Rich_Winsor

Although it is possible to modify the graphics files that are installed with Chief, it is definitely not recommended. 

 

Replacing the installed files with different ones could cause missing file errors, slower loading times, increased memory usage, performance problems, and who knows what else.

 

If you start experiencing any problems after doing this, the first thing you should do is uninstall and reinstall the program to restore the original graphics files.

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.

The Quadro 410 is overpriced and slow......

.....It is unclear to me what you get for your money with a Quadro.

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.

Thanks Rich , look forward to the "Mona Lisa"   , might even change back to the X7 icons then

128 x 128

I like those Rich , would you mind posting the 3 you have shown here please ...and thanks

 

played in X7 tonight , no issues with my X6 icon Change that I found.

 

M.

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.

 

 

Rich how about a step by step guide to doing that.  I would love too!

 

When done with them all Rich , please post to the Symbols Library    Thx.

 

M.

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.

I did this short video about the Joe Carrick phantom plant schedule turned into a plan note or key schedule. I love this thing.

http://screencast.com/t/jnlkuc4xlIfP

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. 

...BTW......  I think the Padres might be pretty good this year.....  I think we have 6 all stars on the roster...... World Series,,,,  here we come!!!

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?

Thanks for your answer Rich. To me still not doable in Chief without trouble. Any of those kinds of jobs coming my way, I'll take a pass.

Ditto.............

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.

It would be nice to place a filter over a texture that could effect the way light is refracted/reflected such as in brushed stainless steel.

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.

As you can probably tell by now I have been amusing

myself by having a play with tessellations and applying

them as materials. I really like the way this particular

one wraps the corners of the building. I can see this as

a mosaic in Morocco or perhaps Santorini.

Yes you did and it was duly noted, but does that

call for the shameless self-aggrandizement.

What the hey, if we don't stand up for ourselves

who will?