Alaskan_Son

If you're just using the OOB settings, those arrows are probably on the "Text" layer. You can very easily figure out what layer they are on by opening the line, clicking on the Line Style tab and then checking the layer, or even quicker...once the line is selected, click on the little Object Layer Properties button (looks like a little square with an "O" in it), or even quicker than that...if your Active Layer Display Options window is open, simply selecting the object should isolate and highlight the item's layer(s) so you can then turn it off if you'd like.

Just one man's opinion here but that should be no problem for you at all.

Not for the faint of heart but a person could use polyline solids or material regions to create the tiles or grout or both. It's not that bad if you're used to the process, but otherwise it can be pretty time-consuming. You can use distributed objects, multiple copy, and transform/replicate among other things to speed the process up but it definitely takes a little work no matter what you do. Cool thing is that you can create some very unique and realistic tile layouts with the ability to quickly change tile and/or grout colors on an item by item basis.

Yep, except I would add that Patterns/Material Types are also used in Vector Views and Line Drawings as well.

Totally agree.

That's a good idea Eric. The one downside to that method would be that you would have to remember to resize the polyline anytime you modified the room size(s).

Would you still want the labels in the individual rooms or just the one label with combined totals? It can definitely be done and although I'm sure Joe, Eric, or someone else might be able to come up with something more elegant but the only way I know of doing it would require a "one time use" macro for each of the 2 rooms and possibly a 3rd depending on how you wanted things displayed. And by "one time use" I mean just that...The macros could only be used once in any given plan. If you had the situation arise multiple times in the same plan you would have to set up 2 or 3 more similar macros with some very minor changes. Easy enough to do but keeping track might be a different story.

Like mentioned above there are definitely a number of uses for the various techniques and a person could pretty easily do a full page write up but just briefly... I use all of them with the exception of Duotone and Painting. I'm not super good at describing artistic rational but I'll give it a go... Vector Views result in very sharp, clean lines, and can be used in color when you want to accent the details about the basic form and include a very general sense of color schemes but still remain a bit disconnected from reality. The "cartoon" like qualities help keep the model from feeling like the real thing and therefore allow a person to focus on whats important during the initial design phase. In addition vector views are necessary for creating CAD Details or Plot Lines (converting to line work). Glass House is good for (as "Designsyko" stated above) seeing how the various design elements interact and correlate with each other. Many people use it for troubleshooting the model. Technical Illustration is one of my favorites for accenting form without bringing color into the mix. A person could use vector views with colors turned off for this as well, but I find technical illustration much more realistic, much warmer, and it brings better depth and just has a better overall feel in my opinion. Watercolor to me is like the opposite of technical illustration. I use it (usually with line drawing as Joey mentioned) to accent color while only giving a very general sense as to the details of the overall form. Used along with line drawing it seems to help a person more freely envision the deign without getting tied up in the details. Line Drawing is much like watercolor in that you can use it (especially early in the process) to make the design feel more like a rough idea...a sketch...which again, keeps people from getting too tied up in the little details yet it still allows for a relatively good way to accent the form. Anyway, that was just brief, but hopefully that helps someone.

Sorry, I don;t know what to tell you. Like Chopsaw I rarely use that tool but I just tested and it seems to work just fine to me. I always just use the center mouse button to pan the camera. The only thing I can think of is maybe change your Field Of View Setting to a smaller number.

If you're talking about "Use Active Layer Set" then the answer is no. All that does is tells your anno set not to change TO any specific layer set. For example, if you're using your Electrical Anno Set (which you've set to activate your Electrical Layer Set) and then you switch to an Anno Set that's set to Use Active Layer Set, you will still be in your Electrical Layer Set. If you make any changes to your Electrical Layer Set and then click on your Electrical Anno Set again, the changes will not revert or anything like that. They will remain changed. Remember that were talking about layer sets and layer control here, not anno sets. Anno sets don't control your layers or layer sets. All they do is OPTIONALLY activate the desired layer set. They also decide various active notation defaults but that's another matter entirely and is unrelated to the subject at hand. If on the other hand you were indeed talking about using "Active Defaults", that is nothing more than an anno set buffet of sorts where you can select various notation defaults that you would like activated. You can also select your active layer set here if you like, but again, this tool is really set up to control the notation side of things. When its comes to layer sets and layer control "Active Defaults" is essentially the same as anno sets but in a pick and choose sort of smorgasbord style.

Hmm...very strange. I'm going to test again when I get back to the office but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. Can you do me a favor in the meantime and try testing with less than a whole number? Use the example in the OP maybe (.8). I wonder if perhaps my problem is that you need to start with a zero (0.8)?

Try doing the same thing to modify an object attribute and see what you get.

To expand upon Mark's suggestion there are three things that come into play that I believe you can utilize to get a little closer to what you are looking for… 1. The offset 2. Extrude inside vs. extrude outside 3. The direction of your actual molding profile ( right facing, left facing, facing up, or facing down)

While we are on the subject… This particular macro would require using multiplication. I can't seem to get the "*" operator to work in a custom macro so I've ended up using "/" and the inverse of the desired number. What am I missing? I thought "*" was Ruby's multiplication operator but apparently not.

Unfortunately Chief doesn't currently allow us to access/manipulate the values of their predefined macros so your only solution will probably be to create a custom macro using TMM (Text Macro Management) which is a little easier said than done if you're not familiar with it. This particular macro shouldn't be too complex and if I wasn't so busy I might just donate the time but I'm pretty swamped right now so if you'd like me to write one for you I could probably do so for a small fee. Just send me a PM if you are interested. Maybe someone else will be willing to donate their time though… I guess we'll see. You might also check with Joe Carrick, he might already have a macro that works for you as part of his macro a month club or as a standalone macro package that he has for sale.

Where did you get that idea from? If I actually ever did such a thing I might truly apologize. I don't believe I ever once did such a thing though and if I did I think you should back up your claim and show me.

I can't argue with you there. If you need me to clarify or explain anything please don't hesitate to ask. And BTW, you really don't need to be so discourteous and insulting. The truth is that you simply USE annosets differently than myself and many others do. I understand how and why you, Scott, and Joe do what you do and you don't see me hurling insults even though I think guys such as yourself are actually limiting yourselves with your very rigid approach. I simply choose not to use the same approach and I have many very good reasons. I've tried explaining to you in the past but I honestly think you just don't listen and choose not to try and comprehend anyone's else's side. I can assure you that I understand anno sets as well as perhaps any of you and nothing you have suggested is anything new to me. Using your approach would not be an improvement for me personally. It would require WAY too many anno sets and would slow down and disrupt my groove substantially. I know that you've made anno sets work really well for YOU and that's great, but you could really be more considerate and realize that many of those of us who do things differently do so for good reason and not because our understanding is inferior to yours. The fact is that the way we design with and utilize Chief is just totally different than the way you do and I wish you could just accept that and leave the belittling comments at the door.

No it most certainly will not. As far as the relationship between anno sets and layer sets go...You can OPTIONALLY have the anno set automatically change your active layer set. That's all. Nothing more. Annosets obviously do a lot more than that when it comes to notations (which is their real strength) but as far as layer sets go, anno sets don't bring any new functionality to the table. You can obviously do as Perry is suggesting and set up a crapload of layer sets (which he controls via anno sets for whatever reason) for every conceivable circumstance if you can easily remember which is which and remember to change back and forth between them. I personally find a number of other methods far easier and more fluid and being able to both "save" and "reset" layer sets would make the process that much easier. Thanks for bringing this issue back up again Rashid. Here's hoping Chief will bring some improvements to this area.

While I can agree with the general spirit of this suggestion, I would take this advice with a grain of salt and proceed with caution. The last thing you want to do is get emotionally attached to and deeply invested in a design that is structurally, financially, or otherwise unrealistic or unfeasible. Its really super easy to overlook some minor detail that can require completely altering the design. However you decide to proceed, I hope it all goes well for you : )

I agree 120%. I've used all sorts of various temporary/drawing/trash layer sets, copied layer sets, and the all on and all off layer sets to allow layer control "on-the-fly" but it's really a bit of a pain, especially when you forget to switch layer sets. The fact I use typically use "Make Copy" when sending to layout make the whole thing a little easier for me but I'm all for some improvements in this area. It could be a lot easier.

3 part answer... 1. I don't know of any way a person can get arrows to automatically change. If you want different size arrows then I think you have to place multiple instances of those objects for the desired views or layer sets. 2. Just to clarify, technically speaking nothing can be set to automatically resize by just switching between anno sets. In all cases, its the change in layer sets that initiates the resize. Some people might associate this change with the anno set, but that's only because they've set their anno set to change their layer set. 3. It wasn't part of the OP's question, but what you CAN do is utilize the full potential of anno sets and set up your desired arrow definitions in there. Once you switch anno sets, any new dimensions or text you place will have the desired arrow size. Using this approach though you would most likely be placing different text boxes and dimensions for the various scales or views instead of re-using existing and controlling the sizes with layer settings.

This is how cameras have always worked. They won't display in color as long as the camera view is open. Save that view and close it and the color will display in plan.

I've never noticed whether or not cross section lines can be displayed in layout or not and I'm away from my computer so I couldn't test but I'll take your guys' word for it for now...I'll try to remember and test it later. Anyway, it's a bit of a workaround, but if you need cross section lines displayed, I'm betting you can unlock the layer in plan, group select and cut them, and paste hold position. I'm pretty sure this will turn them to standard CAD. Of course they would no longer be live.

Yes. That particular issue has been fixed.

Close but no, there are actually 2 groups of boolean tools. Just a very quick explanation but they are...-POLYLINE Union, Intersection, and Subtraction which only work on polylines based objects created in the same view and -SOLID Union, Intersection, and Subtraction which work for solids drawn in any view.