Alaskan_Son

The material is irrelevant. It's not a framing object. In other words, just because you paint a couch with a framing material doesn't mean it would/should show up in the framing schedule.

Those beams aren't framing objects so they're not going to show in the framing schedule. If you want an I-Beam that shows up in the framing schedule, just draw an actual joist or beam, change it's Type to Steel-I and then change the material.

...or polyline solids.

Agreed. Very nice indeed.

Kinda. I was really just trying to offer a method for keeping track of/managing those masks. Make them bright red and maybe give them a super heavy line weight in a special "SHOW MASKS" layer set. Otherwise, they can be a little difficult to remember and may end up screwing up your drawing if you forget they're there after you make certain changes.

Steve, to test on your own without printing, do this... Place the %scale% macro somewhere in your view and zoom in/out until you get it to say 1/4 in = 1 ft What you see on your screen at this zoom setting is exactly what you should see if you print to scale. In other words, your screen will be reporting the actual scale as you see it on your screen. Take a ruler to your screen and you should see what I mean.

Quick tip for those unaware... Instead of repeatedly deleting those errant lines, just mask them with a CAD mask...Fill set to background color and line style set to be controlled by layer. Set the layer line style to red and the invisible line style. For added lines, just draw those in with CAD rather then editing the plot lines. This way when you update your view you don't have to keep fixing the same stuff. If you want to quickly check your plan for mask locations, just temporarily change the line style to normal and there they all are, bright red (or whatever color you want).

The slight movement is something that you want to do away with. It can be a little nauseating IMO and can make the recording a little jittery and fuzzy. This is what I was talking about... Like This.plan How difficult it is to achieve depends on how exactly you draw the walk-through path but the basics are the same...2 cameras stacked RIGHT ON TOP of each other with the distance between set to the desired time lapse. And here's my last hint...you have to tell Chief what to do multiple times in this scenario sometimes to get it to stick.

I use black and white plot lines almost exclusively for CD's.

Possible with some custom macros. Nothing quick and easy comes to mind though.

You'll probably have to set the brick to be a little darker or to use a little thicker line weight to accommodate your printer. Some printers can handle lighter colors and lighter line weights better than others. The PDF is going to be "lossless" so to speak, but physical printing can vary from one setup to the next and partially depends on the setting for that printer too.

By the way, since we're on this subject, please consider adding your support to this suggestion...

You're welcome Michael, if you haven't already however, I would still definitely recommend you send it in to tech support just to make sure they're aware of it. By the way, I sent you a PM offering a little one-on-one time on-the house to see if I could help you figure it out, but since you posted the plan I just spent that time scouring over your plan on my own instead. It actually took a fair amount longer than I would have thought to fish that one down. Glad we at least found something though : )

In my experience this is almost always the result of trying to place a break where an edit handle is currently displayed. That won't work. Toggle the display of those edit handles to solve the issue...another capability of the "new way" by the way.

You can also just get it via the Help menu.

This is a rather involved subject, but here are a few of the key things to consider... A. Whether or not you actually need all the imported layers and layer settings. B. The fact DWG files can include tons of CAD blocks that aren’t actually used in the drawing (things you may or may not want but things that can certainly boost your file size). C. The fact DWG files oftentimes contain tons of CAD blocks that ARE used in the drawing. Problem with these as that you can’t snap to them. D. The fact various items may or may not be drawn or dimentioned accurately and that various wall layers may or may not be included in the drawing. This is very important to consider when placing your new walls. E. The fact we have a CAD To Walls tool available. You may or may not want to use it. F. The fact multiple floors may come in overlapped on a single floor in Chief. G. The fact you may or may not know what any given layer is used for. The basics of my personal workflow are approximately as follows: 1. Import the desired DWG file including all existing layers and layer settings but excluding any CAD blocks not actually referenced in the drawing. If you happen to know what the various layers are used for you could optionally exclude some of them or map the layers right away, but I would be super careful about doing this since CAD blocks and their internal line work can reside on different layers (just like they do in Chief). Similarly, I would also leave out the unnecessary CAD blocks unless you want/need them for some other unrelated purpose. 2. Explode CAD blocks, move linework to your own custom layer(s), and adjust the settings as desired for color, line style, drawing group etc. Then, group by group, Cut/Paste Hold Position all that linework to a NEW plan, placing it onto the correct floors, and locking layers as necessary. This will ensure you only bring over only exactly what parts you want, AND it will keep your layer sets as clean as possible. 3. As you go of course, you are deleting things you don’t need. 4. With my all the desired linework in the new plan, on the desired layers, and using the desired settings (in my case I put onto a very minimal number of layers—sometimes just one (all set to be some shade of gray) and lock layer(s). 5. Figure out how walls have been dimensioned, which layers were included in the drawing (drywall, framing, siding, etc.) and choose or create the appropriate wall type(s). You have to be very careful with this because I find many CAD-based drawings contain a lot of inaccurate wall thickness information and you have to adjust accordingly. 6. Set the Resize About setting for walls so that you can snap to a special group of lines. This can make very quick work of the tracing part. 7. Place windows and doors (sometimes I actually do this as I go). 8. Same as above for cabinets, toilets, fixtures, etc. 9. Build roofs and foundations. That’s the basics anyway. For me, the most difficult part is really just cleaning up the line work so that you have all the information you need, ONLY the information you need, and have it all in a usable, easy to read, snappable format. Then the tracing is quick and easy. With regard to the CAD To Walls feature, it can be handy for quick conversion in some cases, but it still requires a lot of proper cleanup and layer mapping, and the biggest problem is that wall definitions, windows, and doors don’t always end up correct so you end up having to re-check everything anyway. In my opinion this is just better to do as you are tracing. My thoughts are that we don’t want to depend TOO much on our software. It’s good to double/triple check certain steps and if you can use a sort of built in double/triple checking process, that is a lot better than just double checking. The problem with a regular double check is this: If you missed it the first time, you’re likely to miss it again he second unless you’re using an entirely different checking method—in this case both manually placing by hand and then glancing back over using a visual scan (with or without utilizing special layer settings in the process).

It needs to be a COMPLETE Break. Click your break tool and then take a look down in the edit sub-menu.

Elevation lines are an oddity in Chief...one of the only CAD based objects that can’t be trimmed. You have to place 2 complete breaks and then delete the desired section.

Here's another similar site... GPS Geoplaner online

Just stack 2 key frames right on top of each other (line length of zero) and set the time between frames to 15 seconds.

Definitely. Cropping in layout will cut off any notations that fall outside your viewport.

This is one issue where I think people fight the software way too much. Super easy to just use an elevation camera and mask the view as necessary. The wall elevation cameras are great for some things, but as with any other tool they have their limitations. Just use the right tool for the job and save all the headache. To speed up the process, I have a few generic CAD masks in my library... Spend a ton of time forcing a wall elevation to work, or just mask it, I guess it's up to you.

Open this wall and uncheck Hang Floor Platform Above On Wall...

Your problem is very difficult to follow based on nothing more than a written description. If that's all it took than we wouldn't be using Chief right? We would just be using Word to type up our construction docs Anyway, a plan is best, but at least a screenshot or 2. There are any number of variables or combinations that could affect your situation including but not limited to roof plane structure settings, ceiling plane structure settings, room ceiling finish and structure settings, which floor your fixtures are drawn on, what the symbol settings for your fixtures are (including origin offsets), whether your fixtures have been blocked or not, etc. etc.

Not sure. Oldest version I have installed right now is X8, and I had it in that library.