Alaskan_Son

Although I agree with the guys above, you can use a corner cabinet as well. You have to insert the appliance as a face item through the dialog (it just can't be dragged and dropped form library is all)... ...problem is that the CAD block displayed in plan view is all wrong. My personal approach is to almost always just leave the appliance area blank (like it will be in real life), size the opening appropriately (so the cabinet is correct), place the appliance in the plan as a a standalone item, size the appliance appropriately (so the appliance is correct), and then position the appliance manually in the cabinet.

As Eric said, Search "Story Pole" and you'll find some answers pretty quickly. For example, from the Help Files... "Specify the position of the Grade Level Marker measured Relative to 1st Floor Subfloor. This value determines the height at which Grade Level is marked by dimension line Elevation Markers, but is not tied to the location of the terrain. • If this value is greater than or less than 0 and Grade Level is a Mark to Include, it will be located at this distance above or below the Default 1st Floor Subfloor. See Floor 1 Default Height. • When this value is 0, Grade Level is marked at the same elevation as the Default 1st Floor Subfloor. • There is only one Grade Level Marker height in each plan, and it is a dynamic setting. If it is modified in one defaults dialog, its value will change automatically in the other two defaults dialogs and any dimensions with Elevation Markers in the plan will update as well. Note: The Grade Level setting and the terrain in the plan are completely independent of one another. See Terrain. Select the desired Elevation Reference, which is the elevation mark that all other marks’ elevations are measured relative to. • Select Grade Level Marker to specify the elevation of the Grade Level Marker as 0 and measure all other marks relative to it. • Select 1st Floor Subfloor to specify the elevation of the Default 1st Floor Subfloor as 0 and measure all other marks relative to it. And search Story Pole here in the forum and you'll pretty quickly find posts like this one from Mick along with many others...

There is the normal secret: Holding down the Control key and opening a second instance of Chief. I usually did this by right clicking on Chief in the task bar, holding down the Control key, and then left clicking on Chief Architect Premier X11. Give it a moment to open the second instance before letting go of the control key. As Ken said, it can take a few tries; however, the only reason for this though in my experience is that people don't give it enough time. Then there is the super secret method (always worked fine for me, but only do this at your own risk because the program wasn't designed with this in mind): Trick Chief into opening 2 layouts by using a non-existent font. Long story short, Chief loads layouts into the program but doesn't actually fully open them when there's a missing font, so you can use this behavior to trick Chief into pre-loading multiple layouts and then opening them both. Here's how: Place the following CAD block off to the side in your desired layouts. It won't hurt anything, it just uses a font that you likely don't have on your system... Multilayoutfont block.calibz Save your layouts. Close Chief. It's very important that Chief be closed before trying to open both layouts. From File Explorer, multiple select both layouts, right click, and Open Give Chief a little time to load both layouts before clicking on anything in the Replace Fonts dialog. You'll know Chief has loaded both layouts when you have 2 Replace Fonts dialogs (which you can see by dragging one off to the side). Again, only do that last one at your own risk. To date it's worked just fine for me, but Chief wasn't designed to do it and as such, and it may cause you problems when attempting to send to layout, switch pages, re-link files, etc. because of the fact Chief was only designed to deal with one layout at a time. For simple copy paste operations, it seems to work without a hitch though (other than the fact switching layout pages changes the page in both layouts simultaneously). In fact, you can even send to layout, but Chief can only send to one of them... ...of course in X12 its designed to work with multiple layouts, and it works great.

I would really suggest that this be presented and considered as a general library functionality enhancement and not as being tied to this specific tool. It’s something that’s actually been requested many times and in various forms but the bottom line is that we could use this general functionality for almost anything and everything we add to the library. My personal thoughts would be to start with a group of default folder settings for each of the various library object types. Any time that particular object type is added to the library, it would go to the selected folder.

Yes, I am very curious.

It looks to me like the Drawing Scale for that view was changed. Without a plan this is just a guess of course.

It's right there in my signature my friend and has been for many years. True, but I know one or 2 of the worst offenders here are long time users who should know better and not your everyday trolls.

This is a non-issue. The tool is still there. It's just not in the edit/contextual menu.

The more important thing you should really update is which software version you're using.

There are a few tricks, but the easiest is to just model it like that. For example, use invisible walls for the wall openings, and for the roof layers, use multiple roof planes (some with more layers than others). To peel back wall layers, use material regions. You can also use the Hole in Floor/Ceiling platform tool, and a Symbol set to Inserts Into Wall along with its Wall Cutout Polyline to create holes and peel back layers as well. You can also modify other roof plane settings to remove fascia/gutters/etc., manually modify framing members, use the Gap materiel type in various assemblies, simply delete objects, manually model parts and pieces, etc. Hopefully that gets you started.

More difficult. Only in some situations though and honeslty the change doesn't really bother me very much. This particular change isn't as a big a deal as some of the others they've made though using the same logic.

I don't disagree. I've nearly reached my wits end with Chief because of this general approach at different times and with a few different tools and functions. I think the problem is that the under educated and/or less proficient masses are just a lot louder, more destructive, and more numerous than those of us who know what we are doing with the tools and make full use of them. At the same time, I think we’re also those most capable of adapting so we tend not to be too loud after changes have been implemented either. Then, when negative changes have been implemented, of course the majority aren’t going to complain because they never knew any better in the first place.

This is an open letter to the person(s) who continue to deride some of us for suggesting that people provide a signature, post their plan, or provide us at least with some screenshots and/or the software version that they're using. Please consider dropping the attitude. You're just being rude and its ultimately helping absolutely no one. We're just trying to help and teach people, that's all, and your pervasive negative vibe is frustrating, discouraging, and even demoralizing. Without the software version, we oftentimes cannot give a helpful answer. It's played out many many many times...people are given answers that are completely useless and ultimately a waste of everyone's time because the functionality is totally different in the product being used by the original poster. In addition, people can't be properly helped if the questions are lacking in crucial details. Sure we could just ignore the posts, but that doesn't help anyone either. Bottom line: People need to know when they're not providing us with enough information, otherwise they don't get good answers. When you guys give us down-votes or denigrate us for asking for crucial information you're really not helping anyone...in fact quite the opposite, you're fostering a negative and unproductive environment.

It was causing too many users too many problems. People were inadvertently clicking on it and creating multiple copies of all sorts of objects not realizing what was happening and ending up with problems because of it. You can get nearly the same results by using the normal copy tool and just dragging a new copy using the Move handle. In addition, you can simply followup the Copy/Paste with any one of the sub-menu items (Paste Hold Position tool, Point To Point, or Reflect About), or you can still use the Copy/Paste In Place tool (with a hotkey,by adding it to your toolbars, or via the Edit menu).

You're either using Chief Architect or you're using Home Designer Pro 2020. I suspect it's the latter. As @Signatures said above, is helpful to be clear about this when you ask questions because it can make a crucial difference, and the reason he suggest the signature is so that you don't have to post it every single time and so that people are less probe to give you bad information. In addition, you should probably be posting your questions over in the HomeTalk forum. This forum here is more specifically for people using Chief Architect Premier and Interiors products which have a lot more features than the Home Designer product line. Most people here in this forum don't keep track of those differences though and as such, the answers Home Designer users receive here are oftentimes totally useless or worse...totally misleading, confusing, and ultimately a frustrating waste of time on your end.

Just got back into the office and tested this out. First off, it will change the door depending on what exactly you paint and in what mode you paint it. For example, if you paint the door itself, it will change regardless of the mode; if you paint the room in anything except Object mode, it will change; if you paint anything on that floor in Floor mode, it will change; and if you paint anything in the plan in Plan mode, it will change. The glass wall behavior is a weird one. Seems like there should possibly be a way to set specific things NOT to be affected by Style Palettes though. Not sure what the best solution might be though because I don't particularly want to see an extra checkbox in every dialog box. I supposed it could be set at the material level, but then what about things that are unrelated to materials that you don't want to change...a single existing cabinet or door for example.

Ya. That’s an option too. I personally like to include the elevations in the schedule though. It was an unspoken pre-requisite in my mind. If the elevations aren’t necessary, you’re probably right. Just make it manually. Could also use the material list in a number of ways too.

My opinion. Easiest solution is just to cheat it. Select skylights one by one, Convert To Symbol and drag off to side. Then include all those in their own Custom Schedule. You could optionally rotate them and use custom macros so sizing was right or you could just use Custom Object Information Fields and just enter the necessary info. manually. Not ideal, but easy enough.

I’ll have to check that one out when I get back to computer. Doesn’t sound like desirable behavior though.

I have no doubt in my mind that it was designed to work that way and that it’s not a bug. you obviously don’t want all your base cabinets in the plan changing to a 24” wide single door and drawer base. A window isn’t much different. You want to change the general repeating characteristics, but not the parameters that we typically set on an individual unit by unit basis.

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.