robdyck

It's extremely easy to get that macro; send money to Joe or Michael using paypal! I screwed around for hours trying to figure out a way in Ruby. Then I contacted Michael and I had it in minutes! While I was able to keep working! I can't stress this enough Doug: When I saw the macro Michael had written, I realized instantly that I would never be able to figure it out. I'd probably be able to learn Egyptian hieroglyphics quicker! I felt like a genius when I paid a very reasonable bill to save me from all the metric conversions on every single plan I draw! Here's another example of a time saving macro Michael wrote for me: Elevation Markers in Metric that auto calculate. All the metric number are geodetic elevations and I don't need to calculate them anymore. I do one calculation only per plan and the rest are automatic! Life changing!

Just in case we're not having fun yet, In Canada, our wall areas would be calculated differently as it pertains to different sections of the code. For a glazing percentage that's related to the spread of fire, the wall area is calculated using the overall length of the wall, and the height from finished grade to uppermost ceiling. For the wall area relating to energy efficiency, the wall area is calculated as the sum of the interior surface areas of the wall.

Just curious Doug: is that how its being enforced in you area? Here, we're measuring to the uppermost ceiling, not the eaves even if they are lower than the ceiling. And of course, the eaves usually are lower than the ceiling. When this came into effect, there certainly was some confusion on this point. Code Quote: 1) The area of an exposing building face shall be a) taken as the exterior wall area facing in one direction on any side of a building, and b) calculated as i) the total area measured from the finished ground level to the uppermost ceiling,

Here's a few screenshots that sort of show how I'm handling this. For the allowed ratio, I'm still consulting my code book (no macro for that) once the structures' position on the lot is confirmed by the client. The green polylines are moved to the front for working, and once completed, I select them and move them to the back where they won't be seen (if you print in color like I do). If you're printing with no color, you'd need to make some other minor adjustments. The polylines are really fast to edit to match the window sizes, but of course they do need to be manually edited as windows change. But at least I'm not reaching for my calculator and toggling between 10 different windows to check the code compliance.

That's the extent of the control that I found. I changed the name. Would you agree that there's a fair bit of wasted space between rows? I'd like the sliders to control rows like there are for columns.

Tried that. Each unit fills it's allowable space better, but the wasted space remains the same.

There must be a way to alter or control the vertical spacing of schedules. I've included the exterior elevation view of windows in my schedule, and there's a lot of wasted space between each row. Does anyone know if that can be adjusted?

I hear you, and while I expressed my own opinion on solartubes, the intent was sort of to play devil's advocate; I find many clients haven't really thought it through but rather want them just because they saw another 'shiny object'. In my experience, homeowners often see only the 'pros' of a product but often overlook the 'cons', and so I tend to bring 'Negative Nelly' to the conversation in hopes that the end decision is well thought out. And budget is often a factor that clients building a home have a tough time sticking to. Locally, a velux solar tube costs $504 CAD (not installed), and the light fixture it would replace costs $16.00 plus bulbs - $4.00 (not installed). And I wouldn't make the same argument about skylights. I feel they're more of an 'architectural' element.

My own opinion: why not just buy a light fixture? Then, you can have light in the room at night as well! A solar tube will cost as much or more than the light fixture and all the electricity it will ever use (which you'll need anyway). Plus a light fixture can be placed on a dimmer giving you control of the amount of light. And in small rooms, where solar tubes are often desired (for some reason), a single light fixture keeps the ceiling uncluttered (which one gets centered in the room, the tube or the fixture?). Some folks may like the scattergun approach to littering a ceiling full of various fixtures. And a light fixture doesn't need to penetrate your building envelope or roof surface! They are only useful for bringing light into interior spaces in the daytime. Personally, I really enjoy a lit hallway or closet in the morning and evening, especially in the winter months!

Hey Doug, Michael (not to take anything away from Joe) configured a system for me that works nicely for walls / windows, especially if you're referring to the requirements of NBC 9.10.15. I also asked Michael ( @Alaskan_Son ) to configure it to display in metric and it works great.

Hey Alan, this can be done and I hired Michael @Alaskan_Son to setup a repeatable and flexible system for me. His expertise has saved me quite a bit of time, and because of that, its allowed me to display this type of information earlier in the design stage. I highly recommend consulting him, you won't regret it!

Did you copy and paste any of those windows? If their display is set to 'show in this view' and then you copy them to another wall, that can cause the labels to show through. All the labels need to be set to 'automatic'.

A couple other examples: From layout. I've lightened everything for better visibility, both on screen and on paper. Camera View (not a render, just for my own purposes). With the diffuse decreased, the materials still appear as dark as intended.

I have quite a few materials that are blended with their color, so changing the color affects the display on all views. Here's an example of my black aluminum:

For 'vector display' option I'm referring to display choices, not much different than fill for CAD objects and p-lines. Essentially it would require some additional options in the Define Material DBX: -PATTERN TAB: a separate material color choice, with a transparency option. -TEXTURE TAB: unlink the material color choice for textures that blend with colors

Thanks for the reply. That's what I thought. Shouldn't there be a 'vector display' option in a material's dbx? This should be available for all materials. Here's another example: I do almost all of my plans in color, and black aluminum trim or other dark materials display way too dark in vector view. The 'apply shading contrast' is an on-off choice, but it would be great if it was a sliding contrast selector. I currently lighten my dark material colors, then decrease the 'diffuse' slider so they'll appear correctly in the renderings.

Is there still no material that will allow transparency in Vector View? I use a lot of glass for deck railings and its completely insane what needs to be done to make an exterior elevation drawing look decent. Currently, I need to build my railings without any glass, then build the glass manually, place on a separate layer so I can have it on in renderings, but off in elevation views (vector). Then, in elevation view, I need (choose) to manually draw p-lines with transparent fill to show the glass without blocking visibility of the structure beyond. I don't like fighting Chief's defaults and auto features, but I also want my drawings to have a certain appearance. Anyone have any thoughts or tips for transparent glass (not windows) in vector views?

You can also make this really simple if you want. Don't model the building, just the interior. The metal building supplier should include all the metal framing necessary to support the interior finish of choice ( I assume drywall). All you'd need to do is draw your exterior wall as a 3 layer wall: exterior cladding, structural layer as a solid material, and drywall. Turn the outer 2 layers to dashed lines with no fill. If the metal supplier can't give you an exact thickness, then estimate and make a note that adjustments may be required on site. As far as connecting wood frame studs to metal girts, self-tapping metal screws are all that should be necessary, and that should take a note only. Note on your plan the exterior dimensions only and refer to supplier's shop drawings for structural plans and details. Others here are referring to pole barns, but you mentioned a metal building so as far as the structure goes, there should be nothing for you to do.

Then add the drywall layer to the roof structure.

Room Specification dbx, Structure Tab, Ceiling Finish.

I run into the same problem on every plan! Joking of course!

Yup. The entry field doesn't 'support' a full or identical rich text copy. Would you consider this to be an issue that needs to be addressed by Chief? It seems to me that all text features within the program would need to be amalgamated into only one type of text box/field. I'm sure that's no big deal for Chief's programmers!

Along these lines, I tried to 'check spelling' of a door schedule where I purposely entered some incorrect spelling into the 'comment' field of 1 door. The spell checker will find it, but even though I click 'replace', and it moves to the next selection, there is no change to the schedule.

This would appear to be one of the issues of having at least 2 different types of text inherent in the program. Kind of like how spell check isn't available within the custom object fields dbx. And kinda like grids aren't available in rich text. There's probably quite a few other text pet peeves or inconsistencies ( or whatever you want to call them) that other uses woul have examples of.