mthd97

This is what I was concerned about in my above post. Quote: "Chief's roof tool is the most versatile and creates the most stable areas of a drawing (roof doesn't automatically change hgts when you move walls or adjust floor hgts etc.). I wish they would stabilize or provide floor platform thickness and floor elevation locks so that a floor platform remains as drawn when moving interior partitions." Yes, this is very important and urgent. Has X9b fixed this ? If not then, can we please make serious progress in XX thanks. Like we can lock a roof plane, we should also be able to lock room heghts etc when making any changes to the 3d model to overide automactic rebuild updates that throw the modeled room shapes out of place. I would say, that this is the biggest of all problems with Chief Architect, If we can fix this in XX we would have landed on the moon with XX. A giant step forward for Chief Architect and small step forward for the programmers of this app.

Have you found more stability with X8 or X9B ?

MSS3 works ok with X8 and X9 Beta but I need to test it out more with the new touch screen functions added to X9. I am not happy with the down time on Windows tablets for them to update, as this stalls the internet browser.

Thanks, Richard & Chopsaw. Yes I have to ask support about getting into the other part of the forum. I think it should be ok to discuss basics now as they have been revealed in the sneak peak. Yeah I can see it being a help with set outs and even templates too. I will have to do some testing with stairs and split level housing in X9b.

RE: "Custom Room Definitions", Can anyone tell me what the advantage of this new feature is ? We have been able for a long time to change the room definition to what we we choose. Even if we are not using the room for what it is set out to be in the room definition parameters as we can create our own custom room label. So I would like to know what the purpose is for this tool ? By the look of it we can create other room types with thier own specific room characteristics that differ from the room default list itself ? Correct me if I am wrong, since I have not been able to set up my X9 Beta Discussions forum to see what other testers are saying and doing with this tool yet.

Thanks mate, will those short ceilings and room default changes help you out ?

Where can I found out more about Join Me, sounds like a very clever idea to me ?

People do allot of silly things out of ignorance and that is why it is good to be well informed about how things work and how to use them properly. In Archicad there are many ways to do things but most don't require laborious work arounds or major fix ups for simpler and more complicated housing. Extreme home design is another story.

The more I see of X9 the more I like It. Drop Ceilings just great, stem wall ledges great too !

Compliance parameters are needed in stairs and balustrades but does this show up now after doing a plan check in X9B ? Great discussion and we should not be afraid of showing and asking CA what we need for stairs to be up to scratch for even relatively simple and common stair cases used.

A.S. and Yusuf that is mind bending, thanks, many will appreciate these example of what we can do in CA with work arounds if we have the time. Beleive it or not we were able to create curved roof sheet verandahs in V6 by using the method of attaching a custom molding and changing the material from wood to corrugated roof sheet to a shrunk down counter top base.

Yusuf has some great work arounds for difficult custom stairs and I remember seeing a multi story spiral stair case he designed using CA.

BTW what I wrote above was in another post but it is more applicable to this post thanks.

I am going to coin a new term, "APE" for how and why CA works fast with relatively simple house designing of rooms, stairs and other building 3D components. "A" is for Automatic, "P" is for Parameter and "E" for Extraction. We use Chief for its productivity and speed in producing run of the mill housing with relatively minor customization and features. I not sure if any of you have heard the saying "Going Ape" in the US ? Stairs in CA automatically extract thier parameters from where they are placed in the 3D CA Model hence the new stair types including the existing stair types in the drop down menu or child buttons. The problem has been that the room type that the stairs are placed in will affect the stair parameter data extraction and how they build. That's why we build a floor opening that is enclosed and room labeled open below so the stairs will supposedly build correctly every time. Specific room types also have their own destinct parameters and will affect how the stair builds. I have not tested this in X9 yet to see how this works with the new and existing stair types so if anyone has, please tell us when the NDA period is over what problems you found if any ?

RE: Scott Halls last post. I have seen his fancy stair library file that he has produced in one of his videos. What a great Idea for building customized stiar cases and storing them for latter use as a template file. I still hope we have an option in the future that let's us build and set our own stair parameters and marking the dbx to stop the stairs from inheriting parameters from its surrounding room. If this does happen we can call this feature "Frozen Stair Cases" if this occurs we can share customized stair cases with each other and modify them accordingly for our own home design project by setting our own parameters not from the room we place them in.

I am going to coin a new term, "APE" for how and why CA works fast with relatively simple house designing of rooms, stairs and other building 3D components. "A" is for Automatic, "P" is for Parameter and "E" for Extraction. We use Chief for its productivity and speed in producing run of the mill housing with relatively minor customization and features. I not sure if any of you have heard the saying "Going Ape" in the US ? Stairs in CA automatically extract thier parameters from where they are placed in the 3D CA Model hence the new stair types including the existing stair types in the drop down menu or child buttons. The problem has been that the room type that the stairs are placed in will affect the stair parameter data extraction and how they build. That's why we build a floor opening that is enclosed and room labeled open below so the stairs will supposedly build correctly every time. Specific room types also have their own destinct parameters and will affect how the stair builds. I have not tested this in X9 yet to see how this works with the new and existing stair types so if anyone has, please tell us when the NDA period is over what problems you found if any ?

Stairs when customized by the work of a skilled designer become a building of their own in some respects. In the ArchiCAD forum people are still asking for stair improvements so they can work thier own unique design skills. I think if we could have a stair builder and stair type library that we can deposit our own designs in, that would be good. For that to work though, we would need to be able to have a spot in the dbx that allows us to detach the stair from the model and retain its shape if so desired. Then if we choose to we should be able to insert a saved stair style into the model and then tell the dbx for the stair to adjust to the new model so we can modify it accordingly. More customizable stair components in the dbx would all help the cause. We can only expect CA to provide the most common stair types for homes and not to expect radical designs that require fancy free form apps.

Archicad stairs are not a nightmare for me as they are not distorted by room types and wall types as they act as a separate item. Look at the Brekenridge example for X8 video as soon as you get a split level house, Chief stairs become a nightmare for not just the stair but for rooms, walls and ceilings too ! If you have a single level house or consecutive story house the CA stairs behave. Now how stairs act in X9 with split levels, we just have to wait till the public beta of X9 is released and if there are any improvements in this release ?

UI for Windows Tablets, I got a new MSS3 recently so I like these features as they will help me with an as built on site survey. Icons being able to be resized is good for these tablets too. Just to steer the conversation back to the sneek peek video, this not all there is to X9 as you can tell from what the speaker says.

NDA is signed by all beta testers so I am saying nothing but that we always get some surprises with every upgrade in CA since I have been on board since V6.

Hi Rob, It's fine for you to mention what you are used to in CAD mate ! CA is very easy to use and fast and productive to quickly model up a 3d spec home. The user online videos make it easy to use. I have been using CA since 1999. The Aussie Chief Guru is Glenn Woodward, you can ask him about CA as he is able to do multi residential and uses CA to the full. All the best mate !

X9 Beta Testing emails now requested, see announcements.

Any email invitations for 2nd Phase Beta to SSA members this time ?

Has anyone got the MSP4 yet with X8, if so how are you finding it?

What Happens if this house has a monolithic concrete floor slab that has already been built and you do not want to delete it? In this case multi select roof planes and move them up 1 foot.