Properly converting simple basic plans from Chief 6x to CA 12x

[amelto12]

We have over 50 plans drawn in CA 6x by a previous employee.  We upgraded to CA 12x and now after going through the training realize that all of these plans either are not converting or were not done with a Working Plan and in layers as they should have been.  Is there any way to convert these without starting over?  The majority are very simple start homes with simple roof lines, etc. 

 

[joey_martin]

Try loading them up to X8 or X9, save them, then move to X12. But if you are asking about Chief "automagically" placing all the features now available in X12 into a file as old as X6, then I would say no, it won't happen. You will have to spend some time to update those plans, but you won't need to re-draw them all.

[amelto12]

They open but there are no layers at all only one. The layer shows "none."

[amelto12]

I am not working on that computer.  It is the one at the office.  I will try a few more things and respond.

[lbuttery]

are you referring to Chief 6 or Chief X6 ?

 

Lew

[Dermot]

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They open but there are no layers at all only one. The layer shows "none."

 

That's probably because you are not looking at layers.  You can't run Chief without any layer sets.  That's probably the Saved Plan View control.

 

If you are comparing the default toolbars from X6 with the default toolbars in X12, there are going to be a number of differences.  One of the changes is that X12 ships with the Saved Plan View Control on the main toolbar and X6 had the Active Layer Set Control and the Active Annotation Set Control on the main toolbar. 

 

If you just want to quickly change layer sets, I would encourage you to use the Active Layer Display Options dialog (aka the ALDO).  You can leave this docked on your computer screen and use it to quickly change layer sets or many other layer settings as you work.  You could also customize your toolbars and add the Active Layer Set Control to your main toolbar if you don't want to use the ALDO.

 

Saved Plan Views which were not available in X6 can now be used with default sets (formerly known as annotation sets) to control what active defaults and layer sets will be used for your plan views.  I would encourage you to learn about and use Saved Plan Views but they are completely optional and you can work on plans without them by changing your layer sets and/or active defaults without them.

 

You may see other differences between opening an old plan and starting a new plan.  These are largely going to be due to all of the changes that we have made in the defaults that are stored in the template plans.  Saved plan views are just one example of this.  A new plan started in X12 will have a number of saved plan views already created where an X6 plan opened in X12 will not have any.

 

There are several ways you might want to deal with these issues:

  1. Just open up the old plans and continue to work with all of the same settings that you had in the old version.

  2. Open the old plans and import the default settings that you want from your X12 template plan.

  3. Use the edit area tool to copy the data from the old plan into a new blank plan.

 

There have been lots of other changes since X6 so I would highly encourage you to review our training videos which might help with the transition.  Most of these changes are from new things that have been added but you might find a few things that have either been moved or even removed.

 

[Dermot]

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Try loading them up to X8 or X9, save them, then move to X12.

 

This should not be necessary.  You should be able to open plans from X6 directly in X12 without any problems.  If you do find problems, please feel free to report these to our tech support team.

 

 

[Kbird1]

As Dermot pointed out I think you are looking at the (P) Saved Plan Views Drop down ( None) not the (L) Layerset Control Drop down , note the P on the Icon vs the L on the icon in the dropdown. Saved Plans Views now control the Annotation Sets ( now called Default Sets in X12 ) and Layersets but if needed you can add those dropdowns back to the Toolbar in X12 via the Customize Toolbars Dialog.

 

You can Import the Saved Plan Views (SPVs) into any old pre - X10 Plans via the Import menu using the Residential Template Plan File from the Chief X12 Templates Folder as a Donor File. ( could use any Plan built in X10 - X12 , but the template file SPVs will be "clean" )

 

Use Select All and Replace and you should end up with 10 Premade SPVs on the Dropdown that now says None

 

M.