SHCanada2

in you do a search of the forum you will find the details. It has been detailed many times

no foundation or slab? I think...you have glass walls where you should have normal walls and windows?

This is what I do, my template layout has layout boxes for elevations (my template plan has them on the plan), layout boxes for kitchen(my template plan has them on the plan, 4 directions) , layout boxes for details, and layout boxes for basement and main floor. The you can use the tools->reference files to change for a new plan

We do steel pilings like that up here, except they just pound them down, then cut them off. Never seen them done by drilling the hole, putting in the wood timber and then backfilling. I mean we do fences posts like that up here and then fill the hole with concrete. ...interesting, so the lateral support is the ground then. makes sense, surprised it is just backfill and not concrete backfill, but maybe whatever is being backfilled is easily packed. I think this is the same way they do telephone poles up here, just backfill

I did this with the bosch measure on app and a tablet, and it worked pretty good, because I walked around with it. and you tap to enter a window and then enter W, L, height off floor, distance to wall corner. it also locked the walls once you had a measurement so it was pretty easy to see that the measurement took the BT reading. But now (if I can) I go and take a few measurements *usually a room), put in CA in the laptop sitting in the middle of the house, go back, get some more, etc. Don;t get me wrong, it gets me excercise, but a bit of a PIA. I do this rather than draw it all out because, well i like to see how it comes together in case something does not make sense. So i thought maybe a surface pro and CA would be the ticket, but given CA does not lock the walls, that is probably a large limitation, as you would not know what you measured vs what you did not. But i wanted to know if someone tried and how it worked the above link shows it working with regular walls and looks to show an outside dim being measured

i just noticed this: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01846/using-a-leica-disto-device-with-chief-architect-software.html seems to take the BT from disto and put it into the dim box has anyone tried it? is it efficient?

i'd post mine, but I'd go deaf hearing all the laughter

Bosch has a similar app (Maeasure on its called) for free that works with their bluetooth laser. I used to use the bosch app, but then went to just drawing onsite on my laptop in CA, and taking some additional measurements by hand

i have the same for about a second or 2

I looked at hover but did not really see the value, given its accuracy. I perceive it as more of a exterior material estimating platform Are you using it just to get the outside dimensions? It seems like a bit of a price to pay for only those dimensions. and I assume where there are trees and bushes manual dimensions still need to be taken?

There are other posts on this topic as well. I looked at magicplan and others, but noticed when they stich things together, they start making the walls thicker and thinner or the room narrower or wider to try and make the outside correct. I'd rather me try and find out why something is wrong, rather than the algorithm assuming is is the middle room that need to be narrower, there is always a reason and from what I have observed, it is never what the algorithm determines is best for you.

you also look to have a hip roof, while the picture has a gable

i've found that the most efficient if you can do it is to: 1. predraw the exterior of the house in CA using a survey and google maps to see the roof structure, elevation of house above grade (count the front steps). draw in windows and doors you can see 2. print these out, 2 copies 3. if possible, while on site draw everything directly in CA, but use the print outs and the bosch laser to go around and get dimensions, and to draw interior walls on the paper to go with the measurements. take pictures of critical maeasurements like furnace clearances, plumbing rough ins ets 4. sanity check once drawn in CA 5. Take elevation measurements outside and write them on printed out elevations 6. go back to office and draw correct elevations with terrain

I've never heard it called a beam, but i'm not a truss guy, but it is a singular member in the sample i checked, and for this case it is 2x6 C-1,C7, are single members

soooo, was there a cause to this? was it the porch balcony issue, or something else? I dont see anything else in Rob's list which would seem to be a contributor of the problem

or use the Tools-Layout-Referenced Plan files when on layout

this is a good point, but they already must do that today, so it must already be part of their workflow. But then again why bother putting the graphic macro assignment on the CAD detail? One could just put it off to the side of the floor view, as small as practical which i think you pointed out earlier. The floor view would be seen every time, and the global macros populated without having to flip to the CAD detail. I think this would only be the case if the filenames and paths were the same for two files, and if that was the case then they would have larger issues if they are sharing two files with the same name/path.

so i think the simplest method for you is to just change your macros to use a hash, and set a macro in the file to be the filename, manually. Step 1. create a macro in your .plan file called "filepath" Step 2. when you create the .plan file or rename it, you will have to go into that macro and set it correctly, or more importantly uniquely. For instance : "C/owner/63 pleasant Dr v0.4" Step 3. On your cad detail page where normally you have something like $roof=label, now you would have %$configHash[[ macros.filepath,"Roof" ]] = label% Step 4. For text box on elevations or elsewhere, put in the text box, %$configHash[[ macros.filepath ,"Roof" ]]% The other ways to do it are more complex. One is to require a box on each view. If you are willing to have a box on each view, then you can eliminate the manual assignment of the macro filepath. As Michael mentions you can have it in your template file, but I think and he can correct me if I am wrong, you would have to add it to each new elevation you create. I'll see if I can eliminate the box requirement, but so far no luck.

I was more thinking if he created new elevations, he would need to copy them (CAD block) around. i.e. he could not just put down a text box with $roof in it, as $roof would still be the roof from the other plan, if he came from the elevation of the other plan

there are two ways that I know of: 1. Creating room polylines, where the room is the outside area of the floor (click just outside the outside walls), and then using a schedule or marco to add them up. Downside to this is if you change an outside wall, you have to recreate the polyline 2. Using a room label macro where it looks for the "living area", and then assigns that to a variable depending on floor. Downside to this is there is a fair amount of overhead in the macro to ensure the values are kept in sync and not affected by other open plans. I posted a rudimentary version of this a while back in the tips and tricks. Other downside to this is it is only floor area, some people have requirements for patios, decks, garages, etc.

i think I have it working robustly, but you will need to evaluate if it is worth the effort. I've a couple more things to try to see if I can get it to work macro free. If not, the overhead will be creating a macro for each global variable (create it once and then not touch it. (you will still use your graphical tool to change the values)

I'm not sure I understand, the screenshot you posted shows you assigning values to global variables by moving the pointer to different options. where does excel and the json file come into play?

slick ...as a feature, you could consider including the assignment to a hash, and retrieval from the hash, thereby eliminating the need to shut down to print the assignment, as posted above, is not much different, but the retrieval using a text box (as opposed to a pline label) is a bit more complicated from what i have discovered so far. I'm still looking to see if I can get it to work without needing a macro. If, and it is a big if, it could be simple enough, it would eliminate the global variable problem, for those that have the problem. For me I have the CAD detail variables assigned in their own macros, so they are guaranteed to be correct within the plan. (ie. I have a macro named "DET-Fascia" and the only thing in it is "Metal Fascia"). But I can certainly see the appeal of the graphical editor you and the OP have. No need to type.

but the OP has a text box on an elevation driven from a macro. He would have to drop in the macro assignment onto each elevation he wanted the result of the macro on, would he not? If so, it might be quicker just to copy and paste a hardcoded text box and forget about a macro? it was an interesting exercise to see what it would take to put it in a hash, and it is not much $confighash[[filename, "Roof"]] = label instead of what I assume the OP has, something along the lines of $roof=label

well I did find a way to dynamically pass the filename as a key How I got it to work: On the CAD detail, create a global hash. For each parameter (roof, wall, etc), add it to the hash, along with the filename and the value. These first two are the keys On the elevation, the label can use the dynamic filename, parameter of interest to get the value. The only limitation see is that you have to go to the CAD detail page when you first open the file in order to populate the hash, but I assume you have to do that today to populate the global variables