Renerabbitt

Voice-to-text ai formatted unchecked(There may be errors) For me, the best new features in Chief Architect X18 are: 1. Speed. Speed for everything. This is probably my favorite improvement overall. Project Management feels significantly faster across the board. Creating new projects, deleting projects, deleting individual files, and even booting up Chief Architect in Project Management mode all feel much quicker. I can’t fully confirm this yet, but plan draw speed also seems faster to me. On the whole, X18 just feels faster and more stable. Rendered views also seem more stable in DLSS mode. For any kind of ray-traced/rendered view, DLSS now feels faster and more usable than it has in the past. In some cases, the ray trace with DLSS enabled feels faster and more stable than a standard rendering technique, which is a pretty big deal for day-to-day workflow. On top of that, I’ve been doing a bunch of system testing and have found that if you want the greatest amount of speed in Chief Architect, a RAID configuration for your hard drives may actually be a worthwhile expense. Chief appears to rely on thousands of individual file reads/writes rather than just large sequential writes, so a RAID setup can make a noticeable difference for the fastest possible system configuration Since it is always indexing or cachine many different img files for your materials 2. Layer-based fill styles. This one is huge. The options are basically endless when you can control fills on an object-by-object or layer-by-layer basis. My favorite implementation so far is a working framing view where different framing member types are clearly distinguished by their fill styles. That alone makes framing views much easier to read. I’ve also set up a bunch of custom layers for wall type display control, including separate control for air gaps, framing layers, exterior layers, and interior layers. This allows me to drive an entire wall display system across saved plan views, making wall assemblies much easier to read, customize, and manage. 3. More object types in Style Palettes and the library. The additional object types that can now be included in Style Palettes, or saved to the library, are another big workflow improvement. Things like distribution paths and cladding profiles being savable to the library open up a lot of potential for faster, more consistent workflows. 4. Room labels. Room labels are definitely one of my favorite additions. I’m using a custom font to create rich-text-style room labels, and I’ve built a three-tier system that abbreviates room names and ceiling height labels based on the size of the room. The result is that I almost never need to relocate a room label because it doesn’t fit inside the room or because it conflicts with dimensions, text, or other annotations. That is a huge quality-of-life improvement. 5. Project Information System. I’m using the Project Information System to drive annotation preferences and automatic annotation systems. For example, I can now automatically annotate wall elevations just by dropping in notes or text annotations that are driven from project information. I really like how this reduces user error and lowers the potential liability that comes from having the same information entered in multiple places. Having one addressable location for project-based annotation data is a very strong addition. 6. Nudge Further in layout. The new Nudge Further function is really useful in layout. I’ve actually inverted the way I use it. I set my snaps to 1" and my grid to 1/8", so I can Shift+nudge by 1/8", while still snapping or bumping layout boxes by 1" increments. That setup has been really nice and saves a lot of time. 7. WebP image support. This is a bigger deal than it might sound like. I was able to reduce my overall backups by about 5 GB just from WebP support. For people with large libraries, like myself, that is a huge improvement. It saves storage, speeds up backups, and generally makes managing large assets easier. 8. Editing materials created with Material Builder. Being able to edit materials created with the Material Builder is another great improvement, especially when working with additional SBAR files. This makes material workflows a lot more flexible and useful. 9. Managed Mode units. Managed Mode units are something a lot of us have been asking for. I still want a few improvements to that tool, but I’m very happy to see this addition. 10. Retain auto framing by converting to manual framing. Being able to retain auto framing by converting it to manual framed members is a really cool addition. I think this could make a big difference for pole barn construction and other workflows where you want Chief to generate the framing but still need manual control afterward. 11. Default room fill. Setting up default room fills is also a great addition. I can see this being especially useful for real estate-style plans, stock plan listings, presentation plans, and other graphic plan workflows. 12. Library thumbnails. I really appreciate that Chief is generating thumbnails for library items. Anything that makes browsing large libraries faster is a win. 13. Restricting schedules to specific floor levels. This is a huge addition for anyone doing automatic area analysis or floor-specific schedules. Being able to restrict schedules to particular floor levels opens up much cleaner automatic reporting workflows. Overall, X18 feels like a very strong release to me. Some of the changes are flashy, but a lot of my favorite improvements are the ones that remove friction from everyday work: speed, better display control, better annotation systems, better library workflows, and fewer opportunities for user error.

I never use this feature for my template creation. it affects to many things that I want to remain unaffected. this means I have to be VERY careful about not drawing any rooms. I've never truly understood when or why chief architect rememebers rooms but i find it easiest to just make sure i dont draw one. I then do a practice plan to dial in my layout and links etc, and any changes i make i then either have to import or duplicate into the blank layout and plan.

yall forget that I consider Mark the cabinet master..not the other way around Man is a wealth of knowledge

This conv better in chat most likely but I give 40% off to all previous purchasers. There are update codes in the accounts tab when you login. There's also a bout a billion hours of development since you last purchased, ha...probably some things you might really like.

very cool. this is the system in X18 thats more for spec but can handle any information output to a csv: 260702.mp4

I built this for my X17 templates. it read right from CSV automatically and while in project management mode. I personally loved it, but again was too complicated for scalability. Not only does a system have to be hands off and intuitive but it also has to handle modification and unique parameters if I were to distribute. All in all, even though it was only a few steps to setup, I had user after user wanting to setup unique parameters and naming conventions that would break the system. It was very cool though for my own personal workflow to just tell my ai agent to go look up my last meeting and update my designer/client info based on that into a csv and then open chief up and see it all there.

Your system is not all that different from mine conceptually. You and I just have very different needs. Keep in mind that I distribute my templates, and they need to be workable for beginner to intermediate Chief technicians. Because of that, above everything else, the system has to be user-friendly with very little need for additional process documentation. It also cannot be overly specific to our California code requirements, which would be 10x overkill for most of the rest of the world. It also has to be intuitive from the perspective of someone completely new. Like you mentioned, it took you a long time to build your system. It also took me a long time to discover what is actually intuitive to an end user versus what I personally perceived to be intuitive. Designer, client, and project information all come from a Project Information plan. This allows someone to easily swap out that file with other versions they have built by copying it, which can be used for things like changing the title block, logo, design load criteria, specifications, and so on. This is not just California-specific. The system does have automatic lookup for a few criteria across several states. Previously, I had automatic spec switching based on project city, state, zip code, or country for NBC Canada. But again, even that became a bit too complex for the end user. Now, with X18, the end user simply types the code criteria they want, such as “2025 IRC,” into Project Information, and the spec switches through a macro. So at the base level, all the end user has to do is swap out their logo, fill out their designer information, and enter the code criteria fields. Simple user input. The macros handle the rest. I strongly dislike gathering data from polylines. I find them to be the least intuitive for end users, and they carry the most liability because the user has to manually update them whenever the building model changes. Because of that, my area analysis comes from a room schedule with some macro magic that allows for adjustments. In other words, site analysis is coming from the building model itself. Thats the bulk of what I have on my G1 page or G001 for you maybe I have three template pages: two scaled pages, one at 1/4" and one at 1/2", and one no-scale template page. Switching the template changes the scale annotation and adds a graphical scale. That is all I am including in a base-level plan intended for distribution.

YES YES YES YES YES and more YES Mine also executes as soon as layout is opened, without ever opening the plan file because the polyline is alongside of those information blocks and they are sent to layout 260702.mp4

yeah he posted it here on chieftalk somewhere a long time ago. I have a bunch of pages of notes in onedrive from things all of the macro guys have said over the years. I use it in a plan file. the plan file is setup for all title block info and spec writing on your general sheet so its easy to swap out when i change jurisdictions or who I am drafting for etc. all of this gets sent to different parts of layout and this polyline has all of the captures

I was on a training call yesterday and, as I often do, I started by giving you big compliments. But I also mentioned that no one could simply pick up one of your layouts or plans and immediately understand how everything works. The workflow is incredibly specific, with a lot of knowledge required to perform even simple tasks, plus all the unique layers and layer sets involved. You and I wouldnt need this but its nice for end-use All that to say, leaving a macro call inside a value is a smart way for the template to automate a task while still giving the end user one easy place to override that automation when needed. In other words, its great for scalability without the need for unique training. I always hear Kevin Transue screaming from the rooftops "inheritanceeeeeee" Why this dbx was designed in a way that didnt just inherit properties from other similar dbx is what he would be referring to. Why isnt there a "user input dbx standard" module thats just plug and play so that it behaves similarly to the project browser/library browser or the "add lights" dbx? as in a displayed polyline or other object with a label that says %$chief_project_zipcode="%project.zip/postal_code%";""% yeah...same wish +1000

this copies your layout with all of its established linked plan files into a new folder within your existing project. This will be a completely separate layout with linked plan files that will have no links to the originals

260623 (3).mp4

Fairly easy solution: 260623.mp4

Turn off automatic fillers, and select your cabinet and add an extended stile