Barton_Brown

Richard, just to make sure I understand...

You have your 'Chief Architect Premier X6 Data' folder stored in Dropbox, with a user_library file of 1.2GB and this 1.2GB file syncs in only a couple of minutes?!

I'll check into Dropbox as it sounds like they are doing a much more intelligent sync than the blind 'upload the file' syncing that Microsoft is doing with OneDrive.

Thank you for the info.

My apologies for participating in the hijack.

No apology needed and gesture appreciated.

At the risk of starting another hijacking... I didn't blame the Troll under the bridge, or anyone else. Hijacking is easy to do, I just prefer that threads stay on topic.

That said, hopefully Jerry will rejoin us and get the conversation started again. He is aware that I posted his comments and my desire to re-engage the conversation...

This is Jerry's ( gwheckendorn ) response to a PM I sent him regarding whether his questions about CA were answered (he gave me permission to post his response):

Good Morning Barton,

I have no idea what 'hijacking' means in terms of thread manipulation...so I had/have no idea of what happened.  To answer your question, I am still struggling with making the move after all the time and money invested in Vectorworks.  However, I've been very disappointed in the lack of productivity I have with their product..even after joining Archoncad (which is a web based training site by Jonathan Pickup who has written several of Vectorworks training manuals) and reading a large volume of pdfs and watching tons of videos.  That is what I'm doing now with Chief Architect.  I started using the trail version of CA ver. X6, but the program crashed on my Macbook twice, causing me to lose all the work I did (each time when I went to work on the roof).  Without the ability to save any work I've done, I had to start over.  I was attempting to re-create a recent project I completed with VW so I could compare the excercise to what I know.  Anyway, I still need to research/think about making the move, and the thread helped a little..but not enough to reach my tipping point!

Jerry

I would like to restart the conversation. This time specifically focusing on the productivity features that are bothering Jerry and that CA is, hopefully, better at providing.

After reading Doug's comment and and reading the following from the reference manual: 

As you have determined, it doesn't appear that CA will import .stp files.

So, what is a .stp file? 

The "STP" format, also called the "STEP" format, is a three-dimensional drafting specification used by a variety of CAD, or "computer assisted drawing" programs. Some users may run into difficulties opening or importing a STEP file into a standard CAD program. "DXF" files, on the other hand, are recognized by virtually all CAD programs, and the DXF format is the closest thing to a universal CAD specification. If you are given a STEP file, you may want to convert it to DXF for greater compatibility.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_8714018_convert-stp-dxf.html

It appears that one option, since this is probably a one time conversion and CA will import DXF files, is to get the FreeCAD application:

FreeCAD is a free, open-source CAD modeler available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. FreeCAD can import from and export to a variety of file formats, including both STEP and DXF.
 

FreeCAD is available (for free  ) at http://freecadweb.org/

Yep,  I  am annoyed.  The OP got his answer very quickly.  What else does he expect to hear from people who use this program?  It's a great program,  if it wasn't,  we would be using something else.

 

 I am with Jim,  this was a  very informative thread and quite frankly I would rather learn something new at the risk of hijacking a  thread.  There are probably a hundred different threads on why this program is preferrable over another.  But how many threads thrash out what we just spent over a hundred posts thrashing out?

 

Jeez guys,  look at the positives that came out of this thread.  The OP gets a lot of props from me because he stimulated this conversation.  Barton,  you should be thanking those that contributed to your education in lieu of bashing them. 

 

Unbelievable. 

Scott, 

Sorry you are annoyed, I was too after the thread got hijacked.

How do you know the OP got his answers - he was just starting to ask questions about CA details when the bottom fell out of the discussion. He was looking for productivity improvements - didn't see much in the discussions that addressed that topic.

I was hoping to get a better handle on how other programs compare - with some details - not just "I switched and I love CA".  I have an architect friend that I've been trying to convince he should switch from ACAD to CA but I don't know ACAD. Thought this thread could provide some general insights I could leverage in our discussions. I've already given him my pitch - which was a good enough that now I do his 3D ray traces while he does the 2D  CDs in ACAD. It is a sweet deal for me so maybe I shouldn't be rocking the boat  except that it is a lot of duplicate effort which his business can't afford in the long run. My fear is that he would ask me about CA competitors - like Vectorworks and I would have no response.

Moving on, was the other information informative? Would it have been just as informative if a minutes worth of effort had been spent starting a new thread dedicated to the new topic? Yes and Yes. Was this 'hijack information' as valuable to me as the original thread topic started out to be, No.

At the risk of annoying a few people, my preference is that as soon as a thread gets hijacked, the hijackers start a new thread and allow the original thread to return to the stated thread subject. Thread hijacking is easy to do, I admit to falling into the trap myself.

I doubt the the OP really got an answer to his question other than a couple of posts saying 'switch to CA' without much discussion. I'm speaking out because I was interested in learning about what the competition to CA has to offer. That discussion got completely swamped out once the thread was hijacked. Anyone viewing the thread subject title would have had no idea this thread was about the need for a CAD 'offset' tool - who knows, you may have had additional contributors had the thread and title been consistent.

Lew,

3.4 GB, Wow!  A library that size would definitely bring the 'cloud storage' approach to its knees, or maybe a complete face-plant. 

When I'm in Oregon, the cloud storage approach might be doable for a while but on Bonaire the internet speed drops by a factor of 10 so it definitely wouldn't work there, even now. 

Oh well, it seemed like a interesting approach...  I'll still keep plan, layout, etc files in the cloud, just not libraries.

Bryce, the location where you tell CA where to look for the file is in Edit->Preferences->General->Folders->"My Data Folder:"

The sync time issue is not because of the size of plans, layout, etc files. The real time hit comes from the size of your user_library. Mine is about 350 MB in size. It appears that CA tags the user library every time CA opens and at least the Microsoft OneDrive blindly syncs the user_library file even if it has not change, but just been opened. I may bail on this approach and just use the cloud for storing the working files and manually sync the libraries...

Bryce,

As promised, I did some experimenting with syncing libraries with OneDrive - everything works as one would expect. I'm not sure yet why extra files showed up but my test was to make sure the user_library was in sync, disconnect laptop from the network, open CA, modify contents of the user_library, and close CA. The local user_library showed the updated date/information. I then reconnected to the network and automatic syncing commenced. 

The only gotcha that I can see at this point, and pointed out by Doug Park, is that it takes about 10 minutes for a complete roundtrip sync to occur so shutting down CA on a desktop and immediately grabbing the laptop and leaving the office will obviously leave you un-sync'd and could be leaving one open for library data corruption. As long as one allows time for all systems to be in sync before leaving the office with the laptop, one should be OK.

Joe, defect reported to Tech Support last night. Received confirmation this morning that the information was sent to the development team.

Doug, thanks for the response. The cloud software I am using is just the 'standard' OneDrive cloud software provided by Microsoft for Windows Update 8.1 .

Good to know that this situation is not coming from CA.

OneDrive has a 'wait' icon displayed in Windows File Explorer when synching is in process (the icon is diplayed at the folder and individual file level). I use this (plus a network monitor plugin) to confirm that the 'sync' has completed before turning off the 'source' machine. My connection to the cloud is 55 Mbit/sec download and 12 Mbit/sec upload although the actual speeds are determined by Microsoft's systems.

As you suggest, I need to learn more about Microsoft OneDrive.

Thanks.

Bryce,

Not sure what is going on with the 'user_library' but was finally motivated to take a look at the data folder on OneDrive. To my surprise, there are multiple libraries out there tagged with the computer names (see image). CA must have decided to 'save users from themselves' by not allowing sharing of one 'user_library' between computers. Using the cloud to keep libraries sync'd may not work after all. I will do some experimenting today...

Yes, change from VectorWorks to Chief.

 

 

Andy.

Andy, what are you doing? Trying to hijack this thread and take it back to the OP's original question? 

I appreciate Doug Park's reservations about using network drives but using the 'cloud' has worked well for me to this point in time.

My workflow is similar to Bryce's with the difference that I use Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service. As long as I pay attention and do not shut down the computer before the syching has completed, I have had no issues. I suspect Doug would cringe on learning that besides plan files, I also place the 'Chief Architect Premier X6 Data' folder in the cloud as well. I have a couple of reasons for this, most importantly, I don't need to worry about keeping my 'user library' in sync between computers and the archive files are available no matter which computer I am using. 

This stated, I'm not a multi-user company so I have no issues around multiple user access to the same plan file, for example. 

Joe,

I'll submit a bug report also. Sometimes having multiple reports on a specific bug can up the priority for getting it fixed. At the very least, there will be a new entry in their defect tracking system to get their attention.

While some might argue that the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is not technically a tablet (in one of its modes it is), I have enjoyed running CA X6 on it because of its high resolution display and great portability.

I, for one, would rather CA focus their efforts on a minimum of platforms (Windows and OSX) in order to maximize the CA product features and performance. 

Joe, you are correct.

In my response I was addressing a different issue. My issue was a 2D CAD block that didn't match the 3D symbol. Having CA generate a new CAD block solved the alignment issue between the 2D plan view placement of the symbol and its 3D location for a 0,0,0 symbol origin.

Your bug issue is different. I performed your exercise and replicated your results. 

At the risk of sounding like CA tech support, I assume you have already filed a bug report with CA and receive confirmation that they replicated the problem? Your posting was intended to be a public scolding of CA? As you stated, there are a number of known bugs that have yet to make it into an update (including one that I reported to CA...)

Thanks Nelson, I thought I was up to date on the bonus libraries but I missed this one. Interestingly, a search of 'barn' within the library only gets one door, the 'barnplank' door.

Unfortunately, none of the doors in the library match the picture shown by the OP ...

If I needed to add a barn door to my design, most of my work would be done in Sketchup. First I would go to Sketchup's 3d warehouse of free, user supplied symbols and search for 'barn door'. There are doors with tracks available for download. After selecting something as close as possible to what is desired, I would download and modify in Sketchup. Once satisfied with the design it is a simple matter to import the sketchup model into CA as a symbol.

It would also be possible to create a barn door symbol directly in CA but since I find Sketchup easier to use for the creation of these types of symbols, that is my preferred workflow. 

There are probably also third party barn door symbols for sale, I haven't needed one so haven't looked.

Cincilator, would you describe in more detail the specific problem(s) you are experiencing? 

Joe, I have noticed symbol offset issues with some of my user symbols that were first used in earlier versions of CA (X1 to X5?) that were automatically brought forward to X6. My easy fix was to go into the symbol dbx and have it create another 2D block. The new block was correctly positioned and correctly sized. While one shouldn't have to do this, the workaround has been pretty painless for me. Not sure if this is the issue you describe but sounds very similar. 

Dennis, regarding the 'overall look', if by that you mean the image seems grainy, this could be due to the amount of 'available light' for the scene. The more lights, the crisper it should become. One thing I have noticed, especially with X6, is that ray traces of rooms with daylight entering through a window, or exterior ray traces seem to meet my 'goodness' criteria with 1/3 to 1/2 the number of ray trace passes needed for an 'interior lit' ray trace. Stated differently, you will probably need to at least double the number of ray trace passes to equal the goodness of a well lit scene.

CA has a nice summary write-up on this topic in the knowledgebase: http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00010/255/Chief-Architect/Ray-Traces/Speeding-up-a-Ray-Trace.html