Michael_Gia

No secret, it's Revit.

I doubt anyone, Twinmotion, Chief, etc has had the time to implement the M3's raytrace capabilities. We probably won't see it for quite a while. One can only dream. I'm expecting my new 16" M3 Pro, MacBook Pro in about a week. (36G) I'll come back and update on PBR and realtime rt.

Limitations in Revit Lt. No model-in-place families. No view filters. (compare to Chief's Plan Views - no competition) No collaboration Limited editing for roofs and floors, etc... Also NO plug-ins. So forget about easily customizable cabinets, etc. I don't think LT is in the same category as Chief X15, not by a long shot. (I can't believe it. I'm starting to sound like a Chief fanboy)

Revit if you ever want a job. Chief, if you are in business for yourself and work primarily in the single family home, stick construction industry.

I understand your frustration and I used to think the same way. Until I made a temporary switch to Archicad, and that was after trying out Revit and VectorWorks, and keep in mind that I originally switched to Chief from many years with SoftPlan. If your work is mainly residential stick construction and you mainly produce construction documents for permit that require you to get approvals from your clients based on visuals from a 3D model, then I'm afraid to inform you that nothing compares to Chief...as much as I hate saying it. I'll give a small snippet of a limitation in Archicad for you to appreciate Chief's automated Room Definition approach. So, if you Place a garage door and that door cuts into both the main floor wall and the foundation, then Archicad will only cut a hole in the wall you place the door. You will then have to go down to the foundation wall and cut a whole for the garage door. And guess what happens when you move that door left of right? You guessed it, you have to adjust the hole in the foundation. Nothing is perfect but Chief is specifically designed for a very particular segment of the design-build industry. All you have to do is determine if you are in that group. If you are stay with Chief, otherwise you will spend a lot of money and time to come full circle back to Chief.

The reason the program is changing your material is that it’s reverting to the wall’s “default material”. Click on the wall and open its dbx. Go to “wall type” tab and click on the “define” button. Change the siding material that you want for this plan. The program’s default material for this wall type is now changed for this plan. Precautionary step: while still in the wall’s dbx go back to the “materials” tab. Verify that the “Exterior Wall Surface” says “Default: __________” next to it. If it doesn’t, click “Select Material”, select the “Plan Materials”, scroll to the top of the list and select “Use Default”.

Not easy to do since Chief is always trying to “smooth” out the different elevation regions. If you’re trying to create an idealized terrain to show slopes in the various elevations and 3d view, then what I often do is to use 3D solids and 3D mouldings to create the terrain. (A very geometric but precise terrain) This way I can precisely create the slopes in cross sections and then convert the shapes into 3D solids and adjust these objects in plan view to create the slope away from the building and simultaneously create the water drainage slope from the back of the property to the street. After you create all theses various wedges and pyramid type shapes you can join then all into one object. The downside is that Chief won’t recognize the resulting 3D solid/terrain as a true terrain. So, when you want to place trees, shrubs, fences, etc., the objects won’t snap/gravitate to the terrain. What I do is, export the model to Twinmotion which does allow for placing of objects on my “terrain”. That is where I do the landscaping stuff anyway in my models.

I always make it 1 inch less. That seems to work. Although this dialogue box is one of the world's great unsolved mysteries. Thankfully Chief’s auto roof gets things mostly right, otherwise I’d still be working on my first plan.

Why not the 16”? I’m looking at getting the 16” model only because that’s what I have now. Like you, I hav it hooked up to an external monitor. I rarely do actual work on the laptop without the external monitor. The laptop alone is mainly to take on site and show stuff, or to suppliers when clients are choosing stuff. I’m just worried I’ll miss the slightly larger screen on those occasions. I would like the savings, though.

The other bonus is I almost never lose my toolbars now. “Almost”. Well, a whole lot less.

Ok, I went through this very painful and educational experience. Forget what everyone is telling you here. This is the deal with MacBooks and their retina displays when hooked up to an external monitor. It’s all about the ppi (pixels per inch, aka pixel density) The ppi on your external monitor has to match your MacBook display or be half of that density. If it isn’t 1:1 or 2:1 then you’ll have “fuzzy” text, quite a bit of lag (even though you probably haven’t noticed that yet, but it’s there) It has to do with how hard your processors have to work to translate the image onto your external monitor. This translation happens at 60Hz. That’s a hell of a lot of calculations even for a super duper MacBook. I actually had to downgrade my external monitor from a 4K monitor to a 2K monitor (QHD or 1440p) in order for the image to be as sharp as on the retina and with no lag. Or at least I experienced and increase in “snappiness”. You’ll see. I don’t recommend going with a 4K monitor. Pixel density is dependant on screen size. There’s a formula for that. For example, I went with 2560 x 1440 for a 27” monitor which works out to 109 ppi and my 16” Macbook is 5120 x 2880 which works out to 218ppi, which is roughly twice the external monitor’s density. Which is an easy translation process for the CPU’s. Hope that helps.

Thank you for the confirmation! I thought I was going crazy. Do you know how often I have to print a plan view to pdf just so I can verify line weights? What gets me is how many on this forum will just blindly defend Chief on such a crucial omission. An omission that could probably be fixed with a half line of code. (Talking out my rear end, here) Chief’s biggest strength is the speed at which you can go from plan, to 3d model, to construction documents, complete with framing and interior trimming. No software is more efficient at this than Chief. In my opinion, it trips at the finish line for not being able to accurately output to screen what those construction documents will look like. What a shame.

I just threw out an Epson eco tank. Lots of ink but crap output. I ordered a Brother MFCJ6955DW. I should get it this week.

I’ve made a request in the past. I’m not even suggesting anything revolutionary, although judging by the push back from some on this forum, you’d think I was trying to recruit them into my own private cult. Every software of this type has a real “print preview”. Even software like MS Word, Adobe Acrobat and Illustrator have a ctrl or cmd “0” to see a 100% print preview that shows true line weights. Maybe when Chief sees how so many oppose something as fundamental as a true print preview they figure there’s no use in allocating resources to making such a change in the software? Of course this assumes Chief actually reads this drivel…

If you find yourself struggling with walk throughs, you can always record your screen as you pan around, preferably with a space mouse. Then you can stitch together various clips and even create transitions between clips. The other option is to get acquainted with Twinmotion. It’s a lot easier to create videos with that software.

I think what you have to keep in mind with stairs, is that there should be a "breakline". Anything above the breakline is dashed, or whatever you please. Where's the breakling, you ask? Well, if you look at your floor plan and can see an opening where the doors are then the "cut-view" is a little below your door headers. So if you have 80" doors then you are probably looking at a plan view that has a breakling/cutline at around 78". If you really want to see the effect of this and see exactly how your stairs should appear, then take a perspective floor overview and select a top view. Then use the cross section slider and set it to 78". This is what your floor plan is showing you in 2D. Try to match that with your stairs, as well. An orthographic floor overview would be better but for some crazy reason Chief won't allow us to use the cross section slider in this view for some strange reason. Too bad, because we could overlay the 2D floor plan over this in a layout and get a true annotated dollhouse view. Maybe X16?

I've seen a few videos that show a significant speed increase when going from 250g ssd to 1T ssd. I'm not well versed in all things computer so I don't understand how a larger ssd can have such a dramatic effect on performance? And the bummer is, apple charges such a premium for 1T ssd. It's rather disgusting that even the base pro and studio models don't come with 1T ssd as a standard option.

Hey thanks, Chris! That confirmed exactly what I was hoping for. Handling large plans is the litmus test, for me. It's hard to decipher which systems are fast, because most YouTube videos focus on benchmarks, which don't translate to anything in the real world, for me personally. Now the question is, do I buy now or wait to see if Apple will be announcing the M3 next month, which rumours suggest that it might support realtime rt? Not that I actually have a need for rtrt, but it would be nice once in a while.

I always get this as well with those wine coolers. I bet the solution is something embarrassingly simple. I can’t figure it out, though.

How does it handle large projects? I’m thinking of getting an M2 mini with 32g of ram and a 1T ssd. My current MacBook is sluggish only when handling large multiplex buildings. 32-Plex condo units etc. I also don’t really need super renderings. Here is a typical multiplex if you don’t mind taking the time to see if your system can handle it? Where my MacBook lags is just while working in plan. For example, selecting any item and opening its dbx takes a full 3 seconds. Funnily enough it actually handles a 3D full overview in standard render without a hitch. https://www.dropbox.com/s/xa9kfs0luwiknoe/>CITY PLANS 32-Plex Carignan.zip?dl=0

Uh oh, … the forum police. Better run and hide.

I think you’re starting to understand how this tool should work. It’s not subjective.

You are absolutely right! Don’t adjust your vision or glasses. A clipping tool should be exactly that, it should “clip”. Unfortunately, many people on this forum have only ever used Chief and are unaware of what a clipping tool should be. It’s not a novel concept. I think Chief has a half baked tool and hopefully will correct it soon. …And not as a new feature in X16 but as a fix for X15.

Chief’s terrain tools have not improved or changed since X6 or X7, when I first started paying for SSA. We’re at X15 now. You’re good with this?

Don’t use Chief to sculpt terrain. edit: Downvote me all you want, but this post will show that there is no solution to what OP is looking for. The fact is we have limited ability to properly and predictably sculpt terrain in Chief, for the moment. Instead of downvoting, prove me wrong. Best way to shut me up, I wont even mind.