BrownTiger

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    Any CA members in the East TN area willing to teach basics?

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    Frankly I think the biggest downfall of chief architect that the templates it comes with are not particularly very good. 

    And I question some of the defaults...

     

    Having good SAM plan and a matching layout will save months of learning. 

     

    In my opinion, instead of goofy "best kitchen" contest: CA should make best way to documented a plan contest without going overboard and

    producing and pointless pages.

    Let there be lites

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    Can't you use transoms to emulate the look, and stick window on the top of the window? Top window will have lites across? 

     

    Make this a single unit and override the label, or specify exclude transom top from the scheduler?

     

    add a note(s).

    Manual dimension placement?

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    You do not have to draw dimensions in the center of the wall, you do not have to move the dimensions, you do not have to hit corners exactly.

     

    If you go into edit>Defaults>Dimension>Dimensions> 

     

    Select your current active default e.g. "1/4 Scale Dimension Default". Choose "Setup". Notice the "Reach" setting. It control how far object has to be for dimension line to reach it.

     

    Change to 24". And if you do not like the GAP go to extensions, specify Gap From Marked Object 3"  and NOT the "Length Towards Marked Object "

     

    Draw rectangle, slightly pass the corner of your rectangle and start drawing dimension line. When you reach opposite corner notice dimension displayed number "2". Let it go.

    Chief will accurately place the dimension. Controlling reach allow you to accurately select what you want to reach. Even IF you reached something you do not want it is easy to get rid of not needed diamond.

     

    post-4512-0-92446300-1477344517_thumb.png

     

    and 

     

    post-4512-0-60710200-1477344516_thumb.png

    • Upvote 1

    Settings/Tool bars Transfer

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    Check in CA

    MENU>> EDIT >> Preferences >> General >> Folders >> 

     

    Find and click "All Program Path" button ...

     

    For Toolbars locate the path.

    and copy everything from that folder.

     

     

    Every single folder is declared there..

     

    To determine location to transfer to .. do the same to discover destination paths thing on your laptop. Copy what you need.

    AddingObject with a RubyMacro to the library

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    BT,

     

    Haven't spent a lot of time on it and I'm probably done playing around with this for today, but just a little side note for whatever it might be worth to you.  I remember now why I stopped using global ($) macros as any sort of toggle...it can be very finicky.  Macros will execute in unwanted fashions simply by opening or closing text macro management, and switching a layer set in plan can affect the view in layout even if the view in layout hasn't changed layer sets.  Anyway, you have to be EXTREMELY careful with the way you set up and execute your global macros to avoid unwanted results. It can be more of a hassle than its worth in many situations. 

     

    Not in my experience. First these are global values, but they are set/reset @current view. 

    I would never be simply using a value set  by a macro on the floor 1 and read by a macro on floor 2. Because clearly IF you open another plan, mistakenly re-execute macro or had it set by a prior

    loaded plan the value will not be correct. However, if your global value is set while viewing floor 1 and used immediately, it will be file. 

     

    Macros execute

    1) In the order of object creation. Thus I recommend if you creating new plan always place psolid (with an initialize) macro, prior to any walls created.

    2) It matters not if an object is outside of the viewport

    3) RoomLabels always refreshed when you change layerSet

    4) windows / door labels are not redrawn. [They are redrawn if you roll back and force mouse zoom wheel.]

     

    See if you can break my project. In fact you can open two projects at the same time and reset macro works correctly, besides side-effect are little. Change layerset again and it will be reexecuted.

    AddingObject with a RubyMacro to the library

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    It would be even better if there was a LayerSetName available to Ruby.  Then the Room Macro could just check that to determine what to display.  We wouldn't need the extra macros on the Plan to determine what to show.

     

    No dispute there. Also second plan "DemoMacro2.plan" has a lot less macros and pretty easy to use.

    But do You think ChiefArchitect will be improving Ruby integration in X9?

     

    Have you by any chance seen Sketchup Ruby addons? FULLY functional powerful plugins and third party library. 

    AddingObject with a RubyMacro to the library

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    I am going to post a plan I did in CA [ vs HA], may be someone else could benefit from it. [CA is my Lego Minecraft hobby, I like to create ala Breckenridge plans that could never afford to build]. 

     

    Feel free to switch from "Default LayerSet to Default Layerset 2" to see it in action. Room Labels change as well as Windows labels.

    [Really cool as I can display or hide windows/doors dimensions, headers, etc]

     

    1) How can I create a library objects containing macros.

     

    (obsolete) see No2

    DemoMacro.plan

     

    Thank you

    AddingObject with a RubyMacro to the library

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    I would like to have labels [like RoomLabels] to display different information based on the layer set. The concept is useful to display floor finish,

    but only for intended layer set, or ceiling height again only on requested layers, vent requirements, etc. See pictures

     

    post-4512-0-77724100-1476510141_thumb.jpg

     

    Same macro displays different data based on the presence of Show Requirements Label in the layer

     

    post-4512-0-99115200-1476510142_thumb.jpg

     

    [update]

    Below are two projects provided two show how this is done. One is using two layers for toggle/ two macros, other simple using one layer.

    This also works well for walls where you can display wall sq ft -> for drywall estimating, or displaying roof plane sq ft on special "Roof Layerset Sq Ft"

    - to help a builder estimate the cost. Displaying header information in the framing layerset etc.

     

     

    [Original text]

    The premise is simple, create an object  "Show Requirements" label is visible. Layerset 2 will hide this label, show object  "Show Requirements" -> Label will execute macro to set some global e.g. $RequirementsShow = true, screen refreshes room label displays different information.

     

    Now I would like to add my objects: show requirements and hide requirements to User Library.. No problem.

    However the macros associated with these labels are not added with them to the library.

     

    example

    Main Test Macro

    if $RequirementsShow == true

    result = "TOTAL SF - " + internal_area.to_s + "\n"

    result += "VENT REQD - " + (internal_area * 0.04).round(0).to_s + "\n"

    result += "DLO REQD - " + (internal_area * 0.08 ).round(0).to_s + "\n"

    result += "FINISH: " + owner.floor_finish_name + "\n"

    end

    result

     

    Children Label macro

    $RequirementsShow=true

    "Show Requirements"

     

    Other

    $RequirementsShow=false

    "Hide Requirements"

     

    Sooo, HOW CAN I ADD OBJECT CONTAINING A MACRO TO THE LIBRARY? 

    Top plate and Bottom plate lengths showing in materials list

    in General Q & A

    Posted

    I posted this several times in the Suggestion forum, that the wall really needs a "Section Length" value - for material list use. Not only plates are incorrectly accounted for, but at the end of section - CA is missing extra end stud. So if you are framing in 8' sections a 40' long wall, CA software undercounts 4 section end studs. Now normal 16' sections are less drastic - 2. If you go into framing overview you can see the missing studs or 140' one section framing.

     

    Breaking into section is ridiculous and labor intensive. Softplan and PlanSwift offer better approach. But CA should at least add "Section Length" parameter. In addition no way to trace wrong framing members back, like if CA mistake generated 2x4.5 wall, no way to find where it is, or infamous CA error "2x12x20' NOT found - 16 count"