Michael_Gia

Holy cow, these plans are a work of art!

Chief sample plans are always well done but I think these win 1st prize. 

I don’t think Chief’s walkthough and in general video tools are where they should be yet compared to its other capabilities. 

Not to mention, the still inadequate 3D Viewer. 

If your goal is to share videos and models with clients your best option right now is Twinmotion.  It’s free and much faster than Chief for video walk throughs, even if you include the time it takes to export your model to Twinmotion. 

29 minutes ago, someguy said:

Is there a command that will keep all the walls connected so I don’t have to go back and clean every wall up?

Menu -> Edit -> Edit Area

learn this command. 
 

A lot of times we come from other software and miss a certain tool or workflow and we spend too much time trying to make the current software behave like the other.  Often it’s just a matter of getting used to a different workflow with the tolls we have at our disposal. 
It’s not better or worse, just different. 

2 hours ago, SabGroup said:

I can export to a dae file with no issues.

Yes, you can export with DAE and it’s even quicker than 3DS and can even handle bigger models than 3DS, but you won’t be able to control an individual object like a gutter with DAE. 

53 minutes ago, SabGroup said:

If you are exporting to twinmotion, you need to toggle on "two sided" for the gutter material.

Or in Chief you can create a 3d gutter and then export.

And for this to work the model has to be 3DS. 

3 hours ago, Chris50 said:

Hello, does anyone know how to make a sign to go on the side of a building?

There’s 3D lettering in a bonus catalogue. 
 

Slap those on a p-solid. 

15 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I just wish it were in the edit toolbar instead having to open a DBX and find it.

This touches on a general program wide problem with Chief. 
 

Opening a dbx takes a while, I’m assuming, because there is so many parameters and tabs in a dbx, so I can’t fault the lag on the software for that.

However, if Chief had a “status bar” in the toolbar for any object that is selected, and this status bar had just a few parameters, like length, width, height, height off floor and object type, then these main parameters could be changed on the fly without having to open a heavily loaded dbx. 

It’s not a revolutionary idea. 

5 hours ago, MathewM said:

 

I suspect the fact that the stairwell has no ceiling above is a factor

 

Maybe when you are completing the room, it’s taking on prior floor elevations, from the previous plan that the current one is based on?
 

Ghost in the machine type of scenario.  Which is why Chief recommends using a template, especially when upgrading to a new version.  
 

I’m just speculating, of course. 

30 minutes ago, DBCooper said:

No reason for the snark Michael.  If you don't want to use print preview, then don't.  Personally, I find it very helpful.

 

No snark intended. I’m sure my tone probably gave off that impression based on your reaction but that wasn’t my intention.  Just my inability to text without sounding snarky, I guess. 
 

However, you didn’t answer my question. 
Do you know what I’m taking about as far as “actual view”? 
 

If you do then how is this achieved with print preview in Chief?

I don’t think it is but maybe I’m missing something? 

1 hour ago, DBCooper said:

For now, I highly recommend using "print preview"

-> File

    -> Print

        ->  Print Preview.

This is print preview unless you know of another one. A magical print preview perhaps?

This does nothing but show you your page at the zoom level you are at, which is an arbitrary zoom level.

Have you ever used adobe acrobat or adobe illustrator or the like?

If so, then you are aware of -> View,  -> Actual Size.  Or simply cntrl or cmd "0" to get the actual print size.

This is what I'm talking about.

1 hour ago, DBCooper said:

It's called "Print Preview

You are wrong my good sir. 
 

Print preview simply shows you the sheet of paper, you will be printing on. 
 

It doesn’t zoom to the actual size nor is there any way to zoom to the exact real world size, except if you measure with a ruler against your monitor as you scroll to get somewhat close but not ever exactly to the actual paper size. 
 

For the “print preview” to be useful then it should have a view button with a 100% option, for example. 
Shouldn’t be difficult and it’s insane that we don’t have this. 

I rest my case

This is a long standing issue with Chief. 
 

First there should be a “view” button even in plan so that we can set our scale and see what our drawings look like at 100%.

That is, what would the plan look like if printed? 
The “line weight” button is pretty useless as you don’t really know at what zoom level you need to scroll to with the middle mouse button to see the printed look of your line weights and character heights. 
I often use a ruler and measure the plan on my monitor using a known measurement in order to approximate real world view.  That’s really sad.

We should have a “scaled view” with a toggle to make text magnification bigger on screen for when we work in scales when, depending at what zoom level we’re at, the text will always be visible. 
 

The other modification I’d like to see is “printed size” per scale. 
Example, I should just specify, in the text dbx, that I want 1/4” or 3/32” or 1/8” high characters regardless of scale. 
The printed text should be independent of scale.  
Let the software do the conversion whether I print at 1/8 or 1/4 or 1/2 inch scale.

In the meantime you have to do the math and be aware of which scale you will ultimately be printing in, in order to adjust your formula.

So a 1/8” high printed text needs to be set to  “8” character height in order to print at 1/8” and 4” if printing at 1/4”, I think?
I often get it wrong even though the arithmetic is elementary.  Which is why the software should be doing the math. 
 

Cue, the downvote brigade militia of Chiefers who mostly disagree with me on this even though every other software of this type uses this alternative system for text height and zoom magnification.  It’s so basic and it baffles me how this software was designed this way from the beginning and has gone unnoticed and almost never discussed. 

I’ve had this in X14 and just assumed it was a Mac issue. 

I usually just hit “zoom extent” and the camera readjusts to centre on the view. No big deal. 

I think nobody watched Rene’s video. 

1 hour ago, HumbleChief said:

I see what I was not doing after watching the video

After typing your search item, just hit return, and the search results will display.

Seems to work as expected. 
 

Now if I can only figure out how to reduce the icons to the size they were in X14. 
I liked being able to click on a folder and have all of the folders contents display as little icons. 
 

I think Chief just needs to put out a video on how to use the library, real quick. Like yesterday. 
 

I’m sure it’s great but we’re all a little too dumb to figure it out.  

1 hour ago, pjames said:

If I adjust the bottom height to remove this then the first flight is raised as well. Any ideas?

Stair sections connect.  You can Alt+click to adjust just the one set, if you want.

(Also there is a matching wood material for the plank flooring.  Not sure if you know this or you like the look of plank on your steps.

I personally use the wood and not the plank on stairs so that there's a better distinction between floors and stairs.)

1 hour ago, CarlosConsejo said:

is there any workaround you know about?

I don't know of any work around.

You could build framing and carefully place and drag various studs and floor joists so they are positioned in such a way that your section is just in front of those framing members.  So floor joists would have to be parallel to the section cut, etc...

38 minutes ago, VHampton said:

Clicking on the saved camera "viewport" causes the program to freeze.

Is that a grass area?
 

I bet it has something to do with that. 
 

Compare the grass in Standard render vs Raytrace.  

Is this a setting or a bug?  Anyone else experience this?

Love the grass region tool, by the way. 

1 hour ago, CarlosConsejo said:

Hello, 

 

I'd like to know if there is a way to see materials in 3d cutaways as solids.

For example I want to see studs as a solid, not as a 6 plane object that i can "see through". The same with beams, sheathing, etc.

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

Especially the terrain. Would be nice. 
At the moment you will only see the terrain cut fill if the camera is outside the terrain in an elevation. 
 

Maybe, I’m wrong but Chief does not have a proper “cutfill” feature like other softwares do. 
 

What we have is the almost useless, Autodetail tool. 
 

3 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

...is really great.

Don’t just tease us, post a pic or something…

11 hours ago, Designers_Ink said:

I threw it down on an as-built model I'm working on before starting the addition and remodel.  It definitely makes a difference in the grass realism.  

Really nice work!
 

Much better looking than what was presented by Chief in the X15 video. 
 

When I saw their grass, I laughed. It was horrible. 
And I assumed this was the best they could do with the new grass tool. 
 

Thanks for posting. 

Hey what is this new feature, “Customize Toolbars for Dashboard View. Set up custom toolbars for the Dashboard View.”?

Of all the new features in the pdf, this is the one that most intrigued me.

I’m too chicken to download X15, so any insight on this new feature would be appreciated.