Joe_Carrick

1. Use Solid addition to add them all together 2. Add another PSolid along the Line you want to Trim 3. Use Solid Subtraction to Subtract that from the one created in step 1

Yes I tried it - but I set my Frame to 4" top, bottom & side. As I said, if you want a demo, I can do that in a GTM.

Scott, Here is an Exterior Symbol that mounts on the wall. You can size it to match your opening and Window recess dimensions, center it on the window and move in to fit against the window frame. Let me know if you want to do a GTM. Bucked Window Frame.calibz

Greg, I wish I didn't have to deal with all the area analysis - but I live in California. We have to provide a lot of calculations for these things. In addition, we can't use REScheck. So having the ability to calculate, show tabulated areas and even export a file that can be used by our T-24 app is a big savings in time.

Greg, FWIW, The Floor Living Areas are individually available as attributes of the Exterior Rooms. In fact if you haven't deleted that Label it can be seen just by turning on the "Room Labels" Layer. With the proper macro you can get the Total of all Rooms. I do that in a couple of my Packages: A. Living Area Package .......................I'm only charging $30 for this package. 1. Displays all Floor Living Areas 2. Displays the Total Living Area 3. Exposes those Values as variables that can be used in other Macros B. Site and Building Area Analysis 1. Includes the functionality of the Living Area Package 2. Calculates Property and Buildable (inside setbacks) Areas 3. Calculates Totals of each Special Room Type 4. Calculates Totals of Driveways, Sidewalks, etc. 5. Calculates and Displays Site Coverage, FAU 6. Exposes all those values for use in other macros. There are a lot of other things that can be done - as I've demonstrated. Sure, we can ask CA to provide their "Global Macros" for all sorts of things - but you will never get the ultimate flexibility that way. Eventually, with the right "Open Doors" to the Model data we can have "Add-Ons" by 3PP for all sorts of Engineering Apps. IAE, I want CA to concentrate on enhancing the 3D and 2D functionality in Chief - and just provide the access to the data and some of the higher level capabilities of scripting. We could even design our own "Input Screens" to add dynamic data to the Plan - things like Consultants, Contractor, etc. CA doesn't have unlimited programming assets so we have to pick what we want them to do and maybe one of those things is opening the door so others can provide the Add-Ons.

That's fine if all you want is to display the areas with text boxes and arrows. OTOH, if you want to perform automatic calculations that show percentages of site coverage, total areas of: garages, porches, courts, balconies, decks, etc. These simple macros are insufficient. That's where advance macro programming comes in - it opens a whole lot of additional capability. Calculating the total area of Windows, Window Openings, etc and making automatic calculations of those compared to Total Living Area - without having to manually enter anything is all possible. What isn't possible yet is being able to automatically get and display the finishes (annotation of Sections, Elevations, etc). We can't do that because CA doesn't provide attributes for those things that can be used in macros. I have a dream - a macro that I can just add to a "Wall Elevation Label" and get the information directly from the model displayed - just as if I had manually typed it - but 100% accurate, no chance of a mistake.

"Area="+referenced.area.round(2).to_s+" Sq.Ft." Evidently CA only implemented the short form .to_s

Greg, try this: "Area="+referenced.area.round(2).to_str+" Sq.Ft." This is called String Concatenation. There are 3 Strings in the above line and they get added together "Area=" referenced.area.round(2).to_str " Sq.Ft." to form a single output String. The .to_str in the second line converts the numerical value to a String so they can be added together.

So maybe a "batch" system. ie: Update all Section/Elevation Views in the Layout would be nice?

I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't want the Layout updated to match the Plan. Maybe it would be best if it was a "Preference Setting". Of course there is always the problem of what the current Render Technique and Options are in use for the Section or Elevation View. That could be a problem if the same Camera was being used for different views sent to Layout.

Note: Automatic Save to Layout of Elevations and Sections is something that's been asked for - a lot !!! I don't know if CA is working on that or not. We can hope.......

No, that's the way it works. Note that I said CAD (lines, arcs, text, dimensions, etc). IOW, as long as you are just doing labeling, dimensioning, etc in an Elevation or Section View it isn't necessary to "update" the Layout. OTOH, if you make changes to the model such as moving a Door, Window, Cabinet, Wall, etc then you would need to open any effected Views and save/update Layout.

All CAD changes made in Plan are automatically updated in Layout. But you have to have the Layout open. My policy is to open the Layout whenever I open a Plan. That basically insures that almost everything I do in Plan gets updated in the Layout. The only problem I know of is Sections and Elevations if the model is changed. Those have to be opened and saved to update the Layout.

Larry, I'm a bit older than you - but I learned to program about 35 years ago when I was only about half as old. Still, I am learning new tricks every day - keeps me feeling young.

Actually just got in a hurry and forgot to zip.

Larry, I'm proud of you........... See, even HumbleChief can learn new tricks.

Here is an new set of macros. This one will recognized deleted vents as well as update when you open a new Plan - providing the new Plan has any Vents and their Labels are displayed. Foundation Vent Macros.zip

PSolids (actually any solid) can be connected with an arrow pointing inside the area, whereas a simple Polyline will need to be connected to the edge. In Richard's video he is using a "Cross Box" which isn't just a simple Polyline - it has a "Fill" which also allows the arrow to connect to the interior - but it's not as persistent a connection as you get with a Solid. btw, I posted this a month ago - before Richard's video.

The letters after the = are the left square bracket "[" and the right square bracket "]"". These should be just th the right of the "P" on you keyboard.

Yes, but I have it reading specifically named files in my Project Folder. The data I'm loading is various Consultant Names, Addresses, Contact Info, etc. There is no reason that can't be set up to the data you want to retrieve. Basically each named piece of data is just a line in a text file. Edit the Text File, read it from Chief with a macro and the data will have been updated in Chief (I would assign the data to to Ruby Global Variable that various macros would use to perform calculations and display). In order to set this up I will need to know something about your Project and Layout File organization and what data you need to have available for your macros. Then I can give you a cost for whatever level of assistance you need. If it's properly set up it will only take a couple of macros - but one of them would need to be very custom.

Mick, There is a Global Variable $Vents which contains all the Vent Areas from every Plan that you open in a Chief Session. Each one is numbered so that they do not get duplicated. However, if you had a Plan with 4 Vents and the 4th Vent is 2 sq. ft ---- and then open another Plan that only has 3 Vents, That 4th Vent is still in the list so it's 2 sq. ft is included in the total. There are 2 ways to deal with this: 1. Close Chief so that the contents of the variable are cleared 2. Close the 1st Plan, Open the 2nd Plan then open the Ruby Console and type $Vents = [] which clears the list. I have not been able to find a way to make this process automatic yet, but I have some ideas for the future. BTW, you could put that command in another macro which you could access via Text Macro Management but I think the Ruby Console is easier. The other thing you should do is select all the Vents, open the dbx and in the Frame Panel set everything to 0 - you can also uncheck "Has Frame". The Calculations depend on getting rid of the frame.

Yeah, that would do it. Essentially when you drag a window vertically in 3D thru a Floor Level - Chief puts the Window on the Floor where it thinks you want it. Too smart for its own good.

OK, Then Place them in the Stem Walls (Plan View). That way they show on the Foundation Plan rather than the 1st Floor Plan. You can set the height to whatever you need. If you have a goofy looking hole where the vent isn't supposed to be - Rebuild 3D.

Scott, A Louvered Window is not the same as a Louvered Vent - and it's definitely not the same as a Screened Vent. What if you actually want to have a Louvered Window. I realize those are generally not permitted today - at least not here in SoCal - but they are in some places. Then you would have the problem of it probably showing up in the Vent Schedule. In order to utilize the macro that I provided there needs to be a way to identify that the object is in fact a Vent. The type_name attribute for Windows is the most logical way to do that. There are other possibilities but none that is quite as simple. That macro can even be placed in the Default Window Label and all new Vents will be accumulated - but other Window Types will not be effected (ie: Their Labels will not be changed and they won't be counted as Vents for calculation of the Total Vent Area.)

OK Perry, in your case I assume you are using the "Foundation Vent - Screened". Set the Symbol y origin to 1". Place the Symbol in the 1st Floor Plan Set the Top Height above Floor to -2" If that doesn't get it for you - at least post a pic and the Symbol dbx. or you could post the plan.