Joe_Carrick

IMO, anyone who is not using "Saved Plan Views" is totally missing the boat. Coupled with "Multiple Referenced Plans" this is the absolutely best way of creating ConDocs.

I opened your plan, then I checked the referenced layer setting and found that it was "automatic" which means "which previous floor was displayed". switched to second floor - without doing that there is no reference floor because there was no previous floor displayed. 1st floor walls and doors displayed in red draw a line snapping to first floor objects works. If you want to set a particular floor as the reference then it's best to do that and then do a "Save Plan View As". That way you can: save the 1st floor with the 2nd floor being the referenced floor save the 2nd floor with the 1st floor being the referenced floor etc Note that you can also have different "Reference Layer Sets" depending on what you want to show.

The only reason I know of that you wouldn't be able to snap to a reference floor object would be if it was on a "Locked Layer".

Around here there are no open bars - they've all been required to close indefinitely. OTOH, my home bar is pretty well stocked and is open.

Personally, I think CA should provide a 3D Molding Polyline for Stairs (including Landings) that could have Molding Profiles assigned. This would provide for Skirt Boards, Wainscots, etc. In addition, copying that Molding Polyline would allow for handrails. IMO this would be a much more comprehensive solution than the current system. I've used 3D Molding Polylines for some stairs in the past and it works. It's just that you have to carefully create that 3D Molding Polyline so that everything lines up correctly. If it was created automatically it would be much easier.

bummer !!!

Yes. I find that 8-10 is sufficient. If I need to go back any further than that I just open an archive / autosave version. btw, if you are importing pdf's make sure you don't rotate or resize unevenly. If you can convert the pdfs to png - do it.

NVidea RTX Graphic Cards can handle Ray Tracing in Real Time. Does this work in Chief or is Chief's Ray Tracing limited to using the CPU?

You would need another symbol. This one should be fairly easy to create in chief using Molding Profiles on a circular Molding Polyline. Each Molding Profile can have a different material assigned to it.

A macro written using the X12 NumberFormatter class would do it. A macro written using the X12 Measurement class could also do it. The unit designation would need to be specified as "'-\"" in order to get that format. In either case you would need to use a Custom Field / Column.

It would be nice if Chief's Help included what the "defaults" are for each parameter. The only one they mention is: reduce_fractions() I think that all of the True | False settings are defaulted to False

The .inspect method will give you some that information, depending on the units being used.

You should be able to create your own "derived class" with whatever settings you want but I'm not 100% sure it would work since the NumberFormatter class is one that Chief created and it may not be registered.

Not that I'm aware of. They are initialized automatically by the .new method. That's why I set up a global as my NumberFormatter. You could actually have several globals, each with different settings - or just use 1 and change the parameters on the fly.

Notably missing from the Help is an example of using the NumberFormatter class. Basically it has to be created first. There's no reason to create it for every time you want to format a number - particularly if you are always going to be using the same parameters. Here's the way I create a persistent instance of the class and how it can be used: $NF = NumberFormatter.new $NF.unit = "'-\"" $NF.use_fractions = true $NF.denominator = 8 This sets the parameters to what I want. Then I can use the following whenever I need to format a number: $NF.apply( 123.5.in ) ---> 10' 3-1/2" Note the inclusion of .in so the formatter knows the value is in inches. If passing a Measurement value then that wouldn't need to be included.

Thanks Dermot, Since there usually are not that many sinks in a plan, I don't think there would be much "bloat".

Very nice !!!

OK, but that bypasses the automatic placement of the sink. Shouldn't there be a better coordination of the data when sinks are placed in cabinets? I guess I'll need to put in a feature request.

In that case, you will need a separate Molding Polyline for each molding. You would need to manually edit the Molding Polyline to set the distance from the doors.

Alan, There are 3 possible moldings for a room: Base Chair Rail Crown Each can use a different Molding Profile and locations (height and offset)

I suspect that you are not sending "Saved Plan Views" which would be specific to each floor. Another possibility is that you have the "Reference Floor" displayed.

When a Sink is added to a Cabinet, Chief just creates a 2D CAD Block. I can select the cabinet, tab to the sink and open the dbx. The sink can also be shown in a fixture schedule. However, if I try to get the name/value pairs (attributes) for the Sink I only get the attributes of the CAD Block. There doesn't appear to be any reference to the sink in the Cabinet attributes either - except for "has_appliance_or_sink" true/false. Does anyone know how to get to the Sink's attributes? I would like to include some of the Sink information in the Cabinet Schedule or in a "Note".

We have them. Defaults > Material Regions Floor Material Region Wall Material Region

Rooms don't have an "Object Information Panel (OIP)" so it's not possible to add "Custom Fields" to be used in the "Room Finish Schedule". Notes OTOH do have the OIP and a Note placed within a Room will pick up the "room" attributes, allowing all that data to be retrieved in user macros and displayed in a "Note Schedule" substituted as a "Finish Schedule". This makes it possible to use the Notes as "Room Labels" with both numbers and names as well as including Custom Columns in the Schedule. It may take a bit of work to define your new "Finish Schedule" with the appropriate "Custom Fields" and the "User Macros" but in the long run you will have a much more comprehensive Schedule.

I have no idea who the user is that goes by the name "Signatures" but the request isn't without merit. When we get questions it's often not possible to answer without knowing what version of the software is being used. Sometimes it's a Home Designer product and sometimes it's a Chief Architect product. In addition, the capabilities of newer versions are different than prior versions and it really helps to know what the version is in order to give the best answers. In addition, if a plan is posted it's much easier for us to see exactly what the problem might be rather than just guessing. It helps you get the right answer quicker and saves us making guesses that might not help at all.