Alaskan_Son

Issue has been around for a very long time...

...or just mask it in layout with a filled polyline (background color, with or without a hole, and with or without the invisible line style).

Good catch Eric.

I pretty much never use PDF's for anything other than temporarily as a reference. I prefer to draw/type that stuff up myself. All my use case scenarios as referenced in the latter parts of this thread are CAD Details located in a Plan file that have been sent to a Layout file by opening the CAD Detail and using Send To Layout. I then copy that Layout Box from that layout using Control+C and paste into a second open Layout using Control + V or Control+Alt+V and all works great. Richard seems to be having a different experience.

The problem here is that situations like this almost invariably require code that only works for one specific use case scenario and so its not some simple pre-existing idea or code that you really need. In this case, you need a very specifically (and creatively) designed, written, and configured code that meets your specific use case. In other words, it requires someone to do the work. If you already know how, I could give you some quick tips, but otherwise I would just need to do the work for you. Sometimes I feel like people think we're being stingy with our knowledge and ideas, but I could literally spend all day everyday answering followup questions to that free information I provide. Its akin to designing homes...it takes someone who knows what they're doing to get it done and its not something you can learn in a few posts. This is why there are VERY few people here who know how to effectively write and use some of the more complex custom macros. The investment is simply too great, and I would argue that its typically not even worth it either. You could spend literally hundreds of hours getting it all figured out from a technical standpoint, but maybe you're not the creative type, so you still end up hitting roadblocks. Plus, even if you are super good at devising creative solutions and you master Chief and you master Ruby, is it really worth all the hundreds of hours invested if you could simply pay somebody for a few hours of their time to do it for you? Anyway, I don't have much extra time to play with right now, but here's some quick custom macros and general ideas on-the-house as a one time courtesy. Just open the attached plans and see how I set the 2 joists up. They both contain a slightly different solution depending on what your end goal is, but they both essentially do what you're trying to accomplish... Material List price mod.zip Again, that was as a one-time courtesy. Use it freely as you wish, but if you need further modifications, in depth explanations, or coaching, that would be a different story.

This is totally doable using Ruby. Are you competent with Ruby and custom text macros?

For this, simple text macros usually do the trick. The scale always changes with CAD blocks because each CAD block just retains it's original size. You could technically "fix" this issue by simply grouping something like a much larger but empty text box with your desired text so that the size of the block was always controlled by the much larger borders. This way, the affected area of the block would remain unchanged with any changes.

I would call this instancing, and yes, it would be great if Chief had some more true instancing capabilities. I made a quick video a while back during a discussion we were having elsewhere... I think the main problem with any BIM type CAM software is that for things like walls, windows, doors, floor systems, etc. where there are automated connection/interaction behaviors, that it would be nearly (if not) impossible to allow different instances to interact uniquely with each unique instance. For at least simple non-parametric geometry though, it would be really nice if we had some more capabilities in this department. Not sure how useful it would really be for this particular example, but it would be useful nonetheless.

You just seem to have a faulty room definition. Check out the Structural panel for that room and look at the settings in there. Specifically, check the ceiling height and decide whether that room should really be set to have a monolithic slab or not.

I don't understand the problem. Can you show a quick example?

This is actually a really really good argument against pinning the slab to the foundation walls. If the slab settles and it wasn't designed to carry its own weight over the span of the floor system, then its just going to end up breaking. Might even cause a big step in the slab somewhere if it settles enough. Better to just let the slab settle with the substrate if you ask me.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound condescending. Just wanted to see if there was some unexpected step in your process that might be causing your problems. That is usually the case when one person seems to be having problems that others don't seem to be having.

Despite the fact that there are various workarounds, in my opinion, this actually IS the best way.

I have yet to experience anything like this. I'm curious...How exactly are you copying and pasting?

If you don’t save, the detail in your current layout will just revert as soon as you close the plan.

There is definitely a distinction. One requires that the layout be linked to another layout. That simply isn't normal and is likely what Brian was telling you the program wasn't designed to do.

Totally disagree. The whole point is that the view is sized, cropped, scaled, labeled, etc. exactly like we want it. I think you might be missing out. Anyway, it seems to work flawlessly for me... NOTE: The above isn't the highest quality GIF so it might look like some lines aren't displaying, but they are.

Weird. That's basically the same thing as saying you can't copy layout boxes. That would really defeat most all the purpose of having 2 layouts open. Or are you talking about copying a layout box that references a layout CAD Detail? Because what Bill (as long as I understood correctly) and I are both talking about is copying a layout box that references a plan CAD Detail.

Huh? It works perfectly fine for me. Sounds like you must be trying to copy and paste from the Project Browser itself because copying a layout box and pasting into another layout box seems to work just fine.

Is it though? It's pretty easy to use the same detail for multiple scales by simply using different layer sets.

Nope. That process sounds about as valid as any. Only note I would add is this. If all your project specific details are linked to that same layout, just don't forget that any changes made to that detail will affect any and all plans they were sent to. That probably goes without saying, and more often than not its a benefit. It's not always beneficial though and its important to remember.

Do you have any other CAD software you work with? Many (Sketchup, AutoCAD, Draftsight, etc.) have a tool to convert text to polylines or 3D objects. I simply use one of my other pieces of software to convert text to polylines or other 3D, import into Chief, and then use the resulting to polylines. Really quite easy. Here's a quick video I made a little while back. I since switched to using Draftsight instead, but the basics are the same. Import DWG and use polylines...

To be fair, Larry IS a long-time user. With as long as he’s been in the industry and as much time as he’s spent on the forum, I guess I assumed he knows what a CAD mask is. If not, sorry Larry... The idea of using a CAD mask is this: You can use any elevation camera and just draw a polyline to cover an area you don’t want to see. You can reshape as necessary and even put holes in it. Give the polyline a solid fill (set to the background color) and it will cover anything you don’t want to see. Think of it as a completely customizable clipping setting. You can even set the line style to the invisible line style so that it doesn’t draw any lines. Besides the ability to custom “clip” your view, it also has the benefit of allowing you to place notations outside the view which cropping a layout box will negate. Hope that helps.

I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort. Just pointing out how easy and versatile CAD masks are. I see people fighting those wall elevation cameras all the time to get them to either show or hide something...for no really great reason. CAD masks are just far more flexible and advantageous. But ya, knowing you needed to export to DWG would have been a good piece of information to include as the CAD masks could potentially cause issues there depending on what the end goal was. Then again, they’re just filled polyline masks over there too.

CAD masks. Could have been done 100 times in the time it’s collectively taken us to create and respond to this thread.