Foundation wall label %wall.top elevation%

[Camerops]

I have placed %wall.top_elevation% in the Specify Label field on the wall specification. It does not display any value. Note: the label layer is set to display.   

 

Does anybody know how to display the terrain elevation of a foundation wall? or other options?

[Camerops]

Wall Specification

 Insert Macro

Global

Wall Info

 

 

 

[Chopsaw]

1 hour ago, solver said:

Works n a text box

 

A new referenced global macro...  I did not know there was such a thing.  Nice idea but what is up with that ?

[Camerops]

I am trying to communicate on each foundation wall the elevation above sea level so that the concrete guys get each wall the correct elevation and where along a wall changes. A label with the exact elevation above sea level is ideal. But I can not seem to make it work. 

[Chopsaw]

2 minutes ago, Camerops said:

I am trying to communicate on each foundation wall the elevation above sea level so that the concrete guys get each wall the correct elevation and where along a wall changes. A label with the exact elevation above sea level is ideal. But I can not seem to make it work. 

 

In theory it should work in a text box but you will need to make an adjustment for sea level or actually build your structure based on sea level elevations.  There are quite a few forum discussions on establishing sea levels.

[Alaskan_Son]

On 8/7/2021 at 11:28 AM, Chopsaw said:

Nice idea but what is up with that ?

Its a unique macro in that it reports the top or bottom of a wall at any given point on that wall.  In other words, it could never work in a label because its a point measurement tool that could report any number of values for a single wall.  An angled wall for example could have an infinite number of possible values. 

 

I do really wish Chief would give us name:value pairs for all their Chief defined global macros.

[robdyck]

You wanna know what else is weird with this macro? The arrow doesn't have to have the head attached, it just needs to touch the wall. This global macro can replace the old "Special Use" arrow to identify footing elevations! Sweet! Now if only Chief gave us proper control of the number display this POS could be properly useful...maybe just maybe a few more versions down the road! Then we could actually use this to call out information instead of just to find out information that we then need to type into the plan.

 

[robdyck]

A person could (but wouldn't of course!) swear a blue streak trying to get this information to display in plan view using an appropriate number format. Like so many things in Chief...it's almost useful! 

Somewhere there's a former (or current) Chief employee laughing their ass off at us.

[Alaskan_Son]

4 minutes ago, robdyck said:

Now if only Chief gave us proper control of the number display

 

Yup.  This is one reason of many that I would like the aforementioned name:value pairs for Chief's global macros. 

[robdyck]

One might think that elevation data within the model might work when used with...wait for it...an elevation marker! What a concept. 

Meh; now that I think about it...that's just silly. It's not like this information is needed on every house plan.

[Alaskan_Son]

5 minutes ago, robdyck said:

One might think that elevation data within the model might work when used with...wait for it...an elevation marker!

 

Ya, I agree.  Notes are getting closer as they'll actually snap to underlying 3D faces when placed in a 3D view.  This results in an accurate Z Position that we can copy and paste, but Chief doesn't give us any access to that value either.  Been requesting name:value pair access to global macros and Z Position/Elevation data for quite some time.  You should send in a request or 2 as well.

[Chopsaw]

5 hours ago, robdyck said:

A person could (but wouldn't of course!) swear a blue streak trying to get this information to display in plan view using an appropriate number format. Like so many things in Chief...it's almost useful! 

 

Not very many surveyors work in fractional inches.  Why does this macro need to be different from the other macro's that report in inches ?

[robdyck]

11 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

Not very many surveyors work in fractional inches.  Why does this macro need to be different from the other macro's that report in inches ?

Exactly...because nobody does an imperial house plan calling out dimensions in fractional inches. I honestly want to know why it's so complicated to get elevation data from the model to report as feet-inches throughout the plan. There's what...maybe 5 Chief users in the world who can do this? People can down vote all they want but accessing elevation information for consistent use throughout a plan should be simple and this particular long-time Chief customer expects it to be so. Currently all we can do is:

• use this information for our own reference, and then type the correct format into a marker or text box, which can lead to typos or other errors
• pay one of those elite 5 to write a macro which will probably work, most of the time, (Evaluation Error doesn't look great on a completed plan set)
• show the fractional inches letting your customers know you're a bit lazy, and don't really care about the finished product. 

I've happily paid for some macros and my hat's off to these users who can and do provide this service, but if we're being honest, some of those macro services just shouldn't be necessary.

@Alaskan_Son provided me with a great macro that reports the elevation information (imperial - relative to top-of-main-floor & metric - geodetic) in elevation and section views, but every foundation crew and excavation crew I've ever met wants foundation elevation changes shown in plan view. Top-of-footing and top-of-foundation are critical and all we can do is look at the information that's just teasing us, and then start typing. 

 

I use the available macros in a text box on a reference layer that does not display on my final SVP (the bright pink text).  So close it hurts!