Rich_Winsor

So.... what you are saying is that everything is "peachy". Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

Don't know D. Scott. Preferences says that it should be checking for updates daily. What has been holding me back from updating is that I am unsure of the procedure if one is using the hardware lock. I'm using X6 with the lock. If I upgrade to X7 will my X6 lock still work or are they going to ding me for another $60 for a X7 lock? Chief's product page shows different locks for the last 4 versions (X4-X5-X6-X7). Anybody know the procedure? Or do I need to get on the horn to Coeur d'Alene?

Dermot, while I can appreciate the cautionary note, all I am doing is editing the existing files and assigning different colors to the 400 (20 x 20) pixels that make up the X6 graphic icon file. There is no change in the name or path. I'm no expert so correct me if I'm wrong but I am pretty sure the software doesn't care what color the pixels are as long as there are the proper number of them and they are located where the software expects them to be. I did learn something that had never occurred to me before in that the color of the pixels apparently does affect the file size. For example a 20x20 pixel white square is 142 bytes while the same square in black has a file size of 131 bytes. Live and learn. Anyhoo, these files are so minuscule that a few bytes more or less would have an undetectable effect on system overhead. Now Mick on the other hand.... well who knows what he's up to?

That's kind of odd. I have the exact opposite problem. I haven't upgraded to X7 yet and was wondering why I don't get the message saying that there is a newer version of the software available and would I like to download it now.

I think this is another case where what you get is "hosed". BTW, I speak from experience here. I originally built my workstation with a Quadro 4000 video card because at the time it was one of the preferred cards for running SolidWorks. After I started using Chief all everybody was talking about were NVidia gaming cards. For a long time I pooh-poohed the notion that the NVidia cards were that much better than my Quadro until Doug posted the website with the benchmark information. After I upgraded my card to the GTX 780 Ti I was blown away by the improved performance in Chief. And the real kicker is that I haven't noticed any appreciable difference in how SolidWorks performs, granted I am only using a small percentage of that software's capabilities.

128 x 128

Here you go Mick. Here are a handful of icons I created for X6 to replace ones I found to be less than intuitive. 1) Mouse-Orbit Camera - I overlaid the sphere icon with CA's original mouse-orbit camera icon and added a little color to the background to make it more visible. 2) Save - I replaced the hackneyed 3 1/2" floppy icon with a simple "S". 3) Library Browser - I never could find those little books on a shelf so I replaced them with highly visible letters. 4) Record Walkthrough - What a brown circle had to do with recording walkthroughs I'll never know so I made what for me is a more intuitive icon. 5) Project Browser - Ditto the Library Browser above. 6) Straight Stairs - Just added some color to Chief's transparent background to make it easier to find. I guess I really need to get on with upgrading to X7. Compared to the 20 x 20 pixel format of X6, X7's 128 x 128 format will be like night and day. Heck with 128 x 128 I can make the Mona Lisa.

JJ, I see that Mick has pretty much picked up the ball and run with it but the process is easy. Using the image editing software of your choice navigate to the "buttons" (what Chief calls them) folder. Most likely it will be: C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier\resources\buttons and then open the Icon you want to change. Creating icons is a mini art form in and of itself (get it? mini art form ). Talk about a minimalist canvas, X6 gives you 20 x 20 pixels to work with. Although I haven't downloaded it yet I guess that has been increased to 128 x 128 pixels for X7. You can do anything you want from here. You can copy and paste content or you can draw it from scratch pixel by pixel. Once you have what you want just save it to the "buttons" folder and the next time you open chief you will see your revised icon. Be advised it's probably a good idea to save the original to another location so that you can go back to the default icons if you wish to later. Also be advised that there are lots of icons in the buttons folder and it might take some searching to find the one you want. If you aren't sure if you have the correct icon you can edit it and then check to see if the icon you wanted to change has in fact changed. Remember that you will have to close Chief and then restart it every time you change an icon for the changes to take effect. Here are a couple of other icons I have changed to make them more recognizable (the Library Browser and the Mouse Orbit Camera icons).

You guys do know that you can edit the icons to look like whatever you want them to. They are just .PNG files. You can edit them in Photoshop or PSP or even in Paint. Here I spiced up the background of the Stair Icon as an example.

Don't want to hijack your thread Mr. P but I just wanted to say that of all the different video formats people are using to post videos to the forum, your Snagit videos display more clearly and at a suitable screen resolution for me than all the others. I can always see all the screen on my monitor without making any adjustments and there are no annoying progress bars or the like blocking pertinent information from being viewed. I can clearly see what icons and menu items you are referencing whereas with some of the other formats I often need to pause the video to be able to see what tools are being used. This has been an unsolicited Snagit testimonial. Now back to your regular programing.

Could be. This is the off year for the Giants.

Did you hear the conspiracy theory that the 'Hawks didn't give Lynch the ball because the organization wanted anyone but Lynch to be the hero?

Doing the un-doable (or at least giving it a shot) is what I'm all about. Along with thinking the unthinkable. I'm sure you guys have been down these roads before so humor me as I beat my head against some of these barriers. Here is what I came up with by putting openings into the wall before making it a symbol. You've gotta look on the bright side. If you don't open the door past 90° it will shut automatically.

I believe the present ratio for a day (24 hour period?) is 1 negative vote and 10 positive votes. Don't know how the day vs. 24 hours is determined.

I have not really been around long enough to know how it was in the "good old days" but it does seem to me that the tone of the forum has changed recently from one of problem specific solutions to one of complaining (for lack of a better word) about the perceived shortcomings of the software. As I have said before the software is what it is and perspective users would be better served by learning to use it in it's current configuration than wishing it was more like some other software program. But don't despair. I have had a sneak peak into a brand new one click interface Chief is working on. Just click on the icon on the startup screen and the software will read your mind and create a complete set of detailed construction documents.

What are those symbols in your avatar? They seem to be relics from the dark ages.

Hey guys, it was a late night and I burned a lot of brain cells working on this one. Remember when Antoine stopped the show and insisted that you try to tilt the origin logo out of plumb? That's basically what I did with a wall. First I just drew a straight section of exterior wall (I chose Stucco6 because I wasn't man enough to deal with the problems presented by horizontal siding). Then while in 3D view I converted the wall section to a symbol. I placed a copy of the symbol into the plan view and using the Symbol Specification dbx I rotated the wall section symbol 5° out of vertical/plumb. Then once again while in 3d view I created a new symbol out of the previous symbol. I now have a symbol of a section of battered wall that is tilting out 5° at the top. That was the easy part. Then I put a copy of the tilted wall symbol into a fresh plan view and tried to coerce it into behaving enough to get the results you see. As you all have correctly surmised there are some interesting issues to be dealt with not the least of which is the fact that regular walls don't recognize and interact with symbols of walls. I placed invisible walls on top of the battered wall symbols to form a room but then the floor and subfloor of the room wanted to extend out beyond the bottom of the walls to be in line with the ceiling. Rather than mess around with that I just removed the floor and used a Polyline Solid for the floor. As Perry pointed out putting openings into the wall symbols turns out to be a bit more problematic. I was hoping somebody might have a solution for that. The wall symbol won't accept doors or windows and it doesn't show up at all in framing. Plan B is to try putting the openings into the wall section before turning it into a symbol and see how that responds but I haven't had a chance to play around with that. This was a banzai attack with no turning back to get these results. When I regain my strength I will try to refine the approach. Attached is an Interior vector view. All in all it's pretty clean. Moldings are another thing that don't respond to symbols of walls but I didn't want to take the time to do them manually. I guess the $64,000 question is can a wall symbol be made to act like an actual wall with all it's attributes?

I can draw sloped/tilted walls. This is dedicated to Antoine. He gave me the inspiration during the symbols workshop.

What Bill said. That will get you back the missing section of ridge cap. To get rid of the gap in the gable fascia board you need to adjust the Fascia top heights and Ridge top heights for the two taller roof planes.

I think you are going to have to attach the plan for this one. The only way I can approximate that condition is by turning off "Walls, Normal" in Display Options. Are you sure that box is checked in the 3D view you are using.

Yeah, but you guys are all screwed up down there to start with. You can't even get the water to go down your drains in the right direction. I'm with Joe on this one, smaller dimension first.

Sweet, I like it!

Not sure exactly what you are after. This is what I came up with.

Todd, if you have the time check out this training video. It's long (over an hour) but does a good job of showing how to manipulate surface characteristics of various materials. Ray Tracing Tips and Techniques

I don't know how Chief handles these things but last year I took a year off from renewing my Solidworks seat. The Solidworks equivalent of Chief's SSA runs close to $1600 a year. When I looked into reviving my subscription they were happy to waive the arbitrarily imposed $500 penalty for letting my seat expire and reinstate me like I had never left. Maybe you can just take a year off from Chief also.