MarkMc

Might want to talk with @Joe_Carrick, he sells macros and last I knew he uses Consestoga.

It may help but if it is not on the drawing, and then if you are not careful going over the list they send it won't help. As a rule what is written on an order then in the acknowledgement takes precedence, not what is drawn. If they price they will make corrections based on your input after you receive and ack. From that point on only what is written down counts, they will never take responsibility for what is drawn. That even goes for higher end brands that require plans and elevations. OTOH the drawings you give to a client IS are legal documents in most states - go figger. Point is you still have to know what you are doing so be careful, thorough, and have a system for double or triple checks to orders.

Yes correct. You could do that, send plans in etc. Is there a reason you want to use the material list? Are you using it for other parts of the job like construction? Even if you are there are other options to get pricing. I worked from schedules to get to pricing. At first (X4 to X6) I would copy the information into an item list in 2020 so long as the brand supported that. From X6 on, depending on brand I would either take the information from the schedule and drag and drop it into the brands online ordering system (one at a time) OR if the was not available into a spreadsheet template formatted to look like the brands order form once printed. With the second method I would usually add the prices from a pdf catalog. Occasionally I would send it in for pricing along with a plan if that was faster working with that particular brand (rarely) To use either method it is important to have everything match the brands nomenclature for the cabinet, accessories, or modifications. Per brand I would have a few simple macros that generated nomenclature: one for wall cabinets, one for base, and one for tall. NOTE I have gone down the road of one big complicated macro that does most cabinets; all I can say is DON'T. Macros were only for the most basic cabinets and were placed in a custom OIP field. The default label used a very simple macro that pointed to that field. For special cabinets that I used often, such as trash po, blind cabinets, some oven cabinets I had style palettes. The SPs would include cabinet configuration, nomenclature and any modifications. Use custom OIP fields for modifications, finished sides (never found Chief to be accurate enough for that) The Mod field always had a few entries to begin with such as all options for flush finished sides (L, R, and Both as it's easier to delete than to add and I'd rather pay for an extra one if wrong than to mis-order a cabinet missing one) ALL mods listed were separated by a colon; Important when it came time to export the schedule. The base schedule looks like this for use in final print. But when it was time to export it to get pricing, I would temporarily remove any unwanted columns The one pictured below was set up to use an order form. IF using an online order form I would keep hinging and finished sides for reference. Then copy and paste into a spreadsheet. Looked like this before copy And in the spreadsheet using PASTE SPECIAL dialog with Then go back to Chief and UNDO so that the schedule is back to what needs to be printed for the plans. That would be sufficient to drag and drop into an online form. Lock the sheet and you can still copy but won't delete anything when doing it. The drag and drop process took between 15 minutes and half an hour to spit out a price in most cases. If in the process you drag a label in that does not register with the system use the look up to find the correct nomenclature and make a note of it to change it in Chief for the future. IF I needed to put it into an order form template then I would select all the columns from the sheet, copy, and paste special into a blank section (or another sheet) using transpose. That would move the mods below each item so that they could be pasted into the order form in the proper order (at least for the brands I used that for) For the brands I needed the order form method I would have to add info to the Hinge, Side, and number of doors/drawers columns manually. Not terribly time consuming but I could never work out a more automatic method of getting that into my sheets that was not overly complicated. The order form method takes longer than the online system if you are going to go in and add pricing to it. If you are sending it in without pricing it is about the same, a tad slower. Adding in the pricing from a PDF catalog takes longer but you get the results immediately. NOTE- At one point I tried putting together a macro that could lookup pricing in a csv file. A- too complicated and not worth the time unless you are doing dozens of orders every week; B more importantly it's impossible to get Mfg to supply that information and getting it formatted from a PDF takes too long.

I used a Disto e7500i for field measure. Don't remember why I picked it over the D series but was happy with it. I used it often with the Disto app directly into Chief. Later Al (who told me how to use it in the first place) said he switched to shooting measurements and then putting them into CA so I tried that. That can be done from the measurement memory list either directly of manually. What works best depends on the size of the job. So long as I did not change Chief versions there was no issue. I ended up keeping X9 on the laptop and just used that as no need for advance features for just a measure. Switching versions could get difficult/confusing. Note 1- that electric is a bit of a challenge direct since you are almost always measuring off the same wall, hard to tag the previous socket or switch. When solo that was best done manually. Note 2- I kept meaning to get a dedicated tripod or the attachment needed for a few of the advanced features like slope; but never did get around to it. I managed fine with a generic video tripod using care to keep level in one plane. 3- FWIW I'm selling my 7500 as no longer do any of that, in Offering Services. as to not spending too much time in a lived in house maybe grunt a lot

Bump, lowered price to $250 Leica FAQ

Had tried that, neither importing the symbol or copy paste a cabinet from 14 to 16 does NOT work. Issue is same in X15. I did not have a lot of time for 16 beta last year. I called and sent it in. Another symbol issue I ran into in 16 is direction of left and right symbols. It had been that when viewing a symbol that was left facing when inserted into a cabinet it would insert as right facing. That partly changed in 16. If placed as a side panel inset it goes in the way it appears. I had to change all of my beaded symbols and cabinets, fix the plans and send to everyone I had sold them to. OTOH when placed as a cabinet door it places reversed same as it always did. I'd don't care if it reverses or does not but would really prefer it was one or the other.

Setting a valance as a cabinet door. Need it to extend 3/4" on each side of the cabinet. Works fine IF the cabinet is the same size that the symbol started as-(30" cabient and 30" symbol.) However it the cabinet size is changed the amount of the extension changes. I've tried every variation of stretch planes and zones. Have also tried to check the box to update if symbol geometry changes but that regularly unchecks itself. Plan and image attached showing 4 cabinets all with the same symbol. Maybe @Renerabbitt knows? Bounding Box issue.zip

Yeah the stretch plains would be different. The one in the photo also does not have the stile of the cabinet coming down. I did not attempt to duplicate the image; had this inset cabinet I did for a client a week or so ago. Thought it might be useful.

To make door start with a countertop, add molding, convert to cabinet door symbol and rotate. The cabinet arch starts as a solid, convert to symbol. Change origin Change stretch planes. Then cabinet DBX front looks like this. wood grain for door should be ok if done with a molding. Wood grain for the arch part of cabinet would need the solid made in two parts. Make the full size, then copy and trim to two piece s.

I can't reproduce the problem. I'd start by saving and reopening, maybe even reboot. Try a new file and see if that does it. Post plan with problem.

Just this time. Place a cabinet in plan so it is NOT next to another cabinet, open it, set toe kick to closed toe-always present. Close the DBX Hold the shift key down, select the cabinet, now in the bottom toolbar select make architectural block, done. The extension will not go away when placed next to another cabinet. IF you want only one side to extend, AND need to move it around for some reason then place the cabinet next to another cabinet do the above. If you don't like the little artifact of the cabinet side that shows in up in the toe area on the side that does not extend down, set that side of the cabinet to NONE. If having no side bothers you there is a work around placing a symbol for the side in the back (I'm not going to go into the how to for that.) The shift to make a block trick has been on the forum in the past. No idea who posted it but that is how I learned about it. When I saw it I tried it so I would remember. No idea if it was for this particular use or something else but thanks to whoever posted it. I don't do videos except occasionally for clients that I have agreed to do training for. I post things that are meant to be tried out- take a trip down the rabbit hole. If someone does try and then runs into trouble then asks a specific question I answer it. Maybe think about taking a risk at learning by trying. Often you find out interesting things you did not know when stuff does not work. Given a choice between- I can be right (it should just do this) or I can get what I want ( go down the rabbit hole and find a way around it) I prefer the latter.

look at the cabinets on the left in the picture and READ what it says about blocking. Sorry but I must have unblocked the cabinet on the left when taking the picture. Blocking does what you want easily. To get rid of the artifact of the toe on the right set that side to none.

Exactly correct. Molding is first done in the cabinet DBX so it stays with cabinet if you move it. NO the cabinet is set on the floor, toe height and depth set o 0", bottom separation removed and no bottom. The 3 sided symbol becomes a door as part of the cabinet. Again so it moves with the cabinet and like the molding can be changed on the fly without fussing with position. The default separation is set to 0" so that the side stiles don't come down to the floor. You could also leave the default separation and make the left and right stile 0". In either case the area above the base is split to get separations there. This can be done with overlay or inset. I spent a couple of hours going down a few rabbit holes trying to make it with 3 separate door symbols. With the info given you can do it in far less time and learn along the way. Give it a try.

There's also something I used to do often before changes to cabinets were made (still have to use it for side extended back) Insert a door symbol into the back of the cabinet. Both these cabinets are configured the same. Only the X offset of the symbol is different. Which method depends on what other information you want to generate from the plan and how hard you want to work getting it.

I had a client that did several varieties like this. Most often they had me use separate pilasters since they liked how that worked for installation. Some were inset, some were frameless cabinets. Here are some alternates. You can also use a custom door for the pilaster after adjusting the symbol specs.

@Jon-Mullwoods Took a bit to work out best way to do lots of variations with the least work. Simple inset valance without molding is a piece of cake using this and just a door symbol. Where it gets tricky is when the valance is proud and has a molding. Unfortunately, there are some inconsistencies in how I expected update bounding box was working. When I tried using separate door symbols for the sides and the fronts all was fine until I tried changing the cabinet size. That made it so the bounding box offsets needed to change; too much guess work. So I came up with this. I used the cabinets with those door symbols to just make a bases with 3 sides. Made cabinets as noted below (make a style palette once configured) Changed origin, stretch planes and bounding offset. This appears to work pretty consistently allowing the cabinet width to change. I have not yet tried depths though, that might require separate symbols? (more than I want to do right now At least for a standard depth cabinet you can have a library of doors for each valance and swap them on the fly as needed. The other thing this allows is changing the molding on the fly. Since the default moldings material is not the same as the cabinet default material they need to be painted, easy enough IMO. I left some white just to show. NOTE-The plans used to make a straight door symbols can be used to make another with mitered ends (needs bounding box changed to use in the method making bases) OR float them OR make the entire base symbols from solids. Not sure which is best in the long run, might be to make the entire base from solids and convert those cabinet door symbols.

YES-Box Construction- NO Bottom; Front, delete bottom separation, zero shelves; back custom face-delete bottom separation. change blank area to opening. Save to library when done.

I always lean toward making things into symbols and saving the original plan(s) that are CAD. I find that behaves better for me than placing arch blocks or cad objects. Have done this sort of thing as doors, millwork, and/or fixture interior symbols depending. With a saved plan it's easy to change the type of symbol to suit. Tricky part as noted is the stretch zones/planes and origin offsets (which can be altered on the fly). But that is well worth learning. Some are best with molding profiles separate but often worth the effort to incorporate the profile prior to making it a symbol.

Turning down the Daytime Backdrop intensity usually helps, sometimes also turn down the sun.

For a number of years now I've used a series of default sets each with a specific layerset and dimension defaults to do dimensions. They are only used for doing dimensions and then I revert to the printable default set and layerset. They live in the drop down, select one, drag, go back to printable. Set them up for both plans and elevation view, number and name them to be in a group. It's more than what I care to explain here (and years ago someone from Chief told me that's not what they are for:)) Get in touch if you want to see them. What I have right now may not be exactly what you are after since once in a while I set them up on the fly. Note that you can define reach and final position for (proximity fixed) for each string. Once in a while the thickness of a wall or other plan objects make require overriding proximity fixed but less than 10% or the time. Fastest method I found. For large plans it can also be helpful to set up a cad layer to use as a mask which usually means a second printable layerset. Sorry if this sounds like voodoo but I can show you and we can take it from there. (not today- most of the week is ok though)

IF there was a mistake in the macro the result would not show. The difference is I created a named macro in the Text Macro Management DBX. Typing there you do NOT use the % signs. BUT I just saw that the first "(" in my post does not belong, sorry. Still correct in the plan though. Creating a named macro allows it's use from the drop down, OR using % sign with just the name. as in %carcass_h%. Once you have a named macro you can also export it to a folder and import into a plan for later use. As macros get more robust/complicated you really want to have them named.

Create a custom object information field in your cabinet defaults. Here I called it carcass. Create a new macro (height-(countertop_thickness+toekick_height). Select the field and place the macro there using the drop down. FWIW if I were doing this I would set the default box height to what I wanted and set the default height off the floor. An advantage is less likely to forget to order toe kick NOTE- be careful relying on the macro if changing cabinet construction. - IF you just uncheck toe kick the macro will still subtract that amount. To get it to read the macro to read properly you need to set the toe height to 0. Plan attached No toe.zip

In current versions- since X13 easy.

Don't need X16 this has worked for years. Box Construction, Full Overlay. Set the bottom separation equal to depth desired + 3/4" (in this case 2") and do NOT alter the reveal from default

Made this up. I used a textured glass so it shows. Adjust as needed. This has both doors as a single symbol. If you want handles of some sort add them to the symbol. The rest gets complicated, more advanced than I did here if you want to change more. What follows involves altering origins, advanced sizing stretch planes and/or bounding boxes. Some is already done on the included door symbol. Open that to get an idea- then go read up on symbols. Doors can be made as two different ones that overlap on top of each other. Then you can add hardware to the cabinet BUT you will need two different hardware symbols to sit properly. If you want to show them open then you have to make a symbol for that which is offset and has the width locked. If the cabinet construction is other than shown then more changes. If need bigger can be done but figure out how it's built first !! A cabinet can't be done that actually works in Chief. I don't think it worth using funny walls and sliding doors as started below but YMMV ;-> Glass slider cab.zip