KirkClemons

In X10, we can now call other macros as methods. This means that the naming conventions need to be enforced so that the Ruby interpreter handles them correctly. To me, that seems like another reason that we may want to expose more user control over a macro 'Type' so that Chief can handle them accordingly.

It's found under this text.

I understand, and a power user such as yourself would understand whether or not your macro is defined as a constant or a class when you call it from another macro: https://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Understanding_Ruby_Variables#Ruby_Constants https://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Ruby_Object_Oriented_Programming#Defining_a_Ruby_Class However, for the users who are not as familiar, it's safer (IMO) to lead them down a more specific road that sticks to the language's naming conventions more strictly so they have a better overall experience. So, maybe, some general feedback to our development team on making different types of macros (i.e. Class, Constant, or Method) available in the software may be needed?

Camel case is still an accepted standard and is a nice way to handle names that have multiple words in them. areaRounded or roundedArea should still work so long as the object the macro is evaluating has a readable area.

I would recommend looking at the default setting where this object is most likely used. Som of the layers in Larry's example had ANNO prepended to the name. So, I would be that there is an annotation default using that layer. Changing which layer that annotation set uses would free up the now, unused layer. I agree though, it would be nice if you could trace which default is using that layer.

Depends on the desired effect. I find that I can produce better quality walkthroughs if I use the spline because the movements are less jerky.

It helps to know what typical videos are recorded as. So, here's some things to keep in mind when creating your settings: 1. A typical video on YouTube is recorded at 24 frames per second. This affects how smooth the playback is, not necessarily how long the video is. 2. Next, you will want to make sure you specify a length of time along the path, or in your manual movements that makes sense. Playback can seem really fast if you've told the program you want to run all the way through the house in under a minute and you want that played back at 15 to 24 frames per second. Think about how long it might take you to walk through the distance of your planned path and set the total length of the video to that amount of time. Hope that information is helpful.

I would recommend downloading and installing Xvid from the official Xvid website: https://www.xvid.com/download/ Once you've installed that, you'll need to restart Chief Architect. Once you've restarted the program, the option for Xvid will be available in your Render preferences. After you've set the preferred codec, you can re-record your walkthrough and the video output should be much smaller and play normally on pretty much any system.

Also, you cannot see metals in ray trace view unless Photon mapping is enabled in your ray trace settings.

1. Yes, your 'output' macro could simply add two global variables together and return the sum. 2. Yes, store the value of the Garage's area in a global variable and include that in your output macro.

One way you could to that is to store the output of the macro into a global variable, then call that variable with another macro. (video attached) Global variables are denoted with the $ symbol. storing-output.mp4

That was in reply to the OP's question about displaying the macro output away from the polyline.

As a quick reference to anyone who finds this, you can move the label away from the polyline fairly simply. See the attached video. label-macro-distant-macro.mp4

For ray traces specifically, you will need to set up the image size in your ray trace settings.