Alaskan_Son

It's about 10 below at the moment. We're hanging in there though : )

In addition to being able to remove the path length restriction in Windows 10 (a quick search will show you how), you can also actually map a folder to a drive letter thereby cutting out a whole bunch of characters from the path name. Plenty of articles out there on this as well. Just search something like "map local folder to drive letter".

I believe it's been 260 for a long time. I think the 255 number is a generally accepted length after a few necessary characters have been accounted for (drive letter, colon, backslash and....not sure...file extension or terminating characters or some other technical jargon).

As Chop said, you can add spaces. If you are using dimensions below the line this could be solved by using a Marker Default that has the Alignment set to Away From Marker so that the dimension just gets moved with your text. The other things you can do is manually position actual markers which DO have the capability you're asking for.

Not sure if you read that completely or not. It's not just the product keys. It's the installers too...

I’m with you. This is a common attitude amongst most Chiefers, however I assure you that Chief DOES have the ability to model things extremely accurately and there are a handful of us that do exactly that. It really just comes down to what you’re using Chief for I guess. Quick and dirty CD’s and I can’t fault people for just getting it close enough. I personally however model things to a very high degree of accuracy on a regular basis. It’s just about investing the time in properly learning what tools you have available, how those tools work, and how to let go of your preconceived ideas of how the tools should work based on your experience with other programs. Anyway, here are some quick tips that immediately come to mind... 1. Learn what Multiple Saved Defaults are.... 2. ....and set up/utilize Active Defaults from the start. It’s just very important from a productivity standpoint that you learn to place your various CAD/annotation items using the appropriate defaults, the appropriate settings, and onto the desired layers, etc. This makes quick work of dimensioning your tiny little molding details as necessary. 3. Study and learn the Enter Coordinates dialog (Tab entry method). It might not be what you are used to, but it’s the method Chief uses, and it’s really quite efficient and effective once you get used to it. 4. Learn to limit your work to plan views and elevations/sections whenever possible if you want to model super accurately, and in conjunction with those views... 5. Learn to use CAD Detail From View along with Cut/Copy and Paste Hold Position. This is the way I always obtain snaps that aren’t otherwise available. Assign the tools to hotkeys and the process becomes pretty stinkin’ quick. 6. Turn the various Snap settings on and off as necessary. The last thing you want when trying to draw things accurately is Chief snapping to the Angle or Grid when you want to snap to an object. 7. Learn to use both dimensions and the various dialogs to set object parameters. I know it’s easy to get used to simply typing in parameters during the initial draw with Sketchup and you can do that to a certain extent in Chief using the Tab key; however, it simply doesn’t work the same and in my opinion that just comes with the territory in large part when moving from CAD and basic 3D modeling to a program rich with built in parametric functionality. 8. Learn to import, resize, and trace over/measure from images and PDFs. ... I could go on all day with additional power tips but those are the top few that come to mind for accurate modeling.

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.