OMG, OMG, if you think Glenn is smart, try talking to Cliff "Ambrozac" Cain

[dshall]

I just got off the phone with Cliff, (he is a Texan, but I will not hold that against him), this guy is so far ahead of where I am at. WOW!

Cliff showed me some examples of how he uses the program. Glenn mentions using hot keys for particular tasks, well Cliff is already using them. Cliff is using (2) letter keystrokes to BYPASS THE DBX to carry out particular functions. He uses a program called MACRO TOOL WORKS. This program give him the power to turn on and off layers via two keystrokes. He is using two keystrokes to change a wall from brick to stucco............... without opening the DBX of the wall to change the wall type. He is using MACRO TOOL WORKS for a multitude of functions.

The way most of us change things is via the DBX, but as I said, Cliff does not like to do this, he uses macros to bypass the DBX. This method saves only seconds per function, but think about it. You carry out hundreds of these functions per project, do the math, it could save you hundreds of dollars per project in labor.

Anyway, I mention this just to simply expose you guys to different possibilities. I am not sure how soon I can get into this....... there is so much to learn............ but I definitely would like to thank Cliff for his time, this could be some huge stuff.

Great stuff Cliff.............. you da man...................

[lbuttery]

Kudos to Cliff for finding an efficient way to operate Chief

If we ever get full access to the Chief API for Ruby we could make Chief "sing"

Lew

[ambrozac]

Thank you Scott and Lew. I do need to mention that I only use the Macro program because of being a hobbyist and for personal use. If I was getting paid, I doubt I would mind opening dbx's as much. For pleasure, you need to take items out of the equation, that you dislike. I didn't do it for the speed, but for the dislike of opening/closing and tabbing in dbx's, every time a change is needed, or to start drawing. Works for me, but not for everyone.

[Francois]

That what I call "thinking out of the box"
Thanks dshall for sharing that find.

[ambrozac]

I should mention too, that the macro's don't actually bypass the dbx, but they access the dbx automatically for you, so you're not required to manually open/close it.......Glenn is by far way ahead of me, along with Tim O'Donnell and many others. I am mainly interested in the Materials List portion of the program, so I'm not as concerned about appropriate drawings, but rather having the materials accounted for.

[perryh]

This macro tool works sounds interesting, can it be made to do what Ruby won't do?

[dshall]

This macro tool works sounds interesting, can it be made to do what Ruby won't do?

I can't answer that, I do not know what Ruby won't do. But the limitations seemed limitless............... Cliff was doing some stuff that was blowing my mind....... and I assume he was just scratching the surface............ he said he got a handle on it in a few hours.............. you know with computers, the only limitation is our own mind.

[perryh]

All I know is Ruby can do a lot more than Chief will let us do with it, because of Chief not opening up the api or something like that.

[Joe Carrick]

Cliff,

Does this tool record a sequence of commands to be replayed? IOW, can you start recording and then enter a series of mouse clicks & keyboard input resulting in a recorded macro that will perform the total set of inputs on demand?

[IRISH]

http://www.macrotoolworks.com/

[ambrozac]

Cliff,

Does this tool record a sequence of commands to be replayed? IOW, can you start recording and then enter a series of mouse clicks & keyboard input resulting in a recorded macro that will perform the total set of inputs on demand?

Yes, it works the way you mention, Joe, or can be manually entered......The Macro Toolworks program was mentioned on this forum, sometime around X2, but didn't catch on for whatever reason. I've been using for several years now, but you need to also be aware that there will always be macro's that need to be edited, when a new version becomes available, due to the fact that some dbx's will change. You can copy all the macros from one version to another, then edit the macros where the dbx has changed. So far, I've not had any major problems. Another potential problem could be plan file size and how it will affect the speed and performance of the macros.

[Joe Carrick]

Yes, it works the way you mention, Joe, or can be manually entered.

Cool! What about mouse clicks in the Plan. Does it actually record coordinates? IOW could you record this sequence and have it replay to duplicate the creation:

Select the Wall Tool, Pick a serious of Plan Locations with the mouse, Select the Door Tool and then Pick a location on a wall and get the door to be inserted.

If so it's really more than COOL!

[dshall]

Cool! What about mouse clicks in the Plan. Does it actually record coordinates? IOW could you record this sequence and have it replay to duplicate the creation:

Select the Wall Tool, Pick a serious of Plan Locations with the mouse, Select the Door Tool and then Pick a location on a wall and get the door to be inserted.

If so it's really more than COOL!

Joe, this was some pretty neat stuff, to complicated to wrap my head around in the time I spent with Cliff, but some really neat possiblities.

[ambrozac]

Joe, I'm pretty sure it will do what you mention. I only use keystrokes.......Attached is a jpg of the toolworks program, along with how the program appears at the top of X4. I run some of the macros by clicking on the icons, but mostly by keyboard commands. There are 4-5 different ways to execute the same macro.

[perryh]

The website doesn't have any videos, so I think i will buy it because I'm sure it will help. Learning it could take some time. Any Idiot can do it so I will try.