rickwookie

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Posts posted by rickwookie

  1. 2 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

    I believe resistance is futile, especially as 5G becomes more established, you can see that this will bring a lot of new players into the market as traditional mobile providers will be able to expand into areas that only hardwire players were able to serve.

    Installed a 5G router for a customer last week, since he insisted it's all he would need (getting internet service into the property was becoming boring). We had warned him that it would be anyone's guess if it would work or not, and what speed he would get. Sure enough, position the router in one spot (where it couldn't stay), got 220 Mbps download, then 25 Mbps, then 58 Mbps, moved it about 30 cm, got 0.4 Mbps. There are just too many variables with wireless. Now we'll have to find a spot that has reasonably consistent speeds, and then wire that point back to his network switch to distribute the the various WiFi access points around the property.

  2. UK “average” homeowner is probably the same then tbh. I’m always amazed how many people glue a Ring to their front door and have to regularly take out the battery to charge it (I actually thought this was I joke when I first saw this is how they work!) when for similar money they could have a hard-wired equivalent.

    One of the biggest things I’ve noticed since lockdown though is that people are really starting to take notice of their networking and WiFi (or lack of it). I think is should be a requirement of Building Regs now days that any new builds should have a minimum amount of structured cabling installed. We acknowledge that we need powerwall of a building, so we should also acknowledge that we need data everywhere too. Trouble is, everyone thinks you can do everything “wirelessly”, until they try to.

    My rule is this: if a device never moves, wire it!

  3. On 3/7/2020 at 5:28 PM, PamelaT said:

    How do you get the light strip to glow evenly. Same results with Rope lighting as well.

     

    Thanks

    LED Light Strip Test.jpg

    I am getting precisely this effect when trying to add a rope light to a trey ceiling. I've upped the max number of lights from the previous default (I think it was set to 20), but it's still looking like this. Is it not possible to use the rope light to effectively simulate LED strip (tape)?

  4. On 6/17/2020 at 11:54 AM, elgreco said:

    I have been using Home Designer Pro for some 12 years (now upto HDP 21).

    I recently upgraded to  Chief X12 and I am looking to set up a UK and EU user group to include Chief X.. and HDP users.

    It would be useful to share ideas and tips on matters more relevant to UK and EU design practices.

     

    If you are interested in joining please reply to my post.

     

    Regards

    George

    Woking, Surrey, UK

    Count me in George!

     

    On 6/17/2020 at 3:30 PM, TheKitchenAbode said:

    Hi George, would be highly interested in this as I am relocating from Canada to St Albans UK in about 4-5 months. Have currently completed two builds in St Albans and currently working on a third one. As you mention, there are differences in design practices including the planning process/requirements, building codes, build techniques and nomenclature. As a long term users of Chief Architect it became instantly evident that CA, due to it's North American focus, requires considerable modification to adapt it for use in the UK. Fortunately CA has the ability to be customized, just a bit of extra effort to set things up properly and some additional work to create custom symbols and CAD blocks. Would be my pleasure to take part in a UK/EU user group so we can share our experiences and techniques.

    Hey TKA. If you want an AV and Home Control/Automation specialist, that just so happens to live in St Albans, for any of your future builds. I'm your man.

     

    Either way, let me wish you an advanced welcome to town!

  5. 41 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

    All I can say is that you can create some fairly complex 3D molding lines. Just takes a while to find the right combination of needed views and when to use the lines DBX to make adjustments via coordinate entries.

     

    This railing system was done using 3D molding polylines.

    1251223274_CommercialRailing2.thumb.png.c4724f29307745f974d170c6f930653d.png

    Impressive as that is (and I mean it, it's great!), none of the moldings you have there appear to be off-axis, so they would be reasonably easy to break and edit using a parallel section views (although it's annoying that you would even have to do this and not just be able to break them in plan view!). If for example your stairs were flared (got wider) at the foot, then suddenly you'd find it near impossible to insert a break in those rails on that stair section.

  6. 1 minute ago, robdyck said:

    But to place a section camera, draw cad line on the desired random angle molding edge, rotate the line 90 degrees, and drag a section camera along that line. 

     

    What the heck are we talking about here anyhow? Exactly what is @rickwookie drawing anyways?!

    Underground pipes in terrain.

  7. Just now, robdyck said:

    That's right. First, you'd need to adjust that segment off vertical, then break, then readjust the desired segment to vertical.

    I've tried variations of this, whereby I "temporarily" set a segment I need to break to have zero Z value in plan view, insert the break, then try to "put the segment back" but of course there is then a problem - it's now two segments! So now I can't just re-inset the two Z values at each end, because I have to use ball-ache maths to calculate the Z value of the new intermediate point. This isn't the worst part, since that point will be getting moved anyway (the entire reason I would need to put a break there), but what is a problem is that when you put the other two ends back "where they were", Chief seems to have a mind of its own as to what then happens to the two segments that branch off of those two ends, i.e. they don't orientate themselves back where they were before!

    • Like 1
  8. 1 minute ago, robdyck said:

    I insert my break in plan view, then edit the line length and coordinates. Obviously you have to know where the start and end of each segment is. I drew clockwise and keep the 'start' locked.

    You'll now find that in plan view you can' no longer insert a break on the segment that raised (or lowered) from zero height.

  9. 2 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

     

    Agree, there are situations where the original view is not conducive to inserting a break, depends upon the lines direction. If I started the 3D molding line say in plan view then if a segment was vertical I would need to flip to a section view, however it seemed that the ability to insert a break varied depending on the section views camera position, front, back, left or right view. It seemed that whatever view you are in you need to make certain that when you click on the segment that the break is to be inserted that the segments end, start and center nodes display properly, if not this seemed to indicate that CA was not seeing the segment properly and the break insertion might fail.

    And since you can't rotate a section view once placed (another bug?) or from what I can see, place it with a specified numerical angle, trying to have it lined-up with the line section, when that section is off-angle, is nigh-on impossible!

  10. 4 minutes ago, robdyck said:

    My guess, and its just a guess, is that the 3d molding was designed (by Chief) to produce trim on a wall or roof edge. Maybe that's why it's not very user friendly for something like representing piping. In the screenshot below, I added a vertical segment and I get a messed up 90 joint. Seems odd. 

    image.thumb.png.153c59f54aa56802549e0752a1160353.png

    Is that one continuous line?

  11. 1 minute ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

    From my time playing with 3D moldings I found that when inserting a break it was best to go back to the same view type that I originally started to draw the 3D molding line in. Once inserted I would then flip to the best view to adjust it. Not sure it's a bug but the ability to insert a break seems to be dependent upon the view you are using such as plan versus an elevation versus 3D.

    It only works until you have any depth (relative to that view) applied. Try it. Draw a Polyline in plan, convert to 3D Molding Polyline - you can insert as many breaks as you like - now select section of the 3d Molding Polyline and set its Z coordinate to something non-zero (maybe try setting a different Z value at each end to have it sloping up or down for extra "fun") - now try inserting a break...

  12. 2 minutes ago, robdyck said:

    The only alternative I'd have is to separate it into pieces, just for the simplicity. Items that need to run vertically...just use a separate item, either a molding, or geo shape, p-solid, whatever. One thing I like about p-solids is the ability to specify height relative to terrain. Whether its a continuous 3d molding, or pieces, it's all got to be edited either way, right? 

    I've tried using long cylinders, and while their behaviour is more consistent, getting their ends to be in exactly the right place is also difficult because they don't have end edit handles, so you need to do some tricky maths to work out the "rotation" of the cylinder in 3-axes. Coupled with the fact that you don't appear to be able to set the rotation values as absolute values (only + and - delta steps from an unknown reference!), it's a bit of a nightmare.

     

    I suppose what I really what to know is: Is not being able to add a break in the 3D Molding Polyline a bug, and if so, will it ever get fixed? If it's not a bug, what's the logic behind it?

  13. Why is it so difficult, and in many circumstances impossible, to insert a break in a 3D Molding Polyline? Surely this is a longstanding bug. Often the only way I can do it is to convert back to a standard polyline, but then of course I loose all data in the 3rd dimension, effectively flattening my line. If I add enough breaks, I can then convert it back to a 3D Molding Polyline and then move all the points again, although this is very tricky too, but then if I find I'm just one edit handle short and need another break - boom, I'm back to square one!

     

    Is there an alternative workaround to enable the routing of pipes and ducts through 3D terrain, where for example the depth (Z axis in plan view) has to change over the length to create a fall/run, but BOTH X and Y also vary, to avoid terrain obstacles?