payettedesigns

Do any of you guys ever do a horizontal orientation of your floor plans when 1/4 " =1 ' is to large for a vertical orientation on 24" x36 layout ? Instead of reducing to 3/16" =1' which framers hate? david p

confused ?

I ran into this before beside manually placing columns is there a way to get rid of column on left that automatically inserts into opening of stair. I solved this in the past but cannot remember how, having a major brain fart. David P

Wow: Just getting around to reading this tirade on Hot Keys. I am always amazed with the knowledge of some of you guys. I used Revit and AutoCAD for a long time and they are all good products for what they are purposed for. If your doing Custom Home Design and additions and actually want to run a decent business Revit and AutoCAD are hyper inflated and over complex for the task, yes you can do it and they work but really do you want to? I use about 10 Hotkeys and I will probably add some more soon. The thing here in these forums and in the Chief User Facebook that amazes me is just really how smart some of you guys are. I have a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in design and I am stunned by just how stupid I am. I do at least 20 Custom Home jobs a year and a boat load of additions as well as some light commercial projects. I do not have the time you guys have to keep up with all the fancy equipment. We use a simple 3d Connexion Cad Mouse all are Computers are Dell Precision Workstations or XPS Work Stations we use HP Design Jet T630 Plotters and we have one expensive scanner. I hear guys going out and getting a big as-built done in a couple hours and how they can complete a project that takes me a good work week in a few hours and I seriously want to just give up. It takes me a full day sometimes to do a decent size as-built in sometimes multiple days and yes we use lasers. Guys like Alaska Son, Joey Martin etc, etc your like the Gods of Chief Architect and some of you other guys blow me away with the equipment. Extra Numerical Keypads this that and the other thing. I am convinced I must really suck at time management. Look we bring in about 300 grand a year after expenses who knows but Chief Architect for the last 8 almost nine years has made me an incredible living. We bought Lumion two years ago I don't have time to learn it. I have only had a few clients that would pay for that level of perfection in Ray-Tracing. We have not had time to even put some great marketing 3d stuff together because for those almost nine years we have been swamped. I am not being facetious here, I read through these forums at what you guys know and how well your doing it and I literally want to retire for the second time. God Bless you guys your all amazing you must be financially crushing it..

I am getting ready to purchase new Desktop for X13. I was going to update graphics card but my Desktop is a little over 3 years now. Graphics card was going to run between 500 to 800 and with a new power supply I am thinking just go new, What are you guys using?

I am beating a dead horse here. I have a Disto X3 and it easily sends dimensions to Chief but Chief will not accept the fraction format the Disto uses a straight line numerator over the denominator. Cheif fractions use an angle in their fractions and will not accept the Disto format. Does anyone know how to fix this or change Chiefs fraction format?

Chief says you can use Disto X3 In the program but the Disto X3 sends fractions numerator over denominator not with an angle so your Chief plan will not accept that format. Does anyone have a solution? Can you change the fraction format in Chief?

I gave up on the Disto X3 the big problem is how it sends the fraction format 1/2 Lieca uses numerator over denominator not angled. Is there a way to change the fraction format in chief?

Chief is terrible blah blah blah.. I have made over a hundred grand seven straight years with Chief Architect versus Revit I pay a boatload for and make pennies. If Chief did one new thing with X13 it's still worth it..

Yep this is what I normally do as well. I was going off into uncharted territory which did not make any sense..

I am not sure I explained myself correctly. I create CAD Details in Plan View everyday and send them to layout to whatever scale I want . This is seamless. I am talking about while I am in Layout View I open up Cad Detail Management and create a detail in Layout View. It opens up a Detail Sheet that has to be zoomed in and when you send a Library Item say a Chief Detail it goes to the sheet at 1:1 and has to be shrunk to fit on that detail sheet: when I send that to Layout it has to be scaled. If I am in in the Detail Sheet View and I go too Print " Drawing Sheet Set Up it just shows the Arch 24x36 sheet size. I do not see a way to scale the detail Sheet only the actual detail Would you be up for doing a screen share. We use Zoom Video Conferencing. I can create a layout with all these details by working through Plan View and sending details to layout but like you said some times. files get mixed. I wan a Layout with all the details Embedded and I can just delete the ones not specific to the current project I am working on. I hope I am making sense. David

Thank you for this.

Share with us the process you use with Blender and Chief Architect in terms of integration. I would like to know if its worth it. David

Go to where you customize tool bars and add the old break tool to your menu bar. There is a universal one at the bottom menu bar. I added one on my Tool Bar Configuration I did this with the old copy and place which has been removed from the right click menus. I never used it for windows, doors, cabinets etc. Cheers

I guess what I was getting tripped up on in the past is when you go to Cad Detail Management and create a new Cad Detail the detail page it comes up zoomed out and you have to zoom in and add your details. I did that today and added a bunch of Cad Details to my Layout Template. This is one of the things that I have been to busy over the years to take a moment and figure it out. Thanks for the help guys. Also when you grab a detail from the Library it comes massively over sized for the details page and you have to shrink it. Is there any preferences or default fixes. I am going to look and see but if you know a better way let me know. You guys are a tremendous blessing. David