Alaskan_Son

My suggestion is that the better way is to just adjust your habits. Get used to just using the space bar and/or use right click. For your bathroom cabinet and door situation for example... If you either turn off Contextual menus or require 2 clicks, you could leave the cabinet tool activated and still easily select the door using a right click. You can even leave contextual menus on. It’s just a little problematic in my opinion having the contextual menus pop up automatically. I personally don’t like it.

-A more complex folder hierarchy -Proper use of Keywords and Styles (Search Attributes) -Creating and using temporary Style Palettes. For example, we can tweak the settings of one single "Modern Shaker" palette to change all sort of little details about it (materials, moldings, hardware, etc.). It will still greatly speed up our workflow without over complexifying our libraries. We could also quickly create one based on objects in an existing plan, or just set one up real quick on the fly. I guess what I'm saying is that we don't actually have to store it to make it useful.

Let me try to address this as tactfully and sensitively as I can... Once you really become proficient with the software, understand how it works, and how to use it properly, you will understand that this request is completely absurd. It can never work like you want it to. Almost every single operation would come with a warning...no, a whole string of warnings. There are hundreds of settings that can easily each have an affect on one or more seemingly unrelated objects and in unrelated ways and that’s just how the program works. A “true lock” would do nothing but completely stop most operations from ever taking place or send you through a never ending barrage of warnings that would force you to turn the stupid feature off. If you need to move a wall though, you have no choice but moving the wall and investing the time and effort in learning how the program works. Or do you REALLY want this string of warnings every time you do something as simple as move a wall... -Warning: moving this wall will move attached cabinets which are locked. -Warning: moving this wall will move contained windows which are locked. -Warning: moving this wall will move contained doors which are locked. -Warning: moving this wall will cause portion of wall to extend higher than adjacent roof/ceiling plane(s) -Warning: moving this wall will cause portion of wall to drop down to accommodate adjacent roof/ceiling planes. -Warning: moving this wall will affect connections with other walls on locked layers. -Warning: moving this wall will affect lengths of walls on locked layers. -Warning: moving this wall will cause hole between wall and adjacent deck framing. -Warning: moving his wall will age t framing of adjacent deck which is on locked layer. -Warning: moving this wall will affect framing that is on a locked layer -Warning: moving this wall will affect auto roofs which in turn will affect tons of other $#!+ that will be affected by that modified roof... ........ There’s a good reason almost nobody ever suggests or supports this idea. It’s just too fundamentally flawed.

My typical hotkey methodology, not only for Chief, but for all the software I use, is to: 1. Learn and use built-in hotkeys whenever possible. 2. When there is no built-in hotkey, try to affect existing hotkeys as little as possible with any new key binding. Because of this, I use simultaneous hotkeys a lot and they usually involve Control, Alt, Shift, or some combination thereof. 3. Only affect existing key bindings for the occasional sake of continuity across platforms or when an existing binding is just too unusual or inefficient for me. Again though, I try to affect existing bindings as little as possible. The main reasons I use simultaneous vs. sequential is because sequential keys almost invariably affect existing bindings or render them useless whereas simultaneous keys can typically be set up to avoid this problem (usually using modifier keys as mentioned above). And the main reasons I don’t like to affect existing hotkeys are because... A. Sometimes there’s is a very good and logical reason a program set a certain hotkey like they did, and I don’t always know what that reason is or that a good reason exists until it’s already done it’s damage. B. It makes communication with tech support, documentation, and other users far more effective since we’re more likely to be on the same page. Troubleshooting, teaching, learning, and just picking up on random tips are all just a lot easier when we’re speaking the same language. C. Sometimes a hotkey is assigned to a tool that is accessible in no other way, and I don’t want to find that out the hard way. This is sort of related to reason A I guess. D. Once you change one existing binding it’s easy to force yourself into slowly but surely re-mapping all the keys. No reason to reinvent the wheel for most of us. Now for high production hotkey-only users, it makes a lot more sense to just develop your own system. Most users land way way outside that small circle though.

Not sure if you watched my video that was posted above or not, but for what its worth, I don't actually use roof planes. I use ceiling planes. Similar, but not quite the same.

Not an insurmountable problem, but if you set up a camera inside, you'll see just one of the few reasons I don't recommend people use moldings for these situations...

There's a Shuffleboard Surface, Cue, and Disk in the Recreation No. 4 Games Bonus Catalog. You should be able to put something together using those.

I personally go through phases depending on what I seem to be doing a lot of during any given period of my life. The top 5 that seem to have stood the test of time though and that I use all the time are: Num+* ----> Place Point Num+/ ----> Rotate Resize About Current Point Num+- ----> Delete Temporary Points Those first 3 are all on the number pad, they're all right next to each other, and they're all used together most of the time. The / just reminds me of a rotating line so its easy to remember what it does. The * looks like a point and its right there, and the - is a minus so I can easily remember its for subtracting things. Again, I go through phases, and sometimes use hotkeys a lot, and sometimes not so much. These ones though I think have stuck around because of how time consuming it would be to toggle in and out of those tools that are typically just used randomly and only for very quick operations throughout the day. Hard to pick my last 2, but I guess they would probably be... Shift + K for a Perspective Full Overview L for the Line tool I use a lot more hotkeys than that and I'm leaving out some of the obvious ones like the Space Bar, Copy, Paste, etc. since those are so universally used by almost everyone. There are periods where I might use a hotkey to get in and out of CAD Block Management or Text Macro Management a ton, but the above 5 are probably my most commonly used and consistently hotkey based operations. EDIT: Just realizing...I think I probably use Control+Alt+V (Paste Hold Position) more than the line tool. I probably actually use that single hotkey more than any other.

Do they though? What if you are trying to select an object in a crowded area, you finally get it (either using Select Next or by luck), and then your double click grabs another object instead? Or what if you have multiple objects selected? A double click anywhere other than an edit handle will drop the selection and pick up on any other eligible single object at that location. I've probably spent hours of my life watching these types of scenarios play out. Its not just the flawed operations that cause problems either. People lose out on progressing because they never learn to get past that point...never learn to properly select and edit multiple objects at the same time, never learn to effectively select and edit objects in crowded areas, etc.

Just a quick example of why I think switching the keys is such a bad idea. I find myself hitting the Escape key all the time when I've accidentally started dragging an object, resizing an object, maybe dragging the wrong corner, or activating Resize edit mode instead of Concentric, etc.. Either way, I simply want to escape out of the operation. Switching to the Select Objects tool though, doesn't just escape out of the operation. It drops the current tool and loses the selected object(s) entirely. This means in many cases you're forced to reactivate a tool and/or re-select one or more objects. Very inefficient. Much more effective to learn to select and edit objects as Chief intended. My suggestion for most people would be to learn about left click vs. right click, to read up on Contextual Menu options (first item in Preferences), and to get into the habit of selecting objects without always switching to the Select Objects tool. You end up switching tools a lot more often than you really need to.

Not a foolish question at all. See my last post above.

Ya, I get it. I just think a person should be properly informed first since the 2 tools are very different. On a side note though, it seems Chief (or Windows) recognize the potential for damaging consequences in this area and as such the behavior of the escape key reverts to normal in dialogs where conflicts would exist (most notably in data entry fields where a True Escape is still done using the Escape key) so it may not be a huge deal to switch them. I still think its a mistake though. Muscle memory or not, the OP isn't actually doing the same thing they were doing in AutoCAD. In Chief, its commonly a lot more efficient to stay in the current tool and simply escape the operation.

Yes, but also very much no, not if the person isn't doing what they think they're doing. The OP wants Chief to mimic his or her AutoCAD experience but their suppositions are totally flawed. Select Objects is NOT equivalent to the Escape key. The escape key functions as an actual escape (i.e. "I need out of here"). It cancels the current operation no matter where you are. In addition, hitting it multiple times will cycle back through your previously active tools. Basically, it just keeps escaping you further and further back. The space bar (Select Object) does something entirely different. It doesn't actually escape anything. It just changes you to the Select Object tool. This means it's totally useless as an "escape" if you're in a data entry field or in an open dialog box. This could get very confusing and a person would be misleading themselves to rearrange the keys for the reasons given. At the end of the day, switching to the Select Objects tool with a hot key might feel like its doing the same things as the escape key, but it absolutely is not. You would get nearly the exact same result by assigning the Base Cabinet tool to that hotkey. Only difference? You would only be able to select Base Cabinets and Full Height Cabinets.

Are you referring to the material that might go on top of that little ledge? If so, you can't actually see that from anywhere you might set up a camera if you're just going for the "look" anyway, and the section is far more accurate than it would be with a molding polyline. I actually don't think many builders finish that area anyway. In fact, its commonly too hard to even access. If anything I can maybe see a piece of molding placed on top of that ledge...there's an appropriate use of that molding.

Are you talking about OOB hotkeys too or custom only?

I would suggest you don’t do what you’re trying to do even if there is a way. The Escape key and Select Object are 2 entirely different tools with different functions. If you really want to get efficient with the software, you don’t want to use the 2 interchangeably. The escape key will cancel the operation which is a great function, but it’s terribly inefficient to switch to Select Objects every time you want to cancel out of an operation. Having trained and coached many many users over the years, I can tell you the probably the single most common time waster I see is ineffective selection of objects and one the biggest offenders is constantly switching to Select Objects (number one is probably improper/untimely use of right vs. left mouse button and double click vs. Open Object). Might click on the Select Objects tool and open the Help files. Read up on selecting objects.

Very easy to accomplish by auto building the lower tier, exploding it and deleting the center ceiling section, and then auto building the upper tier.

Like I said, study that 2D Block. The 2D Block is the key. If you need in depth explanation and instructions I would be happy to provide them or make you a custom video, but I can only afford to donate so much time so it would be at my standard rates.

Depends on the situation. For most projects I simply use a manually modeled solid. If the structure is more important though I do similar to Scott except that I have usually used ceiling planes instead of roof planes. Roof planes do however have the No Special Snapping setting that can be useful. Not sure about other benefits or drawbacks of one over the other off the top though.

I only quickly threw that together and didn't really study your symbol or original 2D Block. I believe I set my modified block and the offsets according to the 23.75" dimensions though. If your original block was a different dimension, then some or all of the modifications would need to be tweaked to suit. It's not Chief getting upset though.

I personally don't know why it got brought up as something that should be done. If you don't know exactly WHY you're doing it, then I don't think you should be doing it at all. Chances are that if you renamed your default layers, then you probably want them to keep them renamed. Now if your default plan is a mess and you want to clean it all up and start somewhat new...then yes, that might be a good idea.

This can also be done with a normal symbol BTW by just setting the Elevation Reference to "From Ceiling".

Study what I did. Specifically the origin offsets and the CAD block... Supply Air.calibz

Me too. I'm guessing it almost certainly has something to do with the fact that the imported Default Sets did not have a Revision Cloud Default to set. That's why nothing you do will ever match an old default set. Chief probably just recognizes this in fixes it during the initial loading of the plan...which would explain why you have to save and then open the plan again.