Alaskan_Son

Sorry, your original posts didn't really specify all that much criteria. You have to get creative by using a few extra material regions, p-line solids, and adjusting your layer settings to get a lot closer... Or you can create a symbol of your plan, rotate it onto it's side, and take a section view. Adding the splashes of color that way requires some extra effort though. Seems like it would be just as easy to keep using Sketchup if you really need that exact look.

Orthographic Floor Overview... 3D>View Direction>Top View... Watercolor with Line Drawing rendering mode Easy peasy rice and cheesy

There are quite a few online resources but one of the first places I typically go is to 3D Warehouse The quality of symbols can be hit and miss though so you have to choose carefully. There are also a whole host of other online sources for symbols including manufacturer websites, Turbosquid,other 3rd party websites, etc. You just need to find symbols in a 3D format Chief can import... SKP 3DS DAE OBJ DWG DXF STL There are also a handful of services that model symbols from scratch when necessary...something I do myself. When you can't find what you want though, I recommend just modify existing symbols or modeling it yourself from scratch. Once you get a hang of all the tools available in Chief and how to efficiently leverage those capabilities, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually can be to model many types of things yourself. But my typical search order looks something like this... Chief Architect® Core catalog Chief Architect® Bonus/Manufacturer/User catalogs 3D Warehouse Manufacturer websites (depending on the item, sometimes I will go here before 3D Warehouse) Model myself Other 3rd parties

A few quick tips on this subject... -An orthographic floor overview along with CAD Detail from view can be a very handy way of getting relevant snaps or for producing tile layout documents. -Solids can be used to display material patterns in plan views. -To deal with "drifting" during multiple copy operations, try changing your number style to decimal inches OR place a temporary marker at the destination end and use a specified number of copies instead of an offset.

Please make sure to send me an email if you want to be included on the list. Thanks.

Some are symbols and some are architectural blocks. The step you're missing is Tools>Symbol>Convert To Symbol.

Thanks Rich. Chains actually weren't too difficult. I won't go into all the little details, but here are the steps in short... Model a single link Figure out how far link needs to be offset to make contact in the next link position Use transform replicate along with that offset and a rotation angle (a little off 90 degrees) Convert that section to a Symbol Rotate chain section into position

Just for the record, it might not be the most efficient tool for every job, but I actually use Chief for 99% of my custom modeling needs. in addition to the ability to model almost anything from scratch, you can also use Chief to modify existing geometry in quite a few ways. I've modeled or modified quite a few things in Chief over the years, but I think this particular one might be my favorite. Done completely from scratch... The example pic used... The resulting model... For anyone who wants to learn a few of the lesser know tricks and techniques for modeling and manipulating symbols, check out this thread...

I would personally just build that one entirely from scratch.

We have a whole bunch of stoves under Architectural>Fireplaces>Stoves

There actually is a way to do this by increasing the smoothing angle of your symbol. I personally use Chief for probably 99% of my custom modeling. Very rarely do i feel the need to use Sketchup. I was able to import your SKP fie, isolate a single washer, and create a new symbol quite literally in a matter of seconds (less than a minute). I've been thinking for quite some time about doing some group workshops to cover a number of these lesser documented capabilities and methods. Maybe if there seems to be enough interest I'll set one up to go over some Advanced Symbol Manipulation tips and techniques...

My personal opinion is this... Not everything can be displayed very well in a plan view. This is why we use notes, elevation views, and other various details. I would almost certainly use the Vertical Stacking Level or Reference Display for the plan view display but would clarify by placing a note in the plan and using an elevation view to top it all off.

They mostly use 3DS Max for modeling that stuff.

Possible in Chief, but not easy or efficeint. Actually, that particular object would be not easy or efficient in any software that I know of.

Ya, I've considered that, but it's not likely to happen anytime soon. This particular subject has too many very specific little details to effectively teach in a short online group session IMO. I'm relatively certain I wouldn't have time to address all necessary questions from that many people. In many workshops, this isn't a real problem because a person can just keep following along and eventually get the idea. With Ruby and text macros however, needs can vary greatly, the understanding curve can be huge, and it only takes one minor misunderstanding to get a person completely befuddled...then they're completely lost for the rest of the workshop. With a one-on-one approach we can take the time to properly address all those key points. Truth is that some users might be able to get from the proverbial Lesson 1 to the proverbial Lesson 9 in a single session whereas some users may only make it through Lesson 1...they would be better off for it though. Better to walk away with a solid foundation in the "Lesson 1" basics then to walk away having been utterly confused and frustrated with Lessons 1 through 9 and no solid basis to build off.

I would really love to help some of you guys get into using Ruby and Text Macros more effectively. The way I've seen it play out over the years though, you can either invest in a little one on one time with a good instructor (which I like to think I am) or you can try to slog through on your own and here in the forums, investing many mANY MANY hours to achieve the same results, or worse, spend all that time and make little to no progress at all...or even worser, spend all that time and end up more lost than before. I really think I can help beginners and intermediate users get a good solid grasp on the basics though. Please don't hesitate to shoot me an email to set up a consultation session if you're interested... alaskansons@gmail.com I think you'll be glad you did.

Take a picture and use either Chief, a smart phone app, a PDF editor, or some other method to simply use the image along with a know dimension and scale the overhangs appropriately.

Love it!!!

I don't think you'll be able to do that with Chief's parametric window tools. I'm pretty positive you'll need to model that manually from scratch. I offer custom modeling and consultation services if you need some assistance. Just email me at alaskansons@gmail.com if you're interested and we can discuss further.

Hey Mick, No. That brick pattern is totally unrelated to this thread or Johnny’s. And I just placed my arrow onto a special “HIDDEN” layer and probably just turned that layer off. I don’t actually remember though.

Select a Text object, click Match Properties, check the box for Object type (Rich Text) and click okay to select all Rich Text objects that are displayed. You can also optionally activate the Rich Text tool and Shift Select everything in your view to group select only Rich Text or do the same thing with the Text tool selected to select both Text and Rich Text objects.

Just use Match Properties.

My solution to this is always just to group select text, open, and simply click okay. Annoying for sure, but that usually fixes it.

You can also use a referenced text macro along with a callout or text box... Label test.plan

I think you're probably mistaken and I really think you were not changing your layer set. You were changing your annotation set...which can be set to change your layer set. I suspect your toolbar in the Mac version just had a different drop down tool assigned to that spot (Active Annotation Set Control vs. Active Layer Set Control).