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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Gorham Maine
    Posts
    145

    Dimensions in elevation view

    I was wondering if anyone else was finding this problem. When I bring up an elevation view to dimension I cannot seem to get the dimensions to "take" below the first floor platform. No foundation wall or basenent slab will pick up a dimension. I am using 10.4a and I am usually bringing plans that have been produced in 9.54 and re-working them. I can send it to CAD and do the work but I never had to make this xtra step before. Any help would be great.
    Thanks,
    Bill
    Bill WJW Drafting

    V-X3
    Windows 7
    Quad core Mac pro

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2000
    Posts
    4,161
    You have stumbled across the cross section line feature of Chief. We generate CAD lines along the line where surfaces get cut by the cross section camera. These lines show up on the cross section line layer and you can dimension to them. The problem is that they don't always get correctly generated and in some cases are deleted. Partly this is a bug and partly this is by design.

    The behavior you are seeing is most likely caused by the bug. In some cases the cross section lines are deleted and not regenerated. This could happen in 9 but happens much more frequently in 10 because of a number of differences in how we draw things.

    If you feel the cross section lines are missing. First make sure you don't have anything selected and then hit fill screen. They will get regenerated at this point. Unfortunately, there are a number of situations, mostly involving editing in 3D that will case some or all of them to get deleted.

    If you want dimensions to be reliable in elevations in any version of Chief, but more so in 10, it is recommended that you add CAD lines instead of relying on the automatically generated cross section lines.

    While you can dimension to these lines, when they get regenerated due to a model change the dimensions that you had to these lines will go away.

    Dimensioning to doors, windows and cabinents should be reliable. To dimension to a wall or other item that may have a cross section line, it is best to manually insert a line, using the snapping tools to get it accurate, and dimension to that. Lines that you create will not be deleted and so your dimension will stick.

    If you move a wall you will need to manually move your line to the appropriate place, but then you would have lost that dimension anyway.

    The cross section line feature is one of those things that seems like a good idea in concept, but in practice doesn't work out too well. We will be exploring options for a future version of Chief to fix this in a reliable way. For now the method I've outlined here should work pretty well.
    Doug Park
    Principal Software Architect
    Chief Architect, Inc.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Gorham Maine
    Posts
    145
    Thanks Doug for that understanding, I guess I was spoiled and I am already using the solutions you suggested.
    Bill
    Bill WJW Drafting

    V-X3
    Windows 7
    Quad core Mac pro

 

 

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