Alaskan_Son

Good morning Joe! You can also include lines, polylines, arcs, etc. by blocking them (CAD Block), adding that block to to the library, and then assigning that block to a distribution path. The distribution path can then be added to the Architectural Block...which is the same way we can add Text, Rich Text, Callouts, Markers, Etc.

Yesiree Joe, Architectural Blocks are my new best friend. As you know, we could probably spend all day discussing what we can do with them, but let me add this before I hit the hay... You can also include lines, polylines, arcs, callouts, text, rich text, and any other CAD based object you can think of. Let's see if anyone can figure out how before I get back.

I would post a fresh copy except mine is no longer "fresh". I use that profile plan as my personal template.

I concur with David's approach. I would add though that walls can also just be stored in the library too so you don't even need to go through the export/import process. You can be a lot more selective that way too.

In the future you can use Multiple Copy as well. You just need to use the correct handle again...

I would personally start by trying to save to a different location. Maybe to your desktop or directly to your documents folder and see what that does. Then try saving to a different drive...a USB maybe. Then go from there depending on the results.

Sweet. Glad you got it figgered : ) Please remember this experience in the future. Almost always best to post a plan along with your query when you're having a problem you can't seem to sort out.

...or contact tech support. NOTE: You could also try to reinstall Chief to see if that fixes any corrupted files.

Walls are 10m long on my end. I suspect you have one or more corrupted units.dat files. send me an email and I'll see if I can't help you out...

Make sure to close the plan file before zipping or trying to post directly.

Rudolf, do yourself a huge favor and just post the plan. More likely than not you'll have a good answer within minutes. If not an actual solution you may at least get to figuring out what's going on. I see time and time again where people waste HOURS and even DAYS in utter frustration only to finally post the plan and have the answer in a couple minutes.

Very nice of you to make a video Edward. Thank you. What you have demonstrated is basically the same method I would use myself. The only things I would add are that: 1. If your font(s) are all one size and your text has been cleaned up appropriately (I realize you hadn't taken the time in the video to finish that process), there really doesn't need to be much futzing with the top and bottom of your layout boxes. As long as your first box ends halfway between lines of text, you shouldn't need to do anything but align text with the second box and then copy, point to point move, and reshape (snapping to previous layout box(es)). 2. If you are pretty quick with your tools you can also use transform/replicate followed by a couple guidelines and align/distribute to make pretty quick work of the whole operation. Thanks again Edward. It's a technique useful for a whole lot more than just columns of text and would make a good addition to anyone's toolbox.

This^^^^ is Ed Zachary the first thing what came to mind for me as well. And by "plan view" I think Eric was kinda assuming you would understand this meant you would be drawing it all parallel to the Z plane. Just an aside to that, but I might personally draw all the beams as usual and only draw the trim per Eric's suggestion. That and/or using solid extrusions and boolean operations (could be drawn parallel/perpendicular to axes or not). After inspecting the picture above a little better, I'm really thinking the solids might be a necessity at some point. At any rate, it's definitely doable but it will likely require learning a good handful of other tricks along the way as well. Probably a good exercise.

Its actually the material definition that matters the most. You can use ANY material from the library just so long as the material type is set to Framing...

Hey Rene, here's that thread I think you're referring to... I think this one is definitely worth looking at though as well...

No...because the macro would never be executed without the redraw to start with.

Perry is absolutely correct. Soffits set to use a Gap material type (like Insulation Air Gap) will disappear completely--even in vector view. Gap material types work this way in various structure definitions. To be honest though, I'm not sure I ever realized they work that way with soffits before. If I did, I certainly forgot. Thanks for pointing that out Perry. Lots of good stuff in this thread.

Eric, Your tip on using rafter tail profiles is a fantastic one. Thank you. I gave you all the points I could this time around. The ceiling plane idea was a great one as well BTW.

If precision is what you're after you might just need to select those hip rafters and replace and/or resize the rafter tail profile.

One other quick tip. You can also block your reconfigured schedules and add them to your library for future use. Blocked schedules have some quirks though in that they disappear when blocked--not at first, but once added to the library or upon opening a plan that includes a blocked schedule. Anyway, because of this fact, it may be useful to add another object (polyline, line, etc.) to that block to make it easier to find the block and explode it after you drop it into your plan.

This sounds like a nice idea on the surface Joe, but even if we could do that with a macro, the macro wouldn't execute till that screen redraw so we would be right back at square one.

Yup. This is the method I use for this type of thing as well. Only takes a minute and allows you to leave the note "live" and in one piece. I do the same thing for multi section schedules or when notes/schedules need to extend across multiple pages of a document.

Hey, that IS a really good tip. Thanks : )

Here's another little bonus tip for you. If you convert an actual Schedule to text you can then modify that text box and keep the non-divided title line (including the double grid line even). I've never been able to figure out how or why the text box can work that way when starting with a schedule but not when starting with a text box. Wish I knew what sort of wizardry is going on under the hood with that one.