Joe_Carrick

Click on my email address in Post #1 to sign up. You can email your macro wishes to me. Requests for macros from non-subscribers will not be put on the list. Click on my email address in Post #1 to sign up

I will provide one macro a month ($2.50 / month, paid in advance for a year). Macros will be provided based on requests from subscribers. I will determine priorities based on the number of requests and general user applicability. If it can be done in less than 25 lines it will be added to the to-do list. Each month I will distribute to all current subscribers that month's macro. I will also maintain and publish a list of prior macros that can be purchased for $2.50 each. Sep 2015 - Format_Number (see post #7) Living Area Bonus Package (see post #5) Oct 2015 - Opening Labels w Header (see post #8) Nov 2015 - Post Footing Labels (see post #16) Dec 2015 - Wall Labels (see post #19) Jan 2016 - BlockName (see post #37) Feb 2016 - Stair Label - Section & Stair Label - Total (see post #39) Mar 2016 - CounterTops (see post #40) Arp 2016 - Opening Header Label (see post #41) May 2016 - _Chief Architect Version (Displays the Version of Chief Architect in use) June 2016 - Area_Perimeter_Volume (Displays those values for Polyline, PSolid & Solids) (see post #43) July 2016 - Floor Name (Displays the Floor Name in a Text Box) (see post #44) Aug 2016 - Vent Labels (Displays a 2 line Label for Vents) (see post #49) This subscription system doesn't include any of my "Macro Packages": Site Area Analysis Package ($75.00) Building Area Analysis Package ($100.00) Roof Area Analysis Package ($50.00) Project and Consultants Package ($35.00) http://screencast.com/t/EUwgvruMXz0H Wordwrap Package ($25.00) Framing Labels ($50.00) Openings ($35.00) Vents ($25.00) Areas - X8 Hash Table Area Analysis ($25.00 non-subscribers- or $15 for subscribers) etc. which can be purchased separately. Contact me for the details of these comprehensive Packages. To Subscribe, click on the email address listed below. joe.carrick@dslextreme.com

You got it. The reason I still have the regular room labels (albeit virtually invisible) is that I have other macros embedded that accumulate room data for area & volume analysis.

Use a Rich Text Box. You can put it on it's own Layer, control colors, fill, text size, font, etc. I still have my Room Labels displayed, but they are very small, white, locked. so they aren't really visible and don't get inadvertently selected. When you place the RTB in a Room it will pick up the data from the room. You can even add an arrow if you need to place the RTB outside the room.

Graeme, That's the beauty of saving the details in CAD Windows. Each CAD Window can be individually named and individually edited. You can also copy the detail to a new CAD Window. and make modifications to it. These Warehouse Plans for Details are very small since there's almost nothing in them but 2D CAD.

There are many ways of doing these things. It seems that each user has their own way - so it's whatever works for you. This is my system - I use this as a way to: A. Minimize the amount of stuff stored in the .plan file for each Project. 1. CAD Detail Windows for: Appliance Schedule (present to Layout) Cabinet Schedule (present to Layout) Door Schedule (present to Layout) Electrical Schedule (present to Layout) Plan Notes Schedule Roof Schedule (present to Layout) Plumbing & HVAC Schedule (present to Layout) Room Finish Schedule (present to Layout) Vent Schedule Window Schedule (present to Layout) Truss Details (Chief will make these automatically) Site Area Analysis Table (present to Layout) Bldg Area Analysis Table (present to Layout) Miscellaneous Notes with Arrows, etc (copy/paste resource) 2. Warehouse Plans for Standard Details: - each of these plans is a working plan for creating the details - once the detail has been created it's copied to a named CAD Window Foundation Details Door Details Window Details Roof Details Framing Details - I send only the appropriate details from these plans to the Project Layout B. Is easy to keep organized so I can find what needs to be sent to Layout C. Minimize what needs to be added or subtracted from the Layout D. Minimize what I need to store in the Library.

Richard, I understand. All my specifications are done outside of Chief using other apps. General Notes and almost all other text in my Plans/Layouts are all caps. I will take a look at any cases where I'm lower case text and may uncheck that box in those RTB's

Doug, For a CAD Program - who would want anything other than CAD Scaling? I'm just asking because I can't imagine there would be anyone and I'm relatively sure it's not even an option in other CAD Programs.

Either it's one of Chief's OOB Layer Sets or you have some view using that Layer Set.

It appears that when unchecked the text actually becomes about 2/3 the size. I just leave it checked. When I specify 6" text I want it to be 1/8", not 1/12". Apparently un-checked it translates to some typeface size - pixels or points are something.......???

OK, so here's what I found: 4.5" Arial & 3.5" Chief Blueprint (CB) are both 3/32" at 1/4" scale. Arial is readable at that size but CB is iffy. 6" Arial & 6" Chief Blueprint (CB) are both 1/8" at 1/4" scale. In addition, CB is a wider character font and takes up a bit more space on the drawings I tend to prefer the hand lettering style but there's something to be said for the neater & more concise. Tough decision...... Maybe I'll just compromise on 5" Chief Blueprint for some things and 4.5" Arial or Arial Bold for others

Wendy, In your videos on Annosets you recall you said that you set your text size to 4.5" because that makes it 1/8" tall. I've checked on my system and 4.5" makes it only 3/32" tall. Am I missing something?

You can also open a CAD Window, marque select and copy/paste to a new CAD Window in another Plan or Layout. There's a lot of ways to "skin a cat", but be careful with the "Scale". Layouts are at a scale of 1:1 while Plans are usually at a scale of 1/4" = 1'-0" for Imperial Units. Copying between them will usually require re-sizing.

Johnny, CAD Detail Windows are unique to each .plan and .layout. They are simply 2D CAD Windows within your working file(s). You can send the contents to Layout or not, depending on what you're using them for. Note that you can send anything from any .plan to any .layout. If you have (as I do) several plans containing actual details, etc that you want to use in any project, you can send them to the .layout for that project. It's very flexible. The one thing you can not do is send from one layout to another layout - because you can't have 2 layout files open at the same time.

Sherry, CAD Detail Windows are just "holding areas" in the plan or layout files. They can have any CAD Objects in them (Lines, Arcs, Text, Dimensions, etc. You can make a new one by using the hotkey Shift-V. the nice thing about them is that you can drag them to a blank area of the screen and still work on your plan/layout while being able to see them or copy to/from. This pic shows 2 CAD Windows detached - but they would normally be on the Tabs. I wish CA would rename them as just CAD Windows :rolleyes:do people wouldn't have som much trouble understanding

Sherry, For the notes you're talking about, I have a CAD Detail Window in my Template plan. Some of those notes are there with arrows attached. I can just copy/paste from the CAD Detail Window to any place I need the note (Sections, Elevations, Details, etc)

I put my standard notes in Text Boxes on the Layout Pages. There are 2 places that notes can easily be stored, named for easy identification: 1. Standard Text Files (.txt) a. copy/paste from the .txt file to a Text Box in Layout b. if you use a Rich Text Box you can format the text c. the text can be edited directly in the Text Box 2. Macros (non evaluated) - located in the Layout, not in the Plan a. Insert the macro in the Text Box b. The text in the macro can be modified for each Project

I didn't say it was only you and Moe. I might also have the issue - but I don't know what the issue is. OTOH, maybe I don't have it ..................................... SDC

I barely have time to play golf - I'm pretty sure I don't have time to figure out what problem you are having. I'm sure it has to do with a sequence of events - but I'm not sure what sequence you are using that doesn't work for you.

Rooms, Interior Area Layer is displayed.

Then, in the "Lites" Panel, check "Auto Adjust Lites for Component Size"

Do you have line weights toggled ON? Line Weights in Layout may need to be larger differences than in Plan.

It's in Post #1 of https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/6468-stream-of-stuff-from-wendy/

I am going to download Wendy's Plan. Even though I'm pretty happy with what I have, there are some pretty cool tricks she uses that I want to add to my toolkit. I'm not sure about the Arial Font for everything and some of the Dimension Defaults, but I'll keep an open mind. Then I'll adjust.

Barry, The only time I do any Text Arrows in Layout would be to annotate an "Image" such as a Perspective View. Otherwise all annotation (and any other CAD work) is done in the "Plan".