Joe_Carrick

Brad, Most metric users don't use cm at all. It's almost always mm except for very large distances and areas where they use m. For Architectural mm would be used for distances and m2 for areas. Once you are familiar with metric it's really pretty easy. It's just a matter of becoming comfortable with the numbers. There are no conversion factors to make for various units of measurement.

Rachael, Once you have the taller balustrades positioned "on the stairs" vs "next to them" you need to display in elevation and edit the bottom up to the stairs. That will give you what Eric shows. It's just a matter of editing the Polyline created by the 3D wall editor.

Rachael, Probably the best way to do this is to create a full height "Railing Wall" in the plan (adjacent to the stairs) consisting of the vertical members (balusters) and make it "No Room Def" and "No Locate". Then move it into position. After that, select it in a Section/Elevation View and edit the shape to follow the stairs.

I was taught that 2R+T = 25" for best comfort. Actually a range of 24"-26" is acceptable 6" R & 13" T 6.5" R & 12" T 7" R & 11" T 7.5" R & 10" T This formula pretty much always works. For metric you would just substitute 600 mm or a range of 575-625 mm

I think you meant "unnecessary". But of course if you want to perform calculations it makes it easier to understand if you assign the value to a variable.

Hi Michael, I do notice a bit of jerkiness when panning in Elevation Views. I find it advantageous to use the "Marque Zoom Tool" instead of the mouse. Also, if you zoom to extents and save the active camera then you may have less pan and zoom to do.

That would indicate something specific to the elevation. It could be: Annotations Dimensions Auto Update / Live Elevations Try turning off the Annotation and Dimension Layers. Also try turning off Live Elevations, etc. Depending on the text styles the system may have to regenerate the text, etc as you pan/zoom.

Actually it's easy to go from one sheet size to another - if you have your Layout Template, Annosets & Layer Sets properly defined. That said, it takes some work to get it all coordinated. I'm pretty sure Scott knows what I'm talking about.

Vector is only slightly slower than Standard. But there is a difference. I'm not sure if this is being handled by the Graphics processor or not - but there's a little more involved in creating the vectors than just displaying the surfaces.

Another thing to consider is what Render Mode are your elevations? Standard & Physically Based will be fast. --- Graphics Card Vector, Line Drawing, Technical Illustration will be slower --- CPU (software) The difference is what hardware is being used. Graphics cards are fast. Software depends on the CPU performing calculations and sending data to the display.

Michael, What do your elevation annotations consist of? Text Rich Text Macros It makes a difference. Evaluated macros drastically slow down pan & zoom because they are evaluated repeatedly during the pan/zoom operations. I've reported this several months ago - maybe it will be fixed in X12. We can hope.

I don't have a mac, but here's a couple of things that you should consider: Pan & Zoom performance is Video Card dependent Video Card may not be configured correctly. More information needed. High numbers of surfaces (3D plants, etc) will be much slower. Ray Trace is CPU and RAM dependent and have nothing to do with general performance of Chief. Excessive use of macros and schedules in Plan Views and/or Elevations will slow performance. It's best to keep those things in CAD Detail Windows. If you could post a typical Project that you consider slow, it would be much easier to determine what the problem might be.

In that case, you should submit a "Feature Request" to have Lintels optionally be above (and in addition to) the casing. Who knows, CA might implement that request - but not if they haven't been asked.

That's a cool method - I just wish any of these would work in the Ruby Console.

Within a custom evaluated macro just include another macro you want to use in quotes. example: result = "%my_other_macro%" Here's an example of how I use this technique to display the label differently depending on the layer_set name. if obj.layer_set.include? "Legend" result = "%window_label_legend_X11%" elsif obj.layer_set.include? "Wall Area Analysis Plan" result = "%wall_opening_areas%" elsif obj.layer_set.include? "Wall Area Analysis Elevation" result = "%wall_opening_areas%" elsif obj.layer_set.include? "Wall Area Analysis Plan" or obj.layer_set.include? "Wall Area Analysis Ref" result = "%wall_opening_areas%" elsif obj.layer_set.include? "Framing" result = "%opening_header_label%" elsif obj.layer_set.include? "Section" or obj.layer_set.include? "Elevation" result = obj.schedule_number + "\n" + obj.automatic_label + "\n" + obj.type_name else result = obj.schedule_number + "\n" + obj.automatic_label + " " + obj.type_name end

Michael is 100% correct. Just make a new Layer and set that layer to display.

If you use "Saved Plan Views" you can name them in the Project Browser to whatever you want. The %view.name% macro can them be used in a Text Box to show that name.

The best method is to actually create a wall type or edit the existing. Using the "Spray Can" is just not a good idea for walls.

"Evaluated" simply means that the macro should be considered a "program" rather than just "text".

Referenced doesn't need to be. None will work fine, but it does need to be Evaluated.

Macro "year" t = Time.new result = t.year returns the current year --> 2019 as a numerical value result = result.to_s returns a character string --> "2019" This is pure Ruby and doesn't require anything else from Chief.

Gene, Right Click on the Desktop Select Personalize Select Taskbar Turn on the "Hide Taskbar in Desktop Mode". Chief will now be able to use the entire screen. The Taskbar will only show when you move the mouse to the very bottom of the screen. You can of course drag it to any of the 4 boundaries of your screen and dock it there.

Exterior Casings, Sills and Aprons.

OK, so that's in the Rich Text dbx next to the Justification Icons. It's too bad it isn't available for Schedules and Standard Text

Charles, Where do you set "Line Spacing" ?