Alaskan_Son

We have handles for Leaders and for Callout Arrows but not for Section Arrows.  A suggestion for the Callout Arrow to be used along with the Alt Key to pull a Section Arrow might be a good one. 

I don't typically donate time to troubleshoot or advise on scripting issues on here anymore, but I decided to make a one time exception this morning: 

There are all sorts of little problems:

source_information = %room.area.internal%

numeric_part = source_information.match(/\d+/)[0]

numeric_value = numeric_part.to_i

result = numeric_value / 20

puts result

1.  %room.area.internal% isn't a Ruby accessible object attribute (name:value pair).  It's just a Chief Architect string substitution macro.  If you want to use this macro in a text box placed in the room, the name:value pair you should be using is simply room.internal_area without the percentage signs.

2.  The match method is a Ruby method used to parse a string.  The internal area attribute however is not a string.  Its a Measurement.  If you want to use the match method, you first need to convert the source_information to a string using the .to_s method.

3.  Just an observation, but you may not be getting the results you think.  The .to_i method is converting your results to an integer which is the whole number rounded down.  0.999 would become zero, 559.9 becomes 559, etc.  What's worse though is that because you're diving by another integer (20) the results of your calculation would also become another integer.  So, instead of 559.9/20 = 27.995 you would get an even 27.  This one can be solved by just converting to a float (which contains decimal values) and then rounding the result.  This can be done a number of ways, but one of the easiest would simply be to replace .to_i with .to_f.

4.  puts isn't used in Chief's text macro environment.  It's simply not needed.  If you try to use it, your results will by nil (empty).  

So, the corrected macro becomes:

source_information = room.internal_area

numeric_part = source_information.to_s.match(/\d+/)[0]

numeric_value = numeric_part.to_f

result = numeric_value / 20

result.round

Although the above macro would work, it still has a handful of totally unnecessary code and could be reduced all the way down to:

(room.internal_area.to_f/20).round

9 minutes ago, DIYJon said:

I have, but it doesn't seem to do anything to the ceiling.

 

Are you sure you used the Hole in Ceiling Platform tool and not the Roof Hole or Hole in Roof / Custom Ceiling tool?

Have you looked at the Hole in Ceiling Platform tool to see if that does what you want?

To get additional items into the Material List, you need to use the Components tab.

6 minutes ago, IvanCyr said:

As I was pondering this yesterday, I was thinking that if I could define the room just a 1/2" bigger using the concentric tool, I could use a room molding PL, but your suggestion is better; use the Standard Room Area then "magic wand" it to a Mat PL.

What happened to...

On 4/10/2024 at 2:53 PM, IvanCyr said:

...without using the Mat List PL tool?

??

Open the Garage and Porch Rooms up on Floor 1, click on the Structure tab, and under Floor, uncheck Build Foundation Below.

5 minutes ago, JKEdmo said:

Good morning,

 

Working on a large new house on a large lot.  I'll have to develop the site plan soon.

 

Should I include the site work as part of the house plan file or draw it up separately and bring it in as a reference display?

 

I suspect there's a chance that the house will move on the site before we finalize its location.  My inclination is to keep the site plan as a separate file.

 

What do you recommend?

 

Thanks again,

 

Jim

 

I think the answer to this depends a bit on HOW you are drawing up your site plan and on what needs to be shown on that plan. 

If its all CAD, then I would suggest you look into using the Plan Footprint tool in a CAD Detail.  The Plan Footprint is essentially a layout-box-like viewport sent to a CAD Detail so that the house can be freely moved around on your site plan. 

If however you need to include a lot of 3D information, then that changes things a bit.  I usually draw all that stuff in the current plan file and then if the house needs to move, just group select or Edit Area and move the underlying site plan stuff in relation to the house instead of the other way around. 

3 hours ago, MCCCcc said:

I designed an addition on an existing house and have created a schedule of just the addition the framing. The shell of the house has been added to the plan for perspective and elevation views. I have exclude the house rooms from being included in schedules but some of the framing is still being included. I have also selected all the house walls and excluded them from the schedules.The wall framing is still being added to the framing schedule. The only way I have found to exclude the wall framing is to select each stud individually and open its specification to deselect the Include Schedule button. CA won't allow me to marquis select similar stud objects.  Is there a better way to exclude the exist house framing from being added to the addition framing schedules?

 

Study the Materials List Polyline and its settings.  Its a super powerful feature and is the best way to utilize the Materials List in my opinion.  It can be used in concert with the various tools you already know about (Layer Sets, Layers, Material Definitions, Components, etc.) and you can even group select them to produce a single combined materials list using different polylines with different settings.

Non macro solution for quick totals:

Much like we already do with schedules, you can optionally consolidate items by using only columns that will cause items to group together (like Group Similar Objects does).  In your case for example, you could turn off the size and description columns to get a total count to display instead of individual counts.  There are various ways you can use other columns to help consolidate items this way for quick calcs. 

You could also optionally copy and paste any given selection to excel.

I don't know, but not sure why they would.  Anyone needing to work with the object in Chief could just as easily and much more effectively use a more appropriate file type like obj, dae, or 3ds.  I don't believe there's any extra information in an fbx file that Chief could make use of and I imagine any software you're using to produce the fbx file could also be producing one of the aforementioned and less bloated file types. 

We currently can't.  I would either suppress the text and add manually using a text box OR (if the dimensions needed to be dynamic) use a single segment polyline with arrows and macros in the label.

When you choose to Interpolate Tangent to Edge, Chief attempts to build the terrain so that the resulting terrain contours have curvature that is more tangential to the elevation region.  In other words, if viewed in a perpendicular cross section,  the terrain arc would be tangent to the flat line created by the elevation region. The results vary a bit depending on how extreme the terrain slope and on your Terrain Surface Smoothing and Triangle Count settings, but here's an example to help highlight the difference with my settings pretty well maxed out for effect...

You can Control Select and temporarily block it.  Move it up, then explode the block.

You can get the actual pockets by using Floor Beams instead of joists.  It does however require that you Wall Type definition is set to have a Brick Ledge Depth.

On 1/3/2024 at 9:31 AM, Tony-209 said:

Hey Guys,

 

I am a Revit user, and to draw a line we just click the start and click at the end, but CA does not have this option that I can see, I am struggling with the drag option, especially with dimension and linework, when zoomed in and the whole line you are drawing is not in the screen, you have to let go, move the screen and start again, it just seem too fiddly to me?

 

Thanks in advance

Hey Tony,

It sounds like what you are referring to is click-drag-release vs. click-drag-click

To get the desired click-drag-click functionality, here's what I personally do:

I simply click to start the operation, temporarily activate the Zoom tool (which suspends the operation), release the mouse button, pan or zoom as desired and then click again to finish.

So assuming you don't change the Default Hotkey assignment, the whole operation to draw a line looks like this:

L to activate the Line tool

Click and hold to start line at desired point

Shift+Z

Release mouse key

Pan/Zoom/Drag as desired

Click to finsih

This is just how Chief handles room information inside the Room Specification dialog and only while it is open.  The values that get reported to the Materials List should be correct.

I showed that in the quick GIF clip above unless I’m misunderstanding the question.  I both added walls and edited existing walls.  Moving existing walls changed the automatically produced foundation walls which also updated accordingly.  

I've tested and used quite a few different methods for this type of thing, but I hated having to manually refresh things or depend on timers, so I recently went back to the drawing board and developed an entirely new system...

It remain constantly live, and allows using either a standalone total or a functioning schedule that can be reordered.  Its a rather complex system with its own limitations but I love how it works.  I don't have a lot of spare time these days but I can offer my services to help set something up or teach you how it works as time permits.  If you're interested, I think you have my email. 

38 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

You are absolutely right!  Don’t adjust your vision or glasses. 

 

A clipping tool should be exactly that, it should “clip”.

 

Unfortunately, many people on this forum have only ever used Chief and are unaware of what a clipping tool should be. 
It’s not a novel concept. I think Chief has a half baked tool and hopefully will correct it soon.
…And not as a new feature in X16 but as a fix for X15. 

Not everything is subjective.  We're talking about objective functionality here.  The issue being discussed can only be "corrected" as you guys seem to be proposing by breaking the existing and purposeful function.  Let me give you some examples of what we can currently do:

Send a view to layout without any clipping...

Send a view to layout and clip the layout box...

Clip the camera and then send that view to layout...

2 different clipping tools for 2 entirely different purposes.  Just use the right one for the right job.  If you are suggesting that camera clipping should clip what gets sent to layout then you're literally just moving the layout box clipping tool to the plan file and removing the function of camera clipping...or at least making it so that the clipped camera views that are sent to layout need to have the layout box expanded.  No, I hold that you guys just need to request a different tool.  I'm still curious why you feel its inherently better to clip in plan then it is to simply clip in layout. 

32 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

The 'feature'

You seem to be suggesting that this tool is somehow broken or doing something its not supposed to do but its working exactly as intended.  Its designed to clip the camera view, period.  Its not a layout tool.  What you seem to want is a different tool entirely.  In fact, the thing you seem to be looking for is exactly the thing we already have in layout.  You can already simply clip your layout box. Clipping camera views allows for removing unwanted 3D information while still allowing for CAD whereas clipping the layout box removes everything.  2 different tools for 2 different purposes.  It sounds like you want 2 different clipping tools available in Plan so that you can not only clip your camera views but also clip your layout box ahead of time.  Would that really be better though...you have to adjust the box either way.

12 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

Which makes me wonder why the 'feature' is even included for elevations as it will send all of the data that's on the page pretty much no matter whether or not the 'Clip Elevation' box is checked or not and no matter where the clipped lines are located. I don't think this is intended behavior.

I think its entirely intended.  It's sending everything that's being displayed in your view.  This gives us the ability to create a clipped view and then annotate or otherwise dress up the view with CAD/Text objects that extend outside the clipped area.  If you don't want the various CAD in your view I would argue that it probably shouldn't be there at all.  If you need to leave it there and would like only the clipped area to send to layout, maybe try turning the unwanted layers off before sending or group selecting and cutting the objects to your clipboard before sending.  Then when you're done sending the view, Paste Hold Position.

The issue with the extension lines disappearing is definitely a bug and something I've seen multiple times in my own plans.  Not sure what the trigger is either.  It seems super unpredictable.  Sometimes you can even get the extensions to come and go depending on where you position the dimension string and even on how quickly you move it (whether you move it all in one go or move it a little at a time).   The weird thing is that the extension is actually there.  You just can't see it.

If you simply Add to Library (instead of converting to symbol) you shouldn't have any of these problems.