Alaskan_Son

In X9 this is completely auto as they added a special "Cabinet Mounted" functionality and setting. In X8 it's a little trickier but doable. You have to add the symbol to your user library, Open Symbol while it is in the library, change the y offset to zero, and under the Options tab change it to Floor Mounted. Now you can use it. OR...place a small section of room divider alongside your cabinet. That works too.

This is just a guess of course but I'm betting it was done with mostly 2D CAD linework. Maybe AutoCAD. Kinda looks like some of the work Johnny has shown from Vectorworks too. The text style looks like an SHX font and the sharp line corners aren't possible in Chief. Also, there are some inconsistencies in the elevation views that wouldn't be there if it were a true 3D model...

Yep. I think this is how I would do it. Even if you need to make changes later. Its only a couple clicks to auto-build roof again and a few seconds to drag the overhang back again.

Custom text macro and a modified font. And yes, I have started displaying my door labels like this as well. The only real downside is that anyone who you want to share the plan file with must also have the same font installed. Pretty minor limitation for most of us, but for those that do a lot of collaborating it's an extra step.

You can also select the light fixture, click on Open Symbol>Options, and uncheck Flush Mounted to keep light from automatically rotating to match sloped ceiling.

Yep. Or search Tiffany chair and there are a few more... https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?q=tiffany chair&backendClass=both

You should be fine. It's just recognizing your newly "repaired" computer as an entirely different computer.

Here's a workaround solution for the living area display... The living area label actually acts like a normal label and there are a few attributes it will recognize such as layer, volume, and "internal_area" (not really sure what others as I haven't tested it that much). Specifically though, the %internal_area% macro will display the living space. It will result in only the area being displayed without units so you can add your own units. Just select the living area label, add %internal_area% to the label and then place a crapload of carriage returns (newlines) to push the automatically created area label down out of the view...either that or just place a mask over the automatically created number. The room area display is possible too but you have to use a custom macro in the actual room label for the area display and manually place a room label with the desired global macros for the rest.

Here's that other discussion Yusef is referring to. The basic idea is the same but will need a little tweaking to make it work for railing panels which among other things need to be converted to "Millwork" symbols instead of "Fixture" symbols.

Hey Yusef, It worked the same in previous versions. Like so many things, I think we've just built off each others ideas. It never occurred to me to bend millwork by attaching it to a window until you brought it up and I think I just took it a step further. I'm guessing it just didn't occur to you to change the millwork to a window symbol first. It always seems so clear afterward.

OOB hotkey for Make Parallel/Perpendicular

Again, this is all controlled via your Camera View Layer Set. Instead of deleting the wall framing just turn off the Framing, Wall layer in your Camera View set.

No. It has be turned off in your camera view layer set though.

As Joe said, the short answer is no, BUT the long answer is yes... There are 3 options if you really want to change the numbering/lettering format: Use a manually placed callout with a custom referenced context macro. This is probably more of a pain than it's really worth IMO. Abandon the callout shape and just use a label. This way is the easiest and is what I personally do most of the time. Chief's automatically produced callout labels look nice and all but they're just far too limiting to me. I'd rather lose the callout shape and get information that's more important to me. This example doesn't have the schedule numbering format changed but using this approach it very easily could have been. Use option 2 and manually place a callout shape around the label for each window. There are a handful of methods you can use to speed this process up too. Probably best to wait till right near the end of the project to add the callout shapes though. Any one of the above options would require at least 2 custom macros though as well as some customization to the schedule. If you need help setting something like that up, please feel free to email me at alaskansons@gmail.com and we can discuss further.

I don't think it is Joe...

Maybe...except for this error message he mentioned in his second to last post. Sounds like he is properly initiating the ray trace. It's just failing to fully execute.

Like Joe said, Ray Tracing has nothing to do with the video card. It's all CPU. My computer is pretty old and relatively slow and I could easily ray trace your plan...4 passes in right around a minute. I suspect the problem lies with your actual computer. Maybe it's overheating. Try going into Preferences>Render>Ray Trace and turn down the number of cores used to see if that helps.

A couple options... If you are ONLY wanting to use it in plan views, don't use Create Plant Image, instead use File>Import>Import Picture If you're trying to use the same image in both plan view and 3D views you'll need to: Use File>Import>Import Picture to bring the picture into your plan. Group select the picture by itself, block it, and add it to your library. Terrain>Plant>Create Plant Image, click Browse, select you plant picture, click Okay, and place your new plant into the plan. Select your new Plant Image, open it, click Library (next to 2D Plan Symbol) and select the library item you created in step 2. Click okay and add it to your library for future use. Hope that helps.

I'm using a really old GeForce GT 430 on my desktop that actually works just fine but its a little slow with larger models and with shadows turned on. I actually just ordered a new video card earlier tonight. I ended going with the GeForce GTX 1050Ti. Based on my research and based on the 6 year old machine I'm putting it into it easily looked like the best card available for the money right now. It's definitely not the best overall but looks to be almost an 800% improvement over what I have now. It's worth a look anyway.

Yes. The Jet Direct card was an ethernet card. I hooked the plotter up through my router. I would just try using the existing ethernet card first and see if you can get that to work. I do remember that we couldn't find Windows 7 drivers for either the printer or the Jet Direct card. It was the 64 bit XP driver that did the trick and as I recall the only way we were able to get it to work was to set it up as a network printer through the Jet Direct print server. By the way, I'm relatively certain I had it working in Windows 8 like that as well.

I was running that same plotter on Windows 7 till I got rid of it. I just used the 64 bit Windows XP driver. I was also using a Jet Direct print card though and had the plotter set up as a network printer. I think that setup may have changed the driver requirements a bit.

Might still be worth reporting Scott. As far as I know, I think Chief thought they fixed it with the latest update (at least the issue with electrical items). I haven't had to flip any plans lately and so I haven't tested but according to Ray and yourself, there are still problems and if so, I think Chief needs to know.

The problem with auto dormers is that you can hide the "auto dormer" but the individual components are are their own layers and the only way to move those items to a new layer is to explode the auto dormer. If you don't want to explode the auto dormer for some reason, either: Put the dormer onto a different floor (if possible), or... Move everything else in the plan to a unique layer. For example, the auto dormer walls should automatically be created on the Walls, Normal layer. If you move all your other interior and exterior walls to a unique layer you can essentially make it so that your dormer walls are the only walls on the Walls, Normal Layer. Therefore, turning off the Walls, Normal layer will turn off your dormer walls without having to explode your dormer. If you want to make this a permanent addition to your workflow you might even consider going into your template plan and renaming your Walls, Normal layer to something like Walls, Dormer, create a new Walls, Normal layer, and then change the layer setting for all new interior and exterior walls in your defaults to that new Walls, Normal layer.

No, I actually didn't read that thread. I did now though and I can definitely see the problem you're experiencing now that I try it with an arced wall. I tried printing to PDF using the lowest compression settings, highest DPI, and both oldest and newest PDF type settings I could with Nitro Pro and to some degree they all had the pixelation you speak of but only on arcs and off angles that are part of an object with a transparent fill. And it's only the immediate vicinity of the actual arc or off angle line segment that seems to display the problem. Strange indeed. It makes me wonder what's different about the built in PDF printer Chief is using and the presets they chose. I doubt they wrote that in-house and so it seems any settings they might be using should be reproducible with other professional PDF printing/editing software. I do understand your issue with rotating pages and I don't actually see how layout will solve that problem for you. Yes you can rotate the layout box but the page orientation will still be the same throughout. If you want to actually rotate the individual pages I see no way to do that outside of using your PDF editor (especially if your pages are different shapes or sizes). Unless Chief gives us a built in append/prepend option or fixes that pixelation issue I think you're doing the best you can by printing a few files and then combining with your PDF editor. Just an aside...I don't know what program you're using, but that whole process is super easy with the program I use, I just group select the files I want to combine, save as a new file and then either keep or delete the others depending on what I want to do... When I'm individually printing pages like that for the sole purpose of combining them I usually save those pages to a temporary location and then I periodically just delete or overwrite them.

I just open a blank layout for this type of thing all the time. Really very easy. Having said that, I'm not sure what the problems you're having with transparent fills are. I just tested with three PDF printers and the results are the same with each one. I used Chief Architect's built in PDF printer, Nitro Pro, and Microsoft Print To PDF. Transparency works just fine with all three. And FWIW... Nitro Pro works exactly like the example program you posted a link to. It offers the choice to append to an existing file.