now. It's like a major punch in the gut when I finally felt somewhat of a confidence level with Chief.

Sorry, health issues. Been away from forums. No charge, I am not selling packages. I'm not looking to make money on helping anyone. If you are still stuck, email me at pnfcabinetry@gmail.com Just note you are from the forum. Happy to make you whatever door sets you need. Once I show you, it's stupid easy PS for anyone else, YOU MUST assign a separate texture for your rails vs. your stiles. You also MUST assign a separate texture for your center panel. MOST ALL 3rd party software works via looking at the texture file/color per part. Otherwise, it just sees a solid colored/textured door. Back when I thought custom 3d render software was the best solution, I would assign a single color PER PART! So, every last part of a door had it's own color. Sadly, you can't even do that with Chief's cabinet boxes. There's no tool to separate the actual box frame textures individually. (pretty sad). On a fun note, I promise, all this is 100% meaningless unless Chief steps up to the current technology of our industry! You WILL and are being left in the dust if you don't learn how to use Ai, and prompt correctly. Renders and $1000-$4000 GPU cards are historic artifacts in the next six months to a year at most! Anyway... I hope the above explains how texture/color management works and how it 'talks' to third party render engines. It's all about separate colors/textures per individual door part/or any part of anything! One color per 3d part. You will be a super star of detailed photo renders. (until you figure out ai is way better).

Thank you for the potential solution. The down side to your option is, you have to use the same panel style left and right. So, right back the start. This particular job requires Walnut interiors, 5 pcs door left, slab panel right. A very common application. The easiest work around is those I mention in my OP. You could also add vertical partitions, which would be what I'll try next. If it was only one job, one time, I'd just apply the panels loose and call it a day. However, it is very common to have different color finished interiors from exterior. It's been an issue I've avoided and just worked around it until today I was so frustrated that this was an issue still... I figured, IT HAD TO BE ME. LOL. Yes, needs to be reported for sure! Thank you for trying Great idea! It is the solution for end panels that are the same style. Step in the right direction!

Good Day Friends, In Chief x17, If you are changing your cabinet sides to anything other than standard finished sides, you will lose the ability to select a material finish on the inside/side of the box. Example, Change left side wall cabinet to Custom, Door panel. Right side, changed to applied panel. (just to prove the point. Chief deletes the panel inside, leaves the edge banding though. You end up seeing the back side of the door. One solution, would be to create a new door symbol and assign a different material to all the backs of your door from the front. (That's a major pita and should be required) The other option, which slows down design time, is to manually go back, and apply loose door panels instead of using cabinet wizard to add them. In all cases, SHAME on CHIEF, or SHAME ON ME for missing something obvious. I looked around, and can't find anyone reporting this issue prior!? This is not cool! Any help appreciated. (Oh, I tried, framed vs. frameless. Same issue). It seems like a hard coding issue. I think the applied, or custom side as a panel need an offset to avoid this. Chief has some sort of auto hide face function when the door or panel is intersecting with the side of the box. That is believed on count how chief treats toe kicks with certain PITA behavior. You need work arounds, like 1/16" end panel on a base, just so your closed framed toe kick shows properly! Things Devs just don't care about I guess.

It was said by some, Chief doesn't let you rotate certain objects, like cabinets in the Z axis. Well, yes, true, but also.... What this? A Toy Box(Bench Seat) made from a wall cabinet? Look, I rotated a cabinet on it's back, in the Z axis! CHIEF CANNOT Rotate a cabinet wizard symbol in the Z axis. So, the answer is right there. Turn the cabinet into just about anything else, and you now have all rotation axis on hand. Turn your cabinet into a symbol once you have the perfect configuration. (just about any type of symbol) NOW, once you do that, you have you full Rotation controls. You can re-orient the wall cabinet into a toy box! (usually just one rotation of the X axis will get you to this) That's it! No, you can't really edit the new item as a true CABINET using the Wizard tools. However, you do have the ability to create custom furniture from cabinets like a toy box, in just minutes. OTHER THOUGHTS: If you rather have the flexibility of your cabinet wizard Cabinet box, but still show a door on top of your cabinet box; than look at this option: Place a Door Symbol as an object into your plan. Open the object and use Rotation tools to now orient the door as you like: Move the door into place on top of your cabinet wizard symbol to mimic an open 'lid' (stretch planes won't work properly at this point though). Size the door BEFORE you 'open' it via rotation plane. via If you want more details on how I made the toy box, I'll be happy to share. Stay tuned for more tips. Next will be STRETCH PLANES FOR NEWBIES (and in my case, long time users). Only recently took time to utilize the third row of stretch dimensions. Enjoy!