jvirostko Posted September 27 Share Posted September 27 Hey All! Thought I would ask in general what your favorite tools, tips, techniques for improving your templates and drawing speed! I work on interior home remodels so I like to get my As-Built drawings and design concepts turned around fast to keep projects moving steadily along. I'd love to hear from you guys what you do in or out of chief to get things done! I'll start by sharing some of the settings I have setup to increase my efficiency: Automatic Room Dimensions for doors, windows, walls Automatic Elevation dimensions spaced perfectly to be sent to layout. Automatic sizing cabinet labels for quick cabinet layouts. Created a custom catalog of our cabinet line for drop and place cabinet design. Automatic Sheet Index on the cover page. Import and Photoshop countertop materials to be made seamless. Custom designing Tile patterns in Sketchup/Photoshop and importing them in to Chief Custom Under cabinet lighting modeled according to specific products we use frequently, ready to wire and ready for Ray Trace. Adjusted default lighting fixture labels. Automatic Room Labels that show the ceiling heights and calculate sqft Those are just a few I could think of, let me know what you guys think and any methods or ideas you might have for improvements! My typical deliverables are existing plans, demolition plans, framing plans, floor plans, mechanical plans, wall elevations, and renderings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHCanada2 Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 I keep four kitchen elevations on my template plan, with 2 of them already linked on my template layout. As cameras cannot be rotated, I am correct in the selected 2 about 1/3 of the time. I also have a dedicated layer for new windows and doors, so their label shows red, as here the authority wants to know what changes are made to the outside 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejmarsh Posted October 1 Share Posted October 1 Sync your hotkeys so all the major items you usually use are available from the left-hand home row. This allows you to keep one hand on your mouse, and the other on the keyboard, without ever needing to look (or minimally) at the keyboard. Remap your tools like this: the most used tool goes with the easiest keystroke. That way, the tool you call-up the most is assigned to the letter 'F' (to me this was the easiest keystroke for my left hand). The command I used was actually the 'open object' command, because as you know we do a lot of opening dialogues in Chief Architect. Continue through your tools and pair them with other easy to reach commands. All the left hand home row is easy (ASDF keys) and T and G, V, C, and simple shift-modified versions of that are doable with the left hand. To make my map I made a spreadsheet with the easiest keystrokes ranked, then I ranked my tools based on how often they got used, and then I paired them up that way. I believe my 'text-arrow-note' is under the D key since I use that a lot. I also created a 'paste in place' for the V, which helps me easily move objects between floors and keep them in the same area. So that's my suggestion - if you haven't remapped your hotkeys yet go do it. Last thing - print out a list or better yet draw a graphic of your new layout to keep next to your monitor for a while. Good Luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
para-CAD Posted October 1 Share Posted October 1 Hotkeys in a StreamDeck.....playing with power 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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