Alaskan_Son

Right! My mind was still on core catalog from that other thread!

Hey, good call Glenn. I never use that filter. Wouldn't have thunk of that.

Its the Follow Stairs setting that's doing it. Uncheck that and you should be good to go. On a side note, this should probably be reported to tech support. I'm not sure there's any good reason it should be behaving that way.

Posts a plan here within the next few minutes or so and I'll try to make you a quick video before I head out the door.

You'll get a much quicker and more accurate response if you post the plan file.

2 things to consider here... You'll need to modify your architectural blocks and then add them back to the library. I think the best solution is probably to put the brackets on one layer (with Materials List checked) and the props onto another layer (with Materials List UNchecked). Once you do that, add the block back to your library and you should be good to go. Just bear in mind that your material list will generate based on the Materials List settings in the layer set you have active when you generate your material list. Hope that helps.

Did YOU know how to change it back prior to Post #5? If so, why not tell people how to do so rather than simply encouraging them not to use the tool? It seems to me like that approach is just perpetuating this problematic ignorance you speak of. Regarding the exterior wall surfaces more specifically...I just used the interior wall surfaces because it was an easily understood example. Truth is that the material painter can be used effectively on exterior wall surfaces just as well as interior wall surfaces and again there are a number of situations where this is true. Is it always the best way? Absolutely not. And should everyone use it? No, but I would encourage everyone who wants to be truly proficient with the product to try and understand how and when to properly use a tool rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To each his own, you have to do what works best for you, but if we stop using all the tools that CAN cause problems we'll never be as productive as we could be.

I would encourage you to learn how and when to use a tool rather than abandoning it completely just because it can cause some people problems. I would personally do as Eric suggested and use the material painter but I imagine I would use it in Floor or Plan mode and depending on what your exterior surface material is, this is one situation where you may actually want to consider using it with "blend" toggled on (something I would typically recommend against). There are other options though too. Here's one... Set both your exterior wall finish and your battens to use the same material (you may or may not want to give this material a custom name if you are using it somewhere else in the plan and don't want to change it at those other locations). When you would like to change the material, click on either the Material Painter or the Plan Materials tool, select your material from the Plan Materials list (can be done quickly by starting to type the name or by first using the material eyedropper to select the material AND THEN clicking on the Material Painter tool), click Replace, and then select your new material. This will completely replace that material everywhere it is being used in the plan including inside the actual wall definition. At the end of the day you have to figure out what works best for you and for the particular situation though.

If you provide the AutoCAD file you'd make it a lot quicker and easier.

The spray can doesn't need to cause any headaches at all if a person familiarizes his/herself with how it works and uses it in the appropriate mode and situation. If used properly, it is by far the fastest and most effective way to change materials for a ton of situations. In the case of walls... That's one wall (as it should be) with 6 different colors. I can't see in what world it would be a better idea to set up and use 6 different wall types or apply 6 different material regions.

There should never be a need to redraw your wall. Just open the "offending" wall, click on the Materials tab, select the Exterior Wall Surface material, and check Use Default Material. Please Note that there are multiple ways to change your wall surface materials... You can change the material in your wall definition You can change the material in the wall's Materials tab You can change the material by using the spray can. This has the unique advantage of being able to change just a portion of a wall if that wall is part of more than one room or otherwise being divided into multiple sections by intersecting walls; otherwise, this is the same as changing the material in the wall's Materials tab. You can change the material by using the ROOM's Materials tab. Either way, you should be able to fix your issues by simply selecting Use Default Material either for individual wall(s) or for the entire room. Admittedly, there is one material control that I currently don't understand (and I'm not sure whether or not I ever understood it)...The Materials Defaults>Walls(Exterior) material. This settings seems to control nothing. The only benefit it seems to have is that it can give you a quick shortcut to the desired material if you should choose to control the material using your exterior room.

You can also export/import as a 3DS file and keep the materials.

Hey, that's not a bad idea Dermot. This method will only work for rooms within rooms though so here's what you'll have to do if your room isn't in another room... If you don't already have one of these, create yourself a custom room divider wall type that has a single insulation air gap layer .01" thick. Select the room you would like to have a dropped ceiling and make sure it is excluded from schedule (not necessary if you aren't using a schedule. Draw some walls around the perimeter of your room using your custom room divider wall type until they form an enclosed room. Drag those walls till they snap to your main walls. Open your enclosed room, set the structure to have a shelf ceiling, and adjust the ceiling height and structure settings as desired. Note that if you're using a room finish schedule with a wall finish material column you may need to create a special gap material with the same name as your main interior wall finish.

Try adding the Ceiling Finish Height column to your schedule.

Mark is absolutely right. And in addition to those 2 general tricks you can also further manipulate your resulting symbols by using the aforementioned methods again. Here are a few videos I've made that go over how to tweak symbols for various purposes.

Alan, Try using the Ceiling Finish and see if that works for you. From the top down you'll need a very large air gap layer, and additional framing layer, and then lastly...an actual ceiling finish material.

This gets so stinking annoying. I've concocted and utilized probably a dozen different room naming and numbering systems but due to a major lack of necessary controls and a crapload of inconsistencies, every single one of them falls short in some area and only works for one or 2 scenarios and only under the perfect conditions... One method we're stuck using the "R" prefix with no way of displaying only the schedule number in a callout Another method we can display a modified schedule number in the room label but not in the schedule Another method we can display the room name in one layer set and a sort of callout with a modified schedule number in another layer set but only if we want them in the exact same location in the room...and the room name will be blank in the schedule...and again we can't have a matching schedule number in the schedule. Another method will allow for just about everything we want but it requires manually placing a bajillion different macros and will only work for up to 19 rooms per floor...and the schedule becomes ridiculously slow to work with. Another method is super simple to work with and allows for a custom schedule number in both the room label and in the room schedule, but doesn't allow for the callout, can't be used in a Rich Text box, and again...is limited to 19 rooms per floor. Another method will get us just about everything, doesn't have the 19 room limit, doesn't have a slow schedule, but requires a customized font if we want a matching schedule number in the room schedule. ...and those are just the methods I'm remembering off the top of my head for the purposes of this rant. The simple fact is that we have no direct control over the schedule number prefix, we have no built in global macro for the schedule number, we have no built in global macro for the room type name, we have no column in the schedule for the room type name, schedules only properly recognize the first 20 macros used in them and only recognize the schedule as the owner instead of the room, schedules won't display any macros used in the default room label, any macros used in the default room label are always appended to the room name, we have no way of modifying any of the values displayed using Chief's default global variables, we have almost no control over any values if we want to use Rich Text room labels, the list goes on and on and on. Sometimes I seriously think about giving up on Chief. I feel like we keep getting tossed little dog treats one by one, a couple a year, and only when we beg for them repeatedly. It just gets really frustrating.

See if these might work for you Alan... I'm away from the office now but just give me a call and I'll see if I can tell you over the phone how to tweak them so that they start counting at 100.

Here's another trick for your bag of tricks... First find a material you like or modify one so that it suits your needs and then apply it to your flooring. Here's one that I modified from one of the bonus catalogs just for this example... Limestone.calibz Then go through the following steps: 1. Create an Orthographic Floor Overview... 2. 3D>View Direction>Top View 3. Create a CAD Detail From View 4. Draw a closed polyline by snapping to the desired tiles... 5. Cut/Paste Hold Position into your normal plan view, Convert to Material Region, and set the Material Region to use the aforementioned material... 6. Go back into your 3D view and change the rest of your flooring material to wood... Not the best example because this particular material isn't the greatest but you get the idea. I'm not saying this method is the best but it has its place for sure...especially if you don't want to deal with all the extra objects and the increased face count.

I'm away from my computer now so I can't double check to see if there was some other setting that needs to be set a certain way. I don't think there is though. Only thing I can think of is to make sure auto rebuild foundations is turned on and to make sure you have an enclosed room. I don't think that setting I pointed out was designed for this particular use (I believe it was designed to add walls and footings under interior partitions) but I have made it work for the situations mentioned in this thread. I'll have to check when I get back to the office to see if there's something else that needed to be done. On a side note, I personally don't shy away from turning off auto foundations either. I typically do as Perry does also and just draw any oddball foundation stuff manually. Chief never seems to be able to get foundations exactly like I want to them without making some manual modifications. I was just trying to offer a possible solution for those of you who don't want to turn off auto foundations.

All you should need to do is check this...

You cannot use a block for a symbol if that block contains another nested block.

You can do that with Ruby and Text Macros.

You bet. Thanks for the donation. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

I wrote that to be placed into the actual slab label. If you want to use a text box with a leader line you'll need to change the context from Owner to Referenced or use this one instead. It can be used for either context... rgw perimter.json