paulchoate

You can save everything on one drive and link all of your computers that way. I'm not saying to "work" off of one drive. Simply save/backup everything to your one drive folder so that when you open the file on a different computer it opens the most recent version and all of your catalogs, libraries, etc. are the same.

What was your solution?

Back clipped cross section showing the framing is correct as well.

Just tried it in x12 and it works without any issue. Raised the ceiling to 10' then dropped my roof back down to the typical 97-1/8" height. See the attached pic of the plan view and wall elevation view.

I have been trying to find an acceptable work around as well. I tried the "balloon through ceiling" with no luck. I'm not satisfied with having to do a back-clipped cross section or CAD detail to get a wall elevation of a room with a vaulted ceiling. I think if the ceiling is higher than the wall top plate then it should be shown in a standard wall elevation (but who cares what I think lol). I did find a work-around that was semi-acceptable but it wouldn't allow my rafters to be shown the way I wanted them...I forget exactly what I did but I wasn't crazy about the solution.

I'd like to change the default fill pattern for my footings. Chief has the default as concrete (which is fine) but I want to have the default footing fill background be grey instead of white and the concrete pattern lines in black. We can of course change the default fill patterns for concrete walls/foundations, slabs, etc. easily but I don't see any option for footings or anyway to change the default concrete fill. Is this possible? (FYI am using x12). The Chief "Help" guide just says that footings default fill is concrete but does not indicate whether it can be changed or how it can be changed.

Thank you.

LOL...I think it's actually 32GB

Thank you. I'll start looking into the layers. My system consists of a Ryzen 7 1800x CPU, Nvidea 1080 GPU, Samsung EVO 960 SSD, 654GB memory.

Like I said, adding all of the 3D objects are done to give the clients realistic renderings of what the project can look like. Adding plants, furniture, etc. are a big part of selling a job to clients. If all I wanted to do was draw CAD lines I wouldn't need Chief. Back to my point, is there anyone who can tell me what I can do to speed up my computer if I want to use all of the features Chief offers?

Great advice BUT I don't want to turn off layers. I want to use 3D plants. I want my framing on. So, just tell me what I need to do to get it to run faster! PLEASE!

But that is EXACTLY why we use Chief lol! It's a 3D modeling program and is marketed that way. WE (the designers and builders) don't care about the fluff BUT the fluff is what makes a good layout look Great to clients. Inserting that fluff into plans Its like staging a house to help it sell. So, that said, if the engineers who make Chief are going to give us all these great 3d features then they really should provide us with some answers like EXACTLY what hardware to use (and not the minimum requirements...we are far beyond minimum here).

That's all fine but we are talking about Chief and only Chief. We don't need broad, general answers. We need to know what hardware will run Chief. Not just run Chief but run it so there is minimal lag on even the larges of files.

I'm in the same boat. I'm running: an AMD Ryzon 7 1800x CPU, Nvidia 1080 GPU, Samsung 960 EVO SSD, 64 MB of memory, two 1080p monitors and an Asus Cross Hair mother board (if that matters). And though I do back up on OneDrive all of my work is done off my hard drive (I've heard working on files online can crash the system or cause other issues). Working on plan files is rarely, if ever, a problem (although I would like to have ZERO lag when going from a plan view to a perspective overview but I can deal with 2 or 3 seconds of lag). The issue I have is when the layout file gets big the lag time I experience for ANY operation on layout is near-unbearable (just moving atext box can result in 10 seconds of lag time!). I'd much prefer to upgrade my computer than to have to watch what I put in my plans (trees, appliances, terrain, etc.). I want to increase the horsepower so to speak but there is so much conflicting advice (Quadros are good. Quadros are bad. More cores, less frequency. More frequency less cores, etc.) I could care less about ray tracing speed. And my plans & layouts consist of both 2d and 3d (somebody said something like 2d and 3d are handled very differently by the hardware). I'm willing to spend a good chunk of change on a new computer or hardware (I already spent close to $5k on my current rig) as the lag time kills my drive, motivation, etc,. Sometimes it's so bad it takes the wind right out my sails! So, do I need to add another Nvidia 1080 GPU, change out my 8-core "medium" frequency CPU for a 4-core high frequency CPU, change from Gforce GPU to a Quadro GPU? Please, if anyone has the answers let me know. Tech support can't even answer me. The best I could get from a Chief Tech is to check the formus lol! Or maybe does having microsft word, excel or quickbooks running on my computer at the same time the problem?

I'm having the same problem. The plan looks great on my computer screen in the layout and plan file. But when I print "Chief Architect Save as PDF" many of the lines are much thicker (on t he screen and on paper). Can't figure it out.

Lol...you think I’m a homeowner. I’m a builder/designer who’s smart enough to know that a few trees, plants and furniture in the plan/layout can make or break a render. These are concepts for homeowners not working plans (yet). A nice kitchen renovation looks good without furniture, plants, etc. but throw those things in and it changes the dynamic in a big way. But what do I know.

Thanks Javatom. I’ll see what happens when I delete the furniture, plants, tree, fences, etc. I’m wondering if it’s the large number of trees I have (not the first time I’ve put trees in a plan but I put a lot of them). No PDFs but I did import quite a few jpegs. I’ll look into all of the things you brought up...much appreciated. Question...even if I have the trees, furniture, etc. turned off they are still taxing the system?

Any lick in resolving the problem?

I got rid of an old CAD file I imported that I used as a CAD detail. Getting rid of that detail reduced my plan file from about 45,000 KB to 38,000 KB. The layout file is 16,800 KB. No change in performance though. I do have two plans linked to the layout (one of the as-built house and one of the remodeled house)...could this be the issue? I use the as-built house plan on a couple of pages in the layout to show what the house looks like now: floor plan views, an elevation or two and a rendering or two. Almost all of my views (elevations and perspective overviews) in the layout are "Live View" but I only have them update when I manually update them so the live views shouldn't be the issue. This thing is running as slow as molasses...it's killing me: every move I do in layout takes 5-10 seconds for the computer to process. My drivers are up to date. It's gotta be something in the layout of plan file that is causing this. By the way, I always have the plan and layout file open at the same time.

Can't load the plan...file is too big

Levai_Mudroom_Layout.layout

Lately when I'm in layout my computers (both desktop & laptop) slow down to the point I have to wait 5-15 seconds for the computer to process everything I do. Even moving a text box can cause a 5 or 10 second delay. Doesn't sound like much but when it happens on every single process it adds up quickly. Any suggestions?

Thanks Abode. Your tips have helped reduce my ray trace times dramatically. I cap them all at one hour and when I make the correct adjustments they look great...eventually I'll go from hours to minutes.

Really nice. Those quality ray traces used to take me at least 6 hours...I'm getting better. Thank you.

Impressive...I gotta sub out to you lol