Importing Dwgs - Chief 10 & X1
1 - Avoid adding layers that you will have to delete. To avoid, bring dwg into a temporary Chief plan first, do any editing, layer display changes etc, then Copy & Paste into target plan. (In Chief 10 - use Edit Area)
(Both 10 & X1 can have layer weirdness from deletions (long story, short thread, just trust me...).
2 - Make sure your X and Y coordinates of 0,0 aren't too horribly far from your plan. To make sure of this - bring into blank plan first, then copy and paste, but do not use Hold Position - but just paste by eye, which will put it close enough to 0,0.
(Some surveyors plans are small pieces of large wholes, and your property might be way off in left field. If things look warped on your house, this is likely the problem.)
Layouts, Sections, Elevations, etc.
The following will free you from having to use the Edit Layout (little pencil) tool on each and every elevation or vector view that you send to layout. Even when we send the final to cad for perfection, we use this for all intermediate work, so it looks fairly sexy with almost no work:
Send to Layout - Vector View Options - uncheck "Use Edge Line Defaults" - this will make all edge lines use the lineweight assigned to the layer. You'll need to monkey around a bit to get settings the way you like them. I use 25 for walls, roofs, major elements, and 10 for doors, windows, secondary elements.
Send to Layout - Vector View Options - uncheck "Use Pattern Line Defaults" - this will make all pattern lines use the lineweight assigned to the material. To make this setting most useful edit your material definitions:
Define Material (select object, Materials tab, Plan Material - select the correct one, Edit) - General - Pattern Line Color (on the left - I like a medium grey) and also Line Weight (lower right, I like 5).
On whatever vector view is in question - you can add cad lines, text, etc and it will appear on your layouts - without you saying "yes" to "update to layout" - so you can save any Little Pencil edits and still continue to develop the drawings.
If you uncheck both these boxes, the Little Pencil will continue to work for line moves, deletions etc. Unchecking these boxes only shifts line weight and color defaults from change by the Little Pencil to the layer of the object.
2 - Make sure your X and Y coordinates of 0,0 aren't too horribly far from your plan.
Wendy,
Could you explain this again, I have tried to find 0,0 and no success so far....
Thanks,