Joe_Carrick

Scott, I count stairs only for the floors on which they land at the bottom. IOW, the top floor which is only a stairwell doesn't count - it's just a hole in the floor. Another way to look at it is: "Tread and Landing" areas are only counted once. Elevators are only counted once. Doesn't matter which level it's stopped at, all other levels are just holes in the floor.

Assuming that Chief X14 and ChiefTalk are both to be buttons on the Default Profile: What other Buttons would you want? Apps such as WORD, ACCESS, EXCEL,....(they can have Smart Profiles assigned so that when active their Hotkey buttons would be displayed on the Stream Deck) Control Panel Task Manager Edge Email Windows Explorer are some that come to mind. I can set those up in a "Miscellaneous Buttons Profile" which can then be copy/pasted to your Default Profile. Let me know what you would want. Basically the things you use often and want quick access to from your Stream Deck Default Profile.

Yes, I've been fighting with too many toolbar items and the StreamDeck makes it infinitely easier to see.

Here's my Stream Deck XL Setup: It's taken quite a bit of time to get it setup the way I want. It includes a complete set of Hotkeys for all Basic Chief Objects and a lot of organization. Each Chief Object category is a different "Folder" so when a button is selected on the main Chief Folder, the corresponding id Folder is opened. I've also included a Custom Cabinet folder that works for Rabb's Kitchen Tools (won't work unless you have that package) and several buttons that lookup things in the Library. I need to put together a package that includes some of my user libraries (which are used by some of the buttons), the Hotkeys and a few instructions for importing the entire system. The price for this setup if you want it ---- $200 USD ---- PM me and I'll provide you with payment instructions.

Send a View from the Plan to the Layout. The Referenced File Name & Path can be retrieved from the Layout Box. That way, no manual entry is required.

That's because they are Chief Session specific, not Plan Specific.

Check the little folder icon to the right of the search window. If you have the wrong things checked it can cause some things to not be found. I prefer just "Keywords" and "Folders".

Ahhh, I see the problem. There are some symbols that need to be broken down to their component pieces. I just avoid using those. I guess it requires the "Pro" subscription to have those capabilities in Sketchup. I suppose in Chief you could delete the surfaces and then create a symbol of what's left. That's not always very easy.

Hi Gene, I don't have a subscription and just use https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/ Am I missing something?

When you copy a library object you can then paste it in your user library. There's an option at that time to "Paste Link". Keywords can help, but there are tradeoffs because you may find more objects than you actually want. Another thing that works is to begin the search with a quote mark. That will also minimize what's found

Not so easy to do if using a keypad like StreamDeck, etc. I'm pre-programming the searches to get items not available from Chief's Drop-down Toolbars.

Chief's Core, Bonus & Manufacturer Libraries have a lot of similar named items and when searching the list of found items can be pretty long. If you have a particular item that you use often: Copy and Place a LINK in your user Library. Rename that LINK so that it's unique ( I prefer to just put a "_" in front of the name ) Now when you search you can just type the unique name and search will only find that item. Note that the "LINK" will take very little memory since it's not a true copy of the Library Item - just a pointer to the original. Of course, if you want to make any real changes to the Library Object in order for it to be different in some way then you'll need to actually PASTE it to your User Library. In that case it will not be a LINK to Chief's original object.

Hi Rob, The NKBA dims are a fixed standard for the "National Kitchen & Bath Association". None of the settings will change those standards. As DBC suggested, you will need to use the "Elevation Dims" instead if you want anything different.

Doug, Check to see if you have any "Referenced Floors" using the secondary plan files. This could happen if you saved a plan to a new name that had "Saved Plans". If that's the case you just need to change them to the new plan.

Hi Ben, Since the Orthographic Views are just 2D CAD they are not accessible to PB. Consequently you are never going to be able to get those rendering techniques for the Orthographic Views. By definition the Perspective Views are "Perspectives" so the walls will never be vertical in the "Top View".

With my current workload, I expect this to take a couple of weeks minimum.

Hi Charles, As I noted previously, I am in the process of doing a complete setup of the StreamDeck XL-32 for Chief. It's a rather time consuming process to get all the Hotkeys and Chief Buttons organized. Once I've got it working to my satisfaction I will make it available to other users (at a cost of course).

Thanks Robert, Now I have a reason to use them. I'm going to assume that you are converting to symbols to do this sort of detailing.

Does that mean you use them?

Does anyone use these tools? I only use the Perspective Overviews. I don't like the Orthographic Overviews because they look distorted. Consequently, I wouldn't mind if they were eliminated from the Toolbar - maybe even eliminated entirely. I can see a possible use for the Orthogaphic Top Overview as a Presentation Tool for Real Estate Brochures. But even there I prefer the Perspectives. Comments?

A few years back Chief added the "Wall Break Tool" which only works on Walls but can be preselected, pinned and used on any visible unlocked Wall. That's a nice feature which saves time and mouse clicks. They kept the standard "Break Tool" which works for CAD Lines, Plines, Molding Plines, etc but only works on a single preselected object. However, when a Wall is selected the Edit Toolbar still presents the standard "Break Tool" instead of the "Wall Break Tool". It seems like this is inconsistent behavior. IMO it would be better if: The "Wall Break Tool" is presented in the Edit Toolbar when a Wall is selected. The "Break Tool" is available for other objects - not requiring an object to be selected first. IOW, make these things work the same way.

It's actually taking me back to my time at CalComp. We had a numeric keypad, a keyboard, tablet & a joystick, They functioned as follows: Numeric Keypad - 2 digit commands (0,0 - 9,9) Keyboard - Text and Numeric Values Tablet - Graphic Input (like a pencil) as well as macro selection (mapped area of tablet) Joystick - Pan and Zoom I like Chief's GUI but IMO there's just too much mouse movement outside of the drawing area. The StreamDeck eliminates most of that and functions similar to the Numeric Keypad we had at CalComp - except that instead of being limited to 100 commands it is virtually unlimited.

I don't have an X-keys so I can't tell if it's comparable. The main thing with StreamDeck is that when you select a key that's assigned as a folder you get a complete new graphic set of keys. I also think it's easier to navigate only 32 displayed keys rather than 80. My eyes don't have to scan as much to find the right key.

StreamDeck allows you to assign a Graphic to each key along with the macro functions. I'm setting mine up with several Application Profiles. Within each Profile you can have multiple pages and each key can be a folder with an additional 32 key selections. For Chief Architect Plans I will have as many as 24 folders (each will be object specific - ie: walls, doors, windows, etc) and each of those will have up to 32 distinct keys with macros. I'm basically going to use the folders as replacements for the "Object Toolbars" to save mouse clicks and screen space. IOW, I will have approximately 800 commands accessible at my fingertip and they will all be "Back-lit Graphic". That's just for Chief Plans. I'll have an additional Page for Layout Commands I will also have Profiles for NotePad++ and several other Apps. So, as you can see the StreamDeck has a lot more capabilities than the X-Keys product.

My goal is to make my Streamdeck 32 be a virtual replacement for most of the Object Toolbars and a lot more. I've got a long way to go before it's done - but I've got a pretty good start on it. I'm also planning on using it to search the Library - at least to narrow down what I'm looking for.