ChiefSymbols - Thousands of 3D CAD Symbols and 2D Drawings for All Chief Architect Products

ChiefSymbols® CADright™ Power Tool

Using CADright

To create a CAD file which displays hatching and fills which are present in your Chief Architect file:

1. Create a .wmf or .emf format version of what is displaying on your screen by exporting from Chief using the File>Export>Metafile(WMF, EMF) option. This can be done in any view: Plan View, Elevations, Cross Sections, Camera Views or Overviews.

2. Using File>Open (through the menu, with the toolbar button, or by keyboard input) open the metafile in ChiefSymbols® CADright™.

3. Using File>Save As (through the menu, with the toolbar button, or with keyboard input) save the file in .dwg or .dxf format with a name of your choosing. You may select the version of .dwg or .dxf file to save your file to from among versions 11, 13, 14, or 2000.

The newly created .dwg or .dxf file is now ready to be edited in any CAD program which can open or import files in .dwg or .dxf format – including Chief.

The new CAD file will contain only one layer (0). For this reason it will often be best that in Chief you turn off, prior to creating a metafile, the display of all items which aren’t needed for the display of fills and hatches. Creating a file which contains as little as possible will simplify editing and the process of reassigning layers (if desired). All the other items in your Chief file should be exported using the File>Export>DWG/DXF Option as Chief will export these items correctly and will preserve their layer assignments. It’s then a simple matter to copy the edited file containing the hatch and fill information into the file containing all the other data.

Depending on how you have defined wall types and fills in your Chief Architect plan, you will likely wind up having some unwanted fills in the .dwg or .dxf file you create. Simply select the unwanted fills and delete them. This is NOT a flaw in ChiefSymbols® CADright™ but is, rather, the result of how Chief creates metafiles and how Chief creates hatches.

For example, if you create a wall type with a solid blue fill in one layer and then add diagonal hatching to an instance of that wall type so that it displays in Chief as black diagonal hatching on a white background, please be aware that Chief has NOT eliminated the blue fill but is actually overlaying the white/black hatching over the wall and NOT replacing the existing fill definition. As a result, even though in Chief all you see is black hatching with a white background, when you create a .dwg or .dxf file it will also show a blue fill in that wall which you will want to delete to maintain conformity with how Chief displays the plan.

Chief may also change solid lines to dashed lines. This is most easily remedied by group selecting the affected lines (in AutoCAD use the Quick Select tool) and correcting their line type all at once.

Another quirk of Chief which you need to be aware of is that all text items in the .dwg or .dxf file you create with CADright™ will have a solid fill background unless before exporting a metafile from Chief you designate a transparent background for all text items. To do this before text is created, make sure that the “Transparent Background” box is checked in Edit>Preferences>Appearance>Text Items. If text items are already created, double-click them to open them and verify that the box is checked.

Remember, ChiefSymbols® CADright™ is not a file editor and any changes which you want to make to a .dwg or .dxf file created in CADright™ must be made in Chief or in another CAD program. You cannot make any changes to a file in CADright™.

Click here to request a download link for the trial version of CADright™