johnny

Nice vid Michael!

Clean work Kevin! Nice.

Thanks guys!

I think they are "on" and I have it set to show in all modes. Here is the file in case that helps. I dont know why the file size is so large for a simple bathroom. bathroom_design.zip

Im working on an interior ray trace trying to add lights in the scene (not fixture lighting - just lights). I can't seem to add lights that make any difference whatsoever. I've set the lighting as high as I can get it just to see what happens and nothing... I've verified the layer is on in my perspective view. Does anyone know how to active the lights?

Does anyone know how to force Chief to do the auto-visual union of polysolids in the same plane (and same fill type)? It works in some instances and not in others.

Yeah when I am at the office on Monday I will forward to you. I dont charge extra for the files...

I think considering the "BIM" nature of where this industry is headed, its going to become more common place. I've developed a quick agreement I have clients sign before I give them a file. I sign these all the time from my civil guys when I ask for files, so I think its becoming part of the process. I've also handed files to builders as well, who are looking to mess with interior/exterior colors and staging furniture with an interior designer. They've all so far respected my contract so i've not had issues. Sometimes I lock certain layers. Initially I had trepidation with this idea of letting my files go, but my practical experience tells me I was worried more than I actually should have been. I guess it largely depends on your client as well.

Honestly, the issue is more to do with thinking Chief's out of the box auto-interior dimension is going to get you nice clean dimension lines. I personally don't use that auto-dimension stuff except for exterior and even then I come back and clean it up. Changing settings of some of that will help, but its not going to solve the problem. I believe you are using the wrong tool.

You mean what you are getting in PDF is different than whats on your screen in this regard? You should be seeing about the same thing as whats printed, and in which case you can simply move the dimension value's manually. What you show looks like cluttered mess. Consider reviewing videos in Chief about dimension settings etc.

I agree, we really need links for this stuff. JP

Why would you even do that inside Chief? Chief has some nice tools for residential that outweigh some of its serious issues, but a for a commercial project I view Chief a liability for several reasons. I still use Vectorworks for my commercial projects.

Wow, checking this out Micheal - thanks for your effort here. (added) you amaze me Michael - that this type of thing is exactly what I was after. Im still trying to wrap my head around it a bit but very very cool.

Yeah that did work - nice work as Chop said.

Hey guys, So I realized what was happening and its actually a more simple explanation of whats wrong in Chief. You can set a Rich Text size for print and its completely different than a "standard text" - even though what should be the important thing is the physical size. Apparently there is no tie-between the size you set for text and the actual size text is.

I've tried this and it shows the same. I've verified the problem when I print. I'm thinking this has to be a bug - since there shouldn't be a difference.

So that is interesting - I never noticed but yeah there was a difference in page size. That said, it didn't change my results when I made sure they matched. Kinda interesting you can have different sheet sizes like that in Layout "Cad Details".

I checked and it looks good to me. Here it is.

My circumstance is where I am inside Layout making a Cad Detail for organization of text groups. So when I "send" to Layout its actually coming from Layout to begin with using the same text settings. Since its all 1:1 scale it makes zero sense there should be a difference in text size unless i were to send to the page specifically at an alternate scale (which i am not).

Does anyone know where the scale is controlled inside a Layout file (which is 1:1) using a "Cad Detail". Its blowing my mind that I can't seem to use a 1:1 scale and have text result in the same size between the two windows.

I'm working on a new template inside Chief to provide ConDocs more in line with a system I prefer. I typically have notes/footnotes on a page, and then denote the item # on the plan (by label) that references the note/footnote - and then to the right of that particular note, have room for up to 3 referencing details in additional sheets or a detail packet. I've attached an example. What I am curious about, is there a way to replicate this in a more automated (formatting) way? Michael and others gave me recommendations on using schedules, but adding the detail callouts on the right present an issue there. Perhaps they have to be simply placed, but curious if there is a way i am not thinking of. Thank you in advance for suggestions.

On Chief's "Home Designer" website they have an illustration done in Chief (i guess) where the layers of the wall are progressively cut back in such a way to show down to the studs. How does someone do that in Chief??

I've run into this problem many times - i used to just end up blocking the topo and drawing Chief elevation splines over it (tracing). However, Glenn showed me how much better Chief handles elevation regions, so now I just use those to get pretty close to what the topo reads (close enough). You can actually just fill in (poly) the area between topo lines every so often and use that as the terrain region. Works well actually.

I've never seen wood posts that narrow before.

I dont know if this info helps, but I cannot print Chief files to my large office multi-purpose laser directly since the file size Chief sends is crazy large and crashes the printer. If I use Chief PDF, print, open in Acrobat the same file prints to the printer no problem. If I use Acrobat to print, for some reason the Chief file is all images if I use transparencies or other fill types. SUPER hassle.