Alaskan_Son

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.

A few quick notes.. 1. You can use a material region instead of separate walls (I would probably use a material region for the center section if I went that route). 2. If you're trying to "paint" the material onto the wall, then the way to do is by using the Material Painter in Object mode. Anything else will cause the walls to rejoin and this happens with any walls, not just attic walls. 3. Most importantly, using the Material Painter really isn't the proper way to do that. It should have really been done with unique Wall Types from the start. If you place your breaks, group select the 2 outside walls (or one middle wall) and then simply change the Wall Type, then the walls shouldn't have rejoined. Should have been no reason to move anything out of alignment.

Ya. It definitely has it's benefits. Just throwing another option out there is all.

Never noticed that behavior before.

...and don't forget your Revision Cloud Defaults too.

Oh, right, I forgot you were talking about layout. My bad. Like I said though, don't forget to check you CAD Blocks too. If you have an object placed on that layer in any one of your CAD Blocks, then it will also say "Used in defaults"

Same place all your other Saved Defaults are located Joe...

You can also simply take an Orthographic Overview>View Direction>Top View, use Delete Surface as necessary>CAD Detail From View>Cut/Paste Hold Position>trace.

Not really sure what the question is, but yes, I have done what you are describing. Chief does however seem to commonly have a bit of an odd issue when the original plan is still open though. The layout continues to show the original plan even though it is tied to the new plan. I always forget what i need to do to clear it up. I think yo just need to save and re-open the layout though. Or maybe close the original plan. Not sure. Always able to clear it up though.

Check your CAD Blocks and CAD Details to start with. Check your Saved Defaults, not just your Default Sets. You may well have a Saved Default that isn't even being used. You'll have to delete or change the Default before you can delete the layer.

I would would recommend upgrading to X12 and then listing your new and existing windows in 2 entirely different schedules. Either that or handle New vs. Existing with an Object Information Field added to the schedule. What you're requesting is possible with some custom macros but not very efficient if you want to keep the callout shape.

They can only be done automatically with Auto Rebuild toggled on. Otherwise, yes...it's manual, but it can typically be done in under a minute.

If you set your various defaults back to EXACTLY what you've show in the screenshot above, what does the Default Set say? I'm just wondering if perhaps one little thing was off.

Tool works exactly like it did before. They just renamed it to Default Sets instead of Annotation Sets for continuity and clarity. It will always say "Active Defaults" unless you either select a specific Default Set or select a group of Defaults that matches a Default Set.

First thing is to decide whether you want to use a Fill or a material's Pattern. A Fill can be specified for pretty much any polyline based object using the Fill Style tab for that particular object. Fill styles can be set an an object by object basis. A Pattern can be specified only for each unique Material being used. For multiple Pattern offsets, this would mean multiple Materials. This is very easy to do using the Plan Materials dialog though. Next thing is to decide which type of object to use. This will vary depending on what the end goal is and on how much time you want to put in. For Plan Views you can use a plain Polyline with its fill, a Polyline Solid with its fill, a Material Region with its fill, or any other number of polyline based objects with their respective fill(s). Or, you could also use either a poyline solid converted to a solid or a Face which would allow you to actually use the Pattern in plan view. For Elevations and Sections you can use a plain Polyline with its fill, or any number of other object types. Aside from the plain polyline though, you will mostly just be working with Materials and their Patterns in these views though. For other 3D views you'll be limited to using just Materials and their Patterns. Lastly (and to answer the main question posed), you'll have to shift the Fill or Pattern offsets. To do this I use CAD Detail From View. Just click on that tool and then take any measurements you need to obtain your offsets from that view. Really pretty easy. I typically use a line and just copy the line length to get a precise number. 2 additional quick tips though... If you're using a Solid or Face to show the Material Pattern in Plan View, you'll have to use an Orthographic Overview from View Direction>Top View to get a usable CAD Detail From View. If you're using a Material and its Pattern, I suggest always setting the Texture offsets as well either manually or by checking "Keep Pattern/Texture in Sync" before making any changes.

It's funny, I've read the opening dialog of that Import Drawing Assistant and I've considered sending in a request that it be scrapped. It really seems like it serves very little use. Admittedly however, I'm not so sure I've ever read the closing dialog until Glenn just posted it. I wonder if its because I've just become jaded by the opening dialog and its lack of substance? Or maybe it's because of all the same "Your blah blah blah has finished installing" dialogs that we're used to simply clicking "Okay" or "Done" on these days. Who knows. I am however convinced that almost NOBODY reads that screen though as evidence that until I mentioned it today, I have never once heard or read anyone anywhere in the 9 years I've spent on this forum mention that we can import anything from paper space. On the contrary, I've heard and read the opposite mentioned many many times. Wonder how long that little note has been in there?

Yep. Obviously haven't read it too well though : ) By the way, that dialog needs to be re-worded. It's not imported into a CAD Detail window. It's imported as a CAD Block.

I must not have posted loud enough earlier in the thread. I'll try to speak up next time.

Thanks Mick. Never read that article before. I added a note to one of my posts above to clarify that its only the first page of paper space that gets imported.

Place it over in layout (Chief's relative equivalent of paper space) and the size doesn't seem quite small). In the example posted above though, there seems to be some weird scaling going on though.