Second Floor square footage label

[designgirl79 0]

Hello, Does anyone know how to add the square footage label so chief will calculate the 1 floor and 2nd floor sq ft. I am using x12. Thanks

[designgirl79 0]

using premier x12

 

 

[Chopsaw 730]

2 hours ago, designgirl79 said:

Does anyone know how to add the square footage label so chief will calculate the 1 floor and 2nd floor sq ft.

 

It should do that automatically, but if you deleted or lost it somehow it can be restored by running plan check providing it is still turned on in General Plan Defaults.

[ChiefUserBigRob 19]

On 3/18/2021 at 6:38 PM, Chopsaw said:

 

It should do that automatically, but if you deleted or lost it somehow it can be restored by running plan check providing it is still turned on in General Plan Defaults.

when i discovered plan check it really saved me alot of time on things.

[Willis93 3]

How do you make this populate TOGETHER in a schedule? See the example. Its VERY odd that this is not a FEATURE and you have to purchase this ability from another user. This is a VERY common accumulation of data in ANY set of building plans. Without RUBY programing experinece this all has to be done manually, just makes no sense IMO. 

[lbuttery 225]

Jim:

 

I agree ...

 

almost 15 years ago I suggested that Chief create a schedule with all that info and more

 

there are numerous "official" methods of calculating "living space" depending on the industry needing the info

the schedule could include the most common ones

 

then the user could chose the needed data - easy peasy

 

so far - crickets

 

time and again a new user has to ask how to restore the missing "living area"

and has to be informed about "plan check" - which is totally non-intuitive and non-user friendly

 

even experienced users forget about that "secret Handshake" if they haven't used it for awhile

 

using Ruby should be for "power" users - not for basic "standard" info

 

Lew

[BlueHandle 0]

On 4/26/2021 at 9:19 AM, Willis93 said:

How do you make this populate TOGETHER in a schedule? See the example. Its VERY odd that this is not a FEATURE and you have to purchase this ability from another user. This is a VERY common accumulation of data in ANY set of building plans. Without RUBY programing experinece this all has to be done manually, just makes no sense IMO. 

 

Who do I purchase that ability from? At this point I don't mind paying extra for it.

[jasonN 16]

@Joe_Carrick

 

sells them.

 

You may be a little disappointed to know that you may still have to draw lines around the different areas to get the actual information out

 

[Chopsaw 730]

1 hour ago, jasonN said:

You may be a little disappointed to know that you may still have to draw lines around the different areas to get the actual information out

 

Completely unnecessary.  I have a system that does not require placement of polylines and is user maintainable.   PM me if you are interested.

[Alaskan_Son 2736]

2 hours ago, jasonN said:

You may be a little disappointed to know that you may still have to draw lines around the different areas to get the actual information out

I don't personally think this is a downside at all.  I can't speak to Joe's system specifically, but I recommend a polyline based system to most users as well.

 

I've developed and utilized various hash, array, note, and schedule based methods over the years to compile and parse data for various purposes and although they work for some things just fine, they always seem to fall notably short when it comes to robust and customizable area analysis. Polylines obviously have to be managed manually, but they have some major benefits that can't really be replicated with any other method I've seen:

1. They're exceedingly easy to customize in order to measure areas using whatever calculation method a person wishes (center of wall, exterior surface, exterior main layer, interior main layer, interior surface, etc.)
2. They're exceedingly easy to customize in order to combine areas, exclude areas, or measure areas that otherwise have no usable model data (part of a stairwell, both a dining room and kitchen combined, a portion of the driveway, a bathroom combined with its shower, a birdseye footprint of the home, overhang areas, under roof area of a specific deck, area encroaching a ROW, etc.)
3. They can easily and very naturally be used in combination with model objects that are already polyline based objects (roof planes, driveways, terrains, slabs, countertops, etc.)
4. They lend themselves to very easy tabulation customization.  Users can very easily break out, combine, re-order, and cross reference anything using standard or rich text boxes with each and every line formatted as desired...new decks, old decks, wood framed decks, covered deck areas, uncovered deck areas, demoed areas, carpeted areas, tiled areas, common areas, living areas, MIL suite area, combined closet areas, existing vs. new vs. addition vs. remodel, permeable areas, lot coverage, buildable area, sloped areas, shaded areas, etc. And any given line can be indented, underlined, bold, differing fonts and text sizes, etc.  Its all fluid.

They also require very little in the way of macro know how.  Starting in X12, a person doesn't even need to open up Text Macro Management to use a simple polyline based area analysis system.  Using polylines seems to be looked down on because they're not fully automatic and tied to the model, but the benefits FAR outweigh the minor downside of having to manually adjust IMO. 

[jasonN 16]

On 7/23/2021 at 5:00 PM, Chopsaw said:

Completely unnecessary. 

I was thinking about the "Cabana" dimensions (and never heard of that classification before), but now I realize that was not the poster's comment.

 

first and second floor can be certainly be done without polylines. I entered a method in the "tips and techniques" a couple months ago. Relatively simple, but also limited to simple floor areas (i.e. does not do cabanas nor porches. Only uses CA's square footage as shown in the living area label).  

[SteveNovato 2]

I made a 'mask' in Excel for building and zoning data. When square footage is entered it will calculate the 'remodel' area (mostly for fire sprinkler requirements). Print the Excel spreadsheet to pdf and import pdf to layout sheet. For my needs, this method seems much quicker and more efficient than trying to make Chief do something it can't (or, more likely, I can't figure out!)

Project Data Worksheet.xlsx

[rgardner 209]

5 hours ago, SteveNovato said:

Print the Excel spreadsheet to pdf and import pdf to layout sheet

Snipping tool with a png keeps the file way smaller and you can also use excel spreadsheet data directly in chief if you drag it over.

[DzinEye 298]

On 7/23/2021 at 5:19 PM, Alaskan_Son said:

I don't personally think this is a downside at all.  I can't speak to Joe's system specifically, but I recommend a polyline based system to most users as well.

Wow...I've never noticed you recommend this method to anyone before, but was surprised to see this because over the years I've seen what seems like hundreds of questions about getting plan areas and every time it comes up seems like there are grumbling responses about the 'workaround' that we have to make a polyline.  I've been doing polyline outlines since I began with Chief and have never had reason to gripe about it.  Not only do I know exactly what area is being calculated and can easily include or exclude areas which may or may not count as floor area depending on the projects jurisdiction but I frequently use the polyline outline with and without fills to display on different site plan based pages.

[Kbird1 864]

11 hours ago, SteveNovato said:

in Excel for building and zoning data

 

Thanks for sharing Steve

 

 

M.