bernie

looks good

So I make .plan A active window, that is running macros and using global variables, then after switching to .plan B window to make active, I see that chief doesnt automatically update the macros for .plan B - we have to force it manually - by opening the text management macro window dbx. Yes it would be nice if a user preference setting for macros existed (that we can toggle on to force an automatic update when switching between .plan files) by default.

this has been one of the best tips Ive had for a while. thought it was worth a bump. any new tricks that people are using to achieve shadows in elevation views?

What do you want as a separator between sq.m and sq.mm? separator = decimal point "." its usually written 134.5 m2 or 78.9 m2. very roughly speaking, 1000 square feet is 100 square metre house. so 1800 ft sq = 180m2 house. 3000 ft sq = 300m2 building, etc. What number of places do you want for sq.mm? 1/10ths of units is fine? not required, as, only time we would ever use sq mm would be to work out cross sectional area of gutters (manual calculation anyway would never use mm2 in floorplan areas. use square metres only to 1-2 decimal places. e.g. 305.1 m2, 234.6 m2

top plate stud heights in NZ (metric) can typically be 2.42m, 2.57m, 2.70m, 3.00m, 3.60m, with flat or raking ceilings onto usually trusses but quite often rafters. we also get parallel chord trusses that can be flat or raking laid either across or along the building. our floors are more often than not monolithic slab but can be subfloor we quite often have split and multi level floors

the old forum used to be at www.chieftalk.com - searched but cannot find?? is it still up? if not, where to find it archived.?? (there are some threads I need from 2013.) cheers, bernie, NZ

I would like to use the chief x7 terrain 'straight retaining wall" (or other ) tool to create objects that look like attached. has anyone had a play and got some terrain retaining wall settings for me? or has anyone got symbols? or a wall definition?

we need a way for chief to display what us users have told it as the model we have set up, AND we need chief to give us better graphical interactive feedback so we can quickly see what we need to change so our structural model vertical heights is what we want the model to be. the way we get better graphical feedback is for the model to reference back to items used in the real world. e.g. the user dbx(s) for setting all of this up could be overhauled and chiefs internal workings, calcs and 'thinking' slightly tweaked so it 'thinks' and displays a structural model graphic referenced back to the top plate heightand floor level which is what happens on a building site (instead of top plate + rafter height = baseline.) perhaps from a top plate height that we enter, on a room group by room group basis (so we can do split level models easy ) then everything is calculated and displayed much the same as the select same / load same tool now displays all those values in a table that is soooo much better than x6, x5 ,x4 functionality of the same tool. (and all that happened was the user interface got tweaked to provide more feedback!) buildings are built from the floor up. not top down. chief thinks from the top down. it would be preferable (and I put this forward as a suggestion for you guys to work on coming to a consensus on before the UGM) to be something along the lines of such: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2989-x7-and-or-x8-wishlist/ https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/3007-what-would-be-1-thing-you-would-love-to-see-ca-fix-or-add/page-4

x17.2.0.69 on win7 64bit or x17.3.1.1.0 64bit on win8 now both wont print from .layout file iso A1 1:100 to my HP 2500 without cutting off the print about 1/4 way thru printing. these are .plan files started in x6 and opened in x7 to continue development. never had a problem in the past. tried plenty of options and printer settings for 2 hours, to no avail. HOWEVER when I print to pdf (using cutepdf writer) and then print the pdf to the printer, all is well. x6 was working fine on win7 at least. this proves to me there is a problem with the printer driver in CA x7. this happens currently on HP T2500 at (at least iso A1) paper sizes and is 100% repeatable. anyone else? the other thing that happens in x7 (and I think x6) is when I print direct from a .plan file to the printer say a floorplan layerset with text (rich text? will have to check) it inverts all the text 180 degrees to that text's origin in the drawing!! go figure... this happens on multiple printers at different paper sizes (eg iso A3) and is 100% repeatable. anyone else? cheers, Bernie

ok so the answers Im getting back are to manually draw em process (cant use "build framing" tools..) yes Graeme - rafters as steel purlins between slightly raking portal frames is exactly what Im doing.. Yes Scott - should convert my framing to coloured framing as you do

because theres things I do in windows os (file manager), some software, and keyboard setup that I need to find the equivalent in mac -land to fully transition...

in attached .plan file have a simple rectangle building with mono sloping roof in 1 direction I want the (steel) rafters to NOT slope upward from low end to high end (as per normal timber rafters) BUT span the length of the building and "run up" the roof following the slope of the roof. i thought the joist direction tool allowed us to specify which direction the rafters would run??????? when using the build/framing/roof framing tool, but I cannot get it to have any influence, im sure I have used it in the past on prior versions of ca?? so for the demo plan attached I manually drew a rafter at ridge and then multi-copied it down the roof to the gutter. ya so does anyone know how to get the joist direction tool to influence roof rafters ? (or better still - truss direction on a per roof plane basis? (for parallel chord trusses running across the building not up/down) cheers, Bernie Untitled 1.plan

depends on your budget. if you want fast, thin, light, aesthetically pleasing, reliable, good warranty, a v good screen, then after testing other high spec ibm based systems and being disappointed, I can wholeheartedly recommend a 2015 mac pro 15inch running windows 8.1 tweaked to operate like win7. mac has 9hr battery life, a beautiful screen, super fast ssd (pci-e), runs external UHD monitors, runs nice and cool no noise from the fan like some others. the dedicated graphics seems to do the job. most current new intel-based notebooks have 3ish hr battery life, average screens, slower pci ssd (not pci-e like mac), something that is more than an inch thick (ie a brick) heavy, large power supply to lug around, and run hot due to thermal limit. yes I still use a desktop 6core processor with gtx graphics for raytracing.

the corner drag handles still work as the imported jpeg picture maintains aspect ratio, (you actually cannot make it not do this even though there is a tick box to untick - it automagically ticks itself back on again after you close the dbx ) yes it appears you now cannot stretch in x or y direction a jpeg which i did lots.... B

ahh yes cheers Glenn correct - that is what I am doing x5 and prior i believe the horiz. drag handles (at least) worked differently allowing to scale the jpeg.....

is there any way to stretch an imported jpeg into .plan file (not maintain aspect ratio) in say horiz direction?. when I untick 'maintain aspect ratio' and reopen the jpeg, CA has automatically placed a tick back in the box to 'maintain aspect ratio'. pretty sure on prior versions x6, x5, x4 of CA I could stretch a jpeg???...(have not checked going from memory...) yes I can stretch it outside of CA (eg using windows paint program)., but that will not do what I want.... as have a floorplan as jpeg want to deliberately stretch in 1 direction only before trace over the top...

has anyone got CA running on 13 inch i7 macbook pro and can comment on its speed (other than raytracing) compared to i7 quad core desktop?

hi, current notebook is 2yo sony vaio 13inch 1920x1080 i7 3612 quad core intel4000 with external docking station with 1gb dedicated graphcs. the intel 4000 wont show shadows in 3D for x6 and x7. x5 was fine. otherwise perfectly fast enough. this is apparently a driver problem and sony dont allow/provide proprietary driver update. the machine is still got 3 years of support left. I hardly ever do raytraces which I understand requires the more cores the better. so I am looking for performance for everyday CA tasks which is 80% 2D xy cad work, and 20% camera /section side elevation views. I was referring to the new Asus G501. not G51. (G51 old, fat, noisy) I dont like / want 15 inch - too big unless absolutely have to. I run external 30inch UHD monitor when in office. use notebook when with clients working in (mostly) 3D eg will a 13inch apple mac pro or asus ux301 i7 2core 'feel' as fast as a i7 4 core asus G501?

new notebook time. dilemma - I love 13inch footprint. but they only come with 2 core processors. 15inch come with 4 core processors. question: with only CA running on a windows 64bit notebook, do the amount of cores make a difference to the responsiveness and 'feel' of CA when NOT doing raytracing? when creating floorplans, doing mostly 2d with mouse (zoom in/out) and some 3d (camera / section views) in .plan files (with all other things being equal - e.g. graphics/ memory motherboard bus speed etc between the 2 the same) will a i7-5600u (2 cores) 'feel' as fast as a i7-4720hq (4 cores) on CA X17.2.0.69x64 windows version? eg 13inch thinkpad X1 carbon vs 15inch asus G501 with an i7 (4 core)? cheers, Bernie

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

do you have one available that reads an external text file and can populate user defined macros e.g. client name = xx client address = yy wall cladding = zz wall framing = sg8 90x45 timber etc ...

word wrap problem.

and later on in X8 would like callouts linked to each text object (macro behind it) with a unique number. i.e. place the text (a macro), chief will give that text (macro behind it) a callout label (number), the callout lable we can define type / style turned on/off etc. ability is all there now, just needs linking up in code.

spot on sherry - callout database for my text note system is what I am alluding to using ruby and macros for say something, say it once, replicate it over all your pages. if need to change it, change it once. no mistakes. less liability.

Joe, what are your online resources you've been using for Ruby for file I.O. related topics?