Michael_Gia

Now you have me questioning myself again, Richard. I have used Archicad and rent it from time to time. I’ve yet to complete a project in it but have used it to view and dimension large landscaping drawings created by our landscape architect. I build homes, and although I do my own plans for the homes I build, project wide landscaping and structural plans are contracted out. Chief can’t handle those files very well. I’ve attempted to build a full model in Archicad and although the model always comes out wonky and missing the detail I can get in Chief, like millwork, room finishing and cabinets, the construction documents in AC are on autopilot, it seems, they’re a breeze. Labeling and dimensioning in AC is also so much easier than in Chief. The way AC handles floor levels/stories is also very intuitive and when you place something on a given floor it stays there regardless until the end of the project. I wish I could build and “decorate” the model in Chief and then send it over to AC for condocs and annotation. On other hand, I just watched the new X11 bathroom demonstration from Chief and I just know that designing that bathroom in either Archicad or Revit would be an exercise in hair-pulling frustration and the end result would not encourage my clients to sign a contract. And that is the other big reason I use Chief. I don’t use a model home, so I rely on the visualization features of Chief to win contracts. I don’t think there’s a software better suited than Chief for this purpose.

The answer is, yes you can. Any cloud service will allow you to access and edit the file from any computer running Chief.

Wow, thanks for the detailed and unbiased response. I was hoping I’d hear something along those lines. It’s hard to get good answers from users of other software, mainly because they don’t use or know Chief enough to compare. I’m always looking over my shoulder to see what others are doing in Revit and Archicad because they do have a lot of great features and functionality that I wish Chief had. They obviously are not suited for residential, North American style construction and especially for solo practitioners like myself. I do learn a lot watching seasoned Revit and Archicad architects draw plans as they are pros and I, as a builder, have a lot to learn from them. (I’m not an architect or draftsman) thanks again!

The above is a Revit tutorial on placing garage doors. It would be the same process in Archicad. Keep in mind that even after you go through these extra steps you would have quite a bit of adjusting if you were to change the size or placement of your garage door. Chief automates this stuff for us. Although in Archicad and Revit you have far more precise control over every little detail, in general Chief gets it right for standard residential construction here. I was curious if any Revit or Archicad users would agree or if you would say that giving up total control over elements outweigh Chief’s automated features? This is only one example of where Chief is much quicker, intuitive and elegant than these other more powerful softwares.

Softplan only added dimensioning to elevation views in the latest update. Before that you had to take a cad detail from view and then add your dimensions. Their material list takeoffs are very nice though.

Looks like Las Vegas bought out Chief Architect. To each his own, I guess.

I will say that the real problem is the way layers sets work in Chief. It's far too easy to make a temporary change in a layer set and then forget to revert back to how you want that particular view to show/behave. The solution is that when you make a change in a layer set there should be a button at the bottom that says "update" or "apply" to make the change peranenet to that plan view and layer set. So that when you double click on that plan view again it should revert back to the "original" state of the layer set. In other words there should be a two step process in permanently affecting a layer set cjange as a safety.

Just looking at your baseboard at the end of the half wall that separates the shower, it seems the floors are at different levels since the top of the baseboards don’t line up. (1st photo) Really nice bathroom by the way!...

Ok, that was my problem. I always have automatic heights turned off. Thanks!

Yes, this is what I’m trying to do. Copy staircase on floor one and then paste it on floor 2. Transform replicate will move it up to floor 2 in plan view but not in 3D.

Ok I'm sure I've done this a million times without an issue but, when I copy a staircase form one floor and then paste it (paste in place) on another floor, the staircase gets pasted with the same "bottom/top" height as the original staircase. Effectively, I get a stair case that shows up on the floor plan as visible on the desired target floor but in 3d the staircase is simply duplicated on the origin floor. I have to open the copied staircase dialogue box and adjust the bottom and top heights so it displays in 3d at the proper level. Is there some trick to paste a staircase from one floor to another like we do with every other element drawn in Chief? Or has this always been the case?

I remeber being initially perplexed by the new reference display dialogue box. It wasn’t obvious what the active floor was even though there was an enormous red arrow pointing at it...lol But I also know what it’s like to be under the gun and trying to get work out and then being stumped by a totally revamped tool and not taking the time prior to read up on it so I think we should cut OP some slack. It’s a rage reflex. It happens.

If by geometric shape you mean polyline then you can insert a note in your polylines and create a note schedule for those polylines.

So, is this the accepted method to accomplish this now? Or, what Joe said above, “X11 Railing Wall Follows Stairs”? Which, by the way, I have no clue what he means... Great video!

If you select the room and make a room polyline as mentioned before you can insert the %perimeter% in the label tab of the polyline dialogue box.

You can export your plan as AutoCAD format or even PDF. You can also export a Chief 3D model as Collada and it will open up in Archicad no problem.

Thanks everyone. I’m on a MacBook so some of the solutions don’t apply. I did try turning off all non-visible layers but it only helps marginally.

My aging laptop might be showing its age but vector view has become incredibly sluggish to the point that I now only use standard view. Is there anyway to improve the speed of vector views? (Besides the obvious of upgrading laptops). I’ve had this issue since X10. If I remeber correctly, traditionally standard view was the slower of the two. Might be dreaming on that one.

Your stainless steel and those seat cushions are just amazing. My 24hr raytraces don’t even come close to your PBR’s! I even watched all of RenéRabbits’s PBR session that Scott hosted the other day....

Thanks to both of you. I get it now.

I can’t seem to use the new “perimeter” value for a standard polyline. It only seems to work for the room polyline.

If I have a text box with a macro, then I can change the text style just fine for that text box, but how do I refer to my room polyline so I can display info about the room polyline? I can create a room polyline and use its object specific values but how can I get a random text box containing a macro to refer to those polyline object specific values? I know I can use a text box in a room to pick up room specific values but not the polyline values. Or is there a way?

thanks, will do!… I thought I was going crazy for a minute

Are polyline labels locked to only one independent default text style? Example: If I create a "room polyline" and open it's "object layer properties" I get the two lines highlighted, one for the "polylines, labels" and the other is the specific layer that I have set up to change color, line style etc... I want to change the text style of the polyliine label but if I do this it will change the text style of ALL polyline labels used in the plan. How can I change the polyline text style only for that item?

I had asked for the “perimeter value” in room to be available in Ruby and it’s now in the latest update to X11. I asked for it a week before the update....yes I realize it probably wasn’t because of my suggestion but I chose to believe it was, ha ha ha.