kn8hansen

I didn't have any problems with this in X8 strangely enough. It's very annoying and I still can't find a way to bypass it (other than make individual text labels for each window and door). I'll submit a case with Technical support.

Just downloaded and installed X9 Beta and noticed that the window and door labels from the other side of the house show through on an elevation (see picture). Any ideas how to fix this? I tried a backclipped section - that didn't help. Tried rebuilding 3D, save/close/reopen, resend to layout. Nothing seems to work.

Is this Rich Text, by chance? I had a LOT of problems with my text boxes re-formatting themselves in the past. I started using regular text boxes (not Rich Text) and I haven't had a problem since. Only downside is that regular text boxes aren't as customizable as Rich Text boxes.

Just wanted to chime in as I use Chief Architect x7 on a Surface Book with an i7, 8GB RAM, and dGPU. I did the same thing that Kirk suggested. I went to the Control Panel>Nvidia Control Panel and set Chief Architect to always use the dGPU. Chief now sees and reports the Nvidia card in the preferences. The only downside to this is that you can't detach the tablet portion with Chief running (which probably is a good thing anyway).

Thank you very much Michael and Dan! That was indeed the problem! I had no idea that it took so much effort for the software to recalculate the room label macros. In the future, I'll just create static labels and turn the macro labels layer on if I need to re-check dimensions and square footage. Not the most elegant solution but definitely worth being able to navigate around layout without the jerkiness and sluggishness! I will also update my support ticket with Tech Support so they're in the know. Thanks again to all that contributed! Nate

Johnny, I think you may be right. I checked out the PassMark scores for my dual processor setup and it falls short of both of your single processors! 10,632 ==> Dual W5590 Xeon processors (4 cores each) 12,089 ==> Single Intel 3930K (6 core) 12,993 ==> Single Intel 5820K (6 core) I guess I fooled myself when I thought that 2 processors was better than one! I may just have to sell the workstation and steal the specs from your new rig and build one myself! Thanks for taking the time to help me out! I opened a support ticket with Tech Support so we'll see what they say about it.

Thanks Lew. I'll do that and post back with my results!

Jon- Not sure where you're going wrong here? There's only ever been 2 files for this particular project - the .plan file and the .layout file. I essentially have two houses drawn in one .plan file - the existing and the remodel. Once the existing is drawn, I just copy/paste-in-place and drag the existing floor plan to the right and start the remodel on that floor plan. When I send to layout, I just crop one or the other out and label the layout boxes based on what's shown. Thanks for trying, though! Nate

Thanks for all of the input! I've been messing with it all afternoon and haven't gotten anywhere. Here's what I've done to diagnose this: 1. Created new blank .plan file 2. Copy/pasted the problem floor plan into the new .plan file (lining up the floors to stack properly) 3. Created new blank .layout file (no title block - blank page) 4. Sent To Layout verifying the settings that match Alan's suggested settings 5. After the first Send To Layout box it started slowing down. After the 6th one, we're back to sluggish. I'm guessing there's something about the .plan file that's bogging down Layout. I'm wondering if there might be a problem with the way I've drawn the plan? I've gone through about 8 different versions of this floor plan with the client (using my copy/paste-in-place method mentioned above). Maybe something gets left over when I do my copy/paste and then delete it later? After I delete a version I always turn on the "All on" layer set to make sure there's no artifacts left over but who knows? I've drawn some much larger plans with Chief Architect and never have any problems with those (I don't usually have to copy/paste on the new construction ones). Layout only seems to bog down when I do these Remodels with multiple versions of the floor plan drawn in the .plan file. Since others with nicer graphics cards have also said that it's sluggish, i think that rules out the video card. I'm assuming that 2-quad core processors is enough. That would rule out CPU. My system resources are all free (ie. <2% CPU, 80% avail RAM, <2% disk usage...). I'm running an SSD hard drive so that should be OK. Anyway, sorry for the long-winded response but it sounds like I might just have to live with it. Thanks again for all of the responses!

Thanks Perry! So you're able to zoom and pan on the Layout page without any stuttering or sluggishness? This particular Layout file was slow on my laptop with an ATI card and now is still slow on my new workstation with the Quadro card. Maybe I'll try to find a different Nvidia card and try that. The 780GTX from your signature looks like it's around $400 on Amazon which is more than half of what I paid for the workstation! If it works, though, it's totally worth it! Thanks again!

I'm at my wits-end trying to figure out what I need to do to get things to work smoothly in Layout. I just picked up a decent workstation thinking that 2 processors, 8 cores, and 16 threads along with a Quadro 4000 2GB video card would solve all of my problems. I was wrong. Can someone open the attached Layout file on their computer and tell me if it's sluggish for you when trying to zoom/pan around the layout (not the plan - that works fine)? It was much worse when I had 3 different kitchen layouts and 3 different master bath layouts but after getting the plan down to an as-built and a remodel, it's still sluggish when zooming/panning around the layout. Maybe I'm approaching the whole remodel strategy wrong? How does everyone handle indecisive homeowners that want 3,4,5 even 6 different options for floor plans? I just marquee select the entire level and drag a copy to the side and start working on the next floor plan. It's easier for me to keep things organized this way rather than do a "Save as" and link 6 different .plan files to Layout. Thanks to anyone who has the time to help me out! Nate 1314 West Minnehaha Pkwy.layout 1314 West Minnehaha Pkwy.plan

Ah, I see. You sectioned off the cantilevered area and added to the floor structure to make up the difference? Thanks!

I've got the RCH in the 2nd-story cantilevered room set at 8' and the RCH of the main level set at 9'. It seems that whenever I change the cantilevered room, it changes the porch and vice-versa. I'm looking for a lower ceiling on the porch than in the house while still keeping the exposed porch beams.

Hmmm..... no file attached. Let's try this again.... PLAN.zip

Hi all, When I try to lower the ceiling height on the porch that has a cantilever above it, the floor in the cantilevered room comes down as well. Any ideas on how to stop this from happening? Plan attached for reference. Also, this is my first time attaching a plan. I did the "Backup entire plan" option in Chief Architect and this got me a folder with 23MB of files in it. Is this the best way to do it or is there a better way that'll shrink the file size down? Thanks in advance! Nate

I put my whole "Chief Architect Data" folder in Dropbox. If I install Chief on a 2nd computer, I go to the folder preferences in Chief on the new computer and point it towards the folder in Dropbox. The "Chief Architect Data" folder should have the User Library, Hotkeys, Toolbars, and other Defaults stored in it.

I'm working on a small plan for a client and I'm having a heck of a time getting my eaves to box in certain places (see attached screenshot). Any ideas why this is happening? I've tried manually forcing the eaves to box to 24" and I've verified that Chief will let me add roof returns to both corners but Chief won't box that one eave. This has happened before on other plans but I usually cover it up with a psolid (yuck). Any help would be greatly appreciated! Nate