General Notes System


Joe_Carrick
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The following describes a system for creating General Notes with Callouts:

Since I don't use Furniture Schedules, I used a Furniture Schedule for the basis of this but I could have used the Plant Schedule or .....

1. The Schedule has Columns for Number and Comments - renamed Note # and Description
2. The Schedule has Use Callout for Label and Group Simlar Items checked
3. I created a small Furniture Symbol (solid box 1"x1"x1") and set its material to Insulation-Air Gap
4. I named the Symbol Note
5. In the Components dbx I set the Description and Comments both to Note Text
6. I then placed several these in the Plan - some of them I edited the Description and Comments Fields (used the same text for both fields)

The attached pics show the results:post-47-0-16883200-1412519035_thumb.pngpost-47-0-69676400-1412519050_thumb.png

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Joe, you did it!!!! You are the man. I got to try this one. What's great is that you can save this to your template plan and ----done. You could even pre set-up the notes for those standard things you use every time. Nice!!!!!

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There are some nice details about how this works:

 

1.  When you change the Description and Comments fields in the Components dbx for a Symbol, the Callout Number and the Comments Column in the Schedule are both updated.

2.  If you move a row in the Schedule up or down, the Callout Text changes accordingly.

3.  If you open the Object dbx the Name will show the Description Field data (which tells you what the note is)

4.  If you add any note in the Plan to the Library, the Name in the Library will correspond to the text of the note.  Organize those in the Library and you have a set of very easy to place notes in the Plan and the contents of the note will be displayed while you place and drag.

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The following describes a system for creating General Notes with Callouts:

Since I don't use Furniture Schedules, I used a Furniture Schedule for the basis of this but I could have used the Plant Schedule or .....

1. The Schedule has Columns for Number and Comments - renamed Note # and Description

2. The Schedule has Use Callout for Label and Group Simlar Items checked

3. I created a small Furniture Symbol (solid box 1"x1"x1") and set its material to Insulation-Air Gap

4. I named the Symbol Note

5. In the Components dbx I set the Description and Comments both to Note Text

6. I then placed several these in the Plan - some of them I edited the Description and Comments Fields (used the same text for both fields)

The attached pics show the results:attachicon.gifNotes Callouts.PNGattachicon.gifNotes Schedule.PNG

Nice job Joe.  Really nice job.  I think the only problem is if the note is a long note,  if I am not mistaken,  the schedule does not allow for WRAP AROUND/MULTIPLE LINES.  Is this correct?

 

This is a great solution with the only limitation of a long note.

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Nice job Joe.  Really nice job.  I think the only problem is if the note is a long note,  if I am not mistaken,  the schedule does not allow for WRAP AROUND/MULTIPLE LINES.  Is this correct?

 

This is a great solution with the only limitation of a long note.

Yep, that's the one limitation.  CA should make that change to schedules to that we have word wrap.

IAE, I can have a pretty long note and the schedule will still fit on a Layout Sheet using Arch-D or Arch-E.  Those are the only sheet sizes I normally use anyway.

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I made the poly solid and set it to air gap material. When I go to move them, if I accidentally resize the object all the component data is lost. Do you have your note item object locked for shape somehow?

Yes, I set Stretch Planes at 2" for all 3 axis (x,y,z)

 

I just checked this and it doesn't prevent the loss of the Comments Field Data.  IMO that's a bug that Chief needs to fix anyway.  The way to handle this is to just "UNDO" if you accidently resize.

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There are some nice details about how this works:

 

1.  When you change the Description and Comments fields in the Components dbx for a Symbol, the Callout Number and the Comments Column in the Schedule are both updated.

2.  If you move a row in the Schedule up or down, the Callout Text changes accordingly.

3.  If you open the Object dbx the Name will show the Description Field data (which tells you what the note is)

4.  If you add any note in the Plan to the Library, the Name in the Library will correspond to the text of the note.  Organize those in the Library and you have a set of very easy to place notes in the Plan and the contents of the note will be displayed while you place and drag.

What a genius you are......  I have this argument with P. all the time,  I say Joe is smart and P. says no.......  hey P.,  do you believe me know,  Joe is smart?

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OK, so now the question is:  Can we have a separate Symbols on Layer Notes, Plan and Notes, Elevation which could display note on each Drawing Type and all be included in the Same Schedule?

 

Obviously we could use 2 separate Schedules and have one report "Interior Furniture" and the other report "Exterior Furniture"

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Just an little update.  To create a New Note to add to the Library:

 

1.  Open the Object dbx and change the Name to the text you want in the Note.

2.  Then Open the Symbol dbx and put the same info in the Description and Comments Fields.

3.  Now Add to Library and move to the Notes Folder or Sub Folder of your choice.

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Thanks Joe. The stretch plane is the charm. Now if we could just have word wrap or less to say.

LESS is MORE  Shorter notes will be easier to read and less subject to errors of interpretation.  They'll probably help Perry get them grammatically correct too :D

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......They'll probably help Perry get them grammatically correct too :D

That reminds me of a quote from Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson,  who at one time said,  "Terry Bradshaw could not spell "C-A-T" if we spotted him the "C-A".

 

Love you P.

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Yes, JOE IS THE MAN.

Now watch Chief come out with this in X7. like last year with Layout Page labels

That wouldn't bother me a bit. 

 

A.  Macros that work in Elevation & Section

B.  Plan Note Objects with Schedules (Plan Note Layer for both the Object and the Label)

C.  Elevation Note Objects with Schedules (Elevation Note Layer for both the Object and the Label)

D.  Section Note Objects with Schedules (Elevation Note Layer for both the Object and the Label)

 

Any time CA want's to take one of my ideas and make it a part of Chief - it's OK with me.  For now, this works

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When I save the symbol to my lib. and add it to the "Place lib. object" it won't keep the same layer I saved it with, it always reverts back to furniture interior layer. BTW I saved it in a new plan notes layer so every time I place one ,I have to change the layer to my new layer.

Question, did I have to change the symbol layer before I created the symbol?

ps even when I copy the symbol it reverts back to the other layer.

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Perry,

 

I'm having the same problem.  It seems Chief just want to insist that a Furniture Symbol must be on the Furniture Layer.  You can change it after it's placed in the Plan but you can't seem to save it with the new Layer to the Library.

 

That's why I'd really like CA to give us "Note Objects" with "Note Layers" as indicated in Post #18

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  • Solution

OK, after a bit of experimentation I've found a solution that's even simpler and solves the Layer Problem.

1. Use a 2D Plant and a Plant Schedule
2. The Plant Schedule uses just the Number and Label Columns
3. The Plant can be placed on any Layer such as Notes and can have any 2D CAD Block assigned as the Plan Display
4. Just Edit the Plant Label to whatever you want the note to be.

Now any note can be added to the Library and it will come back at the correct Layer. There's no need to use the Component dbx, just the Symbol dbx and edit the Label to create a new Note.

For notes I add to the Library I find it useful to copy the Label Text and Paste it as the name of the Library Item. That way it's easier to see what the note is when selecting from the Library. But the names can get long if you do that.

 

Another nice thing about this solution is that you can simply copy & paste notes within the Library, rename them and edit the Label.  It's a real easy way to create a complete set of notes - and it's fairly easy to organize them in the Library into Sub Folders.

post-47-0-76340100-1412602037_thumb.jpg

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