Alaskan_Son

You are most certainly welcome Scott. Thanks for championing the cause.

If you want to give Chief a "fresh look at it" you'll need to take a 3D view and Convert To Symbol. Now all the old sizing info is gone and you can start again with your new version. You may just need to assign a new CAD Block.

Andrew, when you are in Program Settings are you making sure that Chief Architect is the program that is selected when you make the change? You may actually need to add Chief Architect to the program list if its not in there.

I suspect that when you drew that original polyline that you hadn't yet changed your CAD Default settings.

Curt, 2 things... 1. It works just fine for me. 2. The Number Style Setting is really only for how numbers display inside actual DBX's. It doesn't really affect the way numbers are displayed IN PLAN (although if I remember correctly there is one exception having to do with schedules maybe?? That's another subject though). What you need to change is shown in my attached image (which it looks like you are already doing. Without a plan its hard to tell whats going on.

I use open poylines for a number of reasons, but in this particular case I was trying to develop a custom solution for another user and I needed to use the length (perimeter) of the open polyline. I ended up finding a couple other ways to achieve the same end, but I still think this should work better and so I sent it in to tech support. Here's the quick video I made for them...

Okay, so I spoke too soon. There is definitely a bug and I am going to submit it to tech support. The problem actually has nothing to do with macros at all. Arrows will not properly connect to open polylines...not in elevation, and not in plan either. I thought I had used referenced macros with open polylines in the past, but I guess I was wrong. I had only used owner context macros with those open polylines. Anyway, I can get them to work temporarily but they are extremely unstable. Off to tech support I go.

To be fair, the OP was actually only using the length and so I certainly wasn't saying the angle would be "very easy". Having said that, I think I could make it happen. It would just require a global($) value in another object to set the "North" angle.

I think the problem is that you aren't actually connected to the wall or room. I actually can't get a text line with arrow to connect to a wall or room in elevation view. IOW, it's not that the macro isn't working in elevation, its that the text line with arrow isn't working.

That's one way I use them for sure. You are correct Joe, and I finally got back to the office and had a chance to work with this a little further. I figured out what the problem was: There seem to be some sort of bug (or inconsistencies at least) with the way OPEN polylines behave The referenced macro will not work on an open polyline in elevation view UNTIL the polyline is closed. Once the polyline is closed, I can then put a complete break in it and then do with it as I wish and the referenced macro will continue to work. Until the polyline is closed I get an evaluation error though. Open polylines work just fine in plan view though.

I haven't messed with it a whole lot but I'm actually only trying to connect to other CAD based objects. I'm away from the office now but it sounds like what you are saying is that they work for you? Maybe I just wasn't snapping correctly. Actually, now that I think about it… I believe the macro probably had another global value in the calculation. Maybe what I needed to do was call the macro a "none" context and then used ".referenced" instead of calling it a referenced macro. I'll have to check it out when I get back to the office. I just haven't used referenced macros in elevations as far as I can remember and it didn't seem to be working. I didn't mess with it all that much though.

Never noticed this until just recently but for some reason referenced macros don't seem to work in elevation views. Does anybody know why this is so? Or does anybody know how to make them work? I was thinking of submitting this to tech-support but I thought I'd ask here first. It's strange because the referenced macros work just fine with the text box selected while Text Macro Management is open but they always results in an evaluation error once Text Macro Management is closed.

This is not a feature we currently have and it has been requested in the past. For now, I think your best bet is to double click the revision cloud tool on your toolbar which should take you to your revision cloud defaults and change the layer there before you draw them.

I think its possible the setting you guys are after is Perspective Crop Mode (P) found under 3D>Camera View Options. This will stop the camera from traveling through walls.

Hey Joe, There are a couple methods that I utilize to get otherwise unattainable attributes and automation. There are several variations of both of these methods but in short… 1. Draw a line, assign arrows to both ends, convert that to a polyline by adding a node, delete that extra node, and then utilize the label. 2. Do the same thing but instead of converting to a polyline, convert to a molding polyline. You can use this method with or without arrows, but the beauty of arrows is that if you drag the arrow and snap it to an object you can get it to "stick". When you move the object, the end of your line will move with it. You cannot use the molding method in elevation views, only in plan views. The beauty of using a molding polyline is that it can be added to ARCHITECTURAL blocks. There are a good handful of related tricks beyond that that you can use in conjunction with this method, but essentially what you can end up with are dimension lines whose values can be used in macros. To see one example, go ahead and reverse engineer the "Kitchen Work Triangle" in this thread... https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/11669-michaels-custom-macros-tools-symbols-and-training-services/?view=getnewpost

Here's a quick video with a couple tips (mostly stuff Glenn, Dermot and Joe already mentioned) and a quick demo to show that what you're looking for can be done with macros too...

Here you go Cory. Thanks for donating to the cause : ) Masonite 5-Panel Door.calibz

Agreed. Here's another little trick though... You can put all those lines on their own floor and use your reference display to utilize those lines. This way your lines won't actually live on any of your normal layer sets...only when you have that "Guideline Floor" set as your reference display.

Have you tried using 3D molding polylines, faces, or zero thickness polyline solids? They work decently well. Not great, but they work.

We don't have guidelines but there are a handful of things you can do to replace their functionality. I just use CAD lines most of the time but you can also use molding polylines, faces, and zero thickness polyline solids if you need them in 3D. For your CAD lines, create a layer called "Guidelines". Set that to be your Current CAD layer when drawing them. You can simply toggle that layer on and off as necessary, and you can easily group select and delete using Match Properties.

This is what he's talking about...

I believe I have reported this issue to tech support. I think you should report it as well. Each piece of Chief's automatic room labels individually rotate around their own center points instead of rotating around the center point of the group (as they should). Your best bet is to simply create your own room label using a text box or a rich text box along with the appropriate macros. There have been many threads on this, but if all you want is the standard label, simply enter %room.name%, %room.dimensions%, %room.area.internal%, and/or %room.area.standard%. Just set it all up like you want it, block it, and add it to your library for future use.

Scott is right on the money. Start by going to Tools>Reference Floors>Change Floor/Reference (Control+Shift+G). There you can choose ANY layer set to be your Reference Floor Layer Set. You can click Define and adjust that layer set's settings or even copy/create a new layer set. Anyway, that's where it is...go crazy.

My mistake. I had 2 views overlapped and it was the view sent to layout that appeared to have the transparent background. The exported image was in the background. Sorry for the confusion but here are my conclusions... -Images exported from 3D views will not have a transparent background no matter what you do in Chief. -Images exported from plan views will have a proper transparent background as long as you put a check in the box. -You CAN get a transparent background for 3D views in layout but NOT using the export tools. To get a transparent background simply send a 3D view to layout with the background turned off.

So, this is rather annoying. The background transparency for pictures exported from 3D views works in LAYOUT but not in any other apps I tested it in. Transparent background for pictures exported from plan views works just fine in all apps.