Productivity Tips

[tahoebrian5]

There's a couple things slowing me down and just wondering if you guys have any sneaky tips up your sleeves.

Isolate layer, this is a common tool I use in autocad that would be really helpful. It turns off all layers except the one whose component you picked. Is there anything similar?

Picking all similar objects at once, this is already implemented for many objects like walls and dimensions where you pick the tool and hold the shift key. How about for cad objects? This helps do similar tasks as lay isolate.

Selection box, I know you can choose between items need to contained in the selection box, to items just need to be crossed. Can you change this on the fly? I thought I read something about this but it's faded.

Please add any other good tips you might have.

[Alaskan_Son]

Regarding toggling between marquis selection methods, check out post #11 in this thread...

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/7668-marquee-selection-box-redesign/#entry70465

[RodCole]

Regarding the isolate layer question you have.  One thing you might try is to call up the All Off layer set and then select only the layer or layers you want to display.  For this method to work well you will need to make sure that all layers are off when you are finished with a particular task so that the layer set really is all off.  This is not the automatic process that other programs provide, but it can work.

 

I don't actually use the above method as much anymore since I have developed my own working layer sets tied to Layout Views.  There are a lot of ways of going about things in Chief, sometimes it takes some experimenting to find out what works best for you.

[Alaskan_Son]

Regarding layerset control...

I typed up a big response earlier and it was deleted somehow.

I use a number of different methods depending on the situation but I must admit that I haven't found one that I'm perfectly happy with. Here are a few that come to mind.

1. Use the all on and all off layersets to your advantage. You can use the all on set in conjunction with the layer hider tool or use the all off set and just turn on the layers you want to use. The biggest advantage to using these two sets is that you can very quickly "select all" and then either check or uncheck "display" to reset them.

2. Use one of your normal working sets in conjunction with the layer hider tool. This has a potential to make a mess of your layer sets though if you're not careful.

3. Make a quick copy of one of your existing sets and use the layer hider tool. Only real downside to this is that you have to periodically go through and clean up/delete the extra layer sets.

4. Unrelated to layer control, but you can also utilize the match properties tool as a method to select multiple items.

There are a lot more methods, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

[tahoebrian5]

Regarding toggling between marquis selection methods, check out post #11 in this thread...https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/7668-marquee-selection-box-redesign/#entry70465

It would seem intuitive that Chief would implement the crossing behavior with the right mouse button as an alt behavior. I suppose I'll add this to the wish list

[Alaskan_Son]

It would seem intuitive that Chief would implement the crossing behavior with the right mouse button as an alt behavior. I suppose I'll add this to the wish list

That's true. Seems like an easy solution. I'm not at my computer right now. I'm curious though, what does the right mouse button do when you're in select mode?

[tahoebrian5]

I'm not there either

[Alaskan_Son]

I'm not there either

Funny

Regarding other selection methods, this thread might be of use to you too...

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/6938-select-objects-problem/?fromsearch=1

[glennw]

Picking all similar objects at once, this is already implemented for many objects like walls and dimensions where you pick the tool and hold the shift key. How about for cad objects?

 

This also works for cad objects.

Just make sure you are in a cad tool (line, Circle, etc).

You can then do a Shift select and only get cad items.

[tahoebrian5]

Thanks Glen, not sure why I did t think of that

[RodCole]

Along the same line of thought. I was struggling with selecting Wall Hatches a while back. So, I called tech support and was told to select the Hatch tool and then I could group select only Hatches while the Hatch tool was active.

I was reminded that this method works for most tools in Chief. In my case with the Hatch tool, what I really wanted was to have the ability to pre-set the default hatch pattern. But, since that was not available group selecting was the next best option.

I don't know why I didn't think of this on my own either. I usually pride myself on having a firm grip on the obvious.

[kMoquin]

Here's a tip to replicate a camera from one plan to the next (since we can't copy them)

 

1. Draw a line from the camera to the marker at the end that matches the camera you'd like to copy in the first plan. (CAM 1)
2. Copy the line and paste in place in the second plan.
3. Create a new camera (CAM 2) in the second plan snapping to the ends of the line you copied.
4. Open the camera specifications on the camera in the first plan (CAM 1) and record the settings on the "Camera" tab.
5. Input these settings in the dialog box for  the new camera (CAM 2).

Note that in step 1 you cannot snap to the camera object. If both plans need 'exactly' the same camera point of view you can use steps 2 through 5 to make two exact cameras.

[Alaskan_Son]

Here's a tip to replicate a camera from one plan to the next (since we can't copy them)

 

1. Draw a line from the camera to the marker at the end that matches the camera you'd like to copy in the first plan. (CAM 1)
2. Copy the line and paste in place in the second plan.
3. Create a new camera (CAM 2) in the second plan snapping to the ends of the line you copied.
4. Open the camera specifications on the camera in the first plan (CAM 1) and record the settings on the "Camera" tab.
5. Input these settings in the dialog box for  the new camera (CAM 2).

Note that in step 1 you cannot snap to the camera object. If both plans need 'exactly' the same camera point of view you can use steps 2 through 5 to make two exact cameras.

You can actually even skip the line and just copy the actual info.  Downsizing your Chief window and simply copying to and pasting from notepad makes this super fast and easy.

[DRAWZILLA]

I put all the camera's I need  in my template plan, never need to copy or create again just move around to where you want them 

[kMoquin]

You can actually even skip the line and just copy the actual info.  Downsizing your Chief window and simply copying to and pasting from notepad makes this super fast and easy.

Ah! So true, and easier.

Why did I never pay attention the the x and y coordinates portion of the dbx?

[Alaskan_Son]

Ah! So true, and easier.

Why did I never pay attention the the x and y coordinates portion of the dbx?

 

I'm sure its because those aren't the numbers we're typically trying to recreate.  I for one have never altered them through the dbx except for this particular exercise. 

[Kelly_K]

There's a couple things slowing me down and just wondering if you guys have any sneaky tips up your sleeves.

Isolate layer, this is a common tool I use in autocad that would be really helpful. It turns off all layers except the one whose component you picked. Is there anything similar?

Picking all similar objects at once, this is already implemented for many objects like walls and dimensions where you pick the tool and hold the shift key. How about for cad objects? This helps do similar tasks as lay isolate.

Selection box, I know you can choose between items need to contained in the selection box, to items just need to be crossed. Can you change this on the fly? I thought I read something about this but it's faded.

Please add any other good tips you might have.

 

Now there's a tool I could get behind, cheer for, and now desire. 

 

All off set - works well enough, but I always seem to leave stuff behind that needs to be turned off, and I acknowledge - I have too many layers which can make the search to turn on a desired layer a bit cumbersome..

[Joe_Carrick]

It would be cool if there was a Hotkey or menu option to do a temporary "Lock all Except Layer (X)".  Then the ability to "Remove Temporary Layer Locks".

 

This would be essentially the same as working with a special "Layerset".  That's how I do it currently.  I just copy the current layerset and modify it to suit.

[Alaskan_Son]

Here's another trick...

With your ALDO (Active Layer Display Options) opened, select the object whose layer you would like to isolate. Without doing anything else, scroll to the All Off Set. The layer(s) for your previously selected item should be the only thing displayed. Simply check display in the appropriate box(es). Once finished with any necessary edits, "select all" layers and uncheck display to reset your all off set.

[steph_en]

This also works for cad objects.

Just make sure you are in a cad tool (line, Circle, etc).

You can then do a Shift select and only get cad items.

 

Is this supposed to be the case in X5... Can't seem to get it to work.  Got it!