tommy1

Concerning polyline solids, this is a post I made a while back. This is from the old forum so I hope the link works. http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?61651-Polyline-solid-tip-for-elevations&highlight=polyline+solid+display

Lew, you are correct and I too agree (to a degree). There have been many times in the past where I made a symbol or library. Then later, I decided to share with other people on this forum using earlier versions. Doing this requires making another symbol or library as mentioned earlier, which yes takes MY time but that was a decision I decided to do for other users. Could I do this from the library posted here? Yes, but I certainly wouldn't consider it unless several people requested it and then I might only send it to them. There are different reasons why some people haven't upgraded from X5 to X6 and usually it's due to monetary reasons. I personally don't feel that people should be condemned or get spoken badly about because they haven't upgraded to the latest version. Maybe they will at a later time. Would it be better if they did? Of course, but there is nothing wrong with X5 and if you think there is, then you should complain to Chief Architect about how bad it is. BTW, I have my complaints about X6 too. The program will never be perfect for everyone.

I realize that rules vary from area to area as well as state to state. Here in Houston, we could never submit this for a legal survey for construction. The surveys we have to submit will only have the property and part of the surrounding properties (not the whole subdivision). It also has to have a stamp by the surveying company and because we're in Houston and surrounding counties, it has to say whether or not you're in the 500yr. flood zone. In Midland, that might not be an issue there. At least 75% of the time, the surveys are wrong that we receive from the builder or owner. We're doing a remodel right now where we have to get the homeowner to get a new survey because the survey provided to us is flat wrong. The owners are aware of it and getting one. Bottom line, not all surveys are correct and this is not unusual (at least here).

I was just responding to the question asked about making an X6 symbol useable in X5 and their comment was that they didn't know how to do it.. I did and yes it can be done very easily. Yes I'm using X6 SOMETIMES but I'm still using X5 currently on a main basis. The people whom I get most of my money are using X5 which I hope will be upgrading to X6 in a month or so. I'm also doing plans on my own using X6. I still have one builder who is using X2 which is a real pain. I do have some symbols that I made in X6 that I may convert to X5 if I need them. Right now I don't. But, can you do it? Yes. To answer your second comment, of course it would be better to make it to begin with in an earlier version...but what if they didn't have an earlier version??

Yes you can. I've been doing it for years. You can do it if you do each symbol at a time. Place a symbol in a blank Plan (X6). Do a vector overview (be sure the symbol is the only think in the plan. Go to File>Export>3D Model (DWG) I use an early version to be sure. Name the DWG file and save it. Open X5. Go to File>Import>3D Symbol (DWG)>find it in browser >Open it>Chief will place it in your X5 library. Done. I just did it with X6 to X5 with one of the symbol in this thread to be sure it works the same in X6. It does, so sure, you can make the X6 symbol work with X5 or earlier.

Well, it worked this time. Don't know. It wouldn't do it earlier.

I was using the full editor. This is a test edit.

I have tried twice to edit my recent post. It lets me edit but it won't take. This is the first time this has happened to me. I'll try it again.

In Houston with the Planning Department, if a room such as a library, study, or whatever, has a smaller room within it that is only accessed by that room named (or a similar room "name"), the City of Houston looks at it as a possible future closet and therefore that room could become a bedroom which then needs to meet the requirements of a bedroom such as egress and smoke alarms. When we have these situations like a Study, and the client wants to have a small room in it (closet) to hold a gun safe. We recommend waiting until after all inspections are final and then build it. This has been the case as long as I have been permitting in Houston which is about 12 years.

Anything is possible if you do it all manually.

I recently bought a new laptop and moved everything over. I did not experience your problem.

This is an old problem. I did have a fix for it. I'll try it soon but I think you had to place the cabinet before the wall. I know I replied the fix in the old forum if you can find it.

Hi Lisa, feel free to call or email me if you need some help with a problem. There are several ways I could help you online. You are also welcome to join our User Group where we try to help and answer your questions. It's free. We meet once a month. Find me in the Houston User Group in this forum. We have really nice people and don't ever worry about how basic your question is.

Joe, I'm basically going to say no. We use dropbox which I don't really care for personally but it's not my decision. If more that one person has a plan open, you'll get "conflicted" plan files. I will say however, that if the plan is done concerning all the major stuff like wall placement, windows and doors, then I do think that it's possible. For example, if you want to have a person working on the electrical plan and one person working framing plans, then if they take the main plan and do a "save-as" and rename it "....electrical", and the other person does the same thing and name it "....framing", then this could work. You would have to link all these plans to the layout. We don't do this but this is one way it could be done. You don't however if doing this, make any wall, door, window, etc., changes to the plan. All of these plan files (and layout file) would have to be put in the same job folder. With this said, if you're not using something like dropbox, and the different people are on different computers, then at the end, all the plan files would have to go into the folder on the person's computer that is doing the layout. For most of our plans, there are at least 3 people doing something in the plan at different times and we never work in the same plan at the same time. There needs to be some communication between the people.

Sharon, as you're changing the floor heights, it helps a bunch to do a back-clip and then "tile" the views so that you can see both views at the same time. This helps so that you can see the changes as you make them.

About 90% of the new homes have volutes at the bottom too. Have been requesting this for years but I assume not much people are calling for them. I have given up requesting this for a stair option. I know how to place it manually but it's not perfect but very close. I can only hope that one day...

Scott is correct in that the roof framing will build on which ever floor you display the roof planes. At least it used to be that way. Don't know if it's changed. There actually have been times when I wanted to show framing on different floors in the past. Haven't tried this in a while so I assume it still works the same way.

Glad you found it. In the past, I have had people that had the same problem but like only on one floor which means that the problem was on that one floor. Never could find it trying everything. I have discovered how to fix a plan if this happens and you can't find the culprit. Sometimes, if the object is real small and a million miles away, you'll never be able to find it. If this ever happens, let me know and I'll tell you a way you can recover things back to normal. One of my little secrets.

I thought he was using X1.

I believe your preferences should look like this.

See my post on post #22.

We have a free online meeting June 2, 2014 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (Central Time). If you would like to attend, then please send me an email using my email address shown in my signature. Feel free to call me if you need more information. Sincerely,

Glenn, I have had several people call me over the years wanting to know why when they change a wall type to a demo wall and turn it off, and use different layer sets, they start having problems after a while. They say that Chief has videos and tutorials for doing it this way. WELL, THAT'S TRUE! THEY DO! I simply tell them that doing this is not a method that I agree with and will almost guarantee problems with a sophisticated plan with multiple floors and even worse if you have elevated floors on a single floor. Back in X1 when they first came out with the demolition wall types and layer sets, this was an accepted method but not for Louis and me because it didn't take us long to find problems. I just looked up threads from powerful users telling you to do this back when X1 was out. Today, you can still see the videos and the wall types are still there in the drop down menu. Every time I've asked someone why they're using this method for doing existing and proposed plans, they say because they saw it in the training videos.

I too use this cad method too sometimes. The reason I mentioned using two plans is because in our existing plan (Existing/demo Plan) we hatch all wall that are to be demoed, and use a lot of text explaining what is going on for the demo. In the new plan, I hatch all existing walls. In a complicated plan, which is often the case, I do an existing cad overlay in a separate view (layer set) in the layout as you all mention. A lot of times I do it for the Engineers as a quick reference. If I do a cad overlay, I only show the walls, door and windows in the overlay....generally dashed and light grey.

If you're doing a remodel, I personally don't advocate having the existing plan and proposed plan in one plan file. I'm fairly certain that some people will though.