Alaskan_Son

Those are just CAD Blocks. You should report it. You can still use them if you want though by placing them in plan, exploding them, and then clicking Add To Library.

AutoCAD is totally capable of producing 3D files which can be imported into Chief and used as is as long as it was actually modeled with 3D information, and so long as all the various materials have been appropriately mapped separately. Anyway, that’s a discussion that’s hardly worth getting into until you know what type of file they have. To answer your other question. I have shared many many large files with lots of people using various methods and platforms, and Dropbox is by far the easiest, most user friendly, least obtrusive, and least problematic in my experience and it’s not even close. Google Drive, One Drive, and iCloud can all be a major PITA.

There’s one major piece of the puzzle that hasn’t been addressed. Are you talking about 2D DXF/DWG files or 3D DXF/DWG files? Big big difference.

The house-wrap is NOT set to zero OOB. It only shows zero out of necessity when you have your Number Style set to fractional inches. You can however manually change it to be truly zero by manually entering zero. . I oftentimes switch my Number Style to decimal inches so that I can better see the actual dimensions.

From the perspectives of both a framer for many years and as a builder and designer, I say edges for walls hands down. Its not even close. Walls very rarely if ever are placed where they're at based on the center dimension so why would you dimension them like that? The vast majority of the time, its a specific edge or opening dimension that's so important. If someone decides to increase a wall to a 2x6 or decrease to a 2x4, I'd say it's probably only 1 time our of 20 that the wall should be adjusted about the center. Edges and openings are really what matters.

This isn't necessary. I almost always leave Print In Color unchecked and all my drawings are in Grayscale.

Speaking on the issue of placing dimensions to centers vs. edges... To me, it really depends on the plan, how detailed it is, how much information is on it, and on the specific purpose of the drawing. In addition, it depends on the reason I placed that window where I did. Unless the edge of a window is the controlling factor for some reason though, I don't see how anyone could argue the inherent benefits of dimensioning to centers. It results in a cleaner plan with less jumble, and it allows for rough openings and even window sizes to be changed as necessary without needing to change the dimensions at all. . Again though, it depends on the plan. If I need an edge located at a specific location, then that obviously changes things. I think its tough to argue that measuring to center is cleaner and leaves less room for doubt though.

I would recommend investing some time in learning how to use and control line weights in general, but in the meantime, open your layout, go to Print>Drawing Sheet setup and (going from memory for name here but...) under Advanced Lineweight Options, change the number to something very very small (or large...I forgot which and I’m not at my computer). That should have a similar affect to turning off line weights. While you’re there, double check, as I recall, there might even be a legacy setting to use only a single line weight.

Without studying and troubleshooting the plans and macro code, there’s not much I can offer, but for whatever it’s worth, the most powerful refresh you can run for schedules is Cut/Paste Hold Position or Undo/Redo. They’re something I have to do for a few specific types of object attributes, and they’re the ONLY things that consistently work for those items.

Some of the best renders are done by people who rarely or never even post here, but there are a few regulars who do beautiful work in 3rd part apps. @Renerabbitt and @Chiefer come quickly to mind. Maybe one of them will chime in.

You are always welcome Charles. Thank YOU!

This is not true. I'm not sure of all the differences but 2 really big ones jump out at me right away... Truss Base Truss Detail ...both major enhancements for anyone actually wanting or needing to draw trusses to any degree of accuracy. Just because it doesn't do what you would like it to doesn't make it a joke. That's a little harsh.

To add a couple notes/tips of my own on this subject... 1. Don't forget that Chief actually loads the entire PDF file every time you import one and it's not just that single page that gets loaded. This alone is a common reason for the slowdown and can have a massive effect on file size. A quick test with a 40 page PDF Saved In Plan... All 40 pages being displayed separately: File size ----> 143,119 KB One single page being displayed: File size ----> 6,114 KB One single page saved as its own single PDF file before importing: File size ----> 2,899 KB 2. Don't forget that simply saving as a JPG doesn't mean you're going to get the same end results. They're different file types with different behaviors and as such, they will often display differently. A very quick comparative example using OOB settings with a common photo editor to convert a PDF to a JPG. Notice the quality difference between the way the 2 files display and print in Chief... 3. Depending on the reason for using a PDF file in the first place and on whether or not you are going to re-use it again later, I would strongly suggest considering just creating your own CAD or text rather than using the PDF at all. It will look better, the file bloat will be reduced or eliminated, and you get a lot more control over the display. These are obviously just quick examples but they're not contrived and just using the first multi-page PDF I saw and using OOB settings.

I haven’t watched that video since I made it (if I even watched it then), so I don’t remember if I made any mention of it or not, but I very rarely use window symbols for anything (except creating curved objects). They have too many weird issues to contend with. Most notably, the cutout shape is severely limited, the 2D block options are severely limited, and they don’t actually insert into walls like they should. Instead, they behave like a surface attachment. They’re really not very useful for their intended purpose in my opinion.

Quite a few ways to do that. It’s a bit easier in X11 and X12, but here’s a video I made a few versions back that you might be able to glean some tips from... ...Just make the desired shape while the window is standing upright and then use the other tips in the video to get the rest of the way there.

In my experience as a framer, builder, and designer, trusses are being used in about 90% of all new construction in regions I have worked in or am familiar with (mostly Alaska, Northwest, and Hawaii). The main exceptions are very small roof planes or high end projects with either timber framing or other exposed rafter systems. I know this varies regionally, but that’s my experience for whatever it’s worth.

You can also build the roof as desired (heel heights, overhang, etc. and then simply measure and adjust the sub-fascia to move the soffit location. This isn't unusual for the real world anyway where the control point is commonly the heel height. I've often needed to move the fascia up, down, or rip it to get soffits right where I want them.

I could be misunderstanding, but there is probably a faster way and a way that makes Chief do the lion’s share of the heavy lifting. Here’s a quick power tip from the vault... Build all your trusses as usual setting the appropriate trusses to be Energy Heels... Group select at least all the energy heel trusses, change top and bottom chords to a very small dimension (1" should probably do it), check Force Truss Rebuild, and click Okay...   With the trusses still selected, open them right back up, check Lock Truss Envelope, change your top and bottom chord back to what they should be, and click Okay...  It would be nice if those shorter energy heels behaved properly on their own, but until they do, I think this is the best we can do. If anyone knows of a more effective solution I'd love to know it.

Either manual labeling or custom text macros if you want to automate it. No magic button in Chief for that one though.

Very very good tip Eric.

Concentric Edit Mode, Concentric Jump, using the little solid filled circular edit handle, opening the Arc, locking the center, and then editing the radius, using Multiple Copy...

Never gonna happen. Chief prints up thousands of pages of documentation, gives us pop-ups and information panels in various dialogs and people read almost none of it. Or they DO read it and just ignore what it says or dismiss it as "erroneous". Software companies like Chief can only try so hard. It was considered altered simply by clicking Okay instead of Cancel and you were warned appropriately. I don't personally care that this happens though. This type of functionality can make it super quick and easy to disconnect a wall from it's automated behavior if desired, so it also has its benefits. I can however see why a person might want it not to happen if no changes were made. They could instead let us uncheck that Automatically Generated Wall checkbox, but then people would mess with that setting never bothering to read what it's for and then piss and moan because all their attic walls are "glitchy" or "buggy". There's no winning.

You might want to start by hitting F1 or clicking Launch Help and searching the word "Template".

That's what the Cancel button is for. Why would you think the warning is erroneous anyway? That's the problem with failing to recognize we're the ones making the mistakes. We assume it's Chief and learn nothing.

Very well then. Carry on.