Joe_Carrick

I think the problem is that the Interior wall just needs to be reversed. Then it should connect to the interior face of the main layer of the exterior wall. I know that's strange, but it seems to work - at least most of the time.

email me the plan

Try placing the "drawing-units" macro in the text box ahead of the "stair_Label_All_Sections" macro. ie: %drawing_units%%stair_Label_All_Sections%

I got it but I'm out of town until Sunday. I'll email you the package as soon as I get back.

Yes, all my macros have been updated to function correctly in Chief Architect X12. They are also fully "unit" compatible. Payment can be made to my PayPal account: joe.carrick@dslextreme.com

I have a set of 5 macros: stair_Label_All_Sections ( the one shown in the picture) stair_Label_One_Section stair_Label_One_Section_up stair_Landing_Label stair_Railing_Label I sell the package for $75

I'm using a 55" HDTV and 2 30" Monitors in Portrait orientation. Project Project Browser and Library are on the 30" Monitors, allowing the 55" HDTV to display the Layout/Plans at almost full size. I still zoom quite a bit. There's still room for other tools (Calculator, Email, Windows Explorer, Internet, etc) on one of the 30" Monitors - or simply over-layed as needed.

Would something like the attached pic suit your needs? It's all done with a single custom macro.

That macro was specifically designed to be in a Text or Rich_Text placed in a room. The owner of the macro is the Text. The text's room is the object that has the internal_area.

I suggest printing the 3D views to PDF, then converting to a JPG, then placing the JPG in the layout. You can then use the image edit handles to resize and crop the image. This will greatly improve the speed of printing your Layout.

If you've inadvertently allowed Chief to "fix" your macro name, it may cause problems when the old macro name was already being used in your plan. This is because macro names are case sensitive and must be exactly the same as they are saved. In order to return to the original name: open the macro for edit in TMM set it to "not evaluated" edit the name to the original name reset it to "evaluated" save - but don't allow Chief to "Fix" the name. exit TMM

Another way to trap errors is to use the following: begin if $roof_ti < 35.0 # This line could generate an error if $roof_ti has not been initiated $roof_ti = 40.0 end rescue $roof_ti = 40.0 end In this case if the error occurs in the line #2 it's trapped and line #6 is processed. This is standard Ruby error handling.

The error in post #3 is in line 28. from (eval):28:in '+' wall_wt= ((wall_ht + 2.0) * cmu8psf) # 10'-0" CMU wall weight with 3 course stem wall = 12' total height You have tried to add a floating point value to a measurement. wall_ht is a measurement in X12 2.0 is a floating point value This is not allowed in Chief so you either need to change 2.0 to a measurement or wall_ht to a floating point. Adding or subtracting measurements and non-measurements is not allowed. IMO Chief should have made this work by automatically converting the non-measurement value to a measurement of the same units.

if $roof_ti.nil? $roof_ti=40.0 elsif $roof_tl < 35.0 $roof_tl=40.0 end

There are separate defaults for: Automatic Exterior Dimensions Automatic Interior Dimensions Manual Dimensions etc. You need to make sure you have all dimensions defaults set the way you want them before creating dimensions. You also need to make sure you are using the correct dimensioning tool. Generally the Automatic Dimensions will provide the most consistency - especially if you are wanting to dimension to interior wall center lines.

Without knowing the exact sequence when it happens I can't give you any guidance. I have found that sometimes I can force the update by hitting the F5 key twice in rapid succession.

Larry, Don't Rotate the Schedule. Just send it to Layout and then rotate the Layout Box.

I can't tell without seeing your macro(s)

It would seem that only sliders and bifold allow 3 panels. Even then, only the hinged doors have the option for left/right/both panels swing. It would be great if Chief would open up the multiple panel options for hinged doors. Also to allow specification of which panel was to be the swinging door

I think it would depend on exactly how the macro is written and when it's executed. I generally open my Layout first which supposedly will cause all macros contained in the plan (what's been sent to Layout) to execute. In the case I describe the data in that particular column only updates when a forced redisplay of the schedule occurs. This can happen with the move, F12 or Open the Schedule for Edit. There may be other ways to update - possibly selecting one of the objects and opening it for edit. F5 and F6 don't seem to do the job.

It's definitely a new problem with X12. I think it's due to a fix in X12 to speed up pan/zoom but there are just some cases where a macro gets skipped. So far, I'm only seeing it in some Schedule Columns

I have a macro in an object label that sets data values in a global hash. I have another macro in a custom field that uses that global hash, summing values to display in a schedule column. For some reason when I load the plan the display in the schedule column is not updated. If I select the schedule and move it (up arrow on keyboard) that column is updated with the correct data. This is the only place I'm finding it not displaying properly when the plan is first opened, but it means that I have to open that view and move the schedule in order to have the correct data displayed. It's imperative that I do this whenever I'm going to print the Layout. Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?

Or change the "dimension to" layer in your wall definition to the studs instead of the house wrap.

It should be noted that not all PDFs are huge files. It really depends on the content and how they were created. I have some that are less than 500 KB but others that are 4.5 MB. I don't know why there are such large differences in size, but it's possible to use PDFs effectively as long as you avoid the larger ones.

It might, but PNG files are just about the same size as PDFs and the quality isn't much different because it's just the resolution (dpi). They seem to print almost as fast as the JPGs but for emailing the size of the file can still be an issue.