Alaskan_Son

None of this makes any sense to me. Why would anyone ever want all their Layer Sets to be the same? I'm sure there's something that just needs to be clarified.

"When is a Garage a Carport?" @dshallI feel a little disappointed. The opening line drew me in and now I'm waiting for a punchline. WTH!!? I feel like someone interrupted my sneeze.

I’m not sure who the person was, but unless you are 100% sure, I would be careful not to jump the gun too quickly. The online users list isn’t always as accurate as you might think. I’ve seen it display incorrect information quite often. For example, I’ll be having on ongoing conversation with someone on a thread and I’ll watch the list show one or both of us being absent or active elsewhere. In addition, I have seen reputation points given or taken away while the user list shows nobody at all active on that thread.

That's only if you're not doing anything and only have an object selected. There's no reason to hit escape if you're not in the middle of an operation though right? Just a quick example: I find myself hitting the Escape key all the time when I've accidentally started dragging an object, resizing an object, maybe dragging the wrong corner, or activating Resize edit mode instead of Concentric, etc.. Either way, I simply want to escape out of the operation. Switching to the Select Objects tool though, doesn't just escape out of the operation. It drops the current tool and loses the selected object(s) entirely. This means in many cases you're forced to reactivate a tool and/or re-select one or more objects.

Tons of ways to do this.... -No Room Definition railing wall -Molding lines (with and without 3D molding symbols) -Landings -Distribution Path -Manually positioned and distributed objects

I personally think massive overuse of the Select Objects tool is one of the most detrimental habits practiced by the average Chiefer. I think we all have those habits that we know we need to quit, and this is one of my own personal worst offenders as well. I know better, but I developed an affinity for the space bar years ago and for whatever reason, it's been a very very difficult habit to break. It is FAR more efficient to leave the appropriate tools active and either take advantage of the restrictive selection that brings with or use right click to select other objects. In addition, I think Escape is also underused. Escape simply takes you back one tool at a time. This can be used to simply back out of the current operation (without losing your selection mind you) or back to the last tool(s) you had activated. I guess this is also related to overuse of Select Object though since most people's initial reaction to escape an operation is to switch to Select Objects.

Don't turn it off. Just change it to Click Twice To Display

You're being limited by CAD items on other pages. I would consider this a bug that you might want to report.

You should only need a single macro and it can be a lot simpler. It could live in the label or in a text box with an arrow (I would personally do the latter so I have more freedom with text formatting the isn't tied to other labels). In fact, in X12, you don't need a custom macro at all. You could enter the code right in the text box or label. I would probably use something more like... %referenced_filename[0..6]%

In layout the macro is referencing layout file information. In plan, the macro is referencing plan file information.

I was talking about using the same %file.name% macro. Just using it plan instead of layout.

This is honestly a small lesson in and of itself.

Nice. He's another quick freebie tip for ya... If you want to use the plan file name, simply place the macro in your plan file, a CAD Detail is as good a place as any, send that view to layout, and instead of using a mask, simply crop the layout box. You can do a similar thing in layout by placing the macro into a CAD Detail there, sending that to Layout (yes...from layout to layout), and then cropping the layout box.

Good tip, but I personally always recommend people start in the Help files and then move elsewhere as a second option.

Search "Drawing Group"

I do much the same thing, however, there are very good reasons for the 2 to get different names such as... When I'm referencing more than one plan file with a single layout (As-Built, Demolition, Proposed, Details, Warehouse plan, etc.) When I'm using more than one layout file for a single plan file (Permit Plans, Cabinet Plans, Tile Details, Window Order, Fabrication Drawings, etc.)

I made some videos on this a while back, but one other major advantage is that you can quickly, easily, and very deliberately choose some very specific door sizes and types so that you're sure to be selecting from the doors you or your builder actually want to be using. Imagine for example you're working for a builder who only uses a very specific door company/style for each door, only uses 2/4, 2/6, and 3/0 hinged doors. By adding to and pulling from the library, placing the appropriate doors in the appropriate locations can be done with a single click...select a 2/4 door for bathrooms, select a 2/6 door for bedrooms, etc. In addition, it can be very quick to place doors of specific sizes this way if you ever have to trace imported DWG or DXF files. Instead of a place-adjust-reposition operation it can become a single click operation placing a 3/0 bifold right where you want it.

A few quick notes and tips: 1. %file.name% is a purely Chief Architect text macro and not anything you can access or modify with Ruby. 2. %file.name% placed in layout gets its information from the Layout file, not from the Plan file. 3. If really you want to use %file.name%, one thing you can do is use a monospaced font and simply cover the rest of the name with a CAD mask (solid fill set to background color and invisible line style). Then place the objects in the appropriate Drawing Order. 4. If it was me, I would be using and modifying (with Ruby) the referenced_filename attribute along with a Layout Box.

Haven't dug to deep so I'm not sure where exactly the problem is, but I can definitely reproduce in X10. No problems in X11 or X12 though so I suspect it's a bug or specific performance issue that's been addressed in newer versions.

My comment was directed at the person who doesn't understand where the layout box is getting is information from in the first place. In my opinion, it's best to understand what's going on before trying to address it. Besides, the layout box may not even be referencing a Saved Plan View anyway. Bottom line and key is that a Layout Box remembers certain things. You can see most of those things by opening the Layout Box Specification dialog. Then you can either proceed to change those things right in that dialog or you can adjust the appropriate Saved Plan View.

...better yet, select your Layout Box, open it, and study that dialog carefully. Hopefully that exercise will help you understand a little better what’s going on.

You can also consider using one or more Custom Object Information Fields along with text macros to place more information into your columns. This way you're not wasting quite as much space in the rest of the schedule. This example only has a few pieces of information combined, but I'm sure you'll get the idea...

Oh, I use them, I just uncheck the Scale Images setting is all.

Click the Renumber Schedule tool.

A similar thing happened to me a little while back. Both my Bonus and Manufacturer catalogs were emptied out. Never figured out what caused it. Never happened before that, hasn't happened since, and only happened on one of my machines.