MarkMc

you have options

Mine are set to hourly. While I do lots of save as, over the years I've gotten compulsive using Ctrl+S almost reflexively.

you can export your annotation sets then open the X7 plans in 8 and import them.

My last batch of reminders started at least 1-1/2 months ahead of time- there were several, each listed the late penalty. I've yet to find a good time for a bill to come in from anyone but have no complaints. I think support is worth the cost and the "software assurance" is a great deal given the rate of improvement in the program.

The "advice of others" has been to post a plan. All the image tells me is you have a problem. One thing though- where did you get that sink? I can't find a double drainboard sink in my libraries. Here is a single drainboard sink from the library. Now I have to get some work done and head to a funeral, someone else will have to help once you get around to putting up a plan.

Attached - all from the library, no changes made. Maybe heed the adivce of others.

At the office we are on PC but my freelance assistant uses a Mac at home sometimes and has not indicated any problems there. None with files he sends me either. We use back up entire as Dermot suggests.

I won't say it's easy, but I have gotten better at it. I use it often making a lot of cabinet doors which has helped some. I keep a copy of the pages from the user guide which lists origins and such (can also bookmark the help) to jog the brain. Every couple of months I forget that I'm supposed to click generate block and pull hair for a while. I find most of the time I am defining two stretch planes one (+) and one (-) for my needs. (Symbol will stretch at the plane of -x and the plane of +x, leaving the rest alone.) I rarely use stretch zones and honestly still don't get them. (Symbol will stretch between -x and +x evenly -leaving the rest alone.) I still can never quite remember if I should set an origin to plus or minus when it looks wrong and floats out in the room, so usually have to redo whatever I picked first unless I remember to open up some symbol I already set first to see what to do. Note remember to set the origin first when importing symbols, in particular from 3D warehouse, then the stretch planes if needed.

I used 9 and -9 out of habit to keep things symetric- not needed in this case. NOTE that after you resize a symbol the symbol will resize correctly in 3d -but if you want it to look right in plan you have to go into the dbx -2D block and click "generate block" . If you don't and only look at it in plan you will go round and round and... DAMHIKT

A warehouse plan is another option. I use a few-for instance a plan with a bunch of countertop items, appliances etc. Helps when you need a lot of similar items and want to set heights and layers ahead of time. Now that you mention the electric I could see using that myself, will put it on the list.

Never mind, on closer inspection with a wilder wood it is not working yes global symbol mapping and stretch to fit in the material dbx- may want to change the scale of the image or get a bigger one depending on how fussy you want to be. This one is made from a single cabinet that has been split. then again-appears to work with rustic maple- on both single split cabinet or 4 separate ones

Horizontal vertical elements - create wit poly line solids, create them in elevation but be sure to give them a "fill" before flowing. Once you make one of each they can be duplicated and moved with transform replicate. Might want to assign them their own layer. Walls, try dragging each end in until they no longer protrude, once both sides are in drag back out, might work. No other answer I know of.

Leave the roof in place and delete the walls, redraw the walls. When I made the first one that worked to keep the walls contained. I was able to add connecting side walls but kept them a bit inside the perimeter. I don't know it it will work once you have the elliptical roof, or if you add a second floor. Front wall-wall type, glass shower.

copy to your user library, open symbol, options, sits on floor

Yeah Joe that's it. In 7 I'd use shelves from the cabinet toolbar- those can have layers assigned that will hold when inserted into the user library. Just no closet rod included.

Here's a partial in Chief- two roofs one top one bottom- needs a little work where they meet (may not be possible though). Back wall is a material region- front one is a pline solid. Exterior furniture inside.

From what I can tell Gene is correct-if there is no quotes " , then it doesn't work. Since it sounds like he's tabbing entering anything automatically removes the inches. Trying to duplicate the problem I realized what I do is click into the first box, and subtract from the cabinet height while leaving " in place, then click into the off the floor box and add that number. Tabbing would require hitting the right arrow key once in the cell then it works, but then you are still working "off the floor" and not from the top.

Interesting-the varied approaches and wants. I do exactly what Michael does- math in the DBX at the same time I'm changing the height of the cabinet-easy. And as Wendy suggests,typically I'm using plines for molding, keeping single lengths of “stacks” in a warehouse plan. 2020 sets wall height from the top down so I guess it would be more familiar to folks changing over. But 2020 does have a nasty habit of overlapping wall items though (appliances, valances, wine racks, cubbies, etc also get set from the top.) but at least it has a graphical collision warning when it does that so you can find them. In CA you could lose them (didn't I already place that?) Since it is a default setting with a capricious nature I sometimes end up with wall cabinets set at the to low to the floor and have to go in and change em all anyway. I've always preferred Chiefs approach of up from the floor. True, as Scott says, practically all kitchens have some shorter cabinets set higher while only 10-15% have tops that don't align. Still, to me "from the floor" is the critical dimension: clearance to cooking is measured UP from the base cabinets, maximum height of microwaves is UP (inspectors use mfg specs for code around here), clearance for countertop items is UP, and installers work UP from the finished floor. Now that last one gets to be an issue with badly out of level floors and talls in the run when I get an installer that is a "walls first" guy. Getting them to determine finished top height first, before they slap a cleat on the wall is a challenge that often necessitates a site visit to do the layout for them. I wouldn't mind having both but doubt that I'd use from the top much. I certainly don't want the default to be from the top as in 2020. Seems to me that either way will sometimes require some elementary math, at least it's not calculus.

Here's one with two roofs-I think getting the eave angle to match the lower pitch creates a smooth(er) transition- just realized that after fiddling for a while- these angles are close but not exact. I just like trying the odd ones.

Neither version of Chief will get you cut lists, but I manage fine sending what is needed to my makers to get whatever is needed- often custom. I use Premier nowadays, find it worth the extra $$. I often need to send drawings of faces of cabinets indicating opening sizes, not just exterior dimensions. That is much easier with "CAD detail from View" only available in Premier. There are a couple of other tools that help increase productivity once learned. A few random images grabbed from a recent 20 office project-reception area cubbies, knock down desks, tables . Varied rendering techniques shown (the nicer one is quick RayTrace-quick but not usually done live with the client). Everything shown here was done in chief including the symbols for the Hafele table legs, the knock down parts etc. Office chairs are more of a challenge so I use what is available in the libraries or go to Sketchup 3D warehouse to see what I can find.

Having had both for a while, doing primarily kitchens and some other interior work, the practical difference to me is premier has: the ability to create a cad detail from view- this allows dimensioning some things that Chief doesn't snap to- with Interiors you are either placing cad lines and moving them to allow dimesnions to snap to those items OR exporting to dwg and creating those dimensions in another program. annotation sets- useful for creating finished drawings but we also have some set up just for use designing-bit daunting to figure them out (I found it necessary to have a completely different group of sets than the building folks.) but well worth the effort for productivity. Note that I will often be supplying a demo, mechanical, electrical plan for a job where annosets make a big difference. the project browser a useful tool when working. control over rough framing allowances for windows and doors when working on new construction. It just makes working with field measurements and architects drawings simpler. Note that when I had a copy of each we did run into some complications around that when sharing files from Premier to Interiors but that could be pilot error (or not) As to creating symbols-I've gotten to where I build pretty much any symbol I need directly in Chief nowadays (thanks in large part to info on this forum). I will occasionally adapt a SU model in that if there is something that is close enough to what I need. (for importing complicated furniture I have found the need to use something else to reduce the mesh count on those). Building a model in Chief is different than what Johnny shows in Maya (or SU, FormZ, ...). Once I learned how the program thinks quite doable. I don't know if one or the other is faster, just that I find it simpler to stay in one program. (I certainly couldn't click as fast as that video shows in anything so hard to tell) Note that as I've worked building symbols in Chief I have developed a number of symbol parts that I can use as building blocks. These already have materials oriented properly, and I have a number of varied materials of my own- all of which speeds and simplifies the process.

If you change your any of your sets and want that to apply to future templates you export the annotation set, import it into the template, save as template and overwrite the existing template. I've taken to keeping groups of sets that I don't use as often saved and importing them as needed. i.e I do more remodel and I do mostly kitchens. I have a saved group of sets for new construction that I import as needed. Makes the list shorter day to day.

Just ran into this on my assistants machine- he ends up with extra hidden files all they are small size- say there is filename.plan then there will be a second one ._filename.plan. They are hidden in windows explorer but show up when using the Chief open file dbx which gets annoying. He works back and forth to a Mac, and he also does some saving to and from a thumb drive. Are these left over from the Mac? or something the thumb drive is creating? I was able to delete them via windows explorer with no problem.

Wrong axis-note I indicated the "Y" axis looks like the X give a better 2D representation. You will also find that the origin changes when you do that and you will want to reset it to 0 for each axis. "rebuild block" Second tab in symbol dbx has generate block- once you get the symbol oriented properly click that- note in last screen shot I posted there are 3 symbols on left and 3 blocks on right. Importing and making symbols is a powerful feature in Chief. I takes some getting used to, you may want to look at the help file on the "symbol specification dialog" (the section in the reference manual too) If you're going to play with symbols much you will also want to look into stretch planes (which I find more difficult than this but necessary to learn).

I just was curious to see if it could do it. I have no doubt someone else can give a better answer I just wanted to see if it could be done-note that I have very little idea what I'm doing with roofs so just managed to stumble along. That means I can't tell you what to do first, enclosed plan so you can see what to work our for yourself. I had much better luck drawing the roof first, then the slab, then the walls. roof 1.plan