plan footprint display in layout

[tomclerkin]

Hi,
How do I prevent things like porches, decks and carports from being included in the plan footprint?

The footprint polyline includes the front porch, carport and back deck - but these areas are not living space. I reviewed video 219 and reviewed layers to see if I could "turn off" the porch, deck and carport but no luck.

Any suggestions on how to do this?
I suppose I could edit the footprint polyline but I bet Chief has a better way.
In layer display, I turned off two layers: “Walls, Railings” and “Walls, Invisible”. But the porch, carport and deck is still visible in the plan footprint detail.

The purpose of this work is to show the perimeter of the living space and then "add the boxes" to visually show the square footage of the proposed home (this is a city requirement).

Any "how to" or "best methods" suggestions (videos, etc.) would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Tom
PS.
I used the CAD/Plan Footprint tool to create a first floor footprint and sent it to layout. In layout, I clicked on the plan footprint, which opened the plan footprint CAD window. From there, I double clicked on the footprint to open the specification dbx and I clicked "Display Footprint Polyline" and un-clicked "Display Plan details."

[Tommy Blair]

I never use the plan footprint method. I always use a layerset (with annoset for X3).

[dshall]

If you go to this link you will find a few videos on the method I now use. This method was inspired by Gerry Teacher. There are a few times when I get a bit frustrated but all is well now, it is a great method. The only issue is when I reopen the plan I get some "Evaluation Errors", but I simply open one of the text blocks and it gets fixed.

Post 1 has these videos
http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?t=54711&page=2

Post 13 has a plan you can download and you will get many macros already made up.

[BREEZE WOOD]

The purpose of this work is to show the perimeter of the living space and then "add the boxes" to visually show the square footage of the proposed home (this is a city requirement).

Just save-as a couple of copies and edit each to suit the separate requirements or use layersets when possible - editing saved copies completes the job, and is not very time consuming.

[tomclerkin]

Thanks for the ideas.
I looked at the video #5 (from Scott's reply, post 13) and it sounds great. I never worked with user defined macros in Chief so I'll have to learn more. I'll have to learn how to download the macros that Scott and Gerry created. Where are they?

I also asked tech support and here is there reply.


Hello Tom,

Unfortunately, turning off the display of walls that form your plan's exterior will not prevent the room(s) that they define from being included in the Plan Footprint. The Plan Footprint is designed to show the footprint of the building (or buildings), including all exterior type rooms like porches, for the specific purpose of putting together a plot plan CAD Detail.

If you want to represent the as-built and addition areas using polylines in a CAD Detail window, I would recommend creating a room polyline for your plan's Exterior Room, copying and pasting it into a CAD Detail, and then editing it or adding to it as needed.

I hope that this suggestion is helpful.

[Tommy Blair]

Tom, as I mentioned, I don't use plan footprints. I can do a better and easier job in a layerset. Just my opinion on what I do.

[tomclerkin]

I just re-read Scott's email and saw the attachment with the macros. I'll take a look.

Tommy, I'd like to understand more about using layersets. I can imagine that in some cases it would be easier. Are you thinking of turning off unnecessary layers and then what?? (I thought about just drawing rectangles and then manually adding the areas and putting the results in a text box.)

[Tommy Blair]

Tom, as you'll find, there's a few way to do this. I just don't like "plan footprints" in a detail. I like layersets. For me it's easier. Chief has been layerset dependent for several versions. You should and need to understand using layersets.