Joe_Carrick

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    11881

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Joe_Carrick

  1. Joe_Carrick
    It would be really nice if we had the ability to select a camera and then have a "Set as Default" icon like we do for Doors, Windows & Cabinets. Of course, that implies that there are actual defaults. For most of what Larry is asking for there are in fact defaults that can be set. For the Sun, Defaults>Camera>Sun provides: Intensity Color Sun Follows Camera Tilt Angle Direction Angle.
  2. Joe_Carrick
    CAD to Walls doesn't seem to work if the Plan/Template is one that was brought forward from X7,
  3. Joe_Carrick
    There is a discrepancy between the Stair Height (Floor to Floor) vs the 2nd Floor Elevation. Basically, the Stair Height is 1/2" more than distance from the 1st Floor to the 2nd Floor. My Floor Finish in the dbx is the same for each floor (1/2" thick) I've reported it to support and sent them a sample plan. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, please report it to support (attn: Kirk Clemmons) Dermot has also confirmed that this is a Bug.
  4. Joe_Carrick
    When you create a custom symbol the front needs to be toward the bottom of the screen (plan view). But, you can open the Cabinet Door Symbol dbx in the Library (right click on the library object and "Open Symbol") and rotate it about the z axis 180 degrees. That should fix it.
  5. Joe_Carrick
    The best format is .txt But Ruby is good at manipulating strings. As long as I know what the delimiters are when I read in the file - no problem.
  6. Joe_Carrick
    It would help if you would edit your signature for the forum so we'd know your name, what version you are using, etc IAE, sometimes imported symbols don't have a material that Chief recognizes. You can quickly fix that by selecting the symbol, opening the dbx and selecting an appropriate material. Another thing that might have happened is the material has actually been edited. Without you posting the Plan itself, there's no way to be sure exactly what's wrong.
  7. Joe_Carrick
    OK, but the value seems to be the same as the Length. Is there some value to this that I'm not seeing? It really isn't reflecting the actual Span from support to support nor does it indicate the spans between web connections (which could be different on the top chord vs the bottom chord).
  8. Joe_Carrick
    Got it. I think for most people the single line syntax is not as easy to understand. It's just a little too cryptic. OTOH, the concept of setting obj this way is very nice. I can clean up a lot of spaghetti code and eliminate quite a lot of unnecessary conditional processing. Thanks again.
  9. Joe_Carrick
    Kirk, Client is not the same as Project. The Client might be a Builder but the Project could be a specific job. Also, if you look carefully, Steve has some data that is not in the Client Info. Additionally, there is no way for us to insert external data directly into the "Client Info" other than using Copy/Paste. For every job, I also have a series of consultants: Structural Surveyor Geologist Electrical Title 24 None of that is provided for by Chief so I have to maintain external files which can be read to add that to my Layout.
  10. Joe_Carrick
    Thanks Gerry, So as I understand your code it's the same as: if referenced ? obj = referenced else obj = owner end but just in a single line of code. I also understand the UUID problem - and really don't understand why CA has been so reluctant to make the data available. IMO, it has the potential to make Chief a super BIM Application.
  11. Joe_Carrick
    Steve, If you can write a script to output that information to a text file (preferably as individual lines for each piece of information) located in the Plan Folder, I can write a macro for you to store it in a global hash table along with macros to display each one. I actually have a macro package that does this for the Project Info and various Consultants. What you indicate above is just slightly different (some extra pieces of info) but basically the same.
  12. Joe_Carrick
    I find the "Little Book of Ruby" useful only to a certain point. The official Ruby site has much better documentation but your referenced ? obj = referenced : obj = owner code isn't something I understand and I've not been able to find any explanation so far. Can you explain how this is interpreted?
  13. Joe_Carrick
    Exactly. I have checked all the different framing members and none have the span attribute. I can only surmise that it's in the Schedule for a future addition to framing.
  14. Joe_Carrick
    It would be cool if there was a Hotkey or menu option to do a temporary "Lock all Except Layer (X)". Then the ability to "Remove Temporary Layer Locks". This would be essentially the same as working with a special "Layerset". That's how I do it currently. I just copy the current layerset and modify it to suit.
  15. Joe_Carrick
    OK, so I found "Span" as a possible column in the Framing Schedule but it doesn't seem to be connected to any data and there's no way to even enter values since there isn't a component dbx. Maybe CA will add this data and attribute to the Framing Members in the future based on the location of bearing walls and beams. That would be really cool as it would facilitate engineering calculations.
  16. Joe_Carrick

    Span ?

    Joe_Carrick posted a topic in General Q & A

    I am sure I saw "span" as an attribute of some Chief object a couple of days ago. But I simply can't remember what object. Does anyone know what it is?
  17. Joe_Carrick
    Nice Gerry. I need to look at that syntax. Is it documented someplace? I can't seem to find it in my Ruby sources. BTW, sometimes I use the error trapping to actually return a "descriptive error" such as: "area doesn't exist as an attribute for this object". I would have inserted that after the second "rescue" in the above example.
  18. Joe_Carrick
    John, Another trick for Leader Lines to help the connection is to use a Fill or PSolids. This maintains the connection much better than the perimeter of a standard PLine. At the UFP/UGM Dermot commented: "I suppose now you'll want Rich Text Labels." To which all of us on the UFP responded "YES!!!" I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that anytime soon. BTW, I use very few of the "Object Specific" macros that Chief provides because you can not format or calculate based on those results.
  19. Joe_Carrick

    Layout

    Joe_Carrick replied to Kjellar's topic in General Q & A

    This would usually happen if the plan was saved in that condition. ie: If the plan was saved at the extents (Plan View full screen) then opening the floor plan from the layout should show the full extents. Sometimes we have zoomed to another area to do some work and then save without resetting to the extents. It's just a practice you need to adopt. OTOH, if it still happens then it needs to be reported to CA Tech Support.
  20. Joe_Carrick
    John, Here's a trick that makes a "No Context" macro work for either "Owner" or "Reference" objects. nplaces = 2 x = 0 begin x = owner.area rescue begin x = referenced.area rescue end end x.round(nplaces) The above will never produce an evaluation error. The "begin/rescue/end" sequences trap the potential errors. hth, Joe
  21. Joe_Carrick
    Arrrgh.... "Straight Wall Tools" I was looking in the scrollable list and just didn't think about "Straight". It would be much easier if there was a "Wall Tools" that expanded to include: Curved Wall Tools Straight Wall Tools Terrain Wall and Curb Tools "Search" works better than the scrollable list.
  22. Joe_Carrick
    BTW, it's strange to me that we have a "Floor Material Region" icon in the "Floor Tools" - but there are no "Wall Tools" available to supply the "Wall Material Region" icon from. Why is that?
  23. Joe_Carrick
    Larry, AFAIK, there isn't. However, you can select a material region and add it to the Library. You can then add a Library Object Icon to a Toolbar and select that Library Item (or just select it from the Library) when you want to use it.
  24. Joe_Carrick
    Dale, Do you have a "Wall Material Region"? That could be the cause - but I'm not sure. IAE, you can open the Symbol dbx and adjust the 3D y-origin 1/2". I'm not sure if it should be + or - but that will move it relative to the wall face.
  25. Joe_Carrick
    Dale, Place the wall material first. The symbols are designed to cut the wall material.