Alaskan_Son

You are very welcome.

Those should move too if you were to upgrade to X9

No. It shouldn't screw anything up at all unless you've further modified my system to have one of those macros in that text box setting a global value (which is not something I recall ever doing in my videos).

If I am understanding correctly, I would probably recommend you make yourself some different tabulation boxes, reports, or whatever you want to call them. Rather than display a bunch of zero areas, you could simply not display them at all that way. You can have as many of those in your template plan as you need. The only thing you have to avoid doing is accidentally setting the GLOBAL value for any of those areas more than once. You can display those values as many times as you want, you just can't set those values more than once. Does that answer your question?

Hey Scott, 2 quick comments that might help you or others out. The reason labels need to be displayed is because in simple terms, Chief needs to be able to "see" them. You can set the text height to zero, you can set the actual label to display "" (I think I went over this in part 3 of my video series?) or drag the labels off to the side. They just must be visible. I think this is also something I tried to touch on in part 3 of my video series, but the reason you're having problems on the second floor is much the same as the reason labels need to be displayed...Chief needs to be able to "see" those polyline labels you have on the floor below in order to properly calculate them. What's happening when you move to the second floor is that when you open Text Macro Management, every macro is being calculated based on the polyline you have selected. In this case it was that deck area. Normally this is not a problem because once you close TMM, the labels in the polylines will take back over and correct all those numbers immediately. Because all those labels are on the first floor though, Chief can't see them, so the numbers are just reporting based on that deck area you had previously selected. You shouldn't need to cut that polyline and move it to the first floor, all you should need to do is switch your VIEW to the first floor then move back to your second floor. None of this is usually an issue when you print as ALL the macros should be re-executed at that time. It's really only a problem when you open and close TMM or use Insert < because whenever you do either of those things, EVERY macro is executed based on the item you have selected. Chief does this so it knows which ones are valid and which ones aren't. Anyway, all you need to do is "show" those labels to Chief (i.e. make sure they're visible on screen) and all should be well. Hope that helps. P.S. For any of you guys using my system, if I seem to have enough interest I may eventually continue the series to show you how you can cut your required macros in half or even in third and to take you a little deeper into the tricks available in Ruby. I touched on some of the methods required for the above in part 3 of the video series, but there's definitely more than can be done to improve upon the system.

Okay. I found an old .pl1 file and tested out my suggestion. It kinda worked...sorta...not really...Chief tried to open it but then gave this warning... Like you said...looks like those older files are just no longer supported. Oh well....I'm sorry...I tried. On a side note, I'm curious how useful those old files can be anyway. Chief has changed so much it seems like the plans would be a mess and you'd be better off redrawing anyway...although I guess you would still need access to the file to get the relevant information. Looks like keeping X8 on hand for a bit might be the only option. Sorry.

Not at my computer to test, nor do I have any .pl1 files but have you tried simply renaming them to change the .pl1 to .plan?

On the surface it really doesn't look too bad but there are definitely a lot of things that need to be addressed. I only looked at it for a few minutes but a few that stuck out to me right away... Your stairway doesn't appear to have proper clearances at your entry area. The tub/shower combo on your main floor has been resized and is actually too small...plus, it needs a plumbing wall (even if you were to flip the unit it still needs another wall) The tub/shower combo downstairs needs a plumbing wall as well (even if you were to flip the unit it still needs another wall) Once you fix the 2 tubs and plumbing walls you won't have enough room for the toilets Just a matter of opinion but the toilet and sink near the entryway should be flip flopped. I don't think you want the toilet in front of the door, and I also think it's just good practice to design bathrooms so that you're always washing your hands on your way out. and not walking away from the door to get to the sink. Anyway, that's my free bit of advice for the day. Have a good night.

Thanks for trying to clarify that. I'll take your word for it : ) I'm sure my situation was a little different...I had a pretty old printer but it always printed fine. One little thing about it though... I couldn't actually hook it directly to my computer due to outdated drivers and the fact HP stopped supporting it. The only way it worked was setting it up as a network printer through my router via the JetDirect server. Anywho, I can't say I understand it any better but I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

You're more than welcome : )

Just ran some very quick tests...for ray trace views, try setting the material to approx. 75% emissive...

Can you post a copy of the plan file? BTW, if you're trying to do a ray trace, my suggestions probably won't be a whole lot of help. That's a different ball of wax for sure.

Quite a few options here depending on a number of factors including the rendering type but here are a few right off the top (some may need to be done in combination with others depending on the situation) ... Simply turn the Terrain Perimeter layer off Set the material color to white and turn the shading contrast down to zero Adjust the material settings by completely deleting the texture file (no texture) and set the diffuse setting to 100% Set the terrain perimeter layer line style to the invisible line style (vector views) Give the terrain a zero thickness (if the edges are in view) Hope that helps at least get you started.

A plan file or at the very least a screenshot would really improve your chances of getting a helpful response.

Ya, I think that feature is new with X9. I had some pretty complex custom toolbars and toolbar configurations and it was really nice to have those automatically migrated.

Interesting. This seems to reinforce my suspicion that a good print server might make the difference. It introduces an entirely new driver and memory bank into the mix. What do you think BT? Could a print server be the difference and perhaps the answer? If so, that would point again to the printer/printer driver being the limiting factors and not necessarily Chief. I mean Chief might be the only program that causes seem people issue but that still doesn't necessarily mean it's a Chief problem. Chief just may be a bit more demanding than some of the other software and that demand may have increased further with X7 and onward. I don't know...just some ideas.

Mine aren't all empty. The Templates and Toolbars folders are both full. I went ahead and sent a ticket into tech support. My migration log shows one error... "....Premier X9 Data\Patterns Migrate From Directory does not exist. Copying Textures Directory Migrate From Directory: C:\Users\User\Documents\Chief Architect Premier X8 Data\Textures Migrate To Directrory: C:\Users\User\Documents\Chief Architect Premier X9 Data\Textures ***ERROR: Migrating TexturesDirectory Migrating Preferences Copying Chief Architect Premier X9.ini File Migrate From File: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Chief Architect Inc\Chief Architect Premier X8.ini Migrate To File: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Chief Architect Inc\Chief Architect Premier X9.ini..." I'm assuming the folders weren't deleted because there was that one error during migration. I noticed in another thread you mentioned you have missing textures. I suspect your migration log also has a similar error message and your migration folders were probably not deleted for the same reason as mine. That's just a guess though. I suppose I'll wait to hear what the fine folks at TS have to say.

Re: sheetSizes...Thank you. I wonder why it was present in both X7 and X8 folders? It must have just been carried over during the migration process? Oh well...as long as its not necessary. Re: mmaster...That's kinda what I figured. Just wasn't sure if perhaps something had gone wrong during the initial migration/install. I went back and double checked and it looks like Chief is still using one of the Master Lists located in my X8 folder. I've never really utilized Master Lists except for learning and playing around with them so its probably a non-issue but I went ahead and created a new one in my X9 folder for if and when I do make use of it. Thanks. Re: Migrate Folders...Thank you for verifying. That's kinda what I figured on those as well but I wasn't sure. I wonder if I'm safe to delete them. I take it you don't have them? I probably ought to contact TS to make sure its okay if I clean that folder up.

I noticed my Chief Architect Premier X9 Data folder is a little different than in previous versions. It seems to be missing these 2 files... ...and these files seem to be new... Not sure it really matters as I don't seem to be having any problems, but I would also kinda like to understand what's going on. Any of yuze guys happen to have any insight?

Ah yes. If we're considering applied materials too then we can also add: Wall material region Custom backsplash (they're almost the same but have some different useful behaviors that set them apart).

Just bear in mind there are at least 4 ways to change the material of your walls... 1. Through the wall type settings 2. Through the wall materials tab 3. Through the room materials tab 4. By using the material painter The latter 2 will allow for a situation where a single wall may have sections with different materials assigned and therefore the "no change".

Re-read my post above. The wall probably got hit with the material painter at some point.

Yes. Because one way or another the wall had more than one material assigned to it. I'm assuming the wall is probably spanning more than one room and you either changed one of the walls in that room using the material painter or you changed the material of the walls through the room dbx. Just a couple guesses.

No. I think the closest you can probably get to an export/import process would be: Do a Save As of Plan A (the one that has the desired Ray Trace settings) and delete everything in it. Import Layer Sets, Annotation Sets, and Default Settings from Plan B Open Plan B and use Edit Area (all floors) to draw a polyline around the entire plan. Cut and paste/hold position that Edit Area Polyline from Plan A into Plan B. You can of course also just take screenshots of your settings from Plan A nd re-enter them into Plan B but it would be nice if there was an actual export/import process.

I would say ALMOST always a video card issue. One other thing I've ran into myself that can cause the same problem... Setting the backdrop to solid black and then creating a "Line Drawing" with black lines. I've often set the backdrop to black to create realistic interior night time ray traces. A couple times when doing that I've tried to switching to the line drawing rendering mode and had the whole screen go black. It's was never readily apparent what the problem was though because my camera was either inside or looking at the building and one would assume you would be able to at least see the outline of the building (i.e. it didn't occur to me that the background color should be having any effect). What's unique about line drawings though is that the color of your object is simply set to be the same as the background color...something that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. I mean it's not a glass house view or wireframe drawing. Only visible surface and horizon lines draw. Why then does the background show through right? Anyway, not to digress. I obviously eventually ended up getting things sorted out both times. Really just wanted to point out one other culprit behind black screens.