Chrisb222

It's all in the settings. This program has a labyrinth of settings and sorting them all out, knowing how they interact, is quite the puzzle.

Wow, that's groovy, thanks. I can work with that trick.

Haven't downloaded X10 yet but will look for that feature. Export/Import as Cabinet worked, but it cut the baseboard to the outermost edge of the mantel shelf, not at the legs. I couldn't get blocking to work either. I couldn't block it as a symbol, and so I blocked it before converting to symbol but no difference in the baseboard... Thanks.

Wow. While it's fantastic that there are people here willing to help figure this stuff out, I'm dismayed that it requires such arduous programming to do things that should be easily accessed by the average user. Does CA actually think contractors in the field are working with decimal inches?? This program should have easily-accessed ft-in designation for EVERYTHING... OOB.

Cool, good to know. I was doing that task to make a fluted leg for a fireplace surround/mantel that I use in new homes a lot. I made this thing to scale and now have it to place in plans that will be accurate to the actual field piece. Does anyone know a way to make a symbol automatically cut the baseboard where it's placed, like a base cabinet does? In the pic attached I converted the room molding to a polyline and manually deleted the section where the mantel is.

I just converted the "Circle" into a polyline solid, then converted that to a "Plain Polyline." That gave me the smooth arc pretty easily. Thanks for the vids Michael. The union with another rectangle is a pretty good workaround. I actually posted this because I was going to make a suggestion that Polyline Subtraction should have a push-pin repeat function option, like other tools, or at least the ability to "remember my choice" on the annoying warning dialog... maybe I will.

In the pic attached, I'm subtracting these circles from the rectangle, but have to click the poly line subtraction tool for each circle, which brings up the warning dialog every time asking if I want to delete the original... which is annoying, since this warning dialog doesn't have "remember this choice" option. When using this tool, is there a way to make it repeat the task more intuitively, or, like the push-pin feature in other tools, keep the tool active through multiple clicks, or, select all the circles and have them subtract from the rectangle with one command? Thanks

I really thought they were onto something with the vertical heat dissipation through the center. Oops, I guess even Apple has a dud now and then.

Haha, I was looking at those recently too. They have better architecture than the Mac Pro tower, but I understand they're revamping the pro tower for this year. I use a humble late-14 i5 Mac Mini. It runs X9 just peachy, even (2) 24" monitors with OOB video.

I learned this the hard way. It's all very logical to me now, but that lesson prompted some thinking. To the OP, it doesn't seem reasonable or logical to me to expect the layout file to automatically know you changed the name of the plan file. Yes, it's updating the contents of the layout view window dynamically, but the link is still to the old plan... as I would expect, once the logic hit home. Attractive layout, BTW.

Change. I was using Components in a non-intended way that got lost when I upgraded to X9. Learned the new way and went on. My first serious computer was a Macintosh SE in 1987 (pic below for those unfamiliar, and/or who have never worked on a 9" monochrome screen). It has always been, and always will be the dilemma of software upgrades: accepting the new, different, and better means losing some of the old, known, and comfortable.

Check your wall type definitions. Some of your exterior walls don't have an exterior layer. Such a wall will not cover the floor platform. Move "Stucco" layer up one, to the exterior layer:

Thank you both for these ideas, that will work for now. Yes I will, I would prefer to have the control within the door SDBX. Thanks.

Can't find any way to show both panels active with only one lock. This type of door is very common here and I use them a lot on walk-out basements. Both leaves open, the leaf without the lockset has flush bolts that slide into the head jamb and threshold, the other leaf has the lockset and deadbolt. I can eliminate the extra lock by checking "Left Swing Only" but then the door is not accurate. Is there a setting I'm missing? Thanks

The "problem" with Auto Rebuild Roofs and Auto Rebuild anything is that making manual edits requires turning off the auto function, and you can't turn it back on without losing the edits. Chief teaches you to approach disabling Auto Rebuild with much grave consideration. Good luck!

Also, if Auto Rebuild Roofs is active, the pitch of an individual roof plane can be changed within the wall specification dialog box associated with that plane, and Chief will automatically keep the edges of the differently pitched planes together. After Auto Rebuild Roofs is deactivated the pitch can still be changed this way but it won't change the model until Auto Rebuild is reactivated, at which time any manual edits are lost.

Yes that worked too thank you.

Just got the response from TS, the wall is not covering the stairs, the wall is separating the two "Open Below" spaces which reveal the stairs beneath. The wall is not part of the opening, so the stairs aren't visible where the wall is. I'll use some of the excellent advice in this thread to resolve the problem. Thanks everyone.

Sun eventually came out and it was a good set, went until dark. But good advice, thanks. The invisible wall fill isn't covering the grid on my end either, which is odd... it would cover the stair drawing but not the grid...??? Also, I tried raising the drawing group of the stairs, and also lowering the drawing group of the invisible wall, but it didn't help, I guess because the invisible wall is on Floor 1 and the stairs are on floor 0...

Had that idea this morning while laying in bed trying to not wake up yet. That probably would fix it, but I'm heading out to set trusses in the sleet... Yeah, that stairway was not ready for prime time. I made it quickly to illustrate my issue with the invisible wall covering the stair drawing. Pulling the 3-1/2" wall away to expose the stairs also pulls the railing out which may not be the desired location for the railing. Zero thickness wall fixes that but is not always cooperative. Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Got it, yes that "solved" all of the issues. You like puzzles, don't you? Thanks for your work on this Eric. Thanks, I will do this and report their answer, if any, in this thread.

Okay, I was able to recreate that process and it worked for simple stairs. I guess I need to stop building stairways manually. Even worked for the "L" shaped stairway using Room Divider to split the stairway... until I made one half of the split a vaulted ceiling. Then the divider jumped to 3-1/2" and has white fill covering part of the stair drawing. Besides, I'm still wondering why an invisible wall, with "Fill" set to "None" and invisible wall layer off, has a white fill in the first place... See attach. Thanks. stairway2.plan

Here we use four 8" courses above footer. I leave one full 8" course above FINISHED grade (after grading up to create drainage slope). This gives 32" below grade frost protection, code for this area. ICC Code is 6" minimum between ground and non-decay-resistant finish materials:

Yes, I only turn on invisible walls when I need to see them, that layer is always off otherwise. The solid white fill remains even with the layer off. Here's a simple plan that shows the issue. Even if you turn off Invisible Walls, the invisible wall covers the line that indicates the top of the stairs. That's using a new Wall Type with "None" selected as Fill Style. Moving the wall so the stairs show completely changes the desired location of the ends of the railings. That invisible wall was a zero-thickness room divider until I made the stairway "Open Below" then it jumped to 3-1/2" thick. stairway.plan

Hi, I'm often frustrated with invisible walls that have a solid fill I can't turn off. I also often have Room Divider walls that jump from zero to 3-1/2" thickness for no apparent reason. This usually happens when I create a stairway and need to use an invisible wall at the entrance to the stairs. Often the line defining the top end off the stairs is covered by the invisible wall, even when I turn off the Invisible Wall layer. Changing Fill to "None" in the Wall Type Spec DBX didn't help, and neither did changing the fill to Transparent. Why can I still see a white solid fill on a wall that is on a layer that's turned off?? I've worked around it before by using a zero thickness wall but that doesn't always work as the walls will usually jump to 3-1/2" thickness without warning, and it just seems wrong that the fill is there when the invisible wall layer is turned off. In the case today I need to divide a turned stairway into two rooms so I can create two different ceilings over the stairway, i.e. the stairway is an "L" shape and half the opening has a vaulted ceiling and half has flat ceiling. I got the ceiling to work fine, but the invisible "Room Divider" wall that I used to split the Open Below rooms keeps jumping up to 3-1/2" thick, and it has a solid white fill that obscures some of the stairway lines. When I do finally say the proper curse words, hold may mouth just right, and force the divider to zero thickness, it wrecks the ceiling and attic wall alignment in the room, and also messed up the wall intersections (see pics). I didn't post the plan because at this point the stairway is a mess, I just have some basic questions -- should I be able to make an invisible 3-1/2" thick wall transparent so that lines underneath show in plan view? Why do zero thickness walls change to 3-1/2" thick? Is this something we just have to deal with or am I missing something obvious?? Thanks CA X9 Premier Mac OSX