Odd angle drawing/modeling

[johnny]

Is there some trick to drawing in Chief with odd angles.  What I am finding is that even if you have exterior walls drawn in an odd-angle nothing else draws itself in relation to the off angle item - in terms of parallel or 90 degree.  You basically need to re-set the angle of each element draw in the off angle.

 

If you look at my sketch below, this is the project I am having issue with.  I set the red line to 90 deg in Chief so the main section is all right angles.  However, the blue like section of the home is an odd degree to the main body (to hug the property line).  Drawing/modeling the exterior was fine, but what I am finding is that everything subsequent is beyond a PITA in that nothing is drawing itself relative to walls in that section of the home.  

 

Is there a way to make walls and subsequent items snap to 45/90 degrees from the parent item (exterior walls)?

[Chopsaw]

Go to General Plan Defaults and set the odd angle in the "Additional Angles" boxes and turn on.  I believe they need to be set at the actual angle and the 180 deg. equivalent.  Check by turning on your "Angle Snap Grid".

 

P.S.  When setting up your elevation cameras turn off Allowed Angles and snap to a perpendicular cad line.  If you leave Allowed angles set to the same angle there is a bug in X10 that will give you a snap that is just slightly off and screw up anything but a simple vertical measurement.

[glennw]

Johnny,

 

You can easily add an angle (or many angles) to the Allowed Angles.

Use Edit Area to draw a small box around the Off Angle warning triangle, or if that has been deleted, draw the Edit Area box around the centre of the wall that has the angle you want to add to Allowed Angles.

Click on the Allowed Angles tool on the Edit toolbar.

You will see an Allowed Angles dbx giving you a couple of options.

Check the Add 1 Entry option.

This will add the angle and you will be able to snap to that angle and + and - 90deg.

The above applies if you only select 1 off angle wall.

You can also select multiple off angle walls and add them to Additional Angles.

I don't seem to need the reciprocal angle on my machine.

 

Of Course, if you only have a couple of items to draw or edit, Make Parallel comes in handy (Make Parallel also makes perpendicular).

 

[Chopsaw]

Yes Glenn is correct, it works on a PC as well.  You will need to set your bisecting angles but with one entry you will get all four 90° vector angles.

 

Also easy to forget those rare tools that only show up occasionally.    Thanks Glenn.

[Renerabbitt]

6 hours ago, johnny said:

Is there some trick to drawing in Chief with odd angles.  What I am finding is that even if you have exterior walls drawn in an odd-angle nothing else draws itself in relation to the off angle item - in terms of parallel or 90 degree.  You basically need to re-set the angle of each element draw in the off angle.

 

If you look at my sketch below, this is the project I am having issue with.  I set the red line to 90 deg in Chief so the main section is all right angles.  However, the blue like section of the home is an odd degree to the main body (to hug the property line).  Drawing/modeling the exterior was fine, but what I am finding is that everything subsequent is beyond a PITA in that nothing is drawing itself relative to walls in that section of the home.  

 

Is there a way to make walls and subsequent items snap to 45/90 degrees from the parent item (exterior walls)?

If you draw a wall or polyline simply drag the match-type/continuation diamond handle thing-a-majig and it will draw perpendicular to the first off angle

[glennw]

I think that will only work if you use Perpendicular Extensions and have Endpoint snaps toggled on and Angle Snaps toggled off.

You also need to create (and maintain while dragging) an extension anchor on the end of the wall before you drag a new wall - and you can't create an extension anchor at any point along the wall - only at snap points like Midpoint and Endpoint.

It works, but is a bit more limiting than using an Allowed Angle

You don't necessarily need to use the Same Wall Type grip - you can just drag a new wall - but as far as I can tell, you need Resize About set to Wall Center to avoid errors.. 

 

[johnny]

Thanks everyone!  I've incorporated many of these things to keep working on the project in Chief.  Micheal actually gave me a personalize lesson on the best practices (which you guys state here too).

 

I will say, when you rotate a plan it would be very helpful if somehow you could ask Chief to view the plan rotation as the new basis for 0-90 deg.  I feel doing that would really make this process very easy.  

[Chopsaw]

21 minutes ago, johnny said:

I will say, when you rotate a plan it would be very helpful if somehow you could ask Chief to view the plan rotation as the new basis for 0-90 deg.  I feel doing that would really make this process very easy.  

 

Interesting concept Johnny.  I suppose it would also need to rotate the North Arrow accordingly.  An on screen display might also be helpful to prevent any unnecessary errors.

 

You might want to get that posted into suggestions.

[glennw]

36 minutes ago, johnny said:

I will say, when you rotate a plan it would be very helpful if somehow you could ask Chief to view the plan rotation as the new basis for 0-90 deg.  I feel doing that would really make this process very easy.

 

Isn't that what Rotate Plan View does?

[rlackore]

This thread is another argument for the often-requested feature of a user-defined coordinate system (UCS) - a feature that other software programs incorporated decades ago.

[Richard_Morrison]

On 1/5/2019 at 5:28 PM, glennw said:

 

Isn't that what Rotate Plan View does?

Glenn's comment is a good reminder that there are existing tools that we forget about, maybe because we so seldom use them, that already do what we want a new proposed feature to do. However, sadly, this doesn't rotate the grid or let us use a new vertical or horizontal at the rotated angle.

[Kbird1]

On 1/5/2019 at 5:28 PM, glennw said:

 

Isn't that what Rotate Plan View does?

 

It's another of those half done features that has never quite been finished and has ALOT of quirks.....there is a (many) reason most don't use it or only use it when there is no choice

[ACADuser]

Thanks Mick for pointing me to this thread.

 

Using rotate plan view to work in say -90 I expect Chief to operate as if that is the new plan view for that edit session.
But Nudge, Move etc. make it difficult to actually work in that view.
I expected the coordinate system to follow that view.
I do not want to Rotate the plan permanently but do want to work in that view not just look around.

 

I did send a service request for this.

 

[johnny]

On 1/5/2019 at 5:28 PM, glennw said:

 

Isn't that what Rotate Plan View does?

 

It rotates the view, but doesn't let you use right angles to the relative rotation.  Everything still draws the same regardless of how you rotate the plan.

[johnny]

Also, something else that is actually a factor in my current project.  I can't set an allowed angle to the angle I actually need.  Chief is limiting the angle to 1/2 deg - but it so happens I have a project that is using a very particular angle based upon a property line, but the number isn't supported by Chief.

[mattyt12]

do you have angle snaps turned on? seems to work ok for me

[Chopsaw]

I think this is the problem Johnny is referring to.

 

 

If so it is a known limitation that should not be.  We just need more people to tell Chief about it so they will have reason to fix it.

[johnny]

2 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

I think this is the problem Johnny is referring to.

 

 

If so it is a known limitation that should not be.  We just need more people to tell Chief about it so they will have reason to fix it.

 

Yep that is it!

[DG1949]

Pretty please, with sugar on top.