Alaskan_Son

in my experience, it’s mostly just to find missing dimensions. I almost never scale anything.

I've framed houses for over 20 years, and I honestly wouldn't really care if the plans were 3/16" scale. I could also deal with 1/8" honestly. I would just need to remember my reading glasses. I think your idea of offering 1/4" on request is completely reasonable. I think the easiest and most reasonable option though is to draw at 1/4" scale for Arch E but just print most sets at 1/2 scale on smaller sheets unless requested otherwise.

If it requires using any parametric objects (walls, windows, doors, cabinets, roof planes, etc.) then storing in a single plan comes with all sorts of problems. That being said, one thing I personally do for relatively small options changes like a different kitchen cabinet configuration for example is just group select "Kitchen A" and drag off to the side a specified distance (say 50 ft. so its well out of the way). I then drawn in "Kitchen B". Option A remains off the side where I can easily group select (unless it already in an Architectural Block) and then move back the specified position to where it previously was. using this method allows for a way to at least store your various options in a single plan. Doesn't work so good for super complex changes though.

Hard to tell from just a video, but a couple possibilities: You have several things in that area and Chief is just having a hard time snapping to the one you want. The reason this isn't true for new dimensions in that the new dimensions know exactly what they are supposed to be snapping to. Editing after the fact allows you to snap to almost anything. You aren't releasing you mouse button far enough from other object. To snap to your wall's main layer when there are other potentially conflicting snap point nearby, I often find the need to release the mouse button much further down the wall. It will still ultimately measure from the end of the wall, but you release the mouse button in an area where there are no conflicts.

Please read my post again. A few key points regarding your specific plan though: Your foundation wall's Main Layer is "Grey-Blocks Running Bond". Your wall above is set to Foundation to Exterior of Layer "White Brick" with a Foundation Offset of 0" What you are telling Chief to do is to align your "Gray-Blocks..." to your "White Brick" with no offset and that is exactly what Chief is doing. If I were you, I would probably address this by just adding the appropriate Foundation Offset to your upper walls. This is exactly what does happen with the default Siding-6 wall and the default 8" CMU wall.

Here are a few key things to understand: 1. Foundation to Exterior of Layer is a setting that affects or aligns to the foundation wall below. It does not affect the wall itself in any way aside from being used for its alignment with the wall below. 2. Similarly, Foundation Offset only affects or aligns to the foundation wall below and is measured from whichever layer you assigned to the aforementioned Foundation to Exterior of Layer setting. 3. Perhaps most importantly, your foundation wall aligns with the wall above based on its own Main Layer. That is, the main layer of your foundation wall aligns with the following settings in the wall above: whatever layer you have assigned to the Foundation to Exterior of Layer settings plus or minus any defined Foundation Offset. NOTE: When using the Align With Wall Below tool, the opposite is also true, the wall above would align with the wall below based on those same settings, the main point though is that the foundation wall uses its main layer for alignment while the wall above uses the settings in the Wall Properties tab.

I don't see any of the problematic cameras you mention. In fact, the cameras I do see don't match you show either...

Can you post the plan? Even a stripped down version?

Can't say that I do, BUT I'm 99% certain AutoCAD has built in functionality for both converting vector based PDFs to DWG and for snapping to underlying PDF vectors. Most PDF editors have snapping and measuring capabilities as well.

You probably need to post the plan. Too many variables.

Not sure what you have going on there because I haven't seen the plan, but the slab should build through to the exterior as long as the main layer is framing. If you're using a pony wall with concrete on the lower half that's been dragged all the way down then you'll get what you're showing because Chief is holding the slab inside that concrete wall (even though you've pulled it down). Doing what Rene shows should force the desired behavior for even a pony wall though.

You have to select / highlight the layer before the Convert Selected Layer(s) tool will do anything... Once you do this though, you should get the following import... Its a terrain perimeter with a bunch of elevation points and lines at this stage, but if you create a CAD Detail From View you can get it all into CAD form.

Try importing as elevation data and all your points should come in that way.

I created a similar system, but rather than using referencing defined elevation points, it can actually pick up on underlying elevation data. In other words, drop the point wherever you want, and it will simply report whatever the terrain is doing at that location.

Not sure who you got that from, but I would just do a little troubleshooting to try and find out why it stopped working. If you have the values in a schedule, you should be able to export quite easily. Must just be a slight formatting or export issue you need to straighten out. Might be something as simple as getting rid of the unit indicator even.

There are several ways to do what you're you're attempting to do, BUT you have to consider the fact that Chief won't allow you to change the properties for a mulled unit when selected along with a normal window. That being said, the most all-encompassing solution is this: Drop a window schedule into your plan that only includes only a 2D Symbol column. There are other columns that would work as well, but the idea is to use a single column so that only one line item is generated by the schedule. Set the schedule to include all relevant window types. Select the one single line item in your schedule and click the Open Row Object tool. This will essentially let you edit every single window in the plan. You can optionally use the Find Object(s) in Plan tool if you want to select and edit for only a specific floor. In order for the above to work for mulled units, you will need to set all mulled units to Show Component Labels so that they are being listed (and therefore selected and edited) as individual units and not as mulled units. There are sneaky ways to make quick/temporary work of this as well, but that is a different thing.

Yup. All good notes. A few more that are worth considering as well: If you have Auto Refresh turned on for Auto Exterior Dimensions, you don't even have to generate those. Chief will do it automatically with no need to switch defaults. If you have Auto Refresh for Auto Room Dimensions turned on, you will only need to switch Active Defaults the first time your generate dimensions for any given room(s) In lieu of adding the Active Dimension Default Control you could also just create a special Plan View for this purpose.

Yes. Sound like perhaps you don't fully understand Dimension Defaults. I just sent you a P.M.

You actually CAN do what you want. The simple fact is that Chief automatically creates Auto Dimensions for every dimension Default that you have set up, whether you are currently using that default or not, and whether the layer is currently displayed or not. What this means for you is this: All you need to do is turn Auto Dimensions OFF for your currently Active Dimension Default, and then make sure you have 2 other dimension defaults set up, one to create your Auto Exterior Dimension and place them onto the desired layer, and one to create your Auto Interior Dimensions and place them onto the desired layer. This will leave you with 3 Dimension Defaults: 1. Your Active Dimension Default which should be set to use your "Dimensions, Manual" layer 2. Your Auto Exterior Dimension Default which should be set to use your "Dimensions, Exterior" layer 3. Your Auto Room Dimension Default which should be set to use your "Dimensions, Room" layer Just make sure all 3 associated dimension layers are turned on in your current view and you should be good to go.

The best workaround I know of is to Cut/Paste Hold Position to another Floor or to a CAD Detail.

Depends on exactly which data you want, but the short answer is yes. For the example above, you can use some relatively simple code like: upper_layers[0].material_data.quantity.to_cu_yd.round(2) It gets much more complicated though if your wall has multiple layers.

Right. They would want to carry out any calculations before formatting. So, if you wanted to subtract an inch and round to the nearest whole inch.... %(room.ceiling_height-1.in).to_s("'-\",1")% ...and bonus tip if you want to round to the nearest whole inch and keep the trailing zero if it lands at a whole foot... %(room.ceiling_height-1.in).to_s("'-\",1").sub(/'$/, '\'-0"')%

True, but every solution to display as feet and inches is going to be in string form.

If you're running the latest version of X17, there's a little Easter egg hidden in the software that will both convert to feet and inches ('-") and set the rounding precision. It looks like this: %room.ceiling_height.to_s("'-\",16")%

Not sure what that "Item" column is because its not a Chief name. It's one that you must have renamed. I'm guessing though that it's the "Label" column. Check your object labels.