VHampton

The new silhouette people are pretty neat. They cast shadows etc. I kind of like how they don't draw attention, but provide a great representation of scale.

Hey Larry, I'm not so certain that the zoom issue is directly related to a specific kind of mouse. ...meaning that it happens with every mouse. I went back to a usb mouse thinking that the problem would go away, but it hasn't. For now, I guess you just have to be carefully with each scroll of the wheel while zooming. This has got to be a bug. Turning the scroll a few notches in an overhead view shouldn't land the camera right inside the house!! Thanks for bringing this up. I was literally just about to post the same.

Love this feature as well. Have been waiting on this for years. Hands down Chief Architect is now by far the best drawing software on the market because of this upgrade. To answer your question Larry...you can use black and white or colored fill when sending a 2d view to layout. I have been using plants in the background as well. The elevations are amazingly good looking. One note...be sure to have your 3D background turned off in 2D views, or you will have a completely colored elevation view with clouds and sky...or whatever background you are using.

Per the post above....I had the same message, and decided to renew the SSA which still has a month to go before expiring. That's said.... There's no X8 beta download link in my digital locker just yet. Maybe later. Has anyone been able to download it yet/

I noticed the same thing too a while back. Do not return you graphics card. Turn down the undo/redo settings. ...or turn them off altogether Turning this feature off immediately stops your mouse from bogging down.

Pdf files can sometimes be too large for an import. They can bog down the plan file even when imported to a CAD detail. Try importing it as a picture. Every Adobe Reader has the ability to take a snapshot of the pdf. Click on the camera icon, and then right click on the screen after it takes a "snap shot". Then you can paste an image file into your drawing rather than the over-sized pdf file.

By default, I changed the dpi to 300 (when going to print) and any embedded images are saved as PNG files. I've had pdf files files ranging close to 15 megs which is quite largge. The method above was a big help and hang ups while printing isn't as common. Just curious if that may help speed your prints up.

Yes they need to be "blocked" to stop them from pointing every which way. I disagree about having to do them in plan view only. (Even though that's where they are known not to jump). When the program first came out, it was recommended to keep your CAD work to a minimum in plan views. After version ten and up came out, that's where the movement problem was first noticed.

- awning detail... roof awning with boxed eave and corbels.zip

Manually drawn. This should be quite easy. Just drag a small roof along the outside wall, adjust its height, and find a couple of corbels in the library. The library doesn't have anything like this in stock. I suppose you could draw one in a blank plan and turn it into a symbol if you needed multiple copies.

Window canopy or window awning.

Molding poly-line all the way.

I'm curious if you could draw a line and snap the camera to whatever angle it may hold. In plan options you can input various angles and the program will allow those lines to become secure as you draw new ones with the angle.

You could draw a molding polyline along the tops of your fencing for shadowing purposes only. Make it 1 inch thick by whatever the fence height is. Turn it off in your 2D views where it's going to mess up the elevations.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?q=chimney+cap&rsi=sbis&backendClass=entity Chief's library is pretty well stocked. There's always some good stuff at the 3D Warehouse though. X7 is great is that you can drag the downloaded symbol right from your Desktop and into the plan.

This one works for me...

Thanks Tommy!! It finally works. It's pretty darn weird having to do it this way, but at least it's functional. You'd think that pulling on the grab handle alone would have been much much easier. How on earth did you figure this out?

Exactly. You can stretch the image but it retains it's aspect ratio which should not be the case. It's rather frustrating not being able to stretch a jpeg since the past three releases. Not complaining...but this is definitely a bug when the box reverts back after you uncheck it.

Why they undid this feature is/was unnecessary. It was quick easy and straightforward.. Not complaining, just saying. The programming department dropped the ball on a very useful tool.

Here's an old post on the subject... Chieftalk - Eyebrow dormers.pdf

Do you have a back up? You might be able to copy your back up folder of the old library and paste it directly into the Chief X7 location where it is located. I've done it before on old versions. It worked.

To create an open to below... Draw four walls around the stair going down on your first floor. Click on the space and designate it as "open to below" using the dialogue box. Use your floor reference tool to see the stairs below. It's easier to draw the walls (or railings) around the stair case this way. The stairs and walls from floor above or floor below will be highlighted in red. See attached pic. All the best, Val

You got it. Auto build a basement. Stairs need to start from the up position. Keep in mind that you'll need to have an "open to below" of level one to allow the stairs to appear in the floor plan. (Do this by creating an area which is either surround by walls, railings, or an invisible wall.)

There is always the slight problem with the shadowed views in that they aren't sent to layout as line drawings. ....meaning that they have to go into the viewport as images. They always seem to "pixelate" pretty badly. Is this how Vector works does it? This past year I started playing with the very same idea in color. Meaning that I keep a standard view in layout, then send a shadowed image to the same sheet. The image then gets tweaked until it matches up with quarter scale. So far it works fine. Much nicer looking than regular line drawings.

That's exactly the way they get built in real world. I've been making battered walls for years in Chief by using roof planes in front of regular walls. The roof needs a hole to allow the walls to show the windows and doors. It would be great if Chief could allow an option to thicken the bottom in an effort to create the slope.