Michael_Gia

I just only downloaded X10 yesterday but one observation is that if you were experiencing sluggishness from having a layout open while working on your plans then “Plan Views” is the solution for you. I can have multiple views open and there doesn’t seem to be a difference in performance. I also like the automatically suggested titles when you click on “save plan view”.

Invisible walls. Same as you do for regular walls. -Define room -Adjust floor and ceiling heights etc...

As a result of watching this video I took the plunge and upgraded from X9. I can report that everything is working just find on my very modest Macbook Pro.

I’m really intrigued about these plan sets but I can’t find any details about how they really work. The question I have is, donplan sers save an instance of layer settings and defaults at the time of saving said plan set? OR If after saving a plan set you go and alter a layer set or default text height the plan set also changes accordingly. Can anyone comment, or refer me to a video or documentation?

X9 also had the same issues with Mac. Missing materials, white-out, etc... I think it was fixed in the first update about a month later. Or was it X8?

If you use the standard way to make a “U” shape staircase, which is to draw two straight stairs parallel to each other but in opposite directions and then click where the landing should go, then.... First, open your landing and copy the landing height. Second, copy in place your landing and adjust by bringing each landing back to the middle point of your staircase. At first this will cause one of the landings to drop down to the floor and bring with it the attached stairs. At this point open up the offending landing and paste the landing height you copied earlier and add to it a riser height. This will pop the landing along with its attached stairs back to the proper height. o

The whole exterior door frame and door sill has a few issues. I can never get the exterior door jams to look right, all kinds of z-fighting and color blending in from the interior. Door sill as you mention is a work around with p-solids. I really wish we could cut a cross section of an exterior door and then individually select the sill and shape it.

Accountedge for me. I don’t like Quickbooks at all. I used to use QB though. When they started with their subscription base racket I was eager to find a replacement that didn’t have a monthly subscription fee and that was Accountedge. I’m glad I switched.

Does that "saved plan view" save the layer settings at that instance as well, so that even if you subsequently change layer settings the "saved plan view" will not change as a result? In other words if you subsequently turn of a particular layer, say, room labels, this will not turn off the room labels in the "saved plan view". Otherwise I dont see the benefit. I'm sure I'm totally missing something but it's not clear from the videos...

I often use p-solids disguised as walls for this type of situation. No snapping issues. Of course you forgo the materials and framing but it’s a small sacrifice. I wish Chief had a “don’t snap” tolerance we could adjust for walls. Or even a radio button to turn it off all together for select walls. Would also be nice to be able to “peel” back individual wall layers, but I guess this is better suited for a post in the suggestions category.

I have this whenever I have some crazy large PDF in one of my drawings or layouts. I’ve since corrected this by converting the PDF to a much smaller size PNG. No reason to have PDF actually. Now views switch instantly regardless of how many windows I have open.

The approach is to get your terrain right first, then the driveway simply follows the terrain. Don’t try to force your driveway or a p-solid to flow like you would want the terrain to do. Look up terrain for help, the driveway is an afterthought.

I started with Softplan back in 2006. I switched to Chief 2 years ago after stumbling upon this forum and fiddling with the demo. Great support group here. Softplan is more confined and less flexible. That is, there aren’t multiple ways and work arounds as there are in Chief to get virtually anything done or to get you out of a rabbit hole. With that said Chief is also a little more “confusing” because of this ability. Softplan was more straightforward from drawing to plan sets. It was easier to organize you drawings into a set of plans. However the limitations will inevitably lead to frustration the more adept you become at using the program. This is why most will say Softplan has a shorter learning curve than Chief. That slight advantage is short lived once you become a power user. You will switch. I also spent 3 months training to use Archicad. I still wish I would’ve kept at it however the cost of the software and the plug-ins I would need to further invest in made me look elsewhere. Revit is a mess. Stay away! (my opinion)

I just realized I miss understood your question. For panning I enable “sticky keys” I then press CMD button once and then I’m in pan mode and only need one finger. Otherwise you have to hold down the CMD button while you pan with the trackpad.

It’s in > settings > accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options • Enable dragging (three finger drag) The great thing about this is you can use your track pad and draw lines, walls etc and you don’t need to hold down the track pad. Just click to start line, wall and drag freely with three fingers wherever you want and then click a second time to complete draw. Saved my life kind of tip.

Here is an orthographic view and also a water color....

I don't know about you guys but I send my plans to my truss supplier and he produces the floor and roof truss plans for me to accept and then I submit that to the city along with my plans for permit approval. It's a free service and removes the responsibility from me and onto that of my supplier.

I think that was OP's problem. He didn't realize you still need walls under the main staircase, thereby having to reduce the basement stairs' width by the thickness of the walls above it. The walls that you place under your main floor staircase is what creates the stairwell that you designate "open below". The walls could be invisible as well or a railing if you want the basement stairs to be visible from the main floor. At least that's my interpretation...

I guess this would be a bad time to say that I love the new format for the training videos? I usually watch the videos on a sofa or in bed with an iPad, so the format is more suitable. The new format also makes it easier to keep track of which videos you've just watched, and what's next.

This thread reminds me of thanksgiving dinner with that relative who we all have to watch what we say around for fear of him erupting and ruining the event....again

Personally, I always have that "auto rebuild attic walls" turned off. If I need to close some gap, I'll edit the wall and drag it up to fill in the void rather than have an attic wall auto-rebuild. It's pure chaos otherwise. I think the "auto re-build" attic walls is more of a "training wheel" feature for novice users.

Material regions are good at corners so long as you set the depth that they cut into the same thickness as the outer layer of the wall they are drawn on. (just a tip)

Believe it or not, making windows "opaque" in the render view settings fixes this. It it is a bug that's not been addressed yet as far as I know. ....and who the hell is down voting this poor gentleman???

I bought a used iMac two years ago having switched from pc for much the same reasons. Behold... 21.5 inch, Mid 2011 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB C02HN8T1DHJF OS X 10.11.3 I'm very happy with it. The number one difference with a pc is that it performs the exact same way today as it did the first day I got it. I don't experience any lag or crashing. I can certainly afford upgrading to a 2017 IMac but I couldn't be bothered. I think the main areas to spend money on are a solid state hard drive and as much ram as you can afford.

Thank you so much! It is indeed the .bmp format causing the issue. I really appreciate your help.