Living area


decorators3
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If you are referring to the "Living Area" display, it can be manually turned on or off in "General Plan Defaults Dialog" but it turns it on or off on all floors, not just one or two. You can display square footage per room by selecting, in Display Options a layer called "Rooms, Interior or Standard Area".

 

If you accidentally delete the "Living Area" display it will thereafter no long display even if checked "ON" in General Plan Defaults. A way to recover that display is to run "Tools -Checks - Plan Check", running that utility will cause the "Living Area" display to display again.

 

DJP

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"Tools -Checks - Plan Check", running that utility will cause the "Living Area" display to display again

 

David:  good of you to point this foible out to the newbie's

as there is no way in hell they would ever suss it out on their own 

 

Here we are on X12 and we still have this stupid "bon mot" to deal with as a hidden easter egg

 

CA should have fixed this silliness over a decade ago :(

 

Lew

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8 hours ago, lbuttery said:

David:  good of you to point this foible out to the newbie's

as there is no way in hell they would ever suss it out on their own 

Not if they don't read the documentation anyway...

Help.thumb.png.1aab18ec70c1f46c0b68a6109a394c05.png

Easy to find by simply searching the Help files.

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yes, they can read the documentation

I don't know too many people who read documentation cover to cover

 

they run into an issue and they look in the "user friendly" places like the menus etc

 

if "reading the documentation" were the solution to every problem then why even have this forum

why even have tech support

 

there is NO need for this to be BURIED where it is

 

it is NOT "user-friendly" and it is STUPID

 

Lew

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I have learned a great deal from all your comments (ie) I didn't realize the LAUNCH HELP ( was a search tool in itself) == thought it directed me only to the tutorials and videos etc.

 

This forum is worth its weight in gold and I appreciate all the feedback from those of you who know your way around.  Its a fabulous program with a lot of learning curves.  Its when I run into a problem and don't know how to go about fixing it that I go to the forum...

I"m a designer who has recently been sourced for more structural  and exterior  design - plans , construction documents  etc.. I'm pretty sure this is not the last time I will be seeking some assistance.  not meaning to take the easy way out because I do try to find a solution either thru videos or  the tutorial documents

 

Thanks in advance

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1 hour ago, decorators3 said:

I have learned a great deal from all your comments (ie) I didn't realize the LAUNCH HELP ( was a search tool in itself) == thought it directed me only to the tutorials and videos etc.

 

In my opinion, Launch Help is hands down the best and most underutilized learning resource at our disposal.  It can be accessed via Help>Launch Help, by clicking on the little blue question mark at the top of your screen, or by hitting the F1 key. 

 

It can also be accessed from every single dialog box that I know of by clicking on the little "Help" button down in the lower right corner (lower left if you're using a Mac).  If you access it through the dialog box, it will take you straight to the section covering the use of that specific dialog and all it's related settings.

 

In addition, Launch Help can be utilized in 3 other basic ways...

1.  If you click Launch Help while a tool is activated but nothing is selected, you will be taken straight to the section covering that particular object type or tool. 

2.  If you click Launch Help while an object is selected, you will typically be taken straight to the section covering how to edit that particular object type.

3.  By simply opening it and searching through it the old fashioned way using Search, Contents, by following links, etc.

 

Re: learning Chief in general via the documentation and various resources that Chief provides us without charge, it is my general recommendation that people start with the Tutorial Guide if they have the time to do so.  It does a good job covering all the basics from start to finish and does so in such a way that helps you understand how the tools were intended to be used.  During that tutorial, you'll be actually following along and using all the tools so it's great practice as well. 

 

After that I recommend always going to the Help files first (the Help files are basically the User Manual).  Make sure to read carefully.  Chief generally doesn't include all the extra fluff and misinformation you have to slog through like you do in places like this forum, and follow links where necessary to read up on other applicable areas. 

 

The videos are okay, but I've never seen anybody make nearly as much progress or learn the program nearly as well or as quickly as they can by simply reading the documentation.  You can glean a lot of accurate and pointed information in a half hour by reading the documentation sent with the current version or you can spend that half hour watching a video that may or may not be using a current version, that may or may not be using the best method available in the current version, that may or may not apply due to some intricacy about your specific plan and situation that sets it apart, or that may or may not even cover the detail you were hoping to learn.  It's really a crap-shoot. 

 

The absolute LAST place I recommend people go to learn the basics is this forum.  It is one of the best and absolute worst things about Chief in my opinion.  Its fabulous for peer to peer tips and clarifications and is a great place to learn hacks and tricks that aren't covered in the documentation or videos, but it has to be the least effective way of learning the basics and is terrible as a primary learning tool.  In comparison to the aforementioned resources, it's a jumbled mess of disorganized, conflicting, and oftentimes downright inaccurate information and new users are easily the least qualified people to be filtering through that mess. 

 

Anyway, don't get me wrong, the forum is a useful tool but it should be pretty far down your list of places to go and helps foster some really bad and inefficient learning habits.  When I personally forget something or when I don't know what a tool or setting does, the first place I go still is to the Help files and do so on a very regular basis.  If I can't find what I want after a few minutes of searching there, then I might go search the forum, but I very very rarely find answers on the forum.  It really serves as more of a distraction and time sink than anything.

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1 hour ago, decorators3 said:

I have learned a great deal from all your comments (ie) I didn't realize the LAUNCH HELP ( was a search tool in itself) == thought it directed me only to the tutorials and videos etc.

 

This forum is worth its weight in gold and I appreciate all the feedback from those of you who know your way around.  Its a fabulous program with a lot of learning curves.  Its when I run into a problem and don't know how to go about fixing it that I go to the forum...

I"m a designer who has recently been sourced for more structural  and exterior  design - plans , construction documents  etc.. I'm pretty sure this is not the last time I will be seeking some assistance.  not meaning to take the easy way out because I do try to find a solution either thru videos or  the tutorial documents

 

Thanks in advance

 

Another great way to find answers, in addition to what has been posted, is a google search restricted to the chief website.

 

Put this search into google, it will search all of the chief architect website INCLUDING this forum. I use it all the time:

 

site:chiefarchitect.com [YOUR SEARCH TERMS]

 

You can also perform a google search of only the forum using this search:

 

site:chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com [YOUR SEARCH TERMS]

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On 4/1/2020 at 11:08 AM, Alaskan_Son said:

Not if they don't read the documentation anyway...

Help.thumb.png.1aab18ec70c1f46c0b68a6109a394c05.png

Easy to find by simply searching the Help files.

I have done this process at least 8 times and it never will come up on the plan.  I must have something else checked Wrong.  Also do you know why when I put a room label on a room it will always put the word behind it BEDROOM.  Like Living Room Bedroom.  Kitchen Bedroom.  I don't know what I have done to make all of them do that.  I have erased them and put back in but continues to add the word BEDROOM on each room. Any more ideas?

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7 minutes ago, howardmccall said:

I have done this process at least 8 times and it never will come up on the plan.  I must have something else checked Wrong.  Also do you know why when I put a room label on a room it will always put the word behind it BEDROOM.  Like Living Room Bedroom.  Kitchen Bedroom.  I don't know what I have done to make all of them do that.  I have erased them and put back in but continues to add the word BEDROOM on each room. Any more ideas?

I agree with what everyone else is saying.  This one would be a little more difficult to search since you don’t know the reason it is doing it.

 

hint...  look in your preferences under rooms and labels...

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10 hours ago, howardmccall said:

Also do you know why when I put a room label on a room it will always put the word behind it BEDROOM.  Like Living Room Bedroom.  Kitchen Bedroom. 

Chopsaw answered this already. I just wanted to add to Alaskan_Son's excellent advice on using the Help. The answer to this question was found in a few seconds since I already had help open (often the case)image.thumb.png.156742498efee501005077bb82664c83.png

That was found using the search function in Help, a lot more efficient than a web search unless you've run into a quirk (in which case I just search the forum)  I open help when working on something I don't do a lot or when having a bad CRS day. Note that the search tab stays open to the last search even when the main window opens to contect sensitive help (as Michael described) also note drop downs for your help history and instant access to Chief Web support for those who want a video,

Guess I should have pointed the arrow at where you click instead of to the web so click under the text to open the web (CRS)

image.thumb.png.f90863ab7b2ef27f266582042045383d.png

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On 4/1/2020 at 5:54 AM, DavidJPotter said:

If you are referring to the "Living Area" display, it can be manually turned on or off in "General Plan Defaults Dialog" but it turns it on or off on all floors, not just one or two. You can display square footage per room by selecting, in Display Options a layer called "Rooms, Interior or Standard Area".

 

If you accidentally delete the "Living Area" display it will thereafter no long display even if checked "ON" in General Plan Defaults. A way to recover that display is to run "Tools -Checks - Plan Check", running that utility will cause the "Living Area" display to display again.

 

DJP

the only way I finally got it to work was remove an exterior wall and the put it back and rebuild wall, floors, ect.  it came right up then.

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