Nicinus

In my view Chief Architect is perhaps most BIM of of them all , and Sketchup would be at the other end the scale. To me the promise of BIM is more than a parametric 3D model that can talk to others, it is a tool that actually helps you build and take care of the routine work and maybe even help with design decisions. CA does that way better than Revit and Archicad at the moment, admittedly only for residential, and Sketchup doesn't do it at all. Both Archicad and Revit are getting more and more clever in terms of parts and building components that fit together intelligently but things like for example framing are typically awkvard addons. Flame retardant suit on, but I think one issue for Chief going forward will be to shake a bit of the 'builder's tool' image and become more attractive to architects in order to be used on a bit more original and contemporary projects than what we typically see. Assuming that is what the management would like obviously, but I just can't stop wondering why the projects they have in their ads are starting to look very different from all the traditional sample plans we've seen so far. Perhaps the biggest limitation Chief faces is the lack of being able to handle multiple users but it may not be necessary for a while. The fact is, Chief's price point should make it very attractive for most smaller studios, especially now that there is a Mac version. I may be mistaken but from what I can tell you can't buy Revit separately anymore, only as a part of their Building Suite, listed at $6,850. Archicad is $4,250 and although a great tool, not optimized for the residential market and some prefer Chief regardless of price, I know I did. I do agree though, interoperability such as IFC and gladly FBX is a must.

Good one, that worked great! Thanks!

I made a bit of a mess by copying some roof planes instead of creating new ones from scratch (I wanted to be smart and retain some of the settings), and I now how three base lines in basically the same spot with their roof planes in other locations. Is there a way to figure out which baseline relates to which roof plane, or is there a way to reset the baseplane to wall under?

Thanks Robert, that was it!

Thanks Alan, that was embarassing, should have been able to figure that one out.

Thanks Ray, but that only removed the actual pattern in the material, not the gray scale shading. EDIT: I stand corrected, it came out the way I wanted in Layout, but still looks like a grayscale view in plan? Can anyone explain this to me? What if I wanted it to be a grayscale? Only possible as an image?

This is a possible suggestion (but also quite likely a misunderstanding on my part) but I can't seem to select an architectural block in elevation/cross section? I have a block of cabinets in a bathroom interior elevation that is unselectable. If I open the block in plan everything works as expected again in the elevation and I can manipulate the individual elements. I can multiselect cabinets and block them, but as soon as I block it I can't select it anymore. This to me appears inconsistent and in my mind it does not seem logical that I can't select blocks and move them and unblock them in elevations. Side question, how I can I export an elevation as a pure black and white line drawing without materials in grayscale?

Yes, so just got of the phone with tech support and I had definitely misunderstood the way it worked. There are two parts to it. Autosave: I was under the assumption that it saved every 5 minutes and then a number of files back until it eventually erased the oldest ones depending on a setting somewhere. This is the way it for example works in software like 3ds Max where you set interval in minutes and number of files to keep. However, in Chief it does not, it only saves the last file that is five minutes old (or whatever you set) and then overwrites that file. The problem with this is that if you are unknowingly starting to create a corrupt file but the program sort of still works (like it did for me when I was trying to figure out my sloping polysolid) or if you step back to think about what is going on for five minutes, you will also corrupt the autosave file. Since this is the only autosave file you have it this is something to keep in mind. Autoarchive: This is the next level of protection and it didn't quite work as I personally was expecting either. I had my setting on Daily, but contrary to what I would have found intuitive, that it would save a backup once a day the computer is on at a certain time or something, it only do so at the moment you save the file yourself. So if I saved last Friday I would get a file in my archive with that date, and if I then never bothered to save since I was only doing minor tweaks here and there during the day until today there would be no archived file during this period. Finally if I then work very hard today Tuesday and save more or less continously there will only be one file auto archived for the whole day, the last one saved, and in my case the one that turned out to be corrupt. If I had had it set to hourly instead I would have had a file that was at least an hour old or so assuming I had saved it then. Like in the daily example, if you would have confined your work to do a lot within the same hour you would only have one archive, the last one. In my case I lost all work since last Friday, and I guess the moral of the story is to use the Save button often while having Autoarchive set on 'Previous Save', which will give you an autoarchive file every time you save. (PS. If anyone ever ends up in the same situation there is possible hope if Chief crashed hard and didn't have a chance to erase all the temporary undo files. These are full plan files and Chief ironically adds another file sequentially instead of overwriting the last one in this case, so you can theoretically back trace until you find a file that is sound. However, these are all erased if Chief is closed normally)

Indeed I was.

I was messing around with a sloped patio I had created in an elevation and extruded, when Chief suddenly said I had a SEH serious error something. After restarting Chief it turns out my last saved file is corrupt, but so is the auto_save_bak plan, it's identical in size so somehow it appears to have written over itself while trying to save. Now, I have been doing minor work on this file the whole weekend, small adjustments here and there, and it has definitely been open on the computer. However, when I look in the archive folder in Documents/Chief Architect Premier X6 Data/Archives the folder has the name_2014_11_18 plan file as well as the autosave from today (identical in size and corrupt) but the next archived file isn't until the 14th (last Friday). There is no file from the weekend and nothing from yesterday? Looking in Preferences I have autosave on 5 minutes and auto archive on Daily? I will call technical support but thought I would check first if anyone here knows what is going on, or if I'm missing something?

Another way would be to implement improved poly line tools that can manipulate individual vertices and anchor points, this would enhance 2D cad as well as 3D modeling.

Ouch.

When I click on the object in plan it jumps?

I however is as confused as ever. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, will eventually figure it out I hope. I downloaded the plan and it becomes somewhat easier to grasp if looking in plan and elevation at the same time in two windows.

My original patio was created as a terrain feature. I don't understand what you mean here, how would I do it in a separate plan?

I can't get this to work. I can create the shape and control the extrude, but not the shape in plan view. Did you use boolean operations?

I'm doing a patio of about 50'x60' and my planned slope of about 3/8" per foot needs to be shown in elevation. Would a ramp be suitable in this case as well? I can't seem to figure out how to make a slope on a slab?

Why did they do that?

Wow, hopefully I will in X7 be able to say 'Remember in X6 when you had no clue whether an elevation in your print set was up to date or not?' Do you guys manually compare all views for changes, or never start with Layout until you're sure all work is done?

About a month ago I was at a point where I needed to print some of my drawings for review, and generated about 10-15 sheets via Layout. Now, a month later, I've continued to work on the design and made massive changes all over and are again at a point where I need to print. Needless to say my layout file is now out of date and needs to be updated. Two questions: 1) Besides elevations and cross sections, is there anything else that doesn't auto update? I've created a number of details but am not sure which ones I changed, do they need to be refreshed? 2) Most important question, is there a way to update everything needed at once? I have tons of interior elevations. I must say I find it very troublesome that there doesn't seem to be a way to tell whether or not a view is up to date or not. Sometimes I find myself wondering whether I updated an elevation or not and then have to go back and compare or do it all over.

I think I read somewhere that she has around 350 employees. So yes probably a receptionist as well.

Out of curiousity, what are you using for the other 70%? Unless it is something I'm unfamiliar with like Bentley I would bet I could list some serious drawbacks with those tools as well, like Lew says. I completely agree that Chief is not the tool for Zaha Hadid style architecture, but the same goes for Revit and many others. I do find it very good for conceptual design development though, far superior to Revit for example when it comes to quickly visualize traditional residential design. I'm personally not asking for Rhino/Grasshopper style freeform modeling here, just some tlc on the 2D editing tools and on the layout side. Perhaps a little more intelligent call outs etc. One has to remember that neither Rhino, FormZ nor Sketchup are particular useful when it comes to construction docs. If Chief would look a little at what interests the average small firm architects and how they would like to control the final output I think we would be good. Given the latest ads, which all display more modern design than all their demo videos do, it may be in the works, who knows?

Jim, I don't want to escalate the debate and with the risk of sounding arrogant, but the only reason for a statement like this is that you have to have a lack of experience with the alternatives. The way one edit polylines in Chief is very rudimentary and I can't see why we can't ask for improvements without being seen as, for lack of a better word, unpatriotic to Chief. This is not about Autocad, it is about the way splines and lines are edited in almost all other software products.