BenPalmer

Chief has a training video that demonstrates this...this is a good source to search as is there knowledge base: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/747/drawing-a-domed-roof-on-a-round-building.html?playlist=95

See previous discussion on this topic which has some great tips that you can read through: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/13001-plot-plan-and-dimensioning/

So worth the time setting that stuff up. Nice job. I would like to see a fill toggle for everything including text and cad boxes and more.

Would love to see a quick toolbar to toggle this on and off quickly.

Yeah, anything output with chief's pdf printer works perfect, but we have the extra step of having to merge the files after multiple ones are created. Would love to add an append/prepend option to Chief's printing output. As you noted, the problem comes when using 3rd party software, which is where I can merge (prepend/append) as I print saving me the extra step of editing/merging the pdf after files are created. Thanks for the demonstration.

Really appreciate everyone's comments in both tips, their process and confirming some things for me. I have very solid PDF software that I'm very happy with for both creation and editing. I would like to see Chief get the pixelation of transparencies further cleaned up if possible. That is one way this would get solved for my work flow (I realize we all work differently). I will keep plugging along and consider ways to increase my productivity with the tools available to me. Thanks again for your help.

OK, started playing with the output some more. I'm using microsoft print to pdf as the control since many likely have access to this. I printed a simple plan i had up and it printed beautifully. I got excited. I then opened a more complex plan and the problem returned. Doing a little more testing, it appears Chief has fixed this issue in relation to straight walls, but walls that are curved or angled cause a bounding mask to be created and anything within it's boundary will be pixelated, similar to what you see in Chopsaws image. (on a side note, if you use 'print image' i believe that will go away, which I find acceptable for outputs like your example and elevation prelims, but not for plans that need to be zoomed.) So, better, but still not fixed. A majority of my designs have angles and curves, so I will continue to run into this. However, Chief's built in printer does not have this issue, just 3rd party printers. So I can print using Chief's printer and adjust the pdf after they are created. I can use a layout and adjust the pdf after created to rotate portrait and landscape, or if a simple plan I can use the 3rd party printer. Still not totally sold on the layout idea as I will still need to open the final pdf and rotate to get landscape and portrait to appear correct. But it is a fair workaround (yes, I said work around). Appreciate everyone's input. Any other thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback. One issue with doing layouts is when you have a combination of portrait and landscape in the same package. Do you create multiple layouts in this situation? I also don't like having extra files to manage. Managing this through the pdf is much quicker and efficient, IMO. I'll double check using the pdf printers you mentioned as it does not work in the one I use (as of beta anyway). This would eliminate my issue compeltely and could go back to managing this through the pdf creater. I'll let you know what I find out. Curious, did you read through the post I linked in the original post that describes the transparent issue I'm having?

Good question: These pdfs are during the design process so I haven't set up the final construction sets via layout. The final prints are done via the layout and do print to one file. I could set up a layout for the preliminary work on 8 1/2 x 11, but that would take extra time as well when I just want to quickly print the files from the plan without much set up time. But a layout is an option. thanks for the reply.

Curious how others handle pdf creation 'using Chief's PDF printer' of multiple prints into one pdf file. For example: I print the main floor to a pdf 'using Chief's PDF printer', and it creates a pdf file. Now I want to print the upper floor. I print and I need to create a new pdf file with a different name. Now I print a site plan, and another pdf is created. I then go and merge those multiple files into one and delete the ones i'm no longer using. I have 3rd party pdf software that handles this print process merge into one file efficiently through a preview process including rearranging, watermarking etc and then just save one pdf file and i'm done. However, because of how Chief's transparent fills don't cooperate with 3rd party printers, i have to use Chief's pdf printer. See this link for more info on that: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/3893-x7-poor-print-quality-using-transparent-fills-in-walls/ One solution would be to eliminate transparent fills, but I believe that is a step backwards and would like to get it to work. So my question(s): Using Chief's PDF printer, is there a way to merge/append the multiple prints I need 'during the print process and not after'? (see an example here, which is not the software I use, but a good example of how it could work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmdDNp3RICU ) If no way to do this with Chief's built in printer, has anyone found 3rd party software that prints with transparent fills without the vectorization/pixelation problem demonstrated in the previous link i supplied? If no again, I suppose this would become a feature request. This print process take a lot of my time and looking for a way to speed it up, so appreciate your input on how to make this work, or an efficient way you use to handle this.

Yeah, no problem bringing these forward using X8, just can't do it using X9 as the first step. The slow file is certainly a noticeable thing, but that is around using X8 and previous versions as well. Seems to be specific to .pl1 (pre v10 files). Would be nice to speed this up including Undo. I haven't seen the speed up of Undo that X9 toughted as an improved feature in new or existing files...perhaps computer specs? Let us know how working with the legacy file goes.

Depending on how far you are, there should have been an X8 archive created. You could go back to X8 and open that file finish it in X8. You just need to remember to open it in X8 each time, I think it will give you a notice of an update, but that could be wrong. Just giving options. Good luck.

Great tip. However, sometimes it doesn't pick anything up if the proper snaps aren't on...but if a busy site, then it should pick something. Thanks again for the tip. Lots of good things here that should help users in each circumstance.

What Glenn said. it's all about the snaps and angles. however, it would be nice for these to work a little easier, they definitely take getting the right settings. often times i need to create a dimension between two lines then drag to the home for it to work between a line and the home, since the home's corner is not necessarily parallel to the lines. good luck.

Kirk, I had the same thought and changed to hourly archive to try something new to see if it would trigger a different result and will see how that goes. I had similar behaviour as posted by others where the autosave only showed up after hitting save twice. I waited longer then the save time frame to see if it would do it on it's own, and no file showed up after 10 minutes of working (2 minute auto save interval in settings). Hit save once, still nothing. As soon as I hit save the second time, the auto save showed up and started functioning as expected on the time frames i had in settings, but would not function at all until I hit save twice no matter how long i waited. I will begin doing that the second I open projects now and monitor. Maybe that is how it's always worked and just didn't have the need for it since X8 was so stable. But X9 is giving me hard crashes and not soft crashes with no option to 'ignore' and save my work. Quite frustrating. I'll assume you are referring to others on the dropbox comment, I don't use dropbox.

Just happened again...this time not a single plan file in the archive folder. Worked on it for about 10-15 minutes. This is getting frustrating.

So with my crashes I've had 2 different behaviors when reopening the file after the crash. Reminder that I am not getting an option to ignore and save like normal crashes so I am totally reliant on the last time I saved and the auto save file which I have set to every 3 minutes. In both cases, there is a newer auto save file then the original save, but I am NOT prompted that there is a newer file or archive and therefore the original file is opened from when I originally opened the file...meaning if I started working on it an hour or 4 hours ago, that is the file that opens. I learned the hard way that if I leave it open longer then my auto save settings then that will create a new file over the more recent archive (depending on settings). Not good. In one case I found a very recent auto save file and simply brought it forward and was on my way. But again, no notice that there was a more recent file. In another case, there was an auto save file newer then the original opening file, but it was 25 minutes old vs the 3 minute auto save setting i have. Not good. Fortunately i had saved recently and so I had a current file. Any way, i can't find any consistency and the crash is not reproducible. If this keeps happening, i'll have to go back to X8 on projects that I haven't already saved to X9. I realize this is beta, so that's on me, but hopefully this is addressed in the official non-beta release. Hope this helps someone or chief (I did report, but they couldn't do much since I can't consistently reproduce it).

Completely understand the need to upgrade and I'm all for it. However, just as was done with legacy library file formats, an import legacy .pl1 file utility should be implemented within Chief to convert those forward the same way I would open the file in X8 and then X9 to bring it forward. Please reconsider completely dropping support for this file and instead implement a way to import legacy plans.

Seeing this issue as well.

Appreciate everyone's input. I understand the need to move on or improve the program, but it is very disappointing to leave long time loyal users in the dust without providing a tool to bring these projects forward. I've been with Chief since version '97 (version 5 i think?), and therefore have many of these files. The .pl1 files are still very useful thanks to importing capabilities of annotation sets, defaults, wall definitions, etc. It takes about 20 minutes to clean up various layers, window and door settings and various other items and i'm ready to go. This saves days of having to recreate the file with all the detailing that is already done. I guess i'll have to keep X8 loaded as well as keep the keys so that I can install it when I upgrade computers in the future. I suppose I can live with that as long as chief doesn't start revoking my ability to have X8 in the long future via the software lock. Thanks again for everyone's input.

I'm having the same issue with crashes and the archive not being there. Reported the crashes with no repeatable steps to tech support last week. They basically put it back into my court and told me to try to narrow it down. Not much help. But, I understand it's hard to narrow it down without steps to repeat. Lots more info on this thread that will hopefully help them track it down. Just posting to reinforce that I'm having the issue as well. Appreciate everyone's effort to figure this out to benefit all of us.

The .pl1 extension has been removed from the open dialogue in X9. Besides opening in X8 first, has a way been provided to open these Chief 9 and earlier files within X9 via import or other method? I have 100s if not 1000s of designs that I sell or use to base plans off of for customers that were created in 9 or earlier and need access to them via X9 and future releases. I really don't want to keep X8 loaded on my computer forever to bring these files forward each time I need them. Nor do I want to spend the time converting these numerous files. However, a batch conversion tool would be acceptable. Thanks.

Edit>Edit area All floors and rotate 180 degrees either with rotate handle or Transform/Rotate dialogue. There may be some clean up depending on if you prefer having text oriented a different way, elevation labels, etc. Hope that helps.

Reversing is typically pretty smooth. But usually some cleanup in the elevations saved cameras: i.e. left to right, or east to west, and some labeling gets off. Also some 3d work such as solids can occasionally be a problem. Pretty good, but not perfect.

Tom, Great to see other Phoenix area users of Chief Architect. I don't have the bandwidth to help with other projects besides my own right now, but might know someone who could, that also uses Chief Architect. Let me know if interested and I'll send their info to you.