tundra_dweller

I've always had great luck with Brother laser printers. They last 10+ years and always just seem to work, don't even have to think about them.

The exact opposite of HP printers in my experience. I don't think I've ever owned an Epson though.

3 minutes ago, rgardner said:

and even after years of living in the house the customer will have problems with muscle memory for that many switches switching on and off the wrong lights occasionally.

This is an excellent point and one of those little things I try to train myself to be thinking about, but these kinds of details often get lost in the big picture of the overall design.

Try opening up your schedule specification, go to Labels tab, and select the Use Callout button. I'm pretty sure "callout" and "number" are interchangeable in this case. Could be wrong though.

Funny, I didn't even realize they had removed the bounding box because I've been using an older one from my user library. So I guess a person could always add one with a bounding box to their user library if that's what they want to use on the regular.

For your deck structure issues, you need to open up your deck room specs, go to Structure and find the edit button for Planks,Joists and check the Framing button for your deck joist material layer (#2). Make sure the Automatically regenerate deck framing button is checking in the Deck tab.

If you want to change the elevation of the decks you have to change the Floor absolute elevation in the Structure tab to wherever you want it in relation to your terrain, main floor, etc.,.

Explode the hot tub architectural block and use the transform/replicate tool to move the steps & the hot tub on the Z-axis to get them where you want them in relation to the terrain and deck.

I try to stay away from bay windows so I can't help you much there.

Try changing the callout layer in the schedule spec.

Would the "Import Default Settings" tool not work for that, as far as importing default settings from a different plan?

File --> Import --> Import Default Settings...

I haven't used it, but it seems like that's what that tool would do. Templates are the way to go though.

On 5/3/2023 at 8:51 AM, joey_martin said:

 

I love to sneak pics of my kids into my renders. This one looks like a football game on the TV, it's actually a pic my wife took a few years ago of one of our boys playing QB in a high school game.

I love this!  Good stuff in here, nice work everyone.

25 minutes ago, SHCanada2 said:

I have not had any issues, probably for months now, after NVDIA fixed their driver

Same here.  I'm still on 531.26 from late Feb. 23 with no issues.  I haven't tried any of the driver releases since then, kind of forgot about them since I've had no problems.

I bought a used one off of ebay a couple weeks ago since I wasn't too sure if I'd like it. For the first day or so it was awkward as hell, but after using it daily I don't think I'd go without one now. Eventually it becomes totally natural to use, and the camera manipulation in 3D is miles smoother than a mouse, especially zooming. Even for 2D work the zooming and panning is wonderful.

initially it reminded me of the first time I tried flying a helicopter in a pc flight simulator, none of the controls do what you expect. It would actually make a great controller for a drone. 

If you used a room molding polyline (using the exterior room) to create your brick detail, the door openings will automatically cut your room moldings like base trim inside a room. I think if you use a molding line or molding polyline drawn manually, it will not cut automatically.

I could be wrong, but I think I remember this happening with a belly band under some low windows before. Even though the windows or their casing didn't quite reach the top of the band trim they still cut the molding.

If you're using rich text and it does that you might try using "standard" text instead.

Here's what I get when I copy/paste your text into the two different text methods:

@Joe_Carrick Thanks for the info, I plan on checking into the macro packages that you and @Alaskan_Son have to offer when I have a little extra time.

I can handle the simpler stuff but anything beyond that just takes me too much time to figure out.

I'd really like to work on streamlining my process and I think some good macros would go a long way in helping with that.

@someguyThere are some macros in this thread that should help you out.

@para-CAD Thats what I was always used to seeing too. There's probably a way to do it in Chief.

Yep, I have to hit F6 three times every time I open one of those views for the first time during a session.

Nice work, thanks Joe.

These lines have been an issue for me since X14 on most large, filled objects with radius corners or multiple breaks, including driveways & slabs. I haven't found a way around it other than not using fills on these types of objects, or keeping the objects as simple as possible to minimize the lines. It's Chief, so choose your battles and move on. 

I was baffled for a bit by this same issue while working on a foundation plan yesterday and stumbled upon the exact same solution that @Alaskan_Son presents here. It works!

I don't know about your example, but I've found the manufacturer's catalogs to not all be 100% inclusive or accurate.

For example the Marvin Windows catalog is missing several windows and some of the window symbols' sizes don't match the window you select, they might be a size up or down instead.

I take the manufacturer's catalog content with a grain of salt and often just find something close and adjust the size/label to make it work if needed.

And in my opinion, It should be up to the manufacturers to make sure their content is correct, not Chief or its users, so I don't take the time to report every error I find.

It's a wonderful feature, I know that for sure.

Larry, I think you're misinterpreting the "Override Line Style" dialog. What I believe that checkbox means is if you check it you will be overriding the current layer/object style setting with whatever line style is shown at the "Override Line Style" checkbox.

It looks to me like your shed-style porch roof plane is continuous across the front and the gable roof is built on top of it.

What I would probably do is copy-paste in place the shed roof plane, pull one end of the shed roof plane across until the corner of its fascia meets the lower corner of the fascia on one of your gable roof planes, then use the "join roof planes" tool to merge the gable roof plane with your newly edited shed roof plane.

Repeat this procedure with the other copy of the shed roof plane for the opposite side of the gable roof.

1 minute ago, tundra_dweller said:

Tips & Techniques section

Oops I should have said Symbols & Content section, but same deal. 

Go to the Label tab of your door/window dialog box and adjust the label position using the x-y coordinates.

In the future you should post these questions in the Q&A section of the Chieftalk forum. This Tips & Techniques section is for sharing your tips & techniques with others. Also providing the version of Chief you are using in your account signature is helpful for others trying to help you out. Cheers!

Yeah, I find the X15 library in its current form to be cumbersome and not very intuitive at all.  Also very slow, as in waiting for results, compared to using the search function in its previous form.

Maybe it will just take time to learn how to use properly, and I guess I have faith that the direction they are heading with it will eventually result in something better than what we had.

I do agree with the majority of what @MarkMc is laying down regarding the library.

And for (hopefully) near-future releases, I am also wishing for a complete revamping of stair and deck tools, along with a major cleanup of wall intersections and a more precision control of them.  "Nuts and bolts" types of things relating to how things are built in real life.