Alaskan_Son

I hadn't really been following this topic, but in reading through real quickly I'm not sure this issue was ever really addressed. If I understand what you are saying, I think you might be missing some things. Wall lines CAN be controlled via layer sets. You just need to check By Layer here... Wall FILLS are a bit of a different story, but you can actually control these by layer too by using either: A. Build>Wall>Hatch Wall OR B. Setting the fill to "Use Layer Color" in the Layer Fill Style dbx. This would mean you could no longer control the walls line color via layer settings though unless you wanted them to be the same color as your fill.

I wonder if perhaps Chief's print to PDF is fully embedding fonts? Not sure how big of a difference that would make in file size, but could be one contributor.

Hi Alan, I took a look at your plan, and here's what I found... The windows that are displaying as you want them have been set up to Show Component Labels but you have suppressed labels for the 2 outside units. You have also specified the label for the center unit. The problem with what you're doing is that the window dimensions in the schedule as well as the header sizes and rough openings are all incorrect/confusing. I think what you should probably do is like I suggested with Option B in my post above...Show Single Label For Entire Unit and specify the label to say "Triple 2460SH" or whatever it is. That would be the most accurate and would display like I think you want it.

A few quick comments to clarify some things that I think you may not have been quite right about... 1. Chief doesn't actually have a "replicate" tool. It has Copy, Multiple Copy, and Copy/Paste In Place. It does have a Transform/Replicate tool, but that is the name of a special dbx. containing a group of tools...one of which is Copy. 2. Chief actually does have a Move tool. If you open the Transform/Replicate tool it's in there. It's labeled Move. You can also simply drag the item using its Move handle, or you can grab the Move handle and hit tab. You can also use the center mouse button on any of the edit handles to move an item. Either way, the action is still called Move. 3. Chief has a number of tools you can use in place of Auto CAD's offset tool, but Jump is NOT one of them. You can use any number of the Copy tools in conjunction with any number of the Move techniques or you can do so in Concentric edit mode (can be temporarily activated by holding down C). You can set a Concentric Jump distance, but its NOT a jump tool. Also, Chief has both Reflect and Reflect About (which you mentioned) and they do have a different name than what you're used to, however in Chief's defense, I think they actually make more logical sense than 'Mirror".

Thank you Rob.

Thank you Mark. I'll try that when I get back to my computer. I keep my desktop pretty clean as well and don't use all that many programs so I should actually have room to put that shortcut down in my taskbar. Hopefully it won't have to live there for very long. This particular issue is a huge annoyance to me. Absolute top of the list for current issues with Chief.

I am unfamiliar with the clear shortcut you speak of. Can you elaborate? I searched clipboard in the Windows search bar but that came up empty. Any help would be appreciated.

It would be in your best interest if you were to attach the plan, But briefly speaking, there are a ton of different methods people use to do what you are trying to do including railing walls, pony walls, moldings, polyline solids, cabinets, custom countertops, doors, symbols, the list could probably go on. I personally use various methods depending on the situation, but more often than not I use a combination of walls dragged down in elevation view (half walls) , custom countertops (wall caps, and curb caps), and polyline solids (curbs, wall caps, curb caps, and glass panels).

OK, I have yet to see this problem on my desktop, but the copy/paste issue reared its ugly head on my laptop yesterday. Super annoying. It was only a problem copying from a CAD detail and pasting into plan. I could paste back into the CAD detail just fine, just not from CAD detail to plan. Never seen anything remotely like this since I started using chief with X3. The only fix I could find was to copy something in plan view and paste into plan view which seemed to "reset" things. It happened several times too. I noticed when I shut my laptop off at the end of the day to go home that a couple oddball programs or processes were automatically shut down as well. I just barely caught view of the little pop-up window and didn't recognize the names of the items being shut down.

I sent you a PM with my email address.

Didn't spend a whole lot of time with it as I'm working on some other things here, but I took a quick look. You can change that wall back to a normal wall (remove the pony wall definition), simply drag the wall down in elevation view, and uncheck Use Room Ceiling Finish in the roof plane dbx. You can then use a polyline solid or any other number of methods for the shelf itself. There are other methods as well, but hopefully that at least gets you started down one possible path.

Post the plan and you'll get better answers.

Very nicely done! Thank you!!

Your post is a little confusing to me and if I understand you correctly I think your window schedules are going to confuse people, but here's what I have to offer for the time being... If you want a mulled unit to have a single label and display in your schedule as a single unit choose "Show Single Label For Entire Unit" If you want a mulled unit to show a single label and display as 3 separate windows in the schedule (albeit in the same row) they have to be identical units (even adding text to the comment field will make the window unique) and you'll have to do something manually depending on your desired end result. A few things that come to mind... A. Suppress all labels and manually add the label using a callout or a text box B. Choose "Show Single Label For Entire Unit" and simply add a note in the label field or in one of the fields in the Components dbx describing the window however you want to C. Set the unit to display component labels and simply drag the extra labels off to the side of the plan somewhere so they're out of view Anyway, hopefully that helps. We could probably help you a little better if you were to attach a plan as I'm not sure I fully understand what is going on. It doesn't make sense to me

I think I may have misunderstood what you were trying to do Joe. I originally thought maybe you were only trying to get rid of the extended portion of the bottom cord and leave the upper cord. Now I'm realizing you were trying to chop the tails off entirely. I think Jere's suggestion as well as manually adding your rafters as you said will work great. Depending on the complexity of the roof, one other thing you can consider doing instead of manually editing the trusses in section view is this... Temporarily drag your roof plane back to the exterior wall, build your trusses, group select them, lock the truss envelopes, and then drag your overhang back out. Could be a lot faster than manually editing a bunch of different truss profiles if the roof is really complex.

You should spend a little time to learn to use Annotation Sets. In the meantime, just double click on the dimension or text tool you're using and set the layer in there. This will change the layer your text or dimensions are placed on. OR you can also place all those annotations and then group select and put them into their own layer. The Current CAD layer is for CAD only and not text or dimensions.

Not sure if that is a Chief related tip or construction related tip, but if it is the latter, that's a really good idea. Thanks!

Just got back to my computer and played around with it for a bit. I think the quickest and most accurate method to achieve what you're looking for is by setting that lower face item to be an inset side panel. The bottom of the box could be built either using a Separation or by placing a shelf manually...and then if necessary, use the vertical overlap as Mark suggested to make the door look right (would require a taller separation at the top as well). If you don't need the extra door overlap, just skip that last step.

Gotcha. Yes there is a way of doing that without tacking molding onto the bottom in real life. I've never attempted to do that in Chief though. That's the type of thing I would just note on my cabinet plans.

I personally don't think the molding is complex or a workaround. I was just trying to offer an alternative. Not exactly sure what you're overall goal is it what your issue with the moulding is but the toe-kick thing is just what came to mind.

I'm away from my computer right now Joe, but if I understand what you are trying to do, you should be able to check "energy heel" which will stop the bottom chord at the exterior wall.

I've never tried this, and I'm away from my computer, but could you use a base cabinet with a toe kick for that area?

I think the only way to do what you're asking for with auto dimensions is to create a wall type with 2 main layers of equal sizes and set it to dimension to the exterior of the inside layer. Maybe consider using Point To Point or Centerline dimensions instead.

In Chief we have Copy/Paste in Place.

Do you realize there are 3 entirely different layer sets you are using? Changing the display while in plan view won't fix your problem (i.e just because the layer is on in plan doesn't mean it's on in your camera view layer set or section view layer set. if you attach a plan you'll probably get an accurate answer.