lbuttery

I was just a designer and worked in the DC Metro area my partner lived in NY south of Buffalo via the internet we shared the projects and did projects world-wide using GoToMeeting at first then Mikogo (preference is GTM) welcome to the 21st century Lew

a bit outdated but I started a design business in the DC metro area and within 1 year we were also doing projects via the internet for a chalet in France, a "mansion" in Colorado, another in TX, a small hotel in AK etc etc 2006 was a part-time gig, where I still worked full time as systems analyst/programmer my partner - who had an art degree and some building experience also had a full time job we started taking on clients and by Aug we had enough work that I quit my $90k+ job to go full-time partly due to health reasons dictating that I control my own hours so 2007 was our first full year in business - me full time - my partner part-time we had 13 clients and 18 projects and grossed $56K and won a merit award for an historical remodel then in 2008 we lost our major builder client due to his health the next month the economy and housing market blew up due to my health issues were never did any marketing and found our clients viat networking at NARI and AIA meetings and via clients finding us on Chieftalk and our website with my continued declining health I moved back home to the Buffalo NY market area and we dwindled down to very little business I "retired" with disability and my partner kept his full time job (he almost quit in 2008) he continues to handle a few clients and is making enough to justify keeping Chief upgraded and get some pocket cash he retires soon and is planning on jumping in full time Chief bottom line - I would say the potential is there with a little better luck I think we could have been clearing $100K easy and probably much more within 2-3 years of being in business and me having the health to market better we did new homes and mostly remodels we had a 100% success rate in having our permits accepted the first time Lew

I would say that within days you could have a two or three story house with average floorplan created in 2D - be able to create 3D views - frame the house - roof the house and send all of that to layout ready for printing would it pass the building inspectors ??? - maybe, unlikely but maybe would it be buildable ??? - maybe, unlikely but maybe would it be a well-designed house ??? - maybe, unlikely but maybe bottom line - you can be surprised how "easy" it is do the basics it's doing it right and doing the "complex" that will take tons of learning time Lew

text 99% of time Lew

you could try Ebay also Lew

ok, I remembered locate objects settings text was off all is well Lew

Michael: I must be missing a setting ? when I select the text box I don't get temp dimensions ? I do for lines ? ok, I forgot about the tab method it works but I would prefer to use temp dims Lew

Is there a way to use temp dimensions (or anything) to place a text box in a precise position ? say 3" from left and 5" from top ? Lew

have you re-booted your PC ? sometimes it needs to be "refreshed" after it goes to Never-Never Land Lew

Eric: for now I guess it has to be macro's but they shouldn't be required CA needs to fix this Lew

we should NOT have to use macros macros should be used for convenience etc they should not be required for standard/basic functions of the software Lew

I was willing to spend 30 minutes or so "helping" out then I might consider their needs and my need to request a fee it's a balancing act Lew

yes, insert then resize as needed I use Chief Layout instead of Powerpoint to create all my historical presentations and interpretative signage etc you can use side handles to crop the image as needed you can do the same with PDF's I have attached a layout that uses 8 PDF's for my family's historical timeline on the Niagara Frontier for the 18 sites and events they were involved in Lew BRI_NK_TIMELINE_160726_0050_LBX6.layout

Mark: did you mean win 10 update ??? if so, trying rolling back to a prior restore point you could call CA's tech support but they charge for that you should give serious consideration to upgrading as you are now 5 versions old X4 introduced anno-sets (and more) and X5-X7 introduced many more features and fixes X8 introduced some very nice features X3 had a horrible library system and that was fixed in X4 Lew

Harry: yes, I remember when I bought ver 9.5 and then upgraded to ver 10 that support was life time then around X1 that started to change and with X2 and SSA it totally changed so if you can find your original license and are willing to press the issue or sue ??? bottom line you have an antique version and CA requires paid tech support if SSA is not active bottom line you really need to bite the bullet and upgrade to the current version or continue to have issues .... Lew

the other great advantage of PDF is that you have an archive of exactly what was printed at that time and they can be emailed to clients or the print shop etc I also use PDF's when surfing the web and I find info I want to keep or print if I print straight from web many times there are pages you don't want or comments you don't want etc look over PDF and then print just the pages you want have a pdf where you only want certain pages sent to the client when printing from PDF choose PDF as your PDF and create a new PDF with just those pages PDF's are better than sliced bread Lew

ok, seriously you need to learn to use PDF first printing to PDF has numerous advantages as stated set you drawing sheet via MENU - PRINT - DRAWING SHEET this should be your desired layout size when you print the layout use PDF as your printer when printing from PDF to paper you have many paper size options I just created an 11 x17 layout but printed on 81/2 x 11 just for review I could take to a print shop and print 11 x 17 or 22 x 34 (on 24 x 36) etc etc etc and they would be to scale when setting up your drawing sheet you get a visual reference as to how many pages etc same with printing from PDF no need to waster paper Lew

also send the plan to tech support they like to know about these things Lew

was this the demo version of x8 ??? If so, saving is disabled Lew

Harry: I assume these are the files you tried to download or import into ver 10 ??? Please clarify ... remember ver 10 is 9 versions old very few on this forum are using it and very few remember its ways Lew

Harry: you'll need to provide more info on what you tried and what you want Lew

Harry: I first tried it in ver 9.5 and a few months later in ver 10 absolutely no joy I was looking at a business model of using photogrammetry software to measure the as-built then import into Chief no joy at all Lew

maybe, look in the archives folder as a 30+ year systems/analyst/programmer I prefer to do my own "save as" as often as every few minutes when designing I don't use/rely on chief's archive system as I prefer my own Lew

Rick: while someone may have advice you may have to wait until Monday to reach tech support the hours are 6 AM - 5 PM Pacific if you can get into you digital locker there should be an emergency password but if it says you don't have any active licenses then ??? Lew

Chief has a "CAD to Walls" tool however, it doesn't work very well I've been on this forum for over a decade and have seen only 1 or 2 users who report having success with it I tried again in 2014 with a simple school floorplan where I now have my museum no joy - CA's tech team tried - no joy tracing over is the "recommended" way and its fairly easy to do it's too bad they don't directly import Lew